Huston, Kenneth Roy (1940-2009) and Yuka Darlene (1941 - )

Huston, Kenneth Roy (1940-2009) and Yuka Darlene (1941 - ) Roy was a magician for 50 years and a professional drummer and dancer. His mother, known professionally as Rita Raye, was one of his assistants in his shows. Huston later worked spook shows from coast to coast, combining shows with Bill Neff. Sec 7; Row 21; # 7

ROY HUSTON PHOTO GALLERY
Roy was one of the top spook show performers

We both grew up in Martinsville Indiana, and I knew Roy for a while before we dated. Roy and I always hung out in the same group of friends. This was because we were both in the entertainment field even as teens. Roy was a Ventriloquist when he was 12 and a drummer in the high school band. I was a model. We didn't really fit in with the standard group of people in those days.

One day Roy asked to take me to a Drive-In movie. I was happy he asked and excited to go. When he came by to pick me up, he pulled up in a hearse. I didn't say anything because everyone knew how weird he was. At intermission he said he was going to go to the concessions. I thought he was going to bring back hamburgers. When he said he was going to the concession stand he meant he was going to be on of top the concession stand. There he was standing up there hypnotizing someone with an audience watching him. Roy was going to bury this guy for the weekend and charge a quarter for people to peek in a tube and see how he was doing six feet under. I asked him what happens if he doesn't come out of the hypnotic trance, to which he said not to worry, he has a tape and the voice on the tape will bring him out.

The drive in buried alive stunt made a lot of money for Roy and he did it often at different Drive-In Theatres. One time one of the people that he buried ruptured his appendix while down there, so you never knew what was going to happen.

Roy first worked with the Bill Neff spook show, and learned much from Bill Neff including listing, in order, all the props in every crate and the order to put them in the crate. Neff kept his illusions in top shape and Roy would do the same thing with his illusions for his whole career. Roy was always amazed at how skimpy the assistants outfits would get at the Neff spook shows. The girls wore green netting wardrobe from their necks to their ankles, but only the 'vital' parts were covered up. I know this because I still have the wardrobes here.

When Bill Neff died, his wife asked Roy to pick up the illusions and I am not sure whether he was supposed to take them somewhere or what, but I remember the truck broke down and Roy told the person who was helping him that 'Someday someone is going to write about this and put it in a book' and then he laughed. Sure enough, years later in the Bill Neff book Pleasant Nightmares they did write about it, and Roy just thought that was hilarious. When I left Florida, there were still a few Bill Neff Crates that were stored in a big truck on our property. I had to leave them at our home in Gibsonton as I did not have the room to bring them to Colon after Roy passed. It was Roy's wish to move back to Colon which he loved and referred to as Brigadoon because it magically appeared each year on our summer schedule.

Roy enjoyed working the Neff show as it was quality illusions, and while he enjoyed working the Jack Baker shows he felt that Jack's show was primarily about making money. One of Roy's favorite stories was how Jack would have 7 or 8 shows going at the same time and would ride a bike from show to show.

Roy had hundreds of spook show stories to tell, one of his favorite was about Jack. Jacks wife Marge always wore a mink coat and I don't think I ever saw her without it. At one of their shows they had advertised a gorilla but didn't have a gorilla costume so despite Marge's objections, Jack took Marge's mink fur coat, found an old moose head to use for the gorilla head, and sent the guy out like that.

Another favorite story about Jack Baker was when they needed a flexible wire of sorts for one of their stunts and it was right before showtime. Jack and Roy went into the parking lot, opened a hood on one of the cars, and took the dip stick out of it and used that in the show. Just think, someone in the audience was watching spooks being presented and not realizing it was part of their own car that they were seeing.

