Billie Walter

The first job that I got when I arrived in Los Angeles was at the Pink Pussycat.  It was not your run-of-the-mill strip club but a “Gypsy Rose Lee” type of Burlesque Club.  No, I wasn’t a stripper, I was a Pussycat.  (cocktail waitress)  We wore costumes similar to that of the Playboy Bunny costume except instead of wearing bunny ears and tails we wore pussycat ears and tails.

In between the girls acts they would usually have a magician or a comedian who would keep the crowds entertained.  This is where I first met Al Houvine, the magician.

Al Houvine & Billie

I had never seen a professional magician before and I thought he was amazing.  I watched him perform night after night until he asked me out on a date.  After that night he would spend hours in the kitchen showing me magic tricks.  Even after he explained how the tricks were being done, I still had trouble seeing him pull the trick off.  He was good, not only at a distance with the big tricks but also with sleight-of-hand tricks.

Al had a couple of magic shows scheduled at the World Famous Magic Castle when his assistant up and quit.  I was thrilled when he asked me to be his assistant.  We worked hard for two weeks perfecting the routine.  Most of what I did was stand there and look pretty with the exception of the box in the above picture.  In this trick he would place two doves inside the box.  He would wave a magic wand over the box and then piece by piece he would tear the box apart and sling each piece unto my arm and the doves would magically disappear.

No, this story does not have a bad ending.  Everything went as planned and we were a success.  Unfortunately this career was not a long one.  Al returned to his home back east and I got another job.  It was a wonderful, fun experience and I had a great time.