TRAVEL BY NIC…….The
Perpetual Tourist!
Magic
Castle, 7001 Franklin Ave, Hollywood, CA
FINELY!!! I got to
enter one of the exclusive clubs that has been on my list of things to do! The Magic Castle is a beautiful Victorian building
that is just a block away from the bustling Hollywood & Highland
scene. The only way you can get into the
Magic Castle is to be invited by a magician!
It just so happened that our friends met a magician that offered us an
invitation!
The Magic Castle is quite an experience. It’s an adult only place (Except during their
brunch on Saturday & Sundays). I
love that we are only allowed entry if the men are in suits and ties and the
women in cocktail dresses (or nice business attire). We went with a party of 8 and it was so great
to experience this beautiful place with friends. Just FYI…..you can NOT take photos on the
inside!
Let me tell you a little about the castle. The Magic Castle is the home of the Academy
of Magical Arts. Only magicians are
members and it is meant to encourage and promote public interest in the art of
magic. The Magic Castle celebrates the magicians
with the Academy of Magical Arts. It
offers magic classes, and promotes magic to young people through their Junior
Society.
With full honesty disclosure…..magic is not a huge deal to me…sorry! It was the beautiful building that I couldn’t
wait to see! I looked into the history
of the building and here is what I learned.
The castle was a private home built in 1909 by a Rollin B Lane a real
estate magnate. A drought ended his
dreams of growing orange fields and the family moved in the 1940’s. At that time the mansion was divided into a
multi-family home and then a home for the elderly. Finally it was transformed into a maze of small
apartments. Thomas O Glover is the owner
of the house but it was upon meeting Milt Larsen, a writer for an NBC show at
the time, that changed the fate of the building to this day. In 1963 Milt had magically transformed this Victorian
into the Magic Castle. As of today Neil
Patrick Harris, from “How I met Your Mother & Doogie Howser”, is the President
of the Magic Castle.
Ok, back to my experience.
You will have to have reservations AND be sure to bring a paper copy of
your invite! We had dinner reservations
but we were sure to arrive in plenty of time before the dinner so that we could
explore all of the magic rooms and hallways before we ate. As you pull in you’ll
start to feel the “mystery” of the house.
Valet parking is the only parking available at $10 per vehicle. Once in the lobby you will find the gift
store and the reception. At the
reception you pay the entrance fee of $35 per person and at that time you are
allowed entrance through the secret passage through a bookshelf! Right away you’re trying to take it all
in! We were instructed to get in line
right away for the “Close up” magic in the room to the left. That took us to a mall room where we could
watch a magician up close. Behind the
bar was Invisible Irma’s Room, where you learn about a piano player that has
passed on but will still take requests if you put a dollar in the birdcage that
sits on the piano. What’s funny is even
if you don’t request a song, you ask a question she answers with a song!! Very fun.
From there we worked our way to the cellar where another magician was
working coin tricks in an intimate setting.
Still in the cellar the winding hallway lead us to another cellar room
where a magician had a small crowd around him while he performed tricks. In the cellar you can escape to the Hat &
Hare Pub, which resembles and English pub.
I also noticed that there is a bar menu filled with reasonable appetizers
that include a Magic Burger, Pulled BQ Chicken sliders and Magic Castle’s
Famous chili just to name a few items but not certain if that is available in
all of the bars? (There are 4 bars
throughout the building.)
Time for dinner! We
worked our way up to the 2nd floor.
Because we had such a large party we had the secluded Houdini room! It was a round room filled with several of
his magic prop’s that made him famous.
It is a round room that they also hold sequences in. We also learned that the Board of Directors
of the Magic Castle hold their meetings in this room. Expect to spend at least $30 per
person. (That does not include drinks). My petite steak was wonderful! Still thinking about how tender it was!
After dinner we stayed on the 2nd floor and worked
our way through the dining area only to find a theater and more winding
hallways! We had tickets for the “big
show” that was in the Palace of Mystery.
There we saw 4 acts that were great!
When we exited I noticed another smaller theater that we didn’t make it
to. We did wind down some stairs only to
find another bar area filled with magician and awesome displays honoring dummies
and Marinette. Apparently puppets and
magicians have worked hand in hand for a long time!
We were at the Magic Castle for 6 hours and I know that we
still didn’t see everything! We just
gotta go back! If you can get your hands
on an invite it is worth the experience but do expect to spend some money for
this adventure!
