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The Fairy Scientist, a short film entered into the Reason Project Video Contest on Sam Harris' Reason Project web site.

From the site -

The primary goal of The Reason Project is to spread scientific thinking and secular values. We invite you to help us further our work by submitting a short video that conveys the message of the foundation.

Lydia comes from a family of accomplished scientists; her grandfather is an PhD Oceanographer with NOAA and her great-grandfather is professor emeritus of Horticulture at Oregon State University. Lydia's father is an Electrical Engineer with Hewlett-Packard with numerous patents to his credit.

Scientist, Lydia, is the granddaughter of "Andrus" producer/director, Robert Neary. Though she took a little direction from her director grandfather, her comments and observations are completely unscripted and entirely her own. Lydia's academic studies has her currently in the First Grade, but her inquisitiveness and curiosity show great promise in her achieving a notable scientific career.

"Andrus" has been accepted into the da Vinci Days Film Festival in Corvallis, Oregon. The festival will run March 12 - 14, 2010. Members from Oregonians for Science and Reason will be bringing several of Jerry's most famous optical illusions for display as well as Jerry's Magician tuxedo he wore during his performances. We are expected to also have some local magicians and friends of Jerry on deck to Wow and amaze festival attendees.

"Andrus" will air on Oregon Public Broadcasting's show "Oregon Lens" on Thursday, August 20th at 10:00 PM, PDT. The feature has been edited to 58 minutes to fill television production schedule limitations.

I just returned from James "Amazing" Randi's TAM-7 (The Amazing Meeting) in Las Vegas. Jerry Andrus was there in spirit; Jeanine DeNoma and Steve Bauer had set up a table with some of Jerry's optical illusions and photographs of the remarkable illusionist.

At the height of the conference I showed a 20-minute clip from my documentary, "Andrus, the Man, the Mind & the Magic". Shortly after the presentation ended, one man came up to me to purchase a copy of the DVD, tears streaming down his cheeks. Such was the impact of this gentle genius on so many many people.

This was the largest Amazing Meeting to date, over 1000 participants from all over the globe. Remarkably almost half of the attendees were there for the first time. Many had never met Jerry at previous TAMs, but had heard stories about the man and bought the DVD out of curiosity.

Toward the end of the conference, the Amazing man himself, Randi, stopped by my table and flipped through some of the photographs that were snatched from the dumpster during the clean-out of Jerry's "Castle of Chaos" and Nancy had carefully restored. They were mostly photographs Jerry had taken of his Army unit during WWII. Randy thanked me for my work preserving Jerry's legacy on film

The Castle of Chaos is an empty shell now; the new owners are hoping to begin renovating the historic structure in the near future. Who knows what surprises Jerry left behind may await them as they begin opening walls and peering into odd recesses.

While filming Jerry at his castle two years ago, I put the TV monitor connected to my camera equipment on one of the few uncluttered spaces available on the floor. The picture on the monitor immediately contorted strangely and shifted an odd color of green. Had I not known better, I would have thought the distortion the results of a playful poltergeist. But after my puzzling over this a few minutes, Jerry explained that there was a huge magnet placed under the floor; apparently the vestiges of an experiment in levitation he had been fooling around with years before. I am sure that magnet is still down there somewhere under the floorboards.

Jerry's possessions were always scattered everywhere within the house; it truly was chaos. Yet he always seemed to have a reasonably good idea as to where he could get his hands on whatever he wanted. Another time he asked me to hand an illusion to him that was just out of reach. There, amid the wires, ball bearings and card board lay a crisp new $50 bill. At first I thought it part of an illusion or magic trick. "Hey Jerry, do you know you have $50 lying here?" I asked. He had just forgotten about it - someone had dropped by and paid him for a book; he was too busy concentrating while working on something else to pay it any mind. When I handed it to him he gleefully announced that he was going to treat me to lunch.

Even though the house is sold, his brother George still harvests the grapes from the vines entwined around the porch over the back door. The house has been in the Andrus family for eighty years - It's kind of difficult for him to not want to keep caring for it.

