Jack Pyle

In the 1960s he performed in the emerging market known as “trade shows.” His close-up magic was known for its simplicity of technique and bold misdirection. He was one of the regulars at Ed Marlo’s ultra-secret Knights of Sleights Roundtable in Chicago. His Lake Michigan penthouse was full of mirrors so he could observe from all angles his natural body movements and their application to sleight of hand.

A later press clipping reports him in the Navy’s 52nd Defense Battalion in the Marshall Islands in World War II, performing for front line troops under “impossible conditions.” He devised a way to produce a large pig (named Tojo) from thin air, which the natives eventually stole and ate. The pig trick evolved into his trademark “giant rabbit production.”

In 1949 he was briefly associated with Harry Blackstone in Kansas City and thereafter appeared at such prestige venues as the Copacabana, the Waldorf Astoria, the Palmer House and the Playboy Clubs. He traveled on USO tours from the North Pole to the Arctic and appeared at one time or another with virtually all the stars of his day including Sophie Tucker, Hank Williams, George Gobel, Dub Taylor, Jan Murray, Conway Twitty, George Kirby and Bobby Vinton.

He was the third youngest of eight brothers and sisters, all of whom became scholars and professional people including a brigadier general. He was influenced by a long-lost half-brother, a patent medicine salesman known as “Chief Lighthawk” and did his first magic trick at age nine. An undated press clipping reports him performing at a Kiwanis club in Rockport, probably in 1940.

Jack Pyle (1909-1987) was an American stage magician.