First husband to Joy Davidman, he is the offstage husband mentioned in the movie Shadowlands , which mentions little more than the fact he was an alcoholic. While Gresham continues to be under-read and under-discussed, fans have kept his memory alive. Diego Domingo is especially involved, connecting fans and researchers interested in his work. Not sure, but it was probably through reading his biography of Harry Houdini. I was very interested in magic and mentalism, especially anything about Houdini, whose name has stayed in the public imagination a hundred years later.
Maybe then I read his novel Nightmare Alley , which a magician friend suggested I might find interesting. Different dialogues and narrations in Nightmare Alley. A standout scene is Stanton Carlisle bamboozling a small-town sheriff and his realization-triumph afterward of what he is capable of. What kind of mind, what kind of experiences, did this person have to put this unrelenting cynicism on paper? They made me wonder how much of his work was his experience and how much he inserted himself into his creative writing.
Reading other articles by him and about him in different magic publications stirred my interest further. Continued interest in Gresham prompted me to either seek out other fans or when I could access those who knew him ask questions about him.
I collect things about Gresham and his work and often connect to people through bidding at auctions or on eBay. Wade Center have been especially helpful in making their resources available. Do we know if he knew many professional magicians? I was fortunate to speak to all of them before they passed away. Two of his closest friendsβClayton Rawson and John Dickson Carrβwere also professional writers who had been amateur, if not professional, magicians for much of their lives.
If you explore his papers kept at the Wade Center, [4] you see he is often pitching magazine articles about Houdini, as well as magic- and carnival-related themes. We know that Nightmare Alley was a big success for Gresham, but he seems to have struggled with that success. You see the same thing when a singer has their first hit record, or an actor has a hit movie. For example, he bought a large, expensive house for his family before he paid the income taxes on his movie rights payment.
