At first glance, Colon might appear like any other small village in rural Michigan — eight restaurants, a few traffic lights and one high school for its 1,200 residents.
But, on evenings in late July, a strange sight appears in the village. Thousands of magicians from around the world gather in the auditorium of Colon High School for Abbott’s Magic Get Together, an esteemed magic convention.
“It’s a very, very nice town who has placed itself in such a particular niche in American culture, where it can do one of the most impressive magic tricks, which is making several thousand people appear for a week and making them disappear for the remaining 11 months out of the year,” Scott Duck, acting director of the American Museum of Magic, said.
But the magic stays year-round in Colon, also known as the Magic Capital of the World. The village’s flashy title stems from decades of magic history flowing through the streets where several magic stores stand today.
Magic first arrived in Colon with Harry Blackstone Sr., a famous magician of the beginning of the 20th century, and his troupe. Percy Abbott, an Australian magician, joined the troupe and later settled in Colon after falling in love with a woman from the group.
Duck said the partnership of Blackstone and Abbott led to the creation of a new magic company named after Blackstone.
However, the duo soon had a falling out — the details of which are still unknown.
Abbott struck out on his own until Recil Bordner, an Ohioan, came to him wanting to learn magic. Together, they opened a new magic store called Abbott’s Magic Co. in 1934.
Lifelong Colon resident Greg Bordner is Recil’s son, and now owns the store — the oldest in town.
“It’s my family business. My dad started the company with Percy Abbott in 1934, so I was kind of born into it,” Bordner said.
Abbott’s soon grew to produce massive illusions, like dagger cabinets and cremation tubes, much larger magical creations than any other stores sold at the time.
“And that’s what really created Colon as a center of magic in Michigan, because, well, there at that point [had] been dozens of magic shops throughout the history of Michigan. [The] difference is that Abbott’s was a lot more impressive,” Duck said.
Bordner also organizes the Abbott’s Magic Get Together, which started in 1934 around the same time as the store. The two grew in success together, attracting magicians from all over the world, with help from Bordner’s wife and a producer who scours magic conventions across the world for new talent.
“There is no hotel here. So people would open up their doors, and then I’ve had the same people coming for years and years and years and when someone dies or can no longer physically make it, [I] take on a new one,” Joe Ganger, president of the Colon Community Historical Society, said. “I’ve had people from Japan, from Sweden.”
The continued popularity of Colon’s magic stores and convention built the village’s reputation as the Magic Capital of the World. Colon has embraced this distinction, with the local high school using Magi as its mascot.
The village is almost sacred in magician circles, too, with Colon’s Lakeside Cemetery thought to be the final resting place of more magicians than anywhere else in the world.
“There’s about 42 magicians buried at our local cemetery,” Ganger said. “And they do a broken wand ceremony — break the wand — because it’s the end of their doing magic.”
Abbott’s isn’t the only reason for Colon’s notoriety in the world of magic: Rick Fisher opened FAB (Fisher Abbott) Magic Co. in 2003, just a five-minute walk from Abbott Magic Co.
“The Abbott family doesn’t have anything to do with the Abbott Magic Company anymore. Haven’t since 1960,” Fisher said.
He bought the right to use the Abbott name from Percy Abbott’s children and set up shop in Colon.
After some time in Colon, Fisher decided to expand the magic industry’s reach by moving his store to nearby Vicksburg, Michigan.
“I was just frustrated that the village didn’t really embrace what a lot of villages would have given their left arm for: a title like this. So we moved,” he said.
But when his lease expired in Vicksburg, Fisher moved his shop back to its home in Colon. Despite moving back, Fisher said Colon’s magic market has changed — especially with a decrease in the foot traffic that once supported his store.
“I’m filling orders, and nothing’s changed, except I don’t open up on a regular basis, and starting [mid-June], we’re going to be open three days a week for the rest of the summer,” Fisher said. “People aren’t shopping retail anymore. We’re buying [on the] internet.”
Ganger feels similarly about the future of brick-and-mortar magic stores in Colon.
“An open-door magic shop is not anything that’s going to go anymore. It’s going to be online and it still will maintain its reputation,” he said.
Bordner, however, has a rosier view of the future of the Get Together.
“I’m sure someone will take it over, keep it going,” he said. “It’s kind of a world of its own.”
No matter what form magic might take in Colon’s future, its hold on the world doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon.
“Magic has grown over the years,” Duck said. “But now again, you have a lot more magic acts that are more consolidated and concentrated in specific areas. A lot of major metropolitan cities now have a theater with a dedicated magician working at them.”
Fisher said that younger generations prefer tricks and illusions “that they can fool their friends with.” But for him, and the older generations of magic lovers, the art is gratifying.
“As long as I’m alive, and as long [as] I’m running this store and my business, this is my baby and this is my dream since I was a child,” Fisher said. “I’m going to continue till I can’t do it anymore. Because this is not work — I love what I do.”
I am trying to get a hold of Joe Ganger to see if he would be interested in doing a program for our local MARSP group. Per chance you could help me in finding a way to contact him. Thank you, Gayle Brokaw.