Charles Jordan (magician) facts for kids

Charles Thorton Jordan (born October 1, 1888, died April 24, 1944) was a clever American magician. He was known for creating amazing card tricks.

Early Life of a Magician

Charles Jordan was born in Berkeley, California. His dad was Charles Renalt Jordan, and his mom was Mary Louise Jordan. He also had a younger sister named Margaret. When Charles was just 10 years old, he saw a famous magician named Harry Kellar perform. This show really inspired young Charles. He decided right then that he wanted to create his own cool card tricks.

A Career in Card Magic

Charles Jordan moved to Penngrove, California. He became known for inventing many clever card tricks.

Publishing His Own Secrets

In 1919, Charles Jordan decided to publish his own book called Thirty Card Mysteries. In this book, he shared some of his special methods. Two of his most famous tricks from this book were "The Jordan Count" and "The Gray Code". These were clever ways to count cards that looked real but were actually false.

The next year, in 1920, he published another series. It was called Ten New Prepared Card Tricks and came out in five parts. Another magician named Thomas Nelson Downs also helped with some ideas for this series.

Sharing His Work with Others

Later, in 1935, a magician named Theodore Annemann reached out to Charles Jordan. Annemann wanted to put together a big collection of all of Jordan's amazing magic tricks. However, this project was never finished. Even so, many of Charles Jordan's tricks were later gathered and published by another writer, Karl Fulves.

Charles Jordan was a very creative magician, but he never performed his tricks for a public audience. He passed away in Vallejo, California, after being sick for a while.