"CANADA’S OLDEST MAGIC SHOP – The Browsers Den has been selling magic in Toronto Canada since 1975, serving amateurs, professionals, semi-pros, and hobbyists both young and old.
SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE – As well as magic tricks, books and videos we also carry a full line of juggling equipment, clown supplies, ventriloquist dolls, and jokes.
A SHORT HISTORY OF
‘BROWSER’S DEN OF MAGIC’
Established in 1975
In 1975 Len and Bernice Cooper moved from New York to Toronto and opened up ‘Browser’s Den’ at 200 Bloor Street West.
Initially the shop was not exclusively magic. It offered its customer’s records, books, souvenirs and only one corner of the shop stocked ‘magic tricks and supplies’. Over the next few years all the non-magic related merchandise was gone and the shop was completely converted to offering magic, juggling, jokes and ventriloquist dolls. At that time the name of the shop was changed to ‘Browser’s Den of Magic’.
Len Cooper met his beloved Bernice during a summer vacation at the Catskills. At the Catskills Len was performing in the hotels his comedy magic act. Bernice was vacationing with a friend. Len was from Brooklyn, New York; Bernice from Toronto, Canada.
And within a couple of years Len and Bernice were married and living in New York and started their family.
Len found his income as a professional magician to be unstable. And with three young children to take care of he decided to leave the magic profession and open up a record shop. Besides magic, music was one of Len’s other passions.
He and Bernice owned and operated a record shop in Port Chester, New York for twenty years while their children grew into young adults. Eventually, their record business started to fall on hard times and was closed.
One evening Len was watching the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. He heard Ed McMahon announce that Albert Goshman was to be one of the guests on that night’s show.
As a youth Len had belonged to a magic club in which Albert Goshman was a member. At the time Goshman was no better a magician than any of the other youngsters. But over the years Goshman had become one of the premier close-up magicians in the world.
Len watched his childhood friend put on a sterling performance that night on the Tonight Show and it got Len thinking about magic again.
New York already had a few popular magic shops and so Len and Bernice decided to move to Toronto with their children and open up ‘Browser’s Den’.
They operated the shop for twenty years. And in 1995 sold the shop to Jeff Pinsky.
Jeff ultimately found out about ‘Browser’s Den’ during 1975 and magic became one of his great interests along with chess and tennis.
In 1989 Jeff started selling magic when he opened a small magic shop at ‘Canada’s Wonderland’. He operated the shop for 14 seasons.
For twenty-six years (1985 until 2011) ‘Browser’s Den of Magic’ was located at Bathurst and Eglinton.
Since first opening its doors ‘Browser’s Den’ has served thousands of magic enthusiasts both professional and hobbyist, young and old.
Some of the more famous people and magicians to pass through its doors or give lectures include in no particular order: STEVE MARTIN, DOUG HENNING, DAVID COPPERFIELD, HARRY ANDERSON, JOHN CARNEY, JAMY IAN SWISS, PATRICK WATSON, STUART MCLEAN, EUGENE BURGER, RANDI, TOM RANSOM, GREG FREWIN, RICHARD KAUFMAN, ROBETO GIOBBI, MICHAEL AMMAR, THE BUCK TWINS, LEE ASHER, AARON FISHER, ASI WIND, JOAN CAESAR, BILL ABBOTT, DANIEL GARCIA, GREGORY WILSON, GEORGE SCHINDLER, ALBERT GOSHMAN, DAN HARLAN, BOB KING, GARRETT THOMAS, SHOOT OGAWA, ALLAN ACKERMAN, DAVID ROTH, DARWIN ORTIZ, DAVID BEN, OSCAR MUNOZ, GARY KURTZ, RICHARD LYN, SID LORRAINE, MIKE SEGAL, ALLAN SLAIGHT, BOB FARMER, MICHAEL DOUGLAS, JOHNNY THOMPSON, JAY SANKEY, RICHARD SANDERS, DAVID ACER, ERIC MEAD, MAX MAVEN, JOHNNY ACE PALMER, RON LEONARD, CHRIS CAPEHART, MICHAEL CLOSE, VANNI BOSI, NATE KRANZO, KAONA HARBOTTLE, DOC EASON, STEVE VALENTINE.
Presently there are two other people that are key to the success of the shop. They are Shawna Ross-York who has been employed at the shop since March 2002 whose primary focus is the upkeep of the products on our website. And, Lisa Close whose invaluable work includes the design of our website and overall function." (
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