I just heard yesterday (March 1) about Doug's passing, and am deeply saddened. He was a major influence on my magical development, since I saw "The Magic Show" twice when I was a young boy. A friend of the family was a NYT reporter working on a story about magic, so I even got to go backstage and meet him! He was most friendly and patient, even though I was only a tongue-tied 8-year-old!
I was living overseas through much of the Seventies, so my well-worn copy of "The Magic Show" soundtrack was a constant connection to the world of magic. I was disappointed when he left the world of magic to go with "those TM people," but I have since learned that he was right after all: There is real magic out there that's more magical than anything we can do on stage.
Always doing his own thing, that Doug. I've been sort of "out of the loop" for a couple of years now, but my signed picture of Doug smiling behind a lioness will always remind me of the man who brought magic back into "magic."
PeaceLove Jonathan Steigman