A trick for getting into the Magic Castle, which turns 60 this year
The opposite night time, my spouse and I paid good cash to a enterprise that instantly set about deceiving us. This isn’t the primary time that’s occurred to us in Hollywood. However this time, we appreciated it.
Actually, we wandered room to room, drinks in hand, hoping to be fooled once more.
The subterfuge is what has made the Magic Fortress a uncommon vacation spot for the previous 60 years. Thriller and misdirection are the core of the model, and also you don’t enterprise to the citadel, which is known as a custom-made Hollywood hilltop mansion, except you’re able to be flummoxed. Additionally, you don’t get in except you’re invited by a member of the Academy of Magical Arts — or when you’re staying within the Magic Fortress Lodge subsequent door. Extra about that in a second.
Since co-founders Milt Larsen, William Larsen Jr. and Irene Larsen opened it in 1963 as a non-public clubhouse for members and friends, the citadel has seen loads of good instances and dangerous. There was an attic fireplace in 2011, the backstage loss of life of a performer in 2017, a closure and layoffs throughout the pandemic, then a management scandal involving allegations of sexual misconduct and racism that have been disclosed by The Instances in 2020. On Might 28, the membership’s final surviving co-founder, Milt Larsen, died at 92.
However the membership retains coming again, now with a set of latest leaders who arrived in 2021 and ’22.
We’re witnessing the passage of the Magic Fortress into a brand new period.
{A photograph} of the unique Magic Fortress mansion hangs in a typical room within the citadel right this moment.
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Instances)
Handcuffs utilized by Harry Houdini hold inside one of many personal eating rooms on the Magic Fortress.
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Instances)
What occurs within the citadel?
What these dim, glitzy rooms supply is an element Outdated Hollywood, half Las Vegas, half Harry Houdini, half Harry Potter. (Additionally half Harry Anderson — I noticed an previous headshot of the late comedian-magician on one wall.)
You flip up in formal apparel at a three-story mansion, in-built 1909 with dramatic turrets. It’s simply up the hill from the Dolby Theater, simply down the hill from the panoramic-view restaurant Yamashiro.
The doorway to the Magic Fortress in Hollywood.
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Instances)
Outdoors the entrance door, a greeter will be sure you have a reservation, then provide you with once-over, implementing the membership’s formal gown code, which bans denim, sneakers, shorts, skorts, athletic put on, hoodies, naked midriffs, uncovered undergarments and extra.
They imply it. I wore a coat and tie however was virtually refused entrance due to my too-casual footwear (wool, not leather-based). Actually, the greeter fitted my left wrist with a pink plastic bracelet in order that safety wouldn’t eject me. Thus I entered the Fortress of Magic shackled by a bracelet of disgrace.
Moving into the entry room for a night go to, you’ll hand over $35 to $45 per particular person, up barely from pre-pandemic instances. Then you definitely say the magic phrases and duck by the key door (Psst! the bookcase!) and the journey is on. You’ll climb stairs and step by a sequence of rooms filled with oak paneling, stained glass, eerie oil portraits and posters asserting illusionists and tricksters of bygone years.
A visitor disappears behind a pretend bookshelf, which opens solely to a password spoken to the owl on the shelf.
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Instances)
The brand new management’s problem is to carry onto the very best of that throwback ambiance whereas purging sexism and welcoming a various, up to date crowd.
Although the overwhelming majority of working magicians are male, Magic Fortress spokeswoman Vicki Greenleaf stated, the membership has 38 ladies in its common rotation of performers (amongst 482 magicians over the past three years). She additionally famous that the membership has rewritten its visitor gown code to remove all gender-specific necessities, and that of 67 kids taking magic courses by the membership’s Junior Society, most are ladies, individuals of shade or worldwide college students.
“We will’t change the previous, however we are able to change the long run,” Chuck Martinez, president of the Academy of Magical Arts, stated in an announcement. “We’re making each effort to make sure that the membership’s tradition is inclusive and various for members, friends, workers and on our levels.”
We got here on a Monday night time, ready for enterprise to be gradual. It wasn’t. The eating room and primary theater have been nearly full, the barkeeps busy.
A speaking owl named Archimedes watches over the Owl Bar on the Magic Fortress.
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Instances)
Individuals order drinks at a bar contained in the Magic Fortress.
