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Wishing all of our
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a happy and healthy
New Year!
RITA CHARLESTON
Special to The Jewish News
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Johnny and Pete Ginopolis
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Heartily Wish
Their Customers, Friends
And The Entire Community
A VERY HEALTHY
AND HAPPY
NEW YEAR
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Tom Goulas, Management and Employees of
Gratefully Extend Best Wishes To Their Customers & Friends
For A Healthy and Happy New Year
31005 Orchard Lake Road
Fax: 855-8429
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855-4866
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144
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1991
n 1982, a television audi-
ence of millions watched
in amazement as he made
a seven-ton airplane vanish
while it was surrounded by a
ring of disbelieving spec-
tators. For an encore, the
following year he made the
Statue of Liberty disappear.
Next, live and TV au-
diences watched as David
Copperfield literally walked
through the Great Wall of
China and became the first
person to successfully escape
from Alcatraz.
He also challenged the
deadly Bermuda Triangle,
survived the implosion of a
14-story hotel and lived to tell
about his harrowing en-
counter with Niagara Falls.
Today, after a dozen Emmy
Award-winning network
specials and years of exten-
sive touring, Mr. Copperfield
has been seen by more people
than any other magician in
history, including Harry
Houdini. His celebrated illu-
sions, along with his im-
maginative use of theatrics,
have led him to be named
"Entertainer of the Year" by
organizations such as the
American Guild of Variety
Artists.
Thirty-five years ago, back
in Metuchen, N.J., where Mr.
Copperfield was born David
Kotkin, his middle-class
Jewish parents may have had
other dreams for their son.
But the shy little boy, like a
lot of other shy little boys,
looked to various theatrical
outlets as a way of expressing
himself and becoming more
involved with his peers.
He first decided to try his
hand at ventriloquism. "I
wasn't very good at it," he
says, "but in the same places
you find ventriloquist figures
and things like that, you also
find magic. So I got involved
in magic instead and began to
get a lot of strokes and accep-
tance from my friends and
family. Through the years, I
continued to develop my
talents even further."
By the time he was in his
teens, Mr. Copperfield was
performing professionally and
soon was honored by becom-
ing the youngest person ever
to be admitted to the Society
of American Magicians. His
stature as a magician grew
rapidly, and by his late teens,
he was teaching magic at
New York University.
After high school gradua-
tion, he enrolled at Fordham
David Copperfield
University. But his college
career was cut short after
three weeks when he was cast
as the lead in a new musical
opening in Chicago called <:\
The Magic Man. Mr. Copper-
field sang, danced, acted and
created all the magic for the
show, which was to become
the longest-running musical
in the town's history.
When the show finally clos-
ed, Mr. Copperfield moved
back to New York to continue
to hone and develop his per-
sonal style of magic.
By studying acting, danc-
ing, singing and music, by
learning the importance of
lighting, staging and scenery,
he was able to do just that.
"Magic has a horrible
stigma attached to it, in that
everybody at one time
thought it was just somebody
pulling a rabbit out of a hat
at a birthday party," he says.
"I never wanted to be
associated with that at all. I
always wanted to take magic
and make it acceptable as an
art form, something people
would go out and see and en-
joy as much as they would any
other Broadway show."
7
And so he has, winning
various accolades along the
way, but not without facing
danger.
"The Statue of Liberty
stunt took a tremendous
amount of effort," he says.
"We had to get permission
from the White House. It was
more difficult making the red
tape disappear than the
statue itself."
Mr. Copperfield likens
himself to a mountain
7
climber who is compelled to
climb that mountain simply
because it is there.
"You have to understand,"
he concludes. "My whole
career has been about living
on the edge and taking risks,
both professionally and
physically. Some people are
afraid of challenges in life. I
embrace them."
❑