During his life he wrote or edited 23 books, had 10 of his own TV specials (including the first on prime time network TV in the US), created two full-evening Broadway magic shows, 1 Off Broadway spectacular, starred at Madison Square Garden's "Magicworld" and performed in 72 countries.

Christopher is the first magician to have appeared in the Lincoln Center Great Performers Series at Alice Tully Hall. On the 50th anniversary of Houdini's death (Halloween, 1926) Christopher recreated the lecture tour Houdini was presenting at the end of his life. Tickets sold out weeks in advance and led to festival performances worldwide.

Born in Baltimore, he grew up with the passion of a compulsive writer, and produced over 10,000 articles for nearly every magic magazine published between 1936 and 1984, and prestigious newspapers such as The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times, The Baltimore Sun and Baltimore News American. In 1980, the editor of Museum Magazine wrote of the contributing writer-magician, "A master showman, there is something of a latent power, like a compression of nuclear energy in his lifestream."

He teamed at age 12 with another boy magician in an act that was heralded as "Phil and Mil Will Fill the Bill." Christopher first came to national attention when he produced a rabbit for Mrs. Roosevelt and the grandchildren during Easter Monday lawn festivities at the White House in 1935. Newsreel coverage of the magician's performance brought his first European tour where he performed at the La Scala Theater in Paris, the Wintergarden in Berlin and the Palladium in London.

With a deft wit and movie star looks, he entertained nightclub and vaudeville audiences with his novelty rope act and witnessed the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Later he served in WW II, giving over 1000 shows for war time troops on tanks and flatbed trucks, and at the final link-up of Allied Forces in Germany.

Christopher's trademark was a blast of fire from his hands at the most unexpected times. His dramatic feats included vanishing an elephant, and in 1957 he stunned 33 million live TV viewers by catching, in his teeth, a marked bullet fired from a high powered rifle. He repeated this daring act in England and achieved front-page newspaper coverage along with the visiting Russian Premier. In Havana he predicted the winner of the national lottery at the presidential palace. After Christopher's show, the Chief of Police said, "I shall name my next child Christopher." When FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover witnessed Christopher's conjuring in a Baltimore club he commented, "I don't know whether to take you into custody or put you on the payroll."

He was elected to the Magic Hall of Fame in 1972 and was also the national president of the Society of American Magicians, and President of the Parent Assembly No. 1, a post Houdini once held. He was an honorary member of magic societies throughout the world. Once called "The Marco Polo of Magic" he actually performed from Baltimore to Bangkok and back.

Milbourne Christopher performed with a nod to his very educated stance on the history of magic. A trend-setting historian, he collected the artifacts of magic's past and shared his treasures with a worldwide audience. His biography of Houdini is still the standard reference on the great escapologist.

His fabulous collection of magicana, including the rarest of prints, playbills and posters from the Renaissance to the present has been the subject of two record- setting auctions in 1981 and 1997. The Milbourne Christopher Foundation continues the work of this remarkable man who, when lauded by a reporter as the next Houdini, Christopher, age 21, replied, "No. I am the first Christopher."