WILD ABOUT HARRY: October surprise

Thursday, October 23, 2025

October surprise

Well, how about this? WILD ABOUT HARRY and I have received a tremendous honor from the New England Magic Collectors Association (NEMCA), an organization I greatly respect and admire. This was just posted to their Facebook group:

JOHN COX / WILD ABOUT HARRY NAMED NEMCA’S 2025 FOUNDERS AWARD RECIPIENT!

The New England Magic Collectors Association (NEMCA) is an organization of over 150 magicians, magic historians and magic collectors from around the world. It started in Boston, Massachusetts in 1980 with the purpose of preserving and promoting the history, artifacts and publications of the performers of magic and its allied arts.

In 2017 NEMCA created its Founders Award in honor of two of its founders, Ray Goulet and Ed Hill. The Award is used to acknowledge the contributions of people and organizations that exemplify NEMCA’s prime objectives of preserving and promoting the history and artifacts associated with magic and the allied arts. Previous recipients have included the American Museum of Magic, the Conjuring Arts Research Center (CARC), MAGICANA, and The Magic Circle.

It is our privilege to announce that the Board of Directors for NEMCA has unanimously voted to honor Wild About Harry and its founder, John Cox, as the recipient of the 2025 Founders Award.

This celebrates Cox’s many years of effort collecting and sharing information regarding Harry Houdini. Cox’s Facebook page, website (wildabouthoudini.com) in conjunction with the Patreon site, offers pictures and information available nowhere else. The publication of his book, Escaping Obscurity - The Travel Diary of Harry Houdini, 1897-1899, is a significant accomplishment and contribution to the community. It is these, and many other considerations, that supported the presentation of this honor.

Magicians around the world will celebrate Harry Houdini in 2026 recognizing one hundred years since the death of Houdini. NEMCA’s next Yankee Gathering will take place in early November and a portion of the conference will be dedicated to scholarship and celebration of Houdini’s memory.

John Cox, through his work on Wild About Harry, has done much to preserve the very rich history of magic and its practitioners, as well as to promote magic to newer generations. The Board of the New England Magic Collectors Association can think of no more deserving organization than Wild About Harry and its founder, John Cox, to receive its 2025 Founders Award. NEMCA congratulates him for all he has done, and continues to do, on behalf of magic history.

I'm excited to read that a portion of their 2026 "Yankee Gathering" will be dedicated to scholarship and celebration of Houdini’s memory. That sounds like my kind of gathering!

Thank you to the New England Magic Collectors Association and all its members. This is amazing.

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