Thomas Rochford Auburn was born on the seventh hour, of the seventh day, of the seventh month in the year 1917. Auburn always believed that seven was a mystical number and that his luck of sevens would follow him throughout his life. It was a life with dire beginnings, for a two-months old he lost his father, a machinist, to the flu epidemic, and by age three, he was sent to live with his aunt Beatrice and his uncle at 994 Ethel Street in Verdun, Quebec. 

In 1929, while attending St. Willibrord’s School in Châteauguay, he contracted Scarlet Fever that forced him into quarantine. The boy’s sadness soon faded when a cousin presented him with a 25-cent magic book called Howard Thurston’s Card Tricks as a get-well gift. He was later given another called Dunninger’s Popular Magic. With only two books for company, he studied them from cover to cover and practiced his skills in magic.

At thirteen, Auburn began to showcase his talents at school events, parties, and the many social clubs of those times. At fifteen, he performed his first paid show for Shell Oil in Montreal’s East end. An hour of magic cost him an extra quarter in tramway fare to carry his equipment with him, and made him his first five dollars.

In August 1932, Auburn attended his first magic show at the Loews Theatre, witnessing the exquisite slight-of-hand illusions of the great Cardini himself. From that night on, he rarely missed another performance of his personal heroes: Dante, Blackstone Sr., Howard Thurston, and of course Cardini.

In 1935, Tom moved back in with his mother in N.D.G. where he obtained his high school diploma in 1936. During this time he began mastering the tricks of his idols, and adding them into his act.

In 1940, with Canadians fully entrenched in WWII, Auburn joined other performers in the YMCA-TNT Review, entertaining over 100,000 servicemen over 85 shows. During this time, he worked as a correspondent for Dominion Oxygen to fund his voluntary military shows. He was honored by Canada’s Defence Minister James Ralston for his patriotic service.

Tom then got his first big break, filling in for another magician for a run of shows at the Tic Toc Club on 1258 Stanley Street. After his club run, he dedicated himself to Canada’s war effort, and in November of 1941 he joined the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps. No. 4, the Military Caravan Show. He gave over 1,500 performances to our troops before getting medically discharged with honors in March 1945.

A young librarian named Dolores Arlene Edwards became his wife. They married on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 1942. Together they performed their own off-stage tricks, and soon welcomed the arrival of their daughter Darlene Pamela and their son Byron Thomas.

Returning to civilian life, Auburn risked it all to become a performing master magician. Leaving his lucrative job at Dominion Oxygen, he collected his savings and went off to the Big Apple. He screen-tested for romantic roles for major Hollywood studios and built a professional magician’s portfolio, often modeling for magazines as the dashing man of magic. After awhile he returned to Montreal and became a booking agent for May Johnson and Associates, a talent agency located in the Mount Royal Hotel (closed in November 1984).

In 1951, Tom Auