I was one of the lucky ones.  As a teenager, I got a job in Tony Corinda’s magic shop in London, England.  I quickly discovered that magic helped me get rid of my shyness and helped me gain my self-esteem.  That was the reason why I wanted to create a magic club: to help those who wanted to learn magic.

 

The more I thought about it, the more I came to terms with myself.  The club has to have true meaning and true goals that can be sustained.

 

One morning, I woke up and the answer was there, clear as daylight: TO PROMOTE AND PRESERVE THE ART OF MAGIC.  That was the slogan and that was the promise that I had to make to our members.

 

Now I know this sounds corny.  Or it’s just another slogan.  Can I really deliver on this promise?

 

To preserve the art of magic, I created the world's largest magic teaching video library

that our members can enjoy on the International Magician's Society's website.

 

How do you really promote magic?  What do you do? I had to come up with something unique to fulfill this promise of promoting magic and magicians.

 

To promote magic and the magicians, I decided to create the Merlin Award as a recognition award and to recognize magicians for their outstanding contributions to the art of magic.

 

But my interest was not to promote the magician in the magic community.  The magic community already knows the magician.

 

My intention was to promote the magician to the general public.  That was the biggest challenge of my life.  Therefore, I had to create an award that will do just that.

 

I had an idea of having a trophy of a well-dressed magician in a tuxedo and bow tie pulling a rabbit out of a hat.  As a result, I approached art students and offered a prize, if they can create such a trophy.

I had a number of mock-ups, but I didn’t care for any of them.  None of them had what I was looking for.

 

Then in 1964, Carol Michaud, an 18 year old young lady who was an art student, came up with the Merlin Award statue as we have it today.  At first glance, I fell in love with the statue.  And then I fell in love with the young lady herself.  I proposed to her.  And a year later, we got married and raised three beautiful children.  Carol passed away back in 2005.

  In July of 1968, I officially formed the International Magicians Society with a handful of local magicians in New York as a D.B.A. (doing business as International Magicians Society).  As the years went by, we incorporated IMS in three different states at different times for tax purposes.  At the moment, the IMS is a Nevada State Corporation.

 

But to bring this Merlin Award statue to life, it took many years.  That’s because there were two reasons.  First was the mold-makers.  Second, we had to have a large enough membership to make the Merlin Award worthy of receiving it.

 Regarding the mold-makers, making molds for a statue that has so many undercuts and fine details would have been extremely difficult and costly.  I was told by many mold-makers that if I can simplify the statue by getting rid of the undercuts and other fine details and making the statue more simpler, then making the mold would be simpler and cheaper.  But I had no intention of compromising the design of the statue.

 

By the mid-1980s, technology innovations have changed to where we were able to make molds and cast the Merlin Award statues.  That was when we began presenting the Merlin Awards as a recognition award to outstanding magicians for their contributions to magic.

 

This reminds me of J.R.R. Tolkein, the author of Lord of The Rings.  He began writing The Lord of The Rings in 1937 and finished in 1949.  Then the books got published in 1954.  He tried to sell it to film-makers and was rejected numerous times, because the technology was not there yet.  And it was in 1999 when the technology was finally there for Peter Jackson to start shooting the Lord of The Rings trilogy.  So the moral of the story is this: good things take time to mature and get off the ground.

 

Regarding having a large enough membership for us to begin presenting the Merlin Award, by 1983, our membership grew to over 10,000 members.  And I felt confident that the time had come to begin presenting the Merlin Award.

 

In 1984, I took notice of a very talented young man, who was creating and inventing new magic and illusions.  That young man was Franz Harary from Michigan.  I presented Franz Harary the very first Merlin Award for the title of Outstanding Illusion Design.  After receiving the Merlin Award, Franz Harary told me "This Merlin Award makes me want to be the best I can be."  Time has proven that Franz Harary became a giant in the magic industry.  He designed many new illusions that was licensed by many magicians, including David Copperfield.  Franz also became a great magician, who opened up mega shows all over the world.  His last show in Macau cost over five million dollars to produce.

 

In 1986, I took notice of another very talented young magician from New Jersey, Rocco Silano.  I presented the Merlin Award to Rocco Silano for Magician of The Year.  And he too told me that the Merlin Award gave him the inspiration to become the best he can be.  The following year, in 1987, Rocco won the grand prize at the magic competition in the Las Vegas Desert Magic Seminar.  And he also won the Siegfried & Roy Golden Lions Head award.  Rocco is well-known for the D'Lite, which is the most-sold magic item in the world.  Rocco became a master magician and the most amazing entertainer.  He is known as the magician’s magician.  He has released more magic teaching videos for professional magicians than anyone else in our industry.  He travels the world and lectures to magicians in all of the big magic conventions.  Yet no one is able to duplicate his act or his style.

By 1995, our membership grew to over 15,000 members.  And I knew it was time for us to begin presenting the Merlin Awards more often.

 

In 1996, I presented the Merlin Award for Magician of The Year to another extremely talented young man from Connecticut, Tony Clark.  He had a fascinating show in Reno, Nevada, where he will perform the most amazing dove productions and grand illusions.  Tony Clark also went on to become a giant in the magic world.

 

For the next Merlin Award, I wanted to present it to a female magician.  So I approached Steve Zadrick, the manager of Melinda, The First Lady of Magic.  Steve Zadrick was in the process of producing Melinda's TV shows.  He didn't get back to me right away.  But eventually, we presented the Merlin Award to Melinda at her own theater in Branson, Missouri in 1998 for the title of Magician of The Year.

