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CountyHOW TO TURN INTO $5By ROBERT CORMIERFITCHBURG, Saturday—Burleigh Anderson went downtown recently to settle a six-dollar dentist bill. He handed the doctor two one-dollar bills. When the dentist looked puzzled, Burleigh feigned surprise, took back one of the bills, rolled it into a ball with his fingers, unfurled it again and, presto ... a five-dollar bill appeared.Burleigh has quite a few trickslike that up his sleeve, ready to spring them at unsuspecting friends and relatives. Sitting in the living room of his home on Mt. Vernan street, you watch the peanut disappearing underpractice and his small hands developed fluency and dexterity. His career began one day when he was 13 while he was entertaining a group of classmates in the schoolyard at the B. F.convinrsMie0nWa,nUt Shlt;iUS “S ^ Brown Junfo High School, conversation goes on. 1 **jrata ... A teacher came by to investl-pec^liar kind of , gate the cause of the commotion, V ITiaei^Jan- and stayed to wonder. “I didn’tk J* deeper than realize until then that grown-?an staad a ups were sometimes easier toliveS' ,hc fool than kids. Up till that time, explains. And Burleigh supplies rd been performing for theit for his acquaintances.TBoy Magician*• Twelve years ago, at the age of 14, Burleigh was Fitchburg’s Boy Magician,” holding the spotlight at school assemblies, club meetings and other social functions.These days, he still flashes his bag of tricks before local groups.toughest audience of them all . .. kids, children.”On His WayThe teacher arranged for Burleigh to display ills technique at an assembly. And the boy magician was launched on his teenage career.In the following years, he built his repetoire, polished hisBut he regards himself as an patter and studied his effectsamateur, and magic as a hobby, in a mirror until the boy ma-glcian disappeared and his performances became, not a novelty because of his age, but a success because of his talent.Something may seem to be missing here because Burleigh didn’t grow up to flash a goatee and become nationally known. Instead, he married and has two children and works in the credit department of the Harry“Some people collect stamps,” he says, “but, me, I’m a kid at heart, I guess. I’d rather make things disappear than collect them. . .His story is worth noting because Burleigh was one of the thousands of kids who brought magic, books home from the libraries, sent away for tricks through catalogs and sat inwonder in the front row when- : Doehla Company in Nashua, ever a professional magician N. H. made a local appearance. Evenas you or I.Spent ProfitsBut he was able to sustain the interest and make it part of his life. The paper route he had as a kid of II helped. “AAmuses FamilyBut the point Is that magic has become an after-hours en-joyment and he gets a kick out of surprising and fooling his friends, his wife, and especially his two year old son, Johnny,store selling novelties opened who’s beginning to suspect thatup right after I got my paper route,” Burleigh remembers. “And I had to pass the place on my way home for delivering. Well, you can see where the profits went . . .”As other boys invested their loose change in chocolate bars and sodas, Burleigh invested in tricks, the usual assortment of blllard balls that appeared and disappeared, cards that jumped mysteriously from the bottom of the deck to the top, handkerchiefs that blossomed into flowers.Like anything else it requiredDaddy has some mysterious power.“Of course, I’ll always perform at any function in my spare time,” he explains. “I’m too much of a ham to give that up.” But the real fun comes when he surprises his dentist by changing a dollar bill into a fiver, or pulls a dime out of Johnny’s ear or makes the billard ball disappear, apparently into thin air, as he talks casually to a visitor.Like he says: “Everybody can stand a little magic in their lives . .
Newspaper Details
Worcester Telegram
Worcester, Massachusetts, US
Sat, Jun 13, 1953
Page 22
Full Page
Clipped by
Wilfred R.
USA 27 Jul 2021
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