The key to my friend John Wade’s consistent showbusiness career as a magician was his capacity to adapt to changing times. John, who has died aged 91, contrived to broadcast on radio more than 200 times, something of a record for a magician. He also “closed” the Windmill theatre, being the last act to appear on the Windmill’s London stage in 1964, and he crossed the Atlantic 22 times, entertaining on the Queen Elizabeth II. In addition he was involved in television as a consultant, and made occasional appearances on screen in the 1970s, on the David Nixon show and as a co-host alongside Paul Daniels and others in the For My Next Trick series.
His card display was central to the closing credits of the sixth series of The Avengers in 1968. He performed his famed invisible pack of cards illusion on The Good Old Days in 1979, and footage from the show can be found on YouTube.
John was born in London, at Barts hospital, and was brought up in suburban Eastcote. He was the only child of George Wade, a civil servant, and Amy (nee Smith), a housewife. John attended, with scant affection, the King’s preparatory school, Harrow, and the Haberdashers’ Aske’s school, Elstree.
His rather sober parents were not enthusiastic about John’s early interest in trickery, but, after intermittent jobs and RAF national service, during which times he pursued his delight in magic, he made his full-time debut as a conjuror. This was on the variety bill of the Tonypandy Empire for a week and with a £12 salary in June 1953.
A smiling and resourceful wizard, John was a welcome addition to summer seaside concert parties, among them the Sunshine Follies at Torquay in 1955, and, later and more famously, seasons with Sandy Powell and Billy Cotton. He also figured in panto: for example, he was Abanazar in Aladdin at the Sunderland Empire in 1976.
He was stoutly recognised by his confrères: he was made an honorary life member and Gold Star of the Inner Circle of the Magic Circle and an honorary member of the Academy of Magic Arts and Sciences, Hollywood. At the time of his death he was the longest-serving member of his beloved Savage Club, which he joined in 1962 and chaired from 1991 until 1993. In 2002 I wrote his biography, As One Stage Door Closes … The Story of John Wade; Jobbing Conjuror.
John was married in 1955 to the singer and music teacher Elizabeth Gordon, who died in 2008; and secondly, in 2009, to the singer and harpist Blanche Birdsong, who died in 2021. He is survived by David and Lucy, the children of his first marriage, and by two grandchildren.
