It has been a full first day at the 16th convention of the Magic Lantern Society of U.S. & Canada, hosted by Dick Balzer in his astonishing Carriage House. Members from Australia, Japan, Italy, and elsewhere marveled at Mr. Balzer’s collection, beautifully exhibited in cabinets and cases on all sides. Our welcome bags even included a full color catalogue describing 100 items carefully chosen from this extraordinary cabinet of wonders.

So far, there have been ten diverse presentations beginning with Dick Moore’s ‘Peek under the Circus Tent.’ Not only did he show us historical images but he did it using a magic lantern projector rather than a simple PowerPoint presentation. See a single image below of children peeking under as we did the same.
I am resting up for the second day, which will include an evening of magic lantern entertainments at the Brattle Theater by Dick Balzer, Dick Moore, Terry Borton, Larry Rakow, and Mervyn Heard (seen far below introducing the Great Snazelle). Here are a few more images from the day. For more, see Mr. Balzer’s own site: http://www.dickbalzer.com/

Magic Lantern Society of United States and Canada: http://www.magiclanternsociety.org/