I am spamming my own blog, I know, but The Sphinx is about to be closed for vacation (don't worry; I'll leave the front door unlocked) and I have lots of new stuff to include before I go. Here is a pristine copy of a pretty rare LP that I found. It didn't even seem to have been played before, and needed no de-clicking whatsoever.
You probably know how it is...you go months without really finding anything interesting, and then suddenly, in the space of a couple of weeks, there's more than you can get posted. ("Life's like that." --Vivian Stanshall.) This one is so fresh, I haven't even listened to it yet myself.
There isn't much information on Duke Stern on the Internets, and no Wikipedia article about him. What I did find was that he was well-loved in the magician's communities, and very respected among his peers. Oddly, this record has no date, but seems to come from circa 1972 or 1973, when Sterns passed away. The back cover does promise more LP's to come, which apparently never happened.
This excellent copy also included a two-sided cardstock insert, detailing instructions and diagrams for the eleven magic tricks described on this album. Since I haven't even heard this yet, we will let the label on the back cover speak for itself:
3 comments:
Hello, my father just passed away and I was googling some of his work and came across your blog. I'm not sure if its still an active blog, but I wanted to tell you that I was so happy to come across this. my father, Robert Rydeen and his friend Pat Dorman made this albumn, and Duke was a very big presence and one that I will never forget, even though my brother and I were very young when he would come to our house in Fort Lauderdale. Memories and great ones. Cheers. Christine
Thanks for the kind words and sharing your memories. We're very sorry for your loss, but your father's work still entertains people, and you can take some comfort in that! I am always glad to re-upload the album when I get requests! God bless you and your family at this difficult time!
The magic table on this album belongs to my father Lee Garen. He was friends with your parents and played a huge part in this. I am seated on the lower right corner of the album cover.
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