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W. G. Magnuson
Walter G. Magnuson was born September 27, 1904. He was quite a character and eventually performed under the stage name of Del-Ardo. Starting in the early 1920s, he released poorly typed manuscripts of his mental, psychic and pseudo-hypnotic secrets. Over his lifetime, he released more than 125 of these manuscripts. His business flourished from the 1920s to 1970s. The original manuscripts were mimeographed and are extremely rare nowadays. If you can find one, the writing is usually faded and hard to read. His most famous work was called: The Twentieth Century Mindreading Act and was released in 1935.
Later in life, Walter G. Magnuson became Reverend Walter G. Magnuson, and started giving spirit readings. He was the co-organizer of Rockford Illinois' Largest Spiritualistic Church, giving readings in the Rockford area. Many manuscripts he released were on cold-reading and how to fleece the suckers, as he termed them.
As a "human pincushion", he worked at Ripley's Believe It Or Not Odditorium Show, doing up to 22 performances a day. He received an extra dollar for each spectator who fainted at the sight—his arms, legs, neck, and face being punctured by needles, pins, and police badges.
He edited the house organs of the International Mentalist Association, The Seer (2 issues) and Mystic (1 issue), both published in 1929.
He died, May 4, 1988, at the age of 83.
Coauthors: Devin Knight, Anthony Nelmar Albino
