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Robert A. Nelson
Robert Alan Nelson (1901-1973) was an American magician, mentalist and author.
Born on November 16, 1901 in Columbus, Ohio, Nelson made his debut at age 13 with a paid mental act. He performed fur...view moreRobert Alan Nelson (1901-1973) was an American magician, mentalist and author.
Born on November 16, 1901 in Columbus, Ohio, Nelson made his debut at age 13 with a paid mental act. He performed further acts with partner Syl Reilly until 1921 before becoming a full-time professional as a stage mentalist-telepathist. That same year, he founded Nelson Enterprises in Columbus, Ohio, which went on to become the world’s largest company trading in mentalist’s props and literature. He also helped organize the Howard Thurston IBM Ring, the Columbus Magic Club, and the Magic Hobby Club of Ohio, and served as president of all three. He maintained a small demonstration theater in his shop.
From 1928-1935, Nelson appeared on the radio programme “Voice of Destiny” as Dr. Korda RaMayne, PsD, which he also used on stage in a crystal-gazing act. He also published pitch books for mentalists, private readers, astrologers, and numerologists under the RaMayne name, though his Psychic Sciences publishing wing. In the 1940s, following the retirement of American spiritual author and vaudeville magician Claude Alexander Conlin Jr. (1880-1954)—the highest-paid mentalist in the world at the height of his career during the 1920s—Nelson bought his entire act. He later sold portions of the stage show and many of the posters to another magician, Leon Mandrake (1911-1993), who toured in the Pacific Northwest during the 1950s.
A prolific author of books and booklets on mentalism, Nelson published some 65 books between 1928 and 1972, including Super Mentality (1929), Hellstromism (1935), The Encyclopedia of Mentalism (1944), Miracles in Mentalism (1945), The Mentalist’s Manual (1953), and Sensational Mentalism (1965), the fourth volume of which was published posthumously in 1977.
Robert Nelson passed away on February 21, 1973, aged 71.view less