Remembering Eddy Golden

San Marcos man made magic his life


SAN MARCOS ---- Eddy Golden kept a lot of secrets in his life. He went to great lengths to protect many of them, despite being pressed at every turn.

Inquiring minds often hound a magician long after the curtain closes.

"It's a magician's code not to tell,'' said Golden's eldest son, Michael.

Eddy Golden grew up when the famous magician Houdini was popular and was fascinated by magic and the joy it brought to people all over the world. He loved to make things appear and disappear. He relished blurring the lines between reality and imagination. He delighted in astonishing people and leaving them bewildered.

His son said he was "very private and prudish'' and thus limited his performances to small groups and private parties. But he made a name for himself in the entertainment industry by selling magic paraphernalia to showmen all over the world.

Golden's Magic Wand started as a small retail store in Pasadena, selling such staples as whoopee cushions, fake vomit and magic kits. But over 75 years, it grew into one of the nation's largest suppliers, manufacturers and importers of magic devices, novelties, party gifts, jokes and costumes.

The business was in San Marcos from 1981 until Golden's retirement in the mid-1990s.

Golden died from cardiac failure Nov. 10 at his Lake San Marcos home. He was 92.

Michael Golden said his father was more than a magician. He said he was a "showman'' who had a gift for entertaining. He could sing, do impressions and tell jokes as well as pull a rabbit out of a big black hat.

"People loved him, and they loved to be around him,'' his son said. "He loved to create a lot of laughter for the people he was around. He was a lot of fun. He was a practical joker and told jokes right up to the end.''

Golden was a charter member of the Magic Castle in Hollywood. The converted 1908 mansion has been a showplace for some of the greatest magicians from around the globe for almost 50 years.

Gino Manari, owner of the magic store along Disneyland's Main Street, still displays one of Golden's original magic trick kits. The Dove Pan dates to the 1930s and features a copper bowl and lid, along with lighter fluid that when ignited, produces a dove.

There was, however, nothing secretive about Golden's impersonations. He never actually saw a tap-dancing alligator, but his impression of one provided many laughs for friends, family and audiences over the years. In fact, his son copied the move and often would drop on all fours and flop around to liven up board meetings.

"It just looks ridiculous, which is why people laugh,'' Michael Golden, 68, said.

Edgar Allen Golden was born on Aug. 22, 1917, in Hammond, Ind. He was adopted at birth by Jake and Josephine Golden and named after the famous poet. He moved to Monrovia with his parents when he was 12.

At age 20, he opened a beauty parlor in Pasadena at the urging of his mother.


