Israel Krenzel
(January 15, 1927 – February 8, 2012[1])
Israel Ken Krenzel attended the First Worldcon in 1939. According to research by Andy Hooper in Chunga 26 (November 2019), Israel was accompanied to Nycon by his older sister Anna Krenzel; he was only 12 at the time. Neither appear to have been further involved with fandom.
Four years later, at the age of 16, he performed "Menta-Magic" in Central Park as part of New York City's "Magic and Music Program."[2]
The name Israel K. Krenzel never appears in the public record after December 1956, when he was listed as having been transported to Bellevue Hospital after a major bus accident in New York when he was 29.[3] But as Ken Krenzel, he became well-known among magicians; Harry Lorayne even begged him to let him publish The Card Classics of Ken Krenzel.[4]
Krenzel wasn’t a professional stage magician; he was a psychologist by profession, sometimes teaching magic tricks to his patients as part of their therapy.[5] The Society of American Magicians named him Magician of the Year in 1993.[6]
In 1963, he married Charlotte S. Goldstein[7]; they were together until he died in 2012. She was buried next to him in 2020.[8]
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- ↑ Ken Krenzel at Find a Grave.
- ↑ List of NYC Press Releases.
- ↑ Jack Smee, "28 Are Hurt As 14th St. Bus and Car Crash," Daily News, December 28, 1956, page 2.
- ↑ “It took all my persuasive powers to get Ken to agree to let me write, teach and publish all the material he’d performed for me. I’m so glad that he finally did agree. What an awful loss it would have been to anyone who does, or wants to do, card magic, to the magic fraternity, if I hadn’t persuaded him, if he hadn’t agreed.” — Harry Lorayne, on the back cover of The Card Classics of Ken Krenzel.
- ↑ John O'Mahony, "Queens Psychologist is an Ace at Magic Tricks," Daily News, June 15, 1993, page 36.
- ↑ Magician of the Year.
- ↑ New York City Marriage Licenses Index, 1950-1995 at FamilySearch (free account required).
- ↑ "Krenzel" interments in Montefiore Cemetery; his sisters Vera and Anna Krenzel are buried nearby.
| Person | 1927—2012 |
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