The name on the door of this D.C. institution was Al’s Magic Shop. “People kept coming in, more and more interested in the tricks and jokes,” Mr. Cohen told The Washington Post in 2002. Mr. Cohen sold buzzers, whoopee cushions, fake vomit, Halloween costumes, masks and souvenirs. After studying at the University of Maryland, Mr. Cohen received an accounting degree from the District’s old Benjamin Franklin University in the 1940s. For Mr. Cohen, though, the magic never ended, not even after he moved to Florida in his late 80s.

Source: Washington Post December 18, 2020 02:30 UTC