Mort Herold

Mort Herold was a noted memory training educator, accordion virtuoso, and magician. Born in Chicago in 1925, Mort began accordion and magic studies at an early age. His music instructors included Paul Minors and his magic tutor was world famous sleight-of-hand artist Eddie Marlo. During WW2 Mort played accordion in Claude Thornhill’s navy band and entertained troops with magic as well. Later Mort was star of two live music radio programs on WCFL and WLS in Chicago. By the early 1960s Mort opened a school of Music on the south side of Chicago and published two books on learning the accordion for beginners. By this time Mort was already an accomplished student of mnemonics, having studied the art of memorization as an extension of his magic repertoire (several magicians did this, including Harry Lorraine, a long time friend of Mort’s). In the 1970s Mort began to write books on memory improvement and taught seminars in the Chicago area for many years. Throughout his career Mort was an innovator of accordion technology, improving designs of famous brand Giulietti accordions. He was also a pioneer of ‘free bass’ accordion, designing his own keyboards. Mort passed away in 2016, leaving a legacy of accomplishment in music, memory and magic.