for writing on the craft demonstrating exemplary literary merit at the S.A.M. annual conference held in Las Vegas in January 2022. Alan Howard presented and accepted the award for Samuel who was unable to attend.

This edition of Magicol in addition to the article also featured a recently discovered image of a postcard featuring both Ching Ling Foo and Cheetoy (courtesy of the Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin ) with analysis by the author of both the image and the inscriptions on the back by Houdini that did not appear in the biography. For more information click here.

May 16 2021 a new episode of the Backstage interviews from the Society of American Magicians was released wherein magician and former President of the Society of American Magicians Bruce Kalver and I discussed my new biography "Ching Ling Foo: America's First Chinese Superstar". Once between 1898 to 1900 and once again between 1912-1915.  You can listen by clicking here.

Ye Olde Magic Mag, the England based magic history journal which bills itself as "the first fully-digital magic history magazine, covering magic of the past and collection of magic memorabilia" has in its December 2020 issue Volume 7 Issue 1 featured both an excerpt of "Ching Ling Foo: America's First Chinese Superstar" and a review of the biography.

Editor Marco Pusterla, a noted magic historian and magician notes "A biography of Ching Ling Foo was greatly overdue" and "describes the biography as "well researched and written, and with more than 850 endnotes, to make even the most fastidious historian thrilled". Pusterla concludes by ranking the book as Strongly recommended."

Click here to see Book Authority's ranking of the 51 Best New Biography Books to Read in 2021

On Sunday October 25th Samuel Porteous served as one of the featured speakers at a Fédération Internationale des Sociétés Magiques (FISM)global virtual event headquartered out of Europe. The event titled "United Magicians for the World" was organized to raise money for young magicians to enable them to compete in the next youth portion of the World Championship of Magic organized each year by FISM. The rapidly created yet well attended virtual event went on for about 4 days and involved 100 presenters addressing a global audience with a new presenter performing each hour. As noted all funds raised by the event went toThe International Federation of Magic Societies was founded in 1948 and is one of the most respected organizations in the magic community. It is an international body coordinating dozens of national and international clubs and federations around the world.

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A magician more famous (and better-compensated) than Harry Houdini

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M-U-M Magazine the monthly publication of the Society of American Magicians (S.A.M.) story for its October 2020 edition is Samuel Porteous's article on Ching Ling Foo, his life achievements, and history. S.A.M. is recognized by many as "the most prestigious magical society in the world" and its M-U-M ("Magic Unity Might") magazine has been published since 1902. The M-U-M design team did a great job in presenting the Foo article. As the magazine's content is exclusive to its approximate 5,000 members we cannot, at this time, produce the whole article but below you can see the cover and the opening spread of the over 5,000 word piece.

For more on the S.A.M. click here.