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Sydney Piddington

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Sydney Piddington
BornSydney George Piddington
May 14, 1918
Randwick, Sydney, Australia
DiedJanuary 29, 1991 (age 72)
Katoomba, New South Wales, Australia

Sydney Piddington (1918-1991) performed with his wife Lesley (b.1925) as the mentalism team called The Piddingtons.

Sydney Piddington was born in Australia. He began his career in magic in 1935 when, as a teenager, he joined the Independent Magical Performers of Sydney becoming their youngest member. Despite suffering from a severe stutter, he performed various shows for this club.[1]

Biography

During World War II he served in an artillery regiment, but was captured and imprisoned for four years. As an escape from the harsh treatment, the prisoners staged theatrical entertainments. An article by Dr. J. B. Rhine on parapsychology in a stray copy of Digest magazine gave Piddington the idea to entertain with a telepathy act with Russell Braddon (who would later write a book).

After the war, Piddington returned to Australia where he met and married a radio-actress named Lesley Pope. They put together a telepathy act based on Sydney's experience, and The Piddingtons became a successful in Sydney and Melbourne on radio and with live stage shows.

In 1949 they went to England, where they became a success on BBC radio programs.

After their final radio show on Friday, June 13, 1952, they quit to return to Australia and raise a family. However, they ultimately separated and divorce in 1954.


Sydney worked various jobs including as a senior sales management positions with various firms including Reader's Digest, until in 1975 with his second wife, Robyn, he was asked to take part in a charity show at the Sydney Opera House. As the new Piddingtons, they once again stunned audiences. They purchased Megalong Manor in Leura just outside of Sydney, converting it into a tourist hotel which became the center of their life except for an occasional ESP show.

After fighting a painful cancer for months, Sydney died in 1991.[2]

Books

  • The Piddington Plan (1980)

References

  1. http://www.questia.com/library/1G1-185567958/masters-of-the-mind-lesley-piddington-right-communes
  2. The Piddingtons:You are the Judge by Barry Wiley, Genii 2005 August, page 84
  • Goodliffe's Abracadabra, Vol. 8, No. 186, August 1949, Hands off The Piddingtons, by George Blake, page 54
  • The Linking Ring, Vol. 29, No. 9, November 1949, Britain Raves Over The Piddingtons, by Frances Ireland, page 46
  • The Magic Circular, Vol. 81, No. 881, December 1987, The Piddingtons, by Fergus Anckorn, page 243
  • The Linking Ring, Vol. 78, No. 12, December 1988, You Are the Judge - The Piddingtons!, by Barry H. Wiley, page 58
  • The Magic Circular, Vol. 83, No. 894, April 1989, The Piddingtons: A Preliminary Bibliography, by Barry H. Wiley, page 70
  • The Magic Circular, Vol. 85, No. 915, May 1991, Death of Sidney Piddington, page 76
  • The Magic Circular, Vol. 87, No. 935, May 1993, The writing of "The Piddingtons", by Barry H. Wiley, page 72
  • Genii Magazine, Vol. 68, No. 8, August 2005, "I never knew a so-called ‘Mechanical’ Mind-Reading Act that didn't wind up doing genuine mental telepathy before they were through" - Joseph Dunninger - Detroit Free-Press. 1943, page 85
  • http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/piddington-sydney-george-15219 Piddington, Sydney George (1918–1991), by Nigel Starck
  • http://www.thetreeofus.net/5/132748.htm
  • http://www.thepiddingtons.com/gallery.html Photo Gallery “The Piddingtons”