The Collection of Jim Rawlins Part II

Welles, Orson. Orson Welles Multi-Signed Honorary Magicians Dinner Napkin. [New York]: Sept. 4, 1942. Cotton napkin from a dinner and gathering of magicians in honor of Orson Welles, bearing a large graphite caricature of Welles at the center, inscribed and signed by him below: “With grudging thanks from the original Orson Welles.” Dated and titled at the top “Gathering In Honor of The Great Welles from Mars, Etc.” Signed by 24 attendees, including Dai Vernon, Roy Benson, Jay Marshall, John Scarne, Stuart Robson, John McArdle, Abril Lamarque, Charles Larsen, Ken Crossen, Solomon Stein, Warren Littman, Bruce Elliott, Doc Hallock, Walter Coleman, Eddie McLaughlin, Willard Smith, Spalding, and others. 21 x 21”. Folds, scattered pale stains and yellowing. One day shy of the first anniversary of the release of Citizen Kane, a group of America’s top working magicians, under the auspices of the International Brotherhood of Magicians, hosted an honorary dinner for Orson Welles at the Hotel Henry Hudson in New York. Writing in the October 1942 issue of the magic journal The Linking Ring, one of the attendees, Stuart Robson, called the dinner “undoubtedly one of the banner events of the year.” According to Robson, Welles made a special trip from Washington to attend. Benson emceed, while Himber, backed by his orchestra, provided music. Nearly every guest performed a piece of magic, including Welles himself. The reference to Welles as “from Mars” plays on the nickname he earned from his infamous broadcast of War of the Worlds and various stage personas he adopted as a magician, such as The Martian Mystic.