Roy worked 7 years with Jack Baker in the fifties. Sometimes at their show they would send these huge glow in the dark bats into the audience and it would look like they were flying over their heads. I still have one, but I am not sure if it still glows in the dark. They used to cut up peeled grapes and hide stuff under the seats. They all had a blast and they all loved it. When Roy had his own spook show, even Roy's mom worked with him on it. She was a real trooper. She was a Professional Vaudeville dancer and owned her own dance studio. Roy was born into showbusiness. What was really the strangest coincidence though was that Roy and his Mom were born at the exact time on the same day. The 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month, twenty years apart.

Roy was the magician for Fright Nights at Universal Studios in Orlando Florida, doing the weekend Halloween shows during October. He did the 'Lightbulbs through Girl', the 'Frame of Life and Death', and the 'Burned Alive Illusion'. For the 'Burned Alive Illusion' he came up with a mixture of sawdust and red dye to enhance the flames and this made the flames look very scary. Once at Universal, after he did the burning the night before, some lady came back before the show the next night and had her daughter with her. The daughter was crying. The mother asked if Roy could bring the assistant out that was used in the 'Burned Alive Illusion' so her daughter could see that she was alright. Roy was happy to oblige and brought out the assistant for the child.

Roy was very audience conscience and loved kids. He would always make time for the children after his shows and would take the time to talk with them. When asked, Roy never turn down doing free shows for kids, especially at Christmas.

Roy's three favorite illusion were the 'Drum Illusion', the 'Sawing Illusion', and the 'Burning Alive Illusion'. Roy would also do the MC bit with effects using the 'Mutilated Parasol' and feather flower 'Botania' effects, but Roy never did the pick a card tricks. In fact, Roy hated the pick a card tricks and would politely walk away when somebody would ask him to pick a card.

One day at the Colon American Legion he met up with a friend who felt the same way about pick a card tricks. The guy told Roy to watch this and motioned to a kid who was showing card tricks to come over to their table. The kid did, and as soon as the kid said 'pick a card', the guys dog bit him! It was a little dog, but Roy just thought that was hilarious. Roy's sense of humor was like mine, a little off key, but he really appreciated the work that went into training that dog to bite anyone who said the three words no one wants to hear; pick - a - card. After that, dogs were not allowed in the American Legion during the Get Together for a while.

Roy used to take illusions into his workshop and redo them for his own style. He redid everything so that it was believable. I remember at that time everyone who did the sawing used dummy feet, Roy did the sawing this way for about two months before he devised a way to do the sawing without dummy feet. Another illusion he modified was the Frame of Life and Death. In that illusion the flesh literally melted off of a persons face and turned into a skull. The illusion required the magician to turn a knob in the back to make the illusion work. Roy never liked that method so he worked out a different way to do the illusion while standing several feet in front of it. Other magicians who saw Roy perform it that way had no idea how Roy did it, and Roy wouldn't tell them either.

Philip Morris came by one day and wanted to take us and another couple out on a boat ride. He showed up to pick us up in an old Cadillac and he was dressed in a chauffeur's outfit. We all went out in the boat and it was pitch black out so we only had one sandwich and one beer each, then went back in. Roy was a drinker, but he was never an alcoholic. He set rules for himself and one of those rules was that he never would drink before a performance.

Phil and others would stop by Roy's workshop often as we had a sort of open door policy with our friends. Whenever his magic friends came by I just got out of the way. Sometimes they would sit out there all-night cutting up jackpots, that was his world, that's the way he was. I knew that when I married him and never tried to change him. He was my True North.

More on Roy Husted, Kenneth "Roy Huston", 68, of Gibsonton, passed away Sunday, June 28, 2009. Roy was born into a family that had played Vaudeville and Night Clubs and was first on the stage at the age of six months. By the time he was ten he had put together his own act and joined the A.G.V.A. and played for the five biggest club date bookers in the Midwest. Roy is shown (in the first picture above) with one of his favorite vent figures, Oscar. He is survived by his loving wife, Yuka; step-sons, Michael Allen, Philip Allen and Marty Allen; step-daughters, Nyoka Castillo, Kathleen Thomas and Bridgett Herbert; 12 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren. Kenneth was a magician for 50 years and a professional drummer and dancer.