Find a show
circa 1980s–1990s
The Denny Lee Show
Listen to the story
Narrated by Dominic
Before Denny Haney became Baltimore’s famously candid magic dealer and mentor, he spent years doing the less stationary version of the profession. He toured.
01
This is a photographic publicity print rather than a traditional illustrated poster. Lee stands in front in a black dress, while Denny Haney, wearing a red dinner jacket, stands behind her and holds a sword above her. A wicker basket fills the foreground, and a misty blue studio setting supplies the atmosphere.
Its polished surface belongs to late twentieth-century entertainment marketing, when reproducible color photography increasingly replaced commissioned lithographic scenes. The photograph suggests danger, elegance, and partnership without revealing the effect about to take place.
This displayed item is a reproduction of a vintage publicity photograph depicting Denny Haney and his stage partner Lee.
02
The photograph depicts magician Denny Haney and his stage partner Lee, the two performers named in The Denny Lee Show. After serving in Vietnam, Haney became a full-time professional magician and built their act into a touring illusion production. The show played clubs, resorts, universities, and corporate engagements across the United States during the 1980s and early 1990s.
Haney later became best known in the magic community as the owner of Denny & Lee’s Magic Studio in the Baltimore area. It was more than a shop. Magicians came to study, rehearse, attend lectures, argue about technique, and receive advice that was useful partly because Denny did not decorate it with unnecessary politeness.
He invested the money earned on the road into building that gathering place and became an influential mentor to working professionals and serious students. Denny Haney died in 2019, but the performers he taught and encouraged carried his standards far beyond the studio. This photograph catches an earlier chapter, when the teacher behind the counter was still traveling with the boxes.
“The Denny Lee Show”
Welcome to the Magic Poster Tour at Poe’s Magic Theatre, inside the historic Lord Baltimore Hotel.
This stop features Denny Haney and Lee, The Denny Lee Show, a circa 1980s–1990s piece billed as “The Denny Lee Show.”
This is a photographic publicity print rather than a traditional illustrated poster. Lee stands in front in a black dress, while Denny Haney, wearing a red dinner jacket, stands behind her and holds a sword above her. A wicker basket fills the foreground, and a misty blue studio setting supplies the atmosphere.
Its polished surface belongs to late twentieth-century entertainment marketing, when reproducible color photography increasingly replaced commissioned lithographic scenes. The photograph suggests danger, elegance, and partnership without revealing the effect about to take place.
This displayed item is a reproduction of a vintage publicity photograph depicting Denny Haney and his stage partner Lee.
The photograph depicts magician Denny Haney and his stage partner Lee, the two performers named in The Denny Lee Show. After serving in Vietnam, Haney became a full-time professional magician and built their act into a touring illusion production. The show played clubs, resorts, universities, and corporate engagements across the United States during the 1980s and early 1990s.
Haney later became best known in the magic community as the owner of Denny & Lee’s Magic Studio in the Baltimore area. It was more than a shop. Magicians came to study, rehearse, attend lectures, argue about technique, and receive advice that was useful partly because Denny did not decorate it with unnecessary politeness.
He invested the money earned on the road into building that gathering place and became an influential mentor to working professionals and serious students. Denny Haney died in 2019, but the performers he taught and encouraged carried his standards far beyond the studio. This photograph catches an earlier chapter, when the teacher behind the counter was still traveling with the boxes.