A special screening of "Andrus" was shown at the Pix Theater in Jerry's home town, Albany, Oregon. Albany is home to also to Rick Rogers Magic Shop and the community hosts a large number of active magicians.

Once again, the magicians came out in force to watch the film and entertain the visitors in the lobby prior to the show. Jerry is a well known local celebrity. Last year, the City of Albany held an "Andrus Day" event to recognize the contribution their resident magician has done for the community.

Pix Theater screening Photo Album:

This was the Big Night! The world premiere of "Andrus". The Society of American Magicians, Local #59 showed up in force, entertaining the audience in the lobby before the show; and members of the Portland Society of Magicians as well. Oregonians for Science and Reason set up a display of some of Jerry's optical illusions and books, while Jerry's empty tuxedo stood vigil over the event. Jerry's movie premiere was a fitting event to kick off this year's National Magic Week.

Admirers drove from out of state to attend the premiere and to honor the memory of this creative genius. Many of the magicians came up to me and remarked how Jerry's encouragement helped them become better magicians.

Jerry's older brother George was honored prior to the show; an artist in his own right, George is a recognized award-winning photographer and has been featured on Oregon Public Broadcasting's "Oregon Art Beat". Many of the on-screen and production staff were present also - including Dr. Loren Pankratz, magicians Rod Rogers and Michael Roth, and musical score composer, Boone Johnson.

The premiere night party at the Laurelwood Brew Pub.followed up the main event. Many a frosty pint of craft brew was raised in honor of Jerry... who would surely have joined with his favorite beverage: hot chocolate!

Premiere Night Photo Album:

Work continues on clearing out the Castle of Chaos, inventorying and cataloging Jerry's lifetime of work. Sorting through the mountain of books, papers, electronic gizmos and audio-visual equipment, is a daunting task. His illusions are being restored and repaired - to be displayed at future science fairs, festivals and conferences.

The old house, built in the early 1900's, is being sold and all the contents need to be removed... including the amazing electric organ Jerry has modified over the decades. Built in place and far too large to be moved through any of the doors, the organ required careful disassembly to be moved. Jerry added countless lights, controls, effects, bells and whistles, to the original organ. Multi-stranded cables string from the back and sides of the organ to separate component systems of Jerry's design bolted to the organ or on adjacent shelves, tables and on the floor. The Frankenstein creation had the moving crew scratching their heads.

Cables and conduits were carefully labeled before falling prey to the wire cutters. Much disassembly was required simply to gain access to struts supporting add-on components, most of which only Jerry likely knew what there function was. After five hours, the organ, now in seven pieces, was sufficiently free to move through the front door and into a waiting truck.

Will the Mighty Magic Organ ever play again? Who knows... it will likely take an engineer or electronics expert to assess the future of the organ. For now, it lies silently in a storage facility. One of the more remarkable creations from the mind of Jerry Andrus.

Since Jerry's death last fall a team of his closest friends have been helping Jerry's brother, George, to sort through, catalog and preserve Jerry's home, the Castle of Chaos. It is a monumental task as Jerry accumulated a staggering amount of "stuff" that we suppose he considered potentially useful in his creative pursuits.

Going (digging) through Jerry's home and adjacent shop, is like an archeological dig. Much of the interior of old home hasn't seen the light of day for decades. We excavate the rooms, closets, nooks and crannies with great care as often, amid a pile of 1938 "Science and Mechanics" magazines, we will encounter gems from this man's mind - notes from famous magicians, drawings of early illusions, master copies of his books of magic.

Often we don't even know what the item is... some electronic device of Jerry's invention, perhaps. It is set aside for cataloging at a later date. Rummaging through the man's house is like peering into his mind. I have no doubt that, were he still alive and you asked him to locate something, he would likely know right where to find it!

Some of us are specializing in assessing and preserving Jerry's possessions - Loren Pankratz is assessing books and magic, Ray Hyman is assembling magic and illusions, for example. I have been taking any video, film, negatives and photographs. Much of this material is in poor condition, needing careful restoration. A lot is destined for the trash... and several truckloads, tons, of scrap metal have gone to the recycling dealer.

