Watch the ‘CBS Sunday Morning’ Segment Filmed in Southwest Michigan
Did you happen to catch 'CBS Sunday Morning' this weekend (Oct 29)? The show's lead story was about magic, and was filmed partly at the American Museum of Magic in Marshall.
Contributor Nancy Giles reported on new trends in the field of magic for a Halloween themed cover story. The segment showed younger magicians who were using modern technology like smart phones to conjure up tricks and wonder.
And she took a step back through the history of magic, and found it, where else, at Marshall's landmark American Museum of Magic. Resident magician Ron Carnell was featured and told CBS,
the earliest known magic trick dates back about 2,000 years ago. "There was a guy in Egypt who chopped off a goose's head and then put it back on," he said.
Carnell says magic was historically the province of wizards and witches, until a Frenchman named Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin appeared in the 1840s and dressed it up.
The elegant-looking Robert-Houdin changed the face of magic: "That turned us into a theatrical art," Carnell said. "The bad news is, people still think that magicians should wear tails and big top hats!"
Harry Houdini, the most famous magician ever, took his name from Robert-Houdin by adding an "I" at the end. The museum has an original Houdini escape chest, a box for cutting a woman in half, and thousands of posters of magicians. They all had different acts, but Carnell says they all relied on one principle: misdirection.
Watch the entire segment and see some of the artifacts from the American Museum of Magic on display.