 

Between 1998 and 2000, we continued presenting the Merlin Award to some of the most prestigious magicians in our industry. 

By 1999, our membership grew to 20,000 members.

 

In 1999, we sent out ballots to our members and asked our members to vote for the Magicians of The Century.  And their casting ballots were sent to Nielson and Nielson accounting firm.  When the accounting firm tallied the ballots, Siegfried & Roy and David Copperfield were the winners for the titles of the Millennium Magicians and the Magicians of The Century.

 

We gave the good news to Siegfried & Roy and David Copperfield.  Both accepted the Merlin Award.

 

Steve Wynn, owner of The Mirage Casino, spared no expense and laid out the red carpet for an amazing Merlin Award party on Tuesday, February 1, 2000, where I presented Siegfried & Roy their Merlin Awards for Magicians of The Century.  They made very good use of it.  On the large marquee at The Mirage, they displayed the Magicians of The Century title and at their other billboards and advertisements.

 

I hand-delivered the Merlin Award to David Copperfield.  And we were going to have a party later on that year.  Time got in the way.  And the party did not take place.  However, David Copperfield made very good use of the Merlin Award title, both on his program guide and before his show on projections, where he promoted his Millennium Magician title and the Magician of the Century title.

 

The year 2000 was a very big year for the Merlin Awards.  In addition to presenting Siegfried & Roy and David Copperfield their Merlin Awards, that same year, we had the Merlin Award party in Las Vegas, where we presented the Merlin Award to:

 

Don Wayne, David Copperfield's magic consultant

Paul Osborne, magic designer and builder

Steve Wyrick, Las Vegas headliner

Bernie Yuman, Siegfried & Roy's manager

Kenneth Feld, Siegfried & Roy's producer

Brett Leonard, the film director of The Magic Box

Bill Malone, the most incredible card magician

Tony Spina, the owner of Tannen's Magic, the world's largest magic shop

Jay Marshall, the dean of the Society of American Magicians

Jade, the most incredible female magic performer

Charlie Reynolds, Doug Henning's magic consultant and historian

and Marshall Brodien, the most successful magic marketing guru

 

The president of the International Brotherhood of magicians, Jerry Schnepps, was a guest at our party.  He wrote in Linking Ring magazine about being a guest at the party.  And he said, "I thought I was at the Oscars night of magic.

In 2001, Guinness World Records published their annual book.  On page 84, they declared the International Magicians Society is the World's Largest Magic Organization with 23,000 members worldwide.

At the end of the day, the Merlin Award did become the most recognized magic award to the general public.  The Merlin Award was received by presidents and deans of the largest magic fraternities in the world.  Just to name a few:

 

Jay Marshall, the past dean of the Society of American Magicians, received the Merlin Award.

 

Ken Klosterman, the past president of the International Brotherhood of Magicians, received the Merlin Award.

 

Milt Larsen, the founder and president of the Hollywood Magic Castle, received the Merlin Award.

 

David Berglas, one of the longest serving Presidents of The Magic Circle, received three Merlin Awards.

 

The Merlin Award became to magic what the Oscar is for the movies, the Emmy is for television, and the Tony is for theater.

 

I had accomplished this dream by promoting the Merlin Award to the general public.  And the main media, TV, newspapers, and magazines pay attention to the Merlin Award and its recipients.  This is a proven fact throughout the years.

 

When Siegfried Fischbacher passed away, it was the end of the era of Siegfried & Roy.  The largest newspaper in Las Vegas, the Las Vegas Review Journal, posted a photo of  when Siegfried & Roy received their Merlin Awards.  That’s because that was one of the highlights in their careers.

Numerous magicians have told me, after receiving the Merlin Award, that the Merlin Award makes them want to be better magicians.  And some of them went on to become giants in the industry.

 

Being an international magic fraternity, we began getting lots of requests from over 100 countries for us to recognize their magicians with the Merlin Awards.

 

So we began traveling to many different countries and recognize magicians for their contributions to the art of magic.

 

As the demand continued and some of the magicians would have not qualified for the Merlin Award, in 2013, we designed and created a medal with a beautiful ribbon.  And we named it The Medal of Excellence.

 

Please make no mistake.  This is not a Merlin Award.  This is a medal that we present periodically to those who will not qualify for the Merlin Award.  However, we like to recognize these magicians for their hard work with The Medal of Excellence.

In 2014, together with the local IMS presidents, we organized nine competitions in nine different countries.

In 2010, we decided to have the decade Merlin Awards, so that every ten years, we can present the decade Merlin Awards.

 

Also in 2010, we created the yearbooks.  So if you like to see photos from each year, please go to the "yearbooks" section of the International Magicians Society's website and scroll down throughout the years.  You will find the link below.

 

At the time I'm writing this history of the Merlin Award, our membership is over 57,000 members.

 

So what is next for the Merlin Awards?  I am toying with an idea to build a giant Merlin Award, taller than the Statue of Liberty and donate it to the city of Paris, France, to thank the French for giving us two of the most influential magicians of the 19th century: Robert-Houdin, who become known as the father of modern magic, and George Melies, who was a brilliant magician and an inspirational film-maker.  His inventions in film-making and special effects are still being used today by Hollywood film-makers.

I know some of you might be thinking that I’m joking.  But I am not.  The Merlin Award belongs to those amazing magicians who helped change the way for a better and brighter future of magic.

 

Until we meet again!  Keep the faith!  And never give up in your dreams!

 

Tony Hassini