       

Above are just a few of the photographs we have recovered from deep within recesses of the "Castle of Chaos":

Jerry Andrus died on Sunday, August 26th from advanced prostate cancer. His close friend and colleague, Ray Hyman, was with him when he died. Ray has said that a public memorial will be held for Jerry later in September.

During the course of this production I worried that Jerry may not survive to see it’s completion. Because of these concerns I often provided Jerry with clips and copies of rough edits during the course of production. Although he had not seen the final cut, he has seen all of the footage that will appear in the final documentary. Jerry got to see and hear what his friends and admirers had to say about him; Ray Hyman, Michael Shermer, James Randi, Jamy Ian Swiss, Andre Kole, Scott Morris and many others who contributed to Jerry’s legacy on film.

We are well into the final editing process; formatting, titling and composer Boone Johnson is working on the musical score. It is our hope that this production will provide a footnote to the memory about this interesting and gracious human being.

Below is the link to the Albany Democrat Herald article about Jerry’s death:
http://tinyurl.com/2hvf94

After reviewing the work of several dozen composers, we have chosen Portland composer, Boone Johnson, to score the Andrus documentary. Boone is currently scoring another film project, Burnside which should be completed sometime this summer. Boone’s resume includes scores for several short films and commercials. We are looking forward to having Boone lend his talents to our production.

You can listen to some of Boone’s work on his web site, Aural Produce, Inc.

The tally was over 800 attendees this year at James Randi's Amazing Meeting 5 (TAM5). The speakers were literally a Whose Who of noted skeptics, magicians and scientists. James "Amazing" Randi graciously granted us a generous block of his time to talk with us about his long time friend and collaborator, Jerry Andrus. Jerry has attended all the TAM conferences with his collection of traveling optical illusions; all of them entirely of his creation.

We want to express our gratitude to Randi and Linda Shallenberger who granted us free access during the conference. MC and Alexander Hamilton actor, Hal Bidlack, directed us to several people who he thought could give us great interviews regarding Jerry. We spoke with gifted magician and lecturer, Jamy Ian Swiss, who told us several interesting and amusing stories about Jerry… and even threw in a bit of his own sleight of hand for our production. Magician Andre Kole has invented countless illusions for other professional magicians such as David Copperfield. Andre gave us some wonderful insights about Jerry's character and talent. We ran across former Omni Magazine editor Scot Morris who had done a feature story on Jerry's "Impossible Box" for the magazine back in 1981.

In fact, several people at the conference came up to us and volunteered their stories about Jerry. Everyone, both for his gift of illusional perception and his ethics and humanity, clearly respects this humble genius.

We will be starting the editing phase of the project very soon. We are hoping for production release sometime during summer of this year.

Jerry Andrus' association with Ray Hyman dates back to when Ray moved to Oregon to accept a teaching position as a professor of Psychology at the University of Oregon. Jerry's friend, Martin Gardner, suggested Jerry contact Ray; the two conjurors hit it off and have been friends and colleagues ever since.

Ray is extremely well known in the skeptic community; he is one of the founding members of CSICOP and is a noted critic and investigator of paranormal claims. He also shares similar interests and skills in prestidigitation as Jerry, although Ray is quick to defer to Jerry's talents in performing close-up magic.

I spent an hour with Ray talking about Jerry; investigations he and Jerry had done together, about Jerry's skill at sleight of hand and about Jerry's unwavering adherence to honesty. Clearly Ray has a deep affection and appreciation of Jerry's contribution to rationality, critical thinking and creativity.

An accomplished magician and published scientist, Ray Hyman, the world-recognized expert in the skill of “cold reading” would himself be a fascinating topic for his own documentary. Perhaps in the near future… We expect to hear more from Ray when we travel to Randi's Amazing Meeting 2007 in January.

