BY JIM KNIPPENBERG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Well, excuse us, Mr. Harry Anderson, but you got it backwards. You came to town to make money, not lose it.
Anderson was here over the weekend to host Cincinnati Playhouse's Abracadabra, the annual fund-raiser wherein Ken Klosterman, as in good buns and hard-core magic fan, lines up magicians to do five magic shows in three days. This year it was Anderson, Mac King, James Dimmare and Greg and Lyuda Wilson.
Right. So why did Anderson sum up the weekend with, "Man, this trip cost me a lot of money."
Seems he brought his kids with him -- 12-year old Dashiell and 17-year-old Eva -- to assist in his act. So far so good, until they found some down time between rehearsals and opening night. They went shopping.
"All the downtown stores," Klosterman says. "Eva is an especially devoted Saks shopper."
They also had a field day at Dave and Buster's massive game rooms and restaurant in Springdale. Anderson, his kids, the Wilsons and King made the Thursday excursion because, Greg Wilson said, "Harry wanted to take his kids."
That's a diversionary tactic. Psst! happens to know that Anderson is a bigger kid than his kids and that he uses them as a smoke screen: He tells you they want to go, but he wants to go a whole lot more. Just doesn't admit it. We've heard he does it at toy stores, too.
The Wilsons, meanwhile, fell in love with Mount Adams. Specifically, Longworth's, "where we ate every meal because the food was great and the service fast. Time gets tight between shows, so it's perfect." Oh yeah, one more thing the magicians all did: Visit Klosterman's Loveland home. Just about every magician who comes to Cincinnati does that, on account of he has one of the nation's largest private collections of magic paraphernalia.
"Harry and the kids came out," Klosterman says, "and spent time looking, then we sat by the pool and talked about everything but magic.
"James Dimmare spent a long afternoon in the library (Klosterman also has a massive collection of magic reference works) researching something or another."
And Greg Wilson? He actually made it a point to stay in town an extra day just so he could get there.
"I'll be spending the entire afternoon there and I can't wait," he said Monday morning.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: And why, you were wondering, was Sunday such a big day for the Madeleine Gordon and Jerome Gordon Gift of Life Foundation?
Wellsir, turns out all their fund-raising, meetings and phone calls paid off in cake, ice cream and a rollicking birthday party. The foundation provides financial help for couples looking to have a baby but having no luck because of fertility problems. John and Tina Mulhollen of Loveland, for example. Their daughter Katie is the foundation's first baby. She celebrated her first birthday Sunday with a party.
That's what made it a big day for the foundation. "Watching that baby grow so happy and healthy really makes it a gift of life," Mady Gordon said. "Tina told me I would be part of all significant events in Katie's life. That really puts a face on the foundation." There's another face on the foundation: Baby No. 2 is 6-month-old Stephen Dunn. What's cool, Gordon says, is the Mulhollens are determined to see the two kids grow up as friends.
Still another face on foundation work: "We think there's a third pregnancy out there." They find out for sure today.
Psst! appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Have an item to report? Call Jim Knippenberg at 768-8513; fax: 768-8330.
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