Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Neil McNally and The Doug Henning Project with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. True to form, Steinmeyer first gives a non-answer. He was 52 and lived in Los Angeles. We've received your submission. Hes a large man, around six feet tall, sturdily built. Doug Henning was stiff as a board, and as he didn't sing, the musical numbers were never really landed in the show. Doug Henning, a Superstar Of Illusion, Is Dead at 52, https://www.nytimes.com/2000/02/09/arts/doug-henning-a-superstar-of-illusion-is-dead-at-52.html. Theyve just saw the world together again and seem comfortable in their relationship. Biography - A Short Wiki. He died on 7 February 2000 in Los Angeles, California, USA. The sack was put in a chest and padlocked. For magic to accomplish the impossiblemaking something disappeara flaw in the magic has to be hidden, like a trick mirror or special compartment. Just like a real-life movie, the story of Buddy the Elf meeting his biological father has come to life, just in time for the holidays. Only when Steinmeyer finishes speaking do I realize weve barely moved from my starting point. After Falling Under the Spell of Wife Debby, Doug Henning Hopes to Charm Broadway Again (Part.2) My friends said there was practically a flash of light, says Henning, 35. Two other Steinmeyer illusions soon made a Henning TV special, and Henning eventually offered him a job helping launch Merlin on Broadway. Once magicians manipulate audience members toward certain expectations, those expectations can be subverted, and the audience can be dazzled, and fooled. Henning spent his final years working with the Maharishi to build a meditation theme park in Niagara Falls, Ontario. He was also the first to re-attempt Harry Houdinis dangerous 1912 Water Torture Cell, in which the magician, restrained at the feet, escaped after being lowered into a glass tank of water. Hennings own sense of wonder fueled his professional success and personal appeal. In the mid-1980's, Mr. Henning retired from the stage and became increasingly interested in transcendental meditation. When were little kids, were filled with wonder for the world its fascinating and miraculous, he once said. Secrecy is the coin of the realm here, and Steinmeyer is an open secret himself: Most people who see magic shows assume the performers invent their own tricks, but its illusion designers like Steinmeyer who conjure most of the magic offstage. This was after a show they did at the Majestic Theatre in San Antonio, Texas, outside the stage door. Help us get to over 4,000 biographies in 2018. Email Magician Doug Henning a favorite of TV, Broadway and arena audiences died Monday in Los Angeles after battling liver cancer for the past five months. Thats what this has become, he says, lifting Albert into his lap. It was an overwhelming experience. I had never felt anything like it in my whole life. The dazzler was Debby Douillard, 27, an abstract painter with bottomless blue eyes who was, In doing some online research I came across this fascinating article from the December 20, 1982 issue of People magazine.