Morris Nathan Young
Authors: J. Hopkins Tanne
Journal: BMJ (2002)

Ophthalmologist, magician, collector, and author of books on Houdini, magic, and memory

Magic dominated Morris Young's life from childhood, even influencing his choice of ophthalmology as a medical specialty. At the age of 17 he met the great escapologist Harry Houdini. Morris showed Houdini that he could make his body rigid, balancing his head on one chair and his toes on another. Morris “was interested in self will to control the body,” said his son, Charles, also an ophthalmologist, “which was a lot of what Houdini did through holding his breath and training. He taught me tricks. He entertained my sister and me at the dinner table.

“He was intrigued with optics, how you could trick the eye. If you move your hand fast enough, the eye doesn't see it because it happened so quickly. He wondered how the eye worked, the association between the tricks of vision and the wonderment of vision.”

Among Dr Young's most highly regarded honours was his membership of the Inner Circle of the Magic Circle of London, one of the world's most esteemed groups of magicians. He was also a member of the Consulting Board of the Houdini Historical Society in Appleton, Wisconsin (Houdini's home), and a member of the Society of American Magicians. He was on his way to be guest of honour at a magicians' meeting in Massachusetts when he died suddenly from a ruptured aneurysm.

The son of immigrants from eastern Europe, Morris Young first studied chemistry and chemical engineering and received a bachelor's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He then earned a master's degree in chemistry from Harvard. There were no jobs in the Depression so his parents pressed him to get additional education. His father suggested Morris go down to Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City and get a medical degree. He did, earning an MD and then doing double residencies in the eye, ear, nose, and throat specialty and in ophthalmology.

Dr Young served with the US Army during the second world war in north Africa, Italy, and Marseilles. Because of his expertise, he wired and stabilised the faces of injured soldiers, who were then sent back to the United States for plastic surgery. 

On a two day assignment in Naples, billeted in the Terminus Hotel in a bombed out part of town, he heard Chesley Virginia Barnes playing popular tunes on a piano in the hotel lobby, to entertain 150 or 200 pilots who sat on the floor and sang along before their dangerous missions while the town was under bombardment. She came from a small town in Arkansas and was on loan to the British Army as a cryptographer. After she played “Somebody Stole my Gal,” a friend came up and introduced Dr Young, who said he owned the song. Already a collector, he had bought sheet music and copyrights for some songs. After their brief meeting, he searched but could not find her again.

Chesley, discharged from the army as captain, looked for a job in New York. No one was hiring cryptographers, but she was a doctor's daughter and had helped run her father's office. When she applied for a job in a doctor's office, he said his partner would have to interview her. The partner “glanced at me, took a step backward, and he said, ‘I met you in Naples.’ ” They married and had two children. Her cryptography skills helped them decipher the address of Houdini's house in New York, which apparently means “Uncuff. We Tie Them.” 

Dr Young became head of ophthalmology at Beekman Downtown Hospital (now New York Hospital Downtown) in lower Manhattan. His interests in magic, freemasonry, the military, and mnemonics continued. He published 14 books on Houdini, magic, and memory. Among them are Houdini's Fabulous Magic, Houdini on Magic, Bibliography of Memory, How to Remember Faster and Remember More, and How to Develop an Exceptional Memory.

Dr Young continued collecting and then donating his collections. He and a friend gave 20 000 publications relating to magic and magic apparatus to the Library of Congress in 1955. His interests then turned to publications on mnemonics, which he collected and donated to the University of San Marino. He gave his collection of sheet music to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

“He had a million hobbies through our 54 years of marriage,” said his widow, Chesley. “He wanted to be a schoolboy his whole life.”

He leaves Chesley; two children; and five grandchildren.

Morris Nathan Young, ophthalmologist (b Lawrence, Massachusetts, 1909; q Columbia University, New York), died from a ruptured aneurysm in Norwich, Connecticut, on 13 November 2002.