Dates

• Existence: 1900 - 1964
• Usage: 1937 - 1964

Biography

John Milton Woodward was a magician born in 1900 in Eastbourne, England. His family moved to Leamington Spa when he was eight years old, where his parents opened a department store. Milton’s interest in magic started when his father gave him a set of magic tricks at the age of ten, four years later he started to perform in public.

Milton left school in 1916 and started and apprenticeship in the drapery business, which was abruptly interrupted by the outbreak of the Frist World War. Milton was conscripted into the army, where he started to give magic shows to entertain his colleagues and raise money for the Belgian Relief Fund. Milton was released from service in 1921, when he returned home and joined the family business while performing magic shows in his free time.

In 1924, Milton married Stella Watson-Mill, daughter of Charles Watson, a well-known playwright, actor, theatrical producer and since 1910 Manager of the Theatre Royal at Leamington Spa.

By the 1930s Milton was finally able to leave the family business and become a full-time music hall performer. He travelled musical acts until the Second World War when he started to perform as a magician with long time stage partner Millicent Cooper as Woodward and Cooper. The pair created the Woodward Wonderbar act, which made them famous and gained them TV appearances in the early 1960s. However, his career was cut short when he died in 1964 aged sixty four years old.

Milton was a member of the Magic Circle in London, where he lectured for several years and was elected president of the British Ring of the International Brotherhood of Magicians in 1963.

Found in 3 Collections and/or Records: