Robert Albo

Robert Albo was born in Oakland, California, on May 8, 1932, and grew up in Berkeley, California.{{Cite magazine|last=Schwartz|first=Phil|date=May 2011|editor-last=Kaufman|editor-first=Richard|title=In Memoriam: Robert James Albo, M.D.|url=http://geniimagazine.dc.newsmemory.com/?selDate=20170401|journal=Genii|volume=74|issue=5|pages=14|url-access=subscription }} He attended Berkeley High School, where he played basketball and helped lead the team to Tournament of Champions title in 1949. After high school, he briefly worked as an animator for Walt Disney before studying pre-med at University of California, Berkeley, where he was captain of the basketball and baseball teams. He was offered a contract with the New York Giants, but declined it to pursue a medical career.

Albo received his medical education at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), graduating in 1959. He remained at UCSF for his internship and residency,{{cite web|title=Robert J. Albo's Obituary on East Bay Times|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/eastbaytimes/obituary.aspx?n=robert-j-albo&pid=148892611|website=East Bay Times|date=February 27, 2011|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171217014007/http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/eastbaytimes/obituary.aspx?n=robert-j-albo&pid=148892611|archive-date=December 17, 2017}} and later became a professor of surgery there. His first professional job in sports medicine was with the Oakland Seals hockey team.{{cite magazine|first=Jane Eshelman|last=Conant|title=Sports Medicine|magazine=The UCSF Magazine|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.31378005703288;view=1up;seq=471|date=June 1982|volume=5|number=2|publisher=University of California, San Francisco|pages=29–31|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180112052817/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.31378005703288;view=1up;seq=471|archive-date=2018-01-12}} He became team physician for the Golden State Warriors in the early 1970s, and in 1999 became the Warriors' Director of Medicine. He was also the head team physician for the Oakland Raiders and Oakland Oaks (ABA). He specialised in general, vascular, and oncological surgery.{{Cite magazine|last=Field|first=Matthew|date=April 2011|title=Obituaries|url=http://askalexander.org/display/61086/The+Magic+Circular/7|journal=The Magic Circular|volume=105|pages=101|url-access=subscription }}

Albo was an amateur illusionist, and held a collection of magic apparatus that grew to be the world's largest, with over 4000 items. Albo used it to write his well regarded series of books, Classic Magic With Apparatus. Originally intended as a trilogy, it eventually grew to 11 volumes. It was followed by further books focused on the magic of Okito and Thayer. In 1992, selected items from the collection were displayed over three of the terminals of San Francisco International Airport. In 1994, Albo agreed to sell the entire collection to David Copperfield, though some items were not transferred to Copperfield until 2010.{{cite magazine|last1=Walker|first1=Byron|title=Dr. Robert J. Albo|journal=Linking Ring|date=February 2011|volume=91|issue=2|pages=24–27|url=http://askalexander.org/display/40904/Linking+Ring/24|url-access=subscription }} Albo was a partner in the Palace of Magic shop in San Francisco and Magic Island in Newport Beach, California.

• Classic Magic Series
• I - The Oriental Magic of the Bambergs (1973) w/ Eric C. Lewis & David Bamberg
• II - Classic Magic With Apparatus (1976)
• III - More Classic Magic With Apparatus
• IV - Further Classic Magic With Apparatus
• V - Still Further Classic Magic With Apparatus
• VI - Final Classic Magic With Apparatus
• VII - Classic Magic Index
• VIII - Classic Magic Supplement
• IX - Additional Classic Magic With Apparatus
• X - History and Mystery of Magic
• XI - Laboratories of Legerdemain
• Magic of the United States
• Magic of France
• Magic of Germany
• Magic of England
• The Ultimate Okito
• The Ultimate Okito Addendum
• The Ultimate Okito Encore
• The Ultimate Thayer
• Thoughts on the History and Mystery of Magic

• The Academy of Magical Arts Special Fellowship (1983)
• The Academy of Magical Arts Literary & Media Fellowship (1988){{cite web|title=Hall of Fame|url=http://www.magiccastle.com/hall_of_fame/|website=The Academy of Magical Arts|date=2 July 2014 |url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161120002854/http://www.magiccastle.com/hall_of_fame/|archive-date=2016-11-20}}
• The John Neville Maskelyne Prize 1989{{cite web|title=The John Neville Maskelyne Prize|url=https://themagiccircle.co.uk/the-society/our-awards/the-jnm-prize|website=The Magic Circle|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171216091115/https://themagiccircle.co.uk/the-society/our-awards/the-jnm-prize|archive-date=2017-12-16}}

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{{Academy of Magical Arts Literature & Media Fellowship}}

{{Academy of Magical Arts Special Fellowship}}

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Category:1932 births

Category:2011 deaths

Category:American surgeons

Category:American sports physicians

Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni

Category:University of California, San Francisco alumni

Category:Historians of magic

Category:Academy of Magical Arts Literature & Media Fellowship winners

Category:Academy of Magical Arts Special Fellowship winners