What you did not know about me!
Part Two

I am fascinated with magic. Two of our friends who grew up in this community, Eric Chico and Daniel Reed, also are interested in sleight of hand, prestidigitation, and legerdemain. They both are very proficient in the magical skills.

I can not think of magic and magicians without remembering Doc Daugherty. Doc was a friend of ours since the college days. Doc’s father was a professional magician and ventriloquist. He performed during the early Vaudeville years. Doc was an only child and we were among his small circle of friends. Doc was a fantastic magician! Every time he would visit, he would do a show for our family. The girls always knew that when he arrived it was time to be amazed.

Doc worked as a photographer for the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. He led a solitary life. On one visit he brought his new “friend”. He had never had a pet and we were surprised when he arrived with a six foot cage containing his adopted friend, a cockatiel. As you can expect, this avian critter stole his heart. Well, birds can not be potty trained! Doc solved this problem by wearing his “poop” shirt when the bird was out of the cage and walked on his shoulder. Being a bachelor, his potty shirt was not periodically washed. He looked like a walking compost pile when he donned his “poop” shirt.

I loved it when one evening Judy called us to supper. Here came Doc, the bird, and the infamous defecation shirt. Judy’s face was priceless! We were having turkey and dressing. Well, the bird must have looked at his cooked cousin and he started squawking loudly. The bird flew from its poop shirt and circled the table three or four times before being retrieved by Doc. As it was hovering over the food, I could see Judy thinking that this bird was adding extra seasoning to the gourmet meal!

Doc worked part time at Al’s Magic Shop in Washington, DC. The store’s owner, Al Cohen (in the photo below), and Doc were very close as being fellow members of magical societies. Sadly, the world famous Al's Magic Shop closed in April, 2004.

We had not heard from Doc for several years and so we tried to contact him through Al’s Magic Shop where he often worked. We learned that Doc had died from complications of diabetes.

When a magician dies (a real, entertainment magician, not one who practices white or black magic, which I don’t believe in anyway), there is a traditional broken-wand ceremony, in which members of the Society of American Magicians break the dead person’s wand, symbolizing that it has lost its magic. The broken-wand ceremony was first held in 1926 after Houdini’s death. Doc’s wand was broken in a ceremony after his passing.