Magic Castle’s Milt Larsen Has Died

Milt Larsen, who cofounded The Magic Castle in Hollywood and lived in Santa Barbara for many years, died of natural causes over the weekend in Los Angeles. He was 92. 

Considered one of the most influential people in the history of magic, Larsen turned a mansion in the heart of Hollywood into a global center for illusion and trickery in 1963, when he created The Magic Castle with his brother, Bill Larsen. They’d grown up traveling as a family magic revue with their parents during the 1930s, and used their expertise and connections to develop a members-only venue that hosted multiple magic shows most days of the week. The castle is home to the 5,000-member Academy of Magical Arts, which their father founded in 1953. 

“Every year of my life, I’ve been surrounded by magicians,” he told me in 2013 during an interview at his TV Hill home overlooking the Santa Barbara Harbor for this article about his life and legacy. “All of my dad’s friends were magicians, and some of the most famous magicians would come to our house and mingle.”

The brothers never expected the venue to become as famous as it is today. “It was all built on the love of magic,” said Larsen in 2013. “We never went into it as a profit-making thing.”

In addition to residing atop TV Hill, Larsen co-created the touring production “It’s Magic!,” which performed annually at the Lobero Theatre. In 2016, Larsen purchased a large property on Los Patos Way between the Andree Clark Bird Refuge and Montecito that was formerly home to Café del Sol. In 2019, Larsen and his wife, Arlene Larsen, celebrated the opening of The Magic Castle Cabaret, a smaller version of the Hollywood headquarters, although permitting issues and pandemic closures never allowed the venue to truly soar. They had a closing sale in 2022. 

He is survived by his wife, Arlene; nephew Dante Larsen; niece Erika Larsen; and great-nieces Jessica Hopkins and Liberty Larsen.