Alan Alan

{{Short description|British magician (1926-2014)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}}

{{Use British English|date=May 2014}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Alan Alan

| image = Alan Alan.jpg

| caption = Alan Alan at The Magic Spot

| birth_name = Alan Rabinowitz

| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1926|11|30}}

| birth_place = London, England

| death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|2014|7|4|1926|11|30}}

| death_place = London, England

| occupation = escapologist and magician

| resting_place =

| networth =

| website =

| footnotes =

| signature =

}}

Alan Alan (born Alan Rabinowitz, 30 November 1926{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=11diCQAAQBAJ&q=Alan+Rabinowitz+1926&pg=PA3|title = Obituaries in the Performing Arts, 2014|date = 30 April 2015| publisher=McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers |isbn = 9780786476664}}{{Cite web|title=Alan Alan|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/theatre-obituaries/10977900/Alan-Alan.html|access-date=2021-07-20|website=The Daily Telegraph|date=19 July 2014 }} – 4 July 2014) was a British escapologist and magician.{{cite web

|url = http://www.magictricks.com/bios/whoswhoab.htm

|title = Magicians' Biographies

|publisher = magictricks.com

|accessdate = 2007-07-08

| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20070629172756/http://www.magictricks.com/bios/whoswhoab.htm| archivedate= 29 June 2007 | url-status= live}} He originated tricks that have subsequently become familiar features of the repertoire of other performers and he was honoured by The Magic Circle.{{cite web

|url=http://www.themagiccircle.co.uk/main_nav/NewsDetails.php?News_ID=23

|title=The Magic Circle Awards Banquet

|publisher=The Magic Circle

|accessdate=2007-07-08

|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070704185321/http://www.themagiccircle.co.uk/main_nav/NewsDetails.php?News_ID=23

|archivedate=4 July 2007

|url-status=live

}}

Alan achieved fame through a series of stunts staged for the media. He made headline news in 1949 when a "buried alive" stunt, performed for Pathe News, nearly went wrong. He is credited with devising the burning-rope straitjacket escape,{{cite news

| url=http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=9

| title=BURNING ROPE ESCAPOLOGIST

| publisher=British Pathe Ltd

| date=26 October 1959

}} in which he is suspended upside-down from a crane with a length of thick rope doused with petrol; once ignited there is a short time to escape before the rope burns through.

He appeared in a number of television magic shows, including The Magic of David Copperfield.{{cite web

|url = http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/271794

|title = The Magic of David Copperfield

|publisher = BFI Film ad TV Database

|accessdate = 2007-07-08

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080304114810/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/271794

|archive-date = 4 March 2008

|url-status = dead

}} He also "taught" the inmates of Wormwood Scrubs prison how to escape from handcuffs in his performance with a number of other magicians.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=V2RkAAAAIBAJ&sjid=R3wNAAAAIBAJ&dq=alan-alan%20magician&pg=4297%2C1245010|work=Calgary Herald|date=1959-04-06|accessdate=2011-01-16|title=This Billing is a Smash Hit}} In more recent years he was seen on the Channel 4 TV show The Secret Cabaret with Simon Drake.

He was proprietor of Alan Alan's Magic Spot, a magic shop based on Southampton Row, London until its lease expired in the mid-1990s.

Alan's standing and influence in the world of magic was formally recognised in 2006 when The Magic Circle chose him to receive the coveted Maskelyne Award for services to British magic. He died on 4 July 2014, aged 87.{{cite web

|last1=Milazzo

|first1=Franco

|title=Obituary: Alan Alan, "The British Houdini"

|url=http://www.thisiscabaret.com/obituary-alan-alan-british-houdini/

|website=This Is Cabaret

|date=6 July 2014

|accessdate=6 July 2014

}}