Magic at War

American-Latino Ramón Galindo fought for his adopted country in two of World War Two’s key battles, surviving the war to become a  tailor, filmmaker and world  renown bird-magician.  Introduction   Ramón Galindo was born on 29 May 1921, in San Juan, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. His parents moved across the border to the U.S.A. when he was still a baby. They opened a tortilla shop in Austin, Texas and Galindo was raised there.   He was just 8 years old when share prices at the New York Stock Exchange collapsed in 1929.    Despite growing up during the decade-long Great Depression, Galindo developed an early interest in magic after his father showed him a trick.   Off to war   When the United States entered World War Two in December 1941, the 20-year-old volunteered for military service in the Texas State Guard. He completed basic soldier training at Camp Mabry, in mid-Texas, under instructors who’d fought in World War One.   A year after...

Dutch magician and illusionist The Great Cortini got caught up in the war in the Far East and ended up a prisoner-of-war of the Japanese. He used his magic skills to boost the morale of his fellow POWs and to survive the brutal and harsh conditions of captivity and hard labour. Note: This blog was updated in October 2022 with additional information and images. Prisoner of the Japanese When the Japanese army overran vast areas of Southeast Asia and the Pacific during World War Two, they took almost 200,000 Allied soldiers, sailors and airmen captive. Thousands more died resisting the invasion. The war in Europe had weakened the commitment of Britain, France, and The Netherlands to the region. The Far East was wide open to Japan's dream of dominance throughout Asia. One of the captured servicemen was a Dutch entertainer known as The Great Cortini or Professor Cortini.  Born on 29 December 1912, Cortini (real name Johan Hubert Crutzen) came from Vaals in the south-eastern corner of ...