This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 9/12/2020
[International Brotherhood of Magicians] Dornfield, Bill (“Dorny”). Dorny’s First I.B.M. Membership Card. Issued on July 20, 1922, and being member number 4, the card completed in the hand of, and signed by, the founder of the organization, Len Vintus. Sold together with a 1945 full-length matte-finish portrait of Dornfield. In near-fine condition. A significant piece of magic history and the history of one of its most influential fraternal organizations. Formed as a correspondence club by Len Vintus, Gene Gordon, and Ernest Schleidge, the International Brotherhood of Magicians was founded in February 1922. The three magicians lived in different cities and could not meet, so the club was formed (along with its journal, “The Linking Ring”), to connect those with a shared interest in conjuring. Little did the young men know that as years passed, the IBM would become the largest organization of its type. Dornfield, based in Chicago, was a popular vaudevillian who toured with an act billed as “Trix and Chatter,” combining humorous repartee and stand up comedy-style with magic tricks. This membership card is certainly among the earliest pieces of ephemera issued by the I.B.M. to have survived the years since its founding.