Pick a card, any card: The history of Chicago-style magic

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<p><i>Editor's Note: This story first published on May 11, 2024.</i></p><p>Walking around Chicago in the 1940s, you’d see the Wrigley Building and the Chicago Board of Trade dominating the skyline. Prohibition was over, and taverns boomed. Jazz clubs, theaters and dance halls were places people went to enjoy themselves.</p><p>But if you walked into Schulien’s, at 1800 N. Halsted, you would have happened upon a burgeoning form of entertainment: close-up magic. The German restaurant was where you could find Matt Schulien doing card tricks with a cigar in his mouth and a grin on his face. And while close-up magic had long existed, this particular blend of characteristics — sleight-of-hand magic, incorporating humor, in a restaurant or bar setting — was becoming known as <i>Chicago</i>-style magic, in large part because of Schulien.</p><p>When <i>Curious City</i> got a question about the history of Chicago magic, we spoke with half-a-dozen local magicians and historians, watched close-up magic in action and got a behind-the-scenes tour of the <a class="Link" href="https://www.chicagomagiclounge.com/" target="_blank" >Chicago Magic Lounge</a>. <a class="Link" href="https://www.wbez.org/curious-city/2024/05/11/the-history-of-chicago-style-magic" target="_blank" ><u>Read</u></a> more about “Chicago style” magic or press play to listen.</p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-center> <div class="HtmlModule"><a class="AnchorLink" id="html-embed-module-750000" name="html-embed-module-750000"></a><script async src="https://modules.wearehearken.com/wbez/embed/4190.js"></script> </div> </div><p></p>