Submitted by Charles Anderson on
Congratulations to David Ben for being named the 2013 Milbourne Christopher Foundation’s Masters Award winner.
Magicana’s Artistic Director, David Ben, received the Masters Award in recognition for his contribution to the art of magic. The award was presented on July 6, 2013 in Arlington, Virgina at the Society of American Magician’s National Convention.
The Milbourne Christopher Foundation was established to encourage excellence, originality and leadership in the magical arts and to help conjuring to remain on par with other entertainment mediums such as dance, drama, comedy and music.
The awards ceremony is traditionally presented at the SAM in association to Christopher’s close ties to the assembly. Here is a brief history taken from this year’s Awards program:
“Award winners are presented at the yearly convention banquet of the Society of American Magicians. Christopher, author/editor of more than 20 books on magic and extra-sensory perception, was named national president in 1957 – 58, after a term as as head of the New York S.A.M. Parent Assembly No.1. He created and starred in the first prime time network television magic special which aired on NBC in America and on European networks in 1957. Earlier, in 1951, he revived the Society’s magazine, M-U-M, as a separate publication and edited it for 5 years while continuing to write conjuring news columns regularly for other magic and show business journals and articles for general magazines in America and abroad.”
The Christopher Foundation award winners are meticulously chosen by established members from the magic community. With William V. Rauscher as their chair, the judging panel was comprised of Thomas A. Ewing, Raymond J. Goulet, Tony Clark and Michael Miller. The judging panel reserves the right to only award as deemed appropriate and each category is not always awarded with a winner each year.
David Ben, in addition to serving as Magicana’s Artistic Director, is also a writer, producer, performer, publisher, collector, historian, consultant and speaker, and was recognized for his considerable contribution to the art of magic.
We congratulate David for this outstanding achievement and for this honour. It is his benevolence and generosity with his art that truly makes him an iconic member of the magic community.
