THE MAGIC LAND OF ALLAKAZAM
(CBS, ABC, October 1,
1960-December 26, 1964)
Mark Wilson
Productions
MAIN CAST:
Mark Wilson –
Himself
Nani Darnell
– Herself
Mike
Wilson – Himself
Bev Bergeron – Rebo the
Clown
Jackie Joseph
– Assistant
Lynn Barton
– Assistant
The family
that magics together stays together. At least in the case of the Wilson family.
 |
| Magician Mark Wilson pulling a rabbit out of a hat. |
Mark Wilson
had become interested in magic when he was eight years old and saw magician Tommy Martin
perform at an Indianapolis hotel his family was staying at. After his family moved
to Texas, Wilson took a job at the Douglas Magicland shop as a teenager to
further his knowledge and work on his own magical skills. As he gradually
improved, he would perform shows at small functions around the area.
 |
| Wilson performing the levitation trick on his assistant and wife, Nani. |
With the
rise of television, Wilson saw an opportunity to bring his magic act to a
larger audience and was able to secure a show on local ABC affiliate WFAA
in 1954 called Time for Magic. Using the marketing training he gained in
college, he managed to secure sponsorship from Dr.
Pepper. As one of the first magic shows on television, it quickly grew in
popularity and spread in further markets throughout Texas. In 1957, Wilson
attempted to go to a network by creating the syndicated series Magic Circus with
sponsor 3M. NBC
was interested in the series, but instead chose to go with an hour-long golf
program hosted by Bob Crosby.
Wilson tried again by securing a larger sponsor: Kellogg’s. Kellogg’s request was that the
show’s name be presented as AllaKazam so that the “K” would be in the
middle and stylized after the Kellogg’s logo. Wilson agreed and they secured
him a spot on a network--a mere 10 weeks before the first episode was scheduled
to air.
 |
| The Wilsons with Rebo the Clown. |
The
Magic Land of AllaKazam debuted on CBS on
October 1, 1960. The series was the first magic show on network television, and
the first to be videotaped and nationally syndicated. It used a fantasy
storyline set in the titled magic land to lead into the various magic tricks
performed. Wilson was assisted by his wife, Nani Darnell, and their son, Mike,
along with the mute Rebo the Clown (Bev Bergeron). They would often operate and
interact with puppet characters, as well as various evil foes and residents of
the world of AllaKazam. While the series’ theme was provided by the Leo Burnett Agency, the advertising firm that
represented Kellogg’s, the rest of the show’s music was provided by organist
Jack Anderson, whom Wilson brought over from Time for Magic. Wilson also
recruited Time for Magic director Andrew Sidaris
to direct AllaKazam.
 |
| Mike tickles his mother's feet after she's been cut in half. |
To help
develop the stories, tricks and props used each week, the Wilsons recruited some
of the best talent they could. The main source of the props and builders came
from the Owen Brothers Magic Company (now Owen Magic Supreme), run by
brothers Carl Owen
and H. Emmett Owen. Bobby “Torchy” Towner was a skilled craftsman and creative
genius from Owen that served as both a magic coordinator and portrayed various
characters on the show, such as the King of AllaKazam. The other credited magic
coordinator was Robert Fenton, who had the unique ability to locate strange
materials to use in building the props. John Gaughan was the Wilsons’ first
assistant starting from when he was 14 and learned illusion building from Carl
Owen, which led him to become the head of the Wilsons’ prop shop. Leo Behnke
joined the show from Owen and performed weekly tricks with audience members,
sleight of hand and table top magic, created magic tricks for Kellogg’s cereal
premiums, handled the Wilsons’ fan mail and produced an AllaKazam comic
that was given out to children in the audience. Lin Searles
was an expert card mechanic and student of gambling routines that wrote
instructions for small card tricks for Owen before becoming the writer and
script supervisor of AllaKazam. Chuck Burnes served as a clown for Ringling
Bros. and Barnum & Baily Circus before joining the show in the
recurring role of kindly toymaker Christopher Periwinkle. Francis
Martineau was a nightclub performer and gifted artist recruited to be the
first foreman of the Wilsons’ shop in the second season, creating conceptual
drawings for Wilson’s various projects. Dick
Zimmerman was an inventive magician who served as a consultant on the show,
providing ideas for various tricks for the first season. Two lovely assistants
were hired personally by Darnell, with the requirements including having a
background in dance, certain physical requirements, the ability to learn
quickly, and weren’t blonde (as she was). Those assistants ended up being
Jackie Joseph, who had a long and varied career in television and movies after AllaKazam,
and Lynn Barton, whose career was brief before she retired from show
business.
While the magic tricks were common
stage show fare (cutting a person in half, making an animal appear, making a
person disappear, sleight of hand, etc.), the creative team behind the series
made it so that they looked visually interesting. It was often the first
introduction to magic for many people, including children who would one day
pursue an interest or career in magic. Wilson insisted that in order to keep
the authenticity of the tricks intact, they had to performed each show in front
of a live studio audience and each trick with as few edits as possible; that
way, the home audience was assured they were seeing the exact same thing that
the studio audience was without added camera trickery.
 |
| Mark and Nani with the various Kellogg's cereals that would feature their magic tricks. |
For the first season, reruns of Hanna-Barbera’s Huckleberry Hound,
Yogi Bear
and Pixie and
Dixie were aired during the show. As it became popular in the
ratings, these cartoons were dropped as of the second season. After two years,
Kellogg’s decided to discontinue the main brand of cereal Wilson was promoting,
Sugar All Stars, causing him to find a new sponsor and network. AllaKazam moved
over to ABC for another two years before it was ultimately cancelled after 99
episodes (the final episode was pre-empted by a Presidential speech). It
continued to run in international syndication.
 |
| Promo image shot outside the CBS studios. |
As the pioneers in early television
magic, the Wilson family would go on to star in several more magic-centered
shows such as The Funny Face Magic Show and The Magic of Mark Wilson,
as well as appear on a variety of shows including The
Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Show and the original Saturday Night Live.
They would also serve as technical advisors for many programs featuring
magic or with episodes involving magic, such as The Magician, Circus of the Stars,
Hollywood Palace,
The Six Million
Dollar Man, The
Incredible Hulk (1978) and others. As the years went on, they
continued to define how magic could be presented on television through
lighting, stage design and costuming conventions. Wilson was even the first
westerner invited to perform in China after their cultural revolution. The
Wilsons’ second son, Greg,
ended up following his family into the profession, becoming a magician in his
own right.
 |
| The original unaired pitch pilot DVD. |
Greg currently runs a website
called The AllaKazam Archives
and a fan club to fund the digitization of his family’s relics from their
decades of entertainment; including full episodes of the series. In 1962,
Whitman Publishing printed the AllaKazam
Magic Paintless Paint Book, which allowed kids to create colored
pictures by using only water. Along with various instructional videos, Wilson
released 24 episodes of the series across 6 DVDs. The DVDs were available on Mark and Nani’s website, but have
been deactivated once Greg’s came online. Both sites offer various items from
or about AllaKazam in their respective stores.
EPISODE GUIDE:
N/A
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