Background
Abbott was born in Braidwood, Australia on May 3, 1886 as one of four children.
Abbott was born in Braidwood, Australia on May 3, 1886 as one of four children.
Abbott"s business was once the largest manufacturer and retailer of magic tricks and stage illusions in the world. Early interests included theater and magic. He took part in amateur theatrical productions as a boy.
He discovered magic which he would devote most of his life along with its allied art, ventriloquism.
In his early 1920s, Abbott found himself performing regularly in Sydney and other Australian towns, eventually taking a position with a firm that supplied magicians with the tricks of their trade, the New York Novelty Company Abbott would eventually open his own supply house for conjurers, called the Abbott"s Magic Novelty Company, on Pitt Saint in downtown Sydney.
He continued performing and was reportedly one of the first magicians to perform the Sawing a woman in half illusion in Australia. He toured the Orient and eventually landed in America, where in 1926 attended the first annual convention of the International Brotherhood of Magicians.
Recil Bordner, a magic enthusiast and son of successful farmers from Edon, Ohio, join the form as a partner in 1934.
The shop moved into larger premises in Colon, at 124 Saint Joseph Saint, and celebrated the event by hosting the first annual Abbott Magic Get-Together that fall. The event became an annual tradition that continues to this day. He also founded the Abbott Magic Company"s magazine called "Tops", in January 1936, editing it for several years before turning it over to the Abbott company"s staff artist, Howard Melson.
By the end of 1945, Percy Abbott"s business was spread over seven buildings and employed over 54 workers with Abbott branch stores established in Detroit, Indianapolis, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
Abbott"s issued the largest magic catalog of all time, some 832 pages long, and featuring over 1800 different products, most manufactured at the Abbott factories. Abbott maintained an active interest in the magic business until his retirement in 1959.
At that time, he sold his share of the company to longtime partner Bordner. In 1959 Abbott wrote his memoir, "A Lifetime of Magic" which was published just months before he died, on August 26, 1960, from a heart attack at the age of 74.