The Magic Castle

Happy Halloween!  I can’t believe the season is already coming to a close!  October 31st is always bittersweet for me because, though my favorite holiday, it marks the end of my Haunted Hollywood postings for the year.  For my last go round of 2018, I thought I’d blog about one of Los Angeles’ most iconic sites, a place that is pretty much synonymous with both otherworldliness and Tinseltown itself.  I am talking about The Magic Castle, a private club for members of the Academy of Magical Arts that is situated inside of a historic mansion said to be occupied by more than a dozen ghosts!  I mean, can you think of a better locale for my final HH article?

Though typically closed to non-members, the Grim Cheaper and I were able to visit The Magic Castle on November 2nd, 2012 (just a couple of days after Halloween – talk about perfect timing!) thanks to my incredibly generous friend/fellow stalker Marie who secured tickets via a charity auction and invited us to tag along with her and her buddy Dana.  (Those are our tickets and some brochures we picked up that night.  And yes, I, of course, held on to them.  )  To say we had a good time would be an absurd understatement.  Being there was absolutely . . . well . . . magical!  It was hands-down one of my favorite Los Angeles experiences!  By the end of the evening, I was ready to plunk down my credit card to pay the initiation fee and yearly dues and become a member!

The spacious Gothic Renaissance-style mansion that today is known as The Magic Castle was originally built in 1908 as a single-family residence for banker Rollin B. Lane and his wife, Katherine.  Dubbed “Holly Chateau,” the estate was designed by architects Oliver Perry Dennis and Lyman Farwell as a near replica of an 1897 pad the duo constructed in Redlands named the Kimberly Crest House (which I wrote about for Los Angeles magazine back in 2013.)  Both are pictured below.  Though the castle has been altered a bit over the years, the two properties are still virtually identical.

At the time of its inception, Holly Chateau boasted 17 rooms, a rooftop garden, a sun parlor, quarter-sawed white oak and mahogany detailing, a library, five baths, a billiards room, multiple fireplaces, French windows, and a finished basement and attic.  Rollin passed away in one of the property’s bedrooms on August 23rd, 1940 and Katherine continued to live on the premises until her subsequent death on December 9th, 1945.  The dwelling fell upon hard times in the years that followed, was turned into a multi-family home,  and then eventually a boardinghouse.  When Milt Larsen spotted it in 1961, though in disrepair, he decided it was the perfect spot to open a magic club.  As he told L.A. mag in the January 2018 issue, “I loved the idea of turning a haunted house into a magic castle.”  A man after my own heart!

Somehow Milt convinced then owner Thomas Glover to turn over the mansion to him and his brother, Bill Larsen Jr., for free via a handshake deal.  The two then promptly got to work transforming the place into a whimsically hodgepodge house of prestidigitation, an idea that took shape thanks to their father.  Originally an attorney, Bill Larsen Sr. had quit his job later in life in order to take his family on the road, performing magic shows.  He hoped to one day open a magicians’ club.  Though he passed away before that dream came to fruition, his sons made good on his vision in spades.  They acquired décor and furnishings from nearby mansions that were set to be razed and other adornments from a mishmash of area locales.  Hollywood High’s former gym floor makes up one of the space’s bars, the original backdrop from The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson provides ambiance for another bar.  And yet another of the club’s bars (there are five!) was fashioned from a set used on both The Dean Martin Show and Mickie Finn’s.

The Magic Castle opened its doors on January 2nd, 1963.  At the time, there were a scant 150 Academy of Magical Arts members.  Today, that number has grown to more than 5,000.  Though only a few parts of the massive property were utilized for shows during the early years, the venue is now a sprawling arena counting the aforementioned five bars, an entry parlor, multiple grand dining rooms, a library (which is off-limits to non-members), a music room, a museum, a gift shop, and four stages.  There’s even a Houdini Séance Chamber!  (Big thank you to Marie for providing the photograph below, as well as several others in this post.)

Sadly, the castle is only open to Academy members and their guests – as well as guests of the neighboring Magic Castle Hotel.  There are a few other ways to garner tickets, such as my friend Marie’s charity auction method and those detailed here.  If you are lucky enough to secure a reservation, several rules must be followed including adhering to a dress code (a jacket and tie are required for men, cocktail wear for women) and a no-interior-photos policy (excluding the entry parlor), which is why mine consist mainly of exterior shots.  You can check out some fabulous images of the inside here, though.

And yes, you do have to say a secret password to gain access to The Magic Castle!  Upon walking through the club’s front doors . . .

. . . you find yourself in an intimate parlor, where photos are, fortunately, allowed.

The room’s detailing is absolutely stunning.

After checking in with the hostess . . .

. . . you make your way to a large book-shelved wall . . .

. . . where you tell the golden owl “Open Sesame!”, causing the bookshelves to magically slide apart.

That’s me saying the magic words!

Guests of The Magic Castle are also required to eat dinner on the premises, which is not a bad gig, by any means.  For our meal, we sat in a grand parlor reminiscent of Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion, sipping cocktails and noshing on scrumptious fare.  After eating, patrons are invited to wander the estate and take in any and all of the many shows performed on the premises each night.  And, let me tell you, this is not some rinky dink operation!  The acts are top-notch – easily the best magic I’ve ever seen!  Along with the formal shows, there are also magicians staging tricks pretty much everywhere you turn – at empty tables in the bars, on couches in the lounges, even the bartenders get in on the act!

