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Yellow (or make that Pete, otherwise it sounds like I'm calling you a coward!) ~

So there were initially 5 of these Burmans available? That can only mean one thing: You're going to have to hunt down and rob some Hawaiian! Just make sure you're wearing one of those silicone SPFX masks so popular with bank robbers when you do it.

But seriously...

Since you're planning to put together something on the web documenting the history of the Burman masks, which I'd love to see, maybe we should all don our Sherlock deerstalkers and try to think of ways to gather info. Vayapues mentioned in the post that started this thread that he wrote to Ellis' son Thomas but never heard back. Tom Burman has his own website of course, and it does have a contact phone number and snail mail address. I think it's worth trying again since he's probably the one most likely to fill in some of the blanks. The fact that he's a make-up artist himself increases the odds that he'd understand why someone would be interested in his dad's early masks. Had Tom become, say, a plumber, that might not be the case.

Tom's obviously a busy guy, so I suppose it'd be best to think things through and ask all the pertinent questions in one shot rather than pester him later with additional queries. For me that would include questions that might help pin down the exact year/s the masks were made. The possible existence of the original molds. Whether or not he may have any family photos that feature the masks (He's got to have some). How the Wheeler connection transpired. Were the photos in the Wheeler catalog provided by Ellis or were they snapped by someone at Wheeler's end? If it was the latter, does he happen to know who the photographer was? (It'd be great to get hold of the originals). What the hell was a Roman soldier doing in the Wheeler monster mask catalog? Forget that last one...I'm running on fumes here, but you get my drift. It would also be interesting to know if Tom has any idea who may have been working with Ellis at the time, possibly helping in the detailing of the masks. If any of them were still alive -- or their family members -- you never know what might turn up. Possibly another Burman mask! I'm sure if Tom could answer any of these questions he'd be more than happy to contribute to his dad's legacy.   

Oh, and did anyone ever try contacting Ellis Burman Jr. (aka Sonny) about any of this?

And let's not forget the Wheeler end. If it were possible to locate anyone who used to work in the shop around the time the Burman masks were available they could be a great source of information; maybe they were wearing the masks in the catalog! Something like that is probably better pursued on one of the websites devoted to magic -- such as this site, where someone specifically asks about Wheelers "Hollywood Magic" shop. During the course of the thread someone announces, on October 2009, that the shop had just closed down for good. (It had been open since when? The 1940s? The 1930s?).

I'll make a few scans from that old Wheeler catalog you asked about and post them here. In the meantime, I noticed someone on eBay is selling a 1973 Wheeler catalog here. If you use the "Mouse over image to zoom" feature on the catalog's cover photo you can see what looks like Don Post masks on display in the upper right area.

Incidentally, when I made that PDF of the '63 Wheeler catalog I thought the encoding software made the whites appear too dark, and also the size may have been altered. So shortly afterward I made another using different PDF encoding software that turned out much truer to the original. I never bothered changing the download url for the catalog on this thread, though. Until today, that is. The new url will download the second version. I think Burman would approve.  

Message to Don Glut: The title of this thread carries your name, and now it carries a picture of you wearing Burman's Phantom mask. It's time to return from exile to help piece together the Burman puzzle!