Professional magician Bert Easley’s novelty shop and its collection of tricks, gags and costumes created fun times in Phoenix for 72 years.
By Douglas C. Towne
“Going into Bert Easley’s Fun Shop was like entering another world – a little dark, usually crowded and crammed with interesting things for all ages,” says former Phoenix resident Athia Hardt.
A longtime Valley dweller, Hardt served as press secretary to Governor Bruce Babbitt (1978-1980) and Governor Rose Mofford (1988-1989) and was one of thousands of local devotees of the Midtown costume shop, an old postwar jewel that closed in 2018.
“My kids and I loved it for Halloween to rent costumes but, more often, buying things like funny neckties and fake mustaches to assemble outfits. It was a treasure trove for imaginative, unique and, yes, inanely silly presents.”
Today, the Fun Shop’s McDowell Road location is inhabited by Roses by the Stairs brewery, men’s clothing shop Cave + Post Trading Co. and other 21st-century retail favorites. But for seven decades, it was arguably the Valley’s leading purveyor of whimsy, a hub of mysterious illusions and cosplay adventures for generations of patrons. With its motto, “Our work here is fun!” the store’s array of pranks, such as disappearing ink, whoopie cushions and leaking spoons, injected laughter into many occasions. In the eye of this captivating swirl was its owner, Bert Easley, whose repertoire of 2,000 magic tricks only hinted at his performing abilities.
The future magician relocated to Arizona from New Mexico (by way of Texas and Oklahoma) with his family at age 12 in 1917. He graduated from Mesa High School, where he gained renown for his acrobatic cheerleading skills. His quirky personality was fully formed even in his young adulthood. Easley majored in journalism at the University of Arizona and worked as a cub reporter for the Arizona Daily Star, where he’d dramatically enter the office by doing a dancing cartwheel over the city desk.
After moving to Southern California to pursue a dance career, Easley incorporated comedy and magic into his act. He earned bit parts in Hollywood movies and opened four theatrical dance studios. A knee injury marked a turning point in his life, sparking a growing interest in magic. Easley teamed with his first wife, ventriloquist Phyllis Willis, in a vaudeville act. Despite their success, the strain of life on the road led to their eventual divorce. Easley continued touring as a magician until he met Ann, his second wife.
In 1947, the couple settled in Phoenix, and Easley opened his Fun Shop, a Downtown store popular with mischievous kids, including then-14-year-old Bill Baker. The Phoenix native stopped by to purchase exploding cigarette sticks, which produced an impressive bang. Soon afterward, for an unrelated injury, Baker was with his mother in a doctor’s waiting room. “She lit a cigarette that I had inadvertently put an exploding charge in, and it blew up in her face,” Baker says. “Mom was OK, but she wasn’t too happy.”
When he wasn’t selling gags to teens, Easley excelled at teaching them magic tricks. “Bert sponsored the Hocus Pocus Magic Club at Phoenix Union High School, which I was part of, and we performed shows at elementary schools,” Baker says. In 1948, Easley co-authored the book Doing Magic for Youngsters.
Ed Chilleen worked at the Fun Shop for many years, starting in 1952. “The store Downtown was so small we had to move boxes out to the sidewalk and then back in at closing time,” says the former owner of Crazy Ed’s Satisfied Frog restaurant in Cave Creek.
In 1955, the Fun Shop moved to a more extensive retail and wholesale facility at 509 W. McDowell Rd. “There were two counters: a gag counter and a magic counter,” Chilleen says. “They hired former show business people to do everything from packing and shipping to working the counters.” The store hosted the International Brotherhood of Magicians Mystic 13 meetings on the 13th of each month.
Purchases at the store in the bright yellow building tended to be unforgettable.
“I recall buying sneezing powder there in the late 1960s and having my eldest brother David sniff it,” says Jon Rosenthal, a financial advisor. “David sneezed so much that he had a bloody nose!”
Jim Bolek, a graphic designer, was on Camelback High School’s student publications staff, taking photos for student ID cards. His team went to the Fun Shop to buy Groucho glasses to wear on their secret ID cards. “Bert told us the disguise was called the beagle puss, and the mustache sure tickled,” Bolek says. “I only officially used the secret ID at graduation to receive my diploma in 1977. The administrator handing them out wasn’t amused.”
Others gravitated to the Fun Shop to create their alter egos. “My two kindergarten friends, Stephanie Cain Foster and Mary Pat Curtis Honey, and I went to St. Francis Xavier Grade School and Xavier High School, which had many nuns as teachers,” says former Arizona Secretary of State Betsey Bayless. “So, as adults, we all have nun costumes for special occasions from Bert Easley’s, which was where we also went for goofy, fun gadgets.”
In addition to running the Fun Shop, Easley continued performing magic locally, often for charity events, until arthritis limited his sleight-of-hand skills in the 1960s. He died at age 82 in 1987. His family kept the fun going until the store closed six years ago.
Of all the rabbits Easley pulled out of his top hat, perhaps his finest performance was during World War II when he tried to check into Chicago’s sold-out Croydon Hotel. As Easley recalled in Genii magazine in 1963, the lady at the front desk told him he’d have to be a magician to get a room. “I did magic! And I got my room. Pocket tricks can be helpful!”
Easley’s Favorite Tricks
Leaning Shoes
Easley’s most famous illusion was playing a New Year’s Eve drunk called “Leaning Shoes.” With his feet flat on the floor, he would tilt at a 45-degree angle while smoking a cigarette. This pose became a full-page photo in Life magazine in 1952. “I would lean forward within a few inches of the floor and come back up. Other magicians couldn’t copy me because I was a small man and the only one able to do the trick,” he told The Arizona Republic in 1982.
Penny-Farthing Bicycle
In 1947, Easley purchased an 1881 Columbia high-wheel bike, which he rode for years in the Phoenix Jaycees Rodeo Parade. He became proficient with a high-wheel bike while acting in the 1930 movie The Grand Parade. When the stuntman didn’t show up for a scene, Easley offered himself as a substitute rider. He quickly learned to ride the tricky bike, changed his wardrobe, added a fake mustache and rode up to the leading actress in the scene to hand her a telegram.
Rover and the Rabbit
Easley put a rabbit into a box and told the audience it would vanish with a wave of his magic wand. But before he could wave it, his dog, Rover, would bound onto the stage, grab it and run. The magician would open the box with the rabbit still inside. After this happened twice, Easley extracted a third wand from his pocket and waved it over the box. Out popped Rover from the box, grabbing Easley’s wand and running offstage. The rabbit was nowhere to be seen.
