Renowned magic store owner and Shocker basketball great Joe Stevens dies at 86

In the final days of 1943 and the first week of 1944, famed magician Harry Blackstone Sr., also known as “The Great Blackstone,” brought his stage act to Wichita’s Orpheum Theatre.

In the audience for one of those shows sat 7-year-old Joe Stevens. The young boy was mesmerized as Blackstone, the premier illusionist in America at the time, sawed one of his assistant in half and later levitated another off of a couch. During the finale of Blackstone’s matinee act, some children from the audience were brought up on stage. According to his son Mark, young Joe Stevens went home that day with a live rabbit and a love for magic and illusion that lasted the entirety of his life.

“That was absolutely without a doubt the catalyst that set him off on what turned out to be a lifelong pursuit,” Mark Stevens said.

Joe Stevens, the longtime owner of Stevens Magic Emporium in Wichita, died Sunday at age 86, two days after suffering a heart attack.

Joe Stevens was born in Wichita on April 26, 1936, and attended school in Wichita, including Marshall Middle School and North High.

While at North, Stevens became a star on the basketball court. He was recruited by Kansas State and Wichita State, ultimately deciding to continue his education and athletic pursuits for the hometown Shockers.

‘Little Joe’ became a star on the basketball team.

Playing under legendary coach Ralph Miller, Stevens earned All Missouri Valley Conference honors three times as a Shocker, including first team in 1957. By the time his playing career was over, he was Wichita State’s second all-time leading scorer, behind only Cleo Littleton. He was inducted into the Shocker Sports Hall of Fame in 2014.

Mark Stevens said that his father would often take the opportunity while on road trips with the Shockers to look through the phone books in towns the team was playing in to see if the town had a magic shop. He continued to collect what the magic industry refers to as apparatus — items with which to perform magic tricks — throughout his college playing days.

According to Mark Stevens, after Joe’s college playing career was over he was offered an opportunity to be drafted by the Minneapolis Lakers of the NBA. But Joe Stevens had recently become a new father, and the pay for a professional basketball player at the time wasn’t great. He opted to stay home and forge a life in Wichita.

Stevens soon became a door-to-door salesman for the Fuller Brush Co. According to Mark Stevens, his father was a highly successful as a salesman due to his renown as Shocker basketball player ‘Little Joe’ Stevens. He eventually moved into management with the company.

But the lure of magic and illusion never left Stevens. He started Stevens Magic Emporium In 1973. Two years later he created The Wichita Conclave, a magic convention that grew quickly in popularity and saw the likes of magicians such as David Copperfield, then in his early 20’s, in attendance. So popular was The Wichita Conclave, it was moved to Las Vegas in 1978 and renamed the Desert Magic Seminar. It was the top magic convention in the United States for the next 20 years.

Meanwhile, Steven’s Magic Emporium on East Douglas became one of the premier magic stores in the United States.

“The key to it was exclusive merchandise,” Mark Stevens said.

“He (Joe) realized at a very early stage ‘I have to be different,’ and he traveled the world to procure these articles of apparatus. In France, in Germany, in Italy. He separated himself with high-end, exclusive products — and that’s how he got his reputation.”

On Monday morning, things were quiet in Stevens Magic Emporium, but the legacy of Joe Stevens was loud and clear all over the store.

Photos of Stevens with every notable magician of the past several decades adorn the walls. Famed magicians of the mid-20th century such as Dai Vernon and Tony Slydini. Joe and his wife, Martha, in a photo flanked by famed Vegas magicians Siegfried & Roy. Dozen of other photos of lesser-known magicians also hang on the wall with messages scribbled on them thanking Joe for all he’d done to help their careers.

“He had the biggest names in magic,” said store employee James Higgs.

Higgs pointed to one photo on the wall and said “There’s him at a table with David Copperfield.”

Higgs went on to tell the story of how Joe Stevens changed his own life much like ‘The Great Blackstone’ impacted Stevens back in 1944.

“I came in here when I was 10 years old and Joe was the first person who showed me magic,” Higgs said.

“Blew my mind away and I’ve been hooked ever since.”

Mark Stevens, who runs the day-to-day operation of Stevens Magic Emporium these days, tried to sum up his father’s legacy.

“His belief was that the ultimate definition of success is making other people successful.”

David Copperfield, an attendee of Joe Stevens’ early magic conventions in Wichita, was described by Forbes magazine as the most commercially successful magician in history.

On Monday, Mark Stevens phone buzzed with a text message from Copperfield. A response to a message from Mark announcing the news of his father’s death. Two emojis. First, two hands clasped together in a gesture of thanks. The second: A heart.

Joe is survived by his children, Amy Jo Stevens and Mark Stevens; sisters Sandi Barrese and Judy Sayfie; and numerous nieces, nephews and cousins.

Visitation is Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. at Culbertson Smith Mortuary, 115 S. Seneca. The funeral will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Friday at St. Mary Orthodox Christian Church, 344 S. Martinson.