Trivia

Magician and mind-reader

President of The Magic Circle 1989-1998.

Father of Marvin Berglas.

He was awarded the MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2019 Queen's New Years Honours List for his services to Magic and Psychology in Barnet, Hertfordshire, England.

Berglas conducted what he called "Nationwide Psychological Experiments", involving millions of listeners in their homes. This part of the show required listeners to write in to confirm their reactions. His weekly broadcasts included sensational stunts, including hanging a box over Regent Street, London for a whole week. It had been officially sealed by the Diplomatic Corps of the Admiralty and, when opened, it contained the passport of a randomly selected member of the studio audience, sitting in the Playhouse Theatre by the Embankment. The passport had disappeared just moments before.

Berglas revitalised The Magic Circle society during his tenure as president from 1989-1998. When he was in charge The Magic Circle elected to admit women to the illusionist society in 1991.

He was described as one of the most influential magicians and mentalists of the 20th century.

In 1967, after his popular Dutch television series 'OPUS 13', he was named "Television Personality of the Year", the first time it had ever been awarded to a foreign celebrity.

Over the decades, he appeared regularly on British TV and radio and became a household name for his incredible stunts. He was known particularly one of which included driving a car around London while blindfolded.

In the 1950s, Berglas created what is now referred to as the "Holy Grail" of card magic, known as "The Berglas Effect", in which a magician appears to allow someone to freely name any playing card and freely select any position in a deck ("any card at any number"), and the specified card is found at the specified position in a random deck. The effect was first named "The Berglas Effect" by Jon Racherbaumer in his 1984 book At The Table. It has since been regarded as the holy grail of magic effects, the secret of which he took to the grave.

Illusionist Derren Brown hailed Berglas as "one of our greatest living magical performers" when Berglas was awarded his MBE.

In the 1980s he had a second television series, called The Mind of David Berglas, where he entertained a whole host of celebrities, including Omar Sharif, Christopher Lee and Britt Ekland.

Berglas was the first ever magician to have his own programme on British television, 'Meet David Berglas', in 1954.

In 2011, he released a book with Richard J. Kaufman entitled The Berglas Effects. This is the book named after his "Any Card at Any Number" plot. The book has a foreword by Juan Tamariz and an afterword by Max Maven, contains 3 DVDs and also includes a pair of 3D glasses. In 2012 he provided both a contribution and foreword to the PSYCRETS book Liber Mentis (ISBN 978-1-291-10732-6). A mysterium of effects essays and routines, edited and authored by Steve Drury. That year, Berglas provided the foreword to Dunninger Knows, by Joe Atmore.

He was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Session Convention in Gloucester, January 2011.

Keen to be part of the war, he discovered that the American Army was urgently looking for suitable recruits for an important role in the denazification of Germany. They had to have some previous military training and to be able to pass strict physical and mental tests. Most importantly they had to speak two languages besides English, one of which had to be fluent German. The required minimum age was 21. Berglas explained that he was only 19 but could meet all the other qualifications. He was accepted into the Intelligence Service of the US Army, serving an 'adventure filled' 18 months at the end of World War II. He then attended Bradford Technical College to study textiles with a view of joining his family business based in Wyke, a village in Bradford.

Berglas first became interested in magic in 1947, through a chance meeting with magician Ken Brooke.

In 1999, he established a non-profit organisation called the Foundation for Promoting the Art of Magic (FP-AM). The Foundation presents "The David Berglas International Magic Award" annually at the International Magic Convention in London. It was first awarded to the organisers of the convention, The MacMillan family, then in 2008 to Uri Geller (Israel), in 2009 to David Copperfield (USA), in 2010 to Juan Tamariz (Spain), in 2011 to Derren Brown (UK) in 2012 to Jeff McBride (USA), and in 2013 Lu Chen (Taiwan) was the recipient. In 2014 the award was given to Berglas himself.

Magic became an all-absorbing hobby for about five years, during which time he studied psychotherapy, specialising in medical hypnosis.

He has appeared on the covers of leading magic magazines including The Linking Ring (1977), Abra (1992), Magic (1998), The Genii (2007), and The Magic Circular (1957, 1975, 1989, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2006).

In 1967, he released his best-selling Dutch book David Berglas onthult...bijna alles (David Berglas reveals...nearly everything), published by H.J.W. Becht's Uitgeversmaatschappij N.V. and in 1988 A Question of Memory (with Guy Lyon Playfair), published by Jonathan Cape Ltd. (ISBN 0 224 025570).

In 1995 he received The "Maskelyne Award" for outstanding contribution to British magic[22] and in October 2011, received The Magic Circle's highest international award, The David Devant.

The Magic Circle presented him with the coveted "Gold Medal" in the year 2000 (which at the time had only been presented six times before, since 1926).

On 14 May 2018, journalist/magician/TV producer, Martin T. Hart met with David Berglas over five years to film and then publish The David Berglas Scrapbooks, which can be viewed via Berglas's YouTube channel or website. The videos document his life and career in his own words, with previously unseen footage and photos.

In 1979, he was voted "King Rat" of the Grand Order of Water Rats, the world's leading show business charity organisation.