Monday, September 11th – While most of the country (presumably) paused to recall America's most recent "day of Infamy", our crew was in Portland filming an interview with Dr. Michael Shermer about his association with Jerry. Shermer was in Portland for a book signing at Powell's bookstore for his latest book, "Why Darwin Matters". Dr. Shermer graciously took some time away from his busy west coast publicity tour to share some of his thoughts about Jerry

Dr. Shermer, founder of the Skeptics Society and Skeptic Magazine, author and regular contributor to Scientific American magazine, is a veteran of numerous television, film and public appearances. He frequently invites Jerry to bring his illusions to the Skeptic Society's conferences held each year at Cal Tech University. Shermer spoke admiringly of Jerry's contributions to skepticism and critical thinking and about how Jerry employs his unique optical illusions to demonstrate how easily the mind errors in its perception of reality. I asked Dr. Shermer if there was an evolutionary basis for why the brain operates on "automatic pilot", as Jerry describes it. Shermer's insightful answers to these and other questions will become an integral part of the finished documentary.

We want to particularly thank the kind folks at the Hotel Vintage Plaza in downtown Portland for providing us temporary use of a suite (for FREE) to film our interview with Dr. Shermer. Also, we are grateful to Powell's Bookstore for allowing us to film Shermer's presentation and book signing. From other books of Shermer’s I have read (Why People Believe Weird Things) I expect the same well conceived and argued discussion of the fallacies of Intelligent Design. Get the book!

The Skeptic’s Toolbox, held annually in August in Eugene, OR, attracts people from all walks of life interested in promoting science and critical thinking. Sponsored by the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), retired Oregon State University professor, Dr. Ray Hyman gathers experts in the fields of psychology, medicine and neuroscience to conduct hands-on workshops designed to hone the participant’s debunking skills.

Jerry is listed among the faculty of noted presenters and brings his latest illusions with him to the event every year. We managed to corner Dr. Loren Pankratz, psychologist and clinical professor, Oregon Health Sciences University for an in-depth interview about Jerry’s amazing proclivity for discovering and building unique optical illusions.

We only had one day available for filming at the Toolbox, however we made several new contacts to pursue for possible future interview subjects. Dr. Pankratz was extremely enthusiastic about participating more in the documentary.

Each year mid July, the City of Corvallis, Oregon, hosts it’s annual da Vinci Days; a festival celebrating science, technology and the arts. Prominent local employers, Oregon State University, Hewlett-Packard and other local high-tech and engineering firms, team up to create a fun and educational festival in the city parks and adjoining OSU campus. Good music, food and entertainment abound.

Oregonains for Rationality is one of many exhibitors which provide entertianing and thought-provoking puzzles and games for fair goers. Jerry’s optical illusions, and his brother George’s “soap bubble art”, are always big croud pleasers. We filmed George and Jerry demonstrating their art and illusions to excited kids of all ages… even the adult kind! Jerry manages to bring a few new creations each year. We got great footage of kids and parents astonished over the “Space Warper” and other amazing effects.

The Magic Castle in Hollywood, California is Mecca to the world's most famous magicians. This exclusive members-only club has hosted the biggest names in performers of this mystical art form. Jerry Andrus has been a member and performer at the Magic Castle for over thirty years. In June we were granted the special privilege to film Jerry as he performed his unique skills in the Castle's "Close-up" magic gallery.

Indeed it was truly a privilege as cameras are rarely allowed in the Castle other than when it has served as the backdrop for mainstream Hollywood motion picture companies. However, as a favor to Jerry, we were granted special access and treated as honored guests.
We filmed several of Jerry's performances during our two days in Hollywood. We were introduced to magician and Castle historian, Jim Patton whom we interviewed at length about the early beginnings of the Magic Castle and about Jerry's standing among the classical magicians.

We flew back from Burbank with some great footage of Jerry's act, interesting shots of the Magic Castle and some wonderful interview and still images for the web site and documentary. Our special thanks to the management and staff of the Magic Castle for allowing us the rare opportunity to peek "behind the black velvet curtain".