Al Flosso (Oct. 10, 1895 – May 13, 1976) was an American magician and entertainer.
He was elected to The Lambs in 1951 as a Professional member, joining scores of magicians who were club members.
Flosso was born in Brooklyn in 1895 as Albert Levinson. He took his stage name from a term for cotton candy: “floss.”
He got his start in Vaudeville and in Coney Island. Flosso was noted among his peers for perfecting the “Miser’s Dream” illusion of producing numerous coins out of thin air and dropping them with a loud clang into a bucket. Later, he appeared on early TV, such as “The Ed Sullivan Show” (Sullivan was a Lamb) and “The Steve Allen Show.”
Flosso was also a master Punch and Judy puppeteer. That was him in an uncredited role in the 1931 Marx Brothers classic, Monkey Business.
Magician Joseph Dunninger said, “If there is a better all-around magician I have yet to discover him.” Although only 5′ 2″ tall Flosso became a giant to his audiences as he honed his act in the tough carnival world of Coney Island.
One of his routines was a two-person mind reading act with his wife, Lillian Krieger, as “Madame Xenia.” In 1973 he became Magician of the Year after an appearance on Ed Sullivan.
From 1939–1976 Flosso owned and operated Martinka & Co, in Midtown Manhattan, America’s oldest magic company, once co-owned by Harry Houdini. It was on 34th Street and a Mecca for fans of magic and illusions. It was just known as Flosso’s Magic Shop, and he ran it with his, Jack Flosso, also a magician.
The New York Times described the shop as, “a messy Aladdin’s cave of magical marvels from trick cards and ropes to a live lion that one owner, the magician Carter the Great, kept in the back room. It was also an atmospheric fraternity house where a visiting European magician, a superstar like David Copperfield and a curious teenager from Queens might rub elbows, ideas and magic wands. The younger and older Flosso held court on an old sofa, both making smart comments in an accent not unlike that of W. C. Fields.”
Al Flosso died of complications from kidney surgery on May 13, 1976, in New York. He was 81. At his funeral Dr. Arnold Boston said, “From ten performances a day on the platforms of Luna Park and Dreamland to numerous appearances on national television, he never gave a bad show.”
The Society of American Magicians restored Flosso’s gravesite in Machpelah Cemetery, a Jewish cemetery located in Glendale, Queens. Houdini is in the same cemetery.