By Juan Castillo
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Ramon Galindo's 80-year magical tour began at the age of 8, when under the dim light of a kerosene lamp his father, Tomas, produced a rubber rat, set it on the kitchen table and watched it scurry about the hard surface and in and out of a drinking glass. Tomas howled. His wife, Josefa, shrieked: "Get that witchcraft out of here."
Closing his eyes and quivering in laughter as he recalls the moment, Galindo says the jarring juxtaposition of his parents' reactions fascinated him almost as much as the illusion. He was hooked on magic.
That began a journey that has taken Galindo from performing on Austin stages and at Zilker Park Hillside Theater variety shows to the Great Wall of China. In July, standing at one of the highest points of the wall and with a glint of mischief in his eyes, the diminutive 88-year-old pulled off an impromptu trick that left the lucky tourists who witnessed it whooping and cheering.
In those eight decades, Galindo, a master tailor by trade, saw the world and won awards, accolades and friends. On Saturday in Houston, the Texas Association of Magicians honored him for lifetime achievement, a recognition colleagues say is overdue.
"He is just revered by people in other countries, Mexico in particular," said Kent Cummins, a longtime professional magician who runs a magic camp in Austin.
Known as the Birdman of Austin, Galindo "practically invented" magic with parakeets, Cummins said, training his birds to dart in and out of playing cards and handkerchiefs in a dizzying, rapid-fire display set to music that maximized Galindo's hand-eye coordination and sleight of hand.
Galindo often performed wearing a sombrero and a Mexican charro costume of Technicolor hues and floral designs, which he created himself. (Born near Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Galindo was a toddler when his parents settled in Austin in 1922.)
With his warm, jolly manner, "Ramon is one of these fellas, when you meet him, he becomes your best friend almost immediately," said Scott Wells, a Houston-based magician who has known Galindo for more than 25 years. He's a friend to magicians everywhere all over the world."
Galindo says the pleasure has been his. "Once you hear that applause, brother, you're gone," he says. "You keep going."
A varied career
In his youth, Galindo dreamed of becoming a full-time magician. But that would have meant living out of a suitcase, and Galindo wanted to raise a family and go into business.
Then came World War II. In the Army, Galindo won three Bronze Stars and fought in the Battle of the Bulge.
On his return, Galindo didn't enter his parents' El Fenix Tortillas business, which later became El Galindo. Instead, he started his own business in 1948 Galindo, The Tailor, a name he later changed to Ace Custom Tailors. (Galindo sold the business in 1991.) From his shop on West Fifth Street, Galindo began pursuing other passions for which he's known as much as he is for his magic, if not more so.
"He's had a hundred careers. First he was a tailor, then there was magic, then his photography, then historian. I'm sure I'm somewhere there at the end," says his wife, Pauline, cracking herself up.
Galindo got his first box camera in 1938 and shot a memorable aerial picture of the Capitol. Soon, he was amassing a collection of still and movie cameras and diving into documenting his family's history and post-World War II Austin.
Galindo set up a studio in his tailor shop and learned how to produce and edit films. Slaking his thirst, he amassed hundreds of hours of footage on reel-to-reel tape, VHS and DVD images of old Austin, the Capitol Theatre and the Woolworth's five-and-dime next door, the old Southern Pacific Lines train station at Third Street and Congress Avenue, East Austin neighborhoods and countless other flickering testaments to history. He has already given some to history centers and says he plans to donate the rest.
"I started because I wanted to find out where my grandparents came from," Galindo says wistfully. "I came to find out I'm a historian."
That is exactly what he is, said Gloria Espitia with the Austin History Center. "Ramon is one that I always look to for help. Whenever I need it, he's there, documenting history."
Espitia says Galindo merits his own place in history as a pioneering Latino magician and as a chronicler of Austin's Mexican American history.
Master tailor
While combining his loves for history and cameras, Galindo also made his mark as a tailor, fitting and designing suits and pants for the likes of Lyndon B. Johnson (before he became president), Gov. John Connally, ambassador Ed Clark and musician Jimmie Vaughan, for whom he still makes clothes. At Connally's request, he once made a coat cut from silk cloth the color of Pepto-Bismol.
Master illusionists like Harry Blackstone Sr. and son Harry Jr. sought him out to create special costumes for them elegant, long-tailed tuxedos lined with secret pockets to hide what the audience was not supposed to see.
"He was known as the Magic Tailor," said Wells, the Houston-based magician.
Galindo can't hear so well anymore, and his gait has enough of a hiccup that he uses a cane. But his smooth, manicured hands work fine.
Resting his hands face up on his kitchen table at his Travis Heights home, he wiggles his fingers at such a speed that they seem virtually powered by a motor. "I've gotten a little slower," he laughs.
Galindo doesn't perform on stage anymore, though he still travels to magicians' conventions, a pastime that took him and Pauline to Europe and Asia and points between. They raised two daughters, Gloria and Josie. Galindo taught magic to two of his grandchildren, Jason Caballero and Jennifer Belcik, who used to join him on stage and who won a Texas Association of Magicians junior trophy in 1988.
Married 62 years, Ramon and Pauline form the quintessential charming couple, playfully cracking wise with each other the way jazz players trade riffs. They celebrated their 50th anniversary with a trip to Mexico City, where, not coincidentally, there was a magic convention.
"Can you imagine that, celebrating your anniversary at a magic convention?" Pauline says, feigning disappointment.
"What's better than that? That's pure magic," Ramon replies.
Asked if Ramon ever tried to make her disappear, Pauline does not miss a half-beat: "He's been trying to for (almost) 63 years, and he hasn't been successful."
"She won't go," Galindo says.
Pauline can't travel far anymore, but in July, Ramon ventured to yet another magicians' convention the World Championship of Magic in Beijing. On a sightseeing trip to the Great Wall, Galindo performed one more illusion in his very real and remarkable life. He floated in the air.
Like a kid who can't believe his good fortune, Ramon exclaims: "The last trick I did, it was above the clouds."
