The Magic Collection of Jim Rawlins

Thayer Studios Sale and Correspondence. Significant gathering of documents spanning approximately 1949 - 1961, and providing a detailed and oftentimes sobering look at the sale of the storied Thayer Studios of Magic by the Larsen family. The archive, approximately 50 pages in all, includes the contract selling the Thayer Studios of Magic by the Larsens to Clayton L. Jacobsen of Traverse City, Michigan. Drawn from Jacobsen’s own files, the material includes an original contract between the Larsens and Jacobsen (signed by the former, but not the latter) for the sale, drafts of a Genii story about Jacobsen, postcards, TLSs on various Thayer, Owen, Thayer Studios, and Genii letterheads, and other material from the City of Los Angeles and various attorneys. Jacobsen’s correspondence is primarily unsigned and carbons. Other items of significance include correspondence related to possible purchases of the Chicago Magic Company and the National Magic Company by Jacobsen. Neatly kept in a ring binder, and generally in very good condition. An important and revealing archive of information related to the operation, dissolution, and history of one of the most significant manufacturers of magic apparatus and illusions of the twentieth century.