The Story Of NYC’s Official Magician, “Doc” Hurwitz..
New York City’s official magician was a tiny man, somewhere between 5’2” and 5’5”. He kept the rabbits he pulled from top hats in his bathtub, scribbled jokes and trivia on napkins, and drove terribly. Name a card and he could pull it from his pocket. When he came back from work, neighborhood kids followed him from his car to his Parkchester home, Pied Piper-like, hoping to see a trick. His name was Abraham Hurwitz, but everyone called him “Doc.”
Truth be told, Hurwitz may actually have been the unofficial “official magician” of New York City. While a New York Times obituary notes that Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia gave him the title during the Great Depression, no family members could definitively corroborate this, and a search of city records yielded no evidence.
But this much is clear: For 18 years, Hurwitz was the only magician to perform on the City’s dime and was the chief architect behind the Parks Department’s youth magic program. In both these capacities, he was something of a pitchman for the idea that magic could transform lives and promote civic values. Read more of this interesting article…