While I enjoyed every single solitary minute I spent at The Magic Castle, I have to say that my favorite part of the club was Invisible Irma, the mansion’s resident piano-playing ghost who regales guests with tunes in the music room, situated off the Grand Salon & Main Bar.  As legend has it, Irma was a frequent guest of the Lane family during their tenure at the home and she could often be found tinkling the ivories, much to Rollin’s chagrin.  He soon moved the piano to a tower room on the third floor, out of Irma’s reach.  She was not pleased with the situation and promised to come back and haunt the house after her death.  Upon passing away in 1932, that is exactly what she did.  When the Larsen brothers purchased the property, they came across the Lanes’ former piano tucked away in the attic and quickly reinstated it to the music room.  Irma’s ghost followed.  Though the instrument was eventually replaced by one belonging to MGM star José Iturbi (whose specter sometimes stops by to play with Irma), she can still be heard each night.  Guests can even request songs, which Irma’s invisible hands effortlessly play.

Thanks to its intrigue and mysterious allure, celebrities have been drawn to the place since the very beginning, with Orson Welles, Johnny Carson, Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, Fred Astaire, James Cagney, Tony Curtis, and Steve Allen all spending time there in the early days.  In more recent years, Johnny Depp, Katy Perry, Conan O’Brien, Ryan Gosling, Jimmy Kimmel, Sarah Silverman, Nicolas Cage, Lucy Liu, Quentin Tarantino, Ronald Reagan, Drew Barrymore, Hugh Hefner, Debbie Reynolds, and Matt Lanter have all been known to pop in.  Countless luminaries have also performed on the premises including Jason Alexander, Pen and Teller, David Blaine, Siegfried and Roy, Steve Martin, and Lance Burton.  Neil Patrick Harris was famously the club’s longtime president, aka “Ambassador of Magic,” and during his tenure regularly regaled guests with his illusion skills.

In a rather macabre twist, but one in keeping with my Haunted Hollywood theme, a magician passed away at the club on February 24th, 2017.  Shortly before he was about to take the stage to perform that evening, Daryl Easton hung himself in one of the venue’s dressing rooms.

It should come as no surprise that The Magic Castle is also a frequent film star.  Way back in 1965, the site was used in exterior shots of the mansion belonging to Oliver Stone (Richard Eastham) in the Season 9 episode of Perry Mason titled “The Case of the Runaway Racer.”

Though IMDB asserts that the property popped up in another Season 8 episode of Perry Mason – “The Case of the Feather Cloak” – as the Hawaiian home of Gustave Heller (David Opatoshu) and Jarvis Logan (John Van Dreelen), that information is incorrect.  As you can see below, that pad looks nothing like The Magic Castle.

Anthony Blake (Bill Bixby) lived in an apartment supposedly located at The Magic Castle on the short-lived television series The Magician, which aired from 1973 to 1974.

In the Season 2 episode of Charlie’s Angels titled “Magic Fire,” which aired in 1977, Kris Munroe (Cheryl Ladd), Kelly Garrett (Jaclyn Smith), and John Bosley (David Doyle) head to the venue to investigate an arsonist posing as a magician.

Dr. R. Quincy, M.E. (Jack Klugman) visits The Magic Castle to speak with magician Harry Whitehead (Don Ameche) about the death of his former assistant in the Season 4 episode of Quincy, M.E. titled “The Death Challenge,” which aired in 1979.

Per IMDB, The Magic Castle pops up in 1980’s Little Miss Marker.  I scanned through the flick and the only locale I could find that resembled the club is the restaurant where Regret (Bob Newhart) delivers a message from Sorrowful Joe (Walter Matthau) to Blackie (Tony Curtis).  Because the quality of the video I watched was so bad, though, there is no way for me to say with any certainty that the segment was actually shot on the premises.

Nickelodeon'”‘”‘s 1988 made-for-television movie Mystery Magical Special took place at The Magic Castle.

As did the 1994 made-for-television movie Count DeClues’ Mystery Castle.

In the 1995 horror film Lord of Illusions, Harry D’Amour (Scott Bakula) heads to the mansion to investigate two murders.

Tiffany (Thandie Newton), Vernon (Stuart Townsend), and Miller (Gabriel Byrne) hide out from Malini (Patrick Bauchau) at The Magic Castle in the 2003 thriller Shade.

In the Season 7 episode of Monk titled “Mr. Monk and the Magician,” which aired in 2009, Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub) investigates the death of his neighbor, a wanna-be magician named Kevin Dorfman (Jarrad Paul), at The Magic Castle.

As featured on the Season 3 episode of the reality show Tanked titled “Love Is an Illusion,” which aired in 2012, Neil Patrick Harris commissioned a 240-gallon aquarium modeled after Houdini’s Water Torture Cell for the club.

Sadly, the piece deteriorated fairly quickly and is no longer displayed on the premises.

Contestants were brought to the castle to receive their latest challenge – to design prosthetics for a wizard character – in the Season 6 episode of the reality series Face Off titled “Open Sesame,” which aired in 2014.

In 2016, Gus Cruikshank (Paul Rust) took Mickey Dobbs (Gillian Jacobs) to the mansion for their first official date in the Season 1 episode of Love titled “Magic.”

Aimee Mann’s 2017 music video for her song “Patient Zero” was also shot at The Magic Castle, though very little of the club can actually be seen.

While several sites claim that The Magic Castle portrayed The Cabaret of Magic in the Season 5 episode of Columbo titled “Now You See Him,” that information is incorrect.  The Cabaret in the show was inspired by the club, but filming took place elsewhere, as you can see below.

IMDB also states that the mansion masked as the headquarters of The Greatest Detective Society in the Season 8 episode of Castle titled “The G.D.S.”, but that locale is actually the uh-ma-zing Dutch Chocolate Shop in downtown Los Angeles.

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Big THANK YOU to my friend Marie for inviting us to be her plus-ones at The Magic Castle and for providing several of the photos that appear in this post. 

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Magic Castle is located at 7001 Franklin Avenue in Hollywood.  You can visit the club’s official website here.

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