In Remembrance Montecito’s Magic Man Passes On

By Jim Buckley

As MJ reported last week, Milt Larsen passed away on Sunday, May 28, after what had been a whirlwind week for the 92-year-old founder of Hollywood’s Magic Castle. The Sunday before he died, Milt and his wife, Arlene, attended a production of their longtime touring production, “It’s Magic!” in Cerritos, California. They watched the entire show before heading back to their place on the Mesa in Santa Barbara, where they had lived for the past 18 years.

Before that, Milt and Arlene had spent 16 years of their charmed life in a ramshackle but cozy cottage at the end of Eucalyptus Lane in Montecito. The three-quarter-acre property boasted 200 feet of oceanfront shoreline and could justly be described as “magical,” as indeed their lives had been.

On Monday, May 22, Milt was in Hollywood, dealing with a problem with the elevator at the Magic Castle. On Thursday, May 25, he was honored at the annual Academy of Magical Arts awards show in Hollywood where he received a nearly fiveminute-long standing ovation. He was recipient of a Golden Hammer for the many wonderful things he’d built during his career. Friday, May 26, it was lunch at the Magic Castle with friends, acquaintances, and business partners.

Sunday, May 28, was a day of rest. Arlene talked with Milt two or three times a day – she in Santa Barbara and he in Los Angeles. During their last conversation, she sensed he was tired so suggested he “put your feet up and relax. I’ll talk to you tomorrow…”

“And that was it,” she recounts. “He went to bed.”

Arlene learned of Milt’s passing at noon the next day and by 5 pm had a press release drawn up and delivered to their friends, relatives, and the press.

That’s the way I want to go,” she says, “partying up to the last moment.” She mused that “he loved his martinis and old-fashioneds,” and was pleased to note that he “did everything he wanted to do before he left.”

Arlene is 15 years younger than Milt, and they had planned his early departure well ahead of time, so she – and he – were prepared. The couple spent 54 years together, beginning in 1969, when she signed on to work as a costume designer for the hit TV

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