The hub-bub around Marshall, Michigan, grows daily as magic collector Robert Lund and his wife Elaine work steadily on the AMERICAN MUSEUM OF MAGIC.
For example, a couple of months ago, the Marshall Historical Society held one of its regular monthly meetings and invited Bob to lecture on his hobby and his plans for the museum. Yours truly happened to be present along with Marshall magician Doug Collins, and dozens of people more than normally attend such gatherings. In fact, the little room where the society meets was overflowing that night, with chairs squeezed against chairs and elbows against ribcages.
Let me share with you some highlights of Bob's address:
-- Over the years, he's put together about a quarter of a million pieces of magical material, ranging from 9,000 books to about 25,000 magazines to tens of thousands of news clippings, pictures, photos, movies, statuary. . .the list is almost endless.
— All this will be housed in a two-story structure, once a bakery, first noticed when the Lunds drove through Marshall about three years ago. Lund got a sense of "de ja vu," of "coming home" because Marshall seemed such a natural place to locate.
-- Bob still doesn't have an opening date for the museum because the work is going so methodically. "We're not trying to make a fast buck and move out," he said. "We will not be rushed. We will not do things half way."
-- Very soon, the first displays will be put up on the building's first floor.