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Instances)
As you discover, each different room appears to be a bar (there are 5 within the constructing) and each cocktail appears to be steeped in thriller nomenclature (Sorcerer’s Sangria? Tropical Trickster?). You’re obliged to have dinner, which prices about $45 to $60 per primary dish. The eating room is swanky and the menu leans towards steakhouse fare. Our server was welcoming and attentive; my filet mignon wasn’t my favourite of this 12 months (that might be Jocko’s Steakhouse in Nipomo) nevertheless it was tender and tangy.
When you begin with dinner, as we did, you proceed subsequent to a 45-minute magic present within the 130-seat Palace of Thriller, a.ok.a. the constructing’s primary venue. First Danny and Stacey Cole did loopy issues with shirts, ties and chairs. Then got here Levent Cimkentli, maybe essentially the most high-velocity conjurer-comedian I’ve ever seen.
After dinner and the massive present, you meander the mansion by your individual timetable, dropping in on card tricksters, sleight-of-hand artists and different entertainers working the Shut-Up Gallery, the Parlour of Prestidigitation, the Library Bar, Peller Theatre, and the Hat and Hare pub.
A seat is reserved with an Outdated-Long-established cocktail to honor Milt Larsen, Magic Fortress co-founder, on the Owl Bar, on the left. Magician Sharpo, proper, exhibits a ten of spades whereas performing a magic trick.
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Instances)
Within the Palace of Thriller and the rooms that adopted we noticed levitation, disappearances, appearances, juggling, pretend rabbits, card tips, interlocking rings, many sight gags and audio gags. (You gained’t see any of this on Instagram. When you’re past the entry room, pictures is forbidden.)
The group was various in age and heritage, all dressed to impress. Whether or not you glimpse a celeb or not, the people-watching is top-notch.
Even after video-game mogul and magician Randy Pitchford purchased the citadel constructing and neighboring resort in 2022, co-founder Milt Larsen remained an everyday on the citadel’s Palace Bar till days earlier than his Might 28 loss of life.
Cary Grant and Johnny Carson was once members; guests have included Johnny Depp, Katy Perry and Ryan Gosling. Performers have included Steve Martin and Neil Patrick Harris, who served as president of the academy from 2011 to 2014.
Quickly after my go to, I heard the story of how the membership as soon as ejected Siegried Fischbacher (of Siegfried and Roy fame) for displaying up in denims.
The citadel is adults-only aside from brunch performances on weekends, when friends below 21 are allowed and the leisure is tailor-made to accommodate youngsters.
Classic slides from the Orpheum Theatre hold within the eating room on the Magic Fortress.
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Instances)
Patrons eat dinner within the eating space of the Magic Fortress.
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Instances)
How do you get in?
If one of many membership’s roughly 6,000 members invitations you, you may make a reservation. (When you don’t know any members, you can examine the citadel web site to see who’s acting on the night time you hope to go to, then DM a performer on social media to politely request an invite.)
When you don’t know a member and don’t wish to chase one down on the web, you’ll be able to flip to the Magic Fortress Lodge, as my spouse and I did.
When you ebook an evening or extra on the Magic Fortress Lodge, you routinely get entry to the citadel subsequent door (however nonetheless need to pay the doorway price). As soon as a Nineteen Fifties residence constructing, the resort is painted shiny yellow, with an 88-degree pool, pool toys, video games and free soft-serve ice cream and snacks.
Most rooms are suites with kitchens and a fold-out couch in the lounge. Charges begin about $225. Throughout the road to the west is the Highland Gardens Lodge, the place Janis Joplin died of an overdose in room 105 on Oct. 4, 1970.
The Magic Fortress Lodge is quirky. I have to say that its furnishings and grounds are worn and the interiors are plain; I wouldn’t recommend a romantic weekend right here.
The Dante-themed eating room awaits a dinner rush.
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Instances)
However the emphasis on households is unmistakable, the situation is central, the charges are decrease than at many Hollywood inns, and I discovered the service snappy and upbeat. When you supply your friends a welcome glass of Champagne (because the resort does), a lot will likely be forgiven. It’s additionally an excellent transfer to ballot households on what film they’d wish to see screened within the night on the wall above the pool.
(FWIW, going by the Vegemite bottle and accents I heard on the breakfast buffet, I’m guessing that the place is common with Australian vacationers.)
Another factor about this resort. Subsequent to the pool is a purple cellphone. Anytime throughout the day, you or your child can choose it up and somebody on the different finish will reply “Popsicle hotline!” Free supply follows. After which, when you realized something in any respect from this expertise, you make the popsicle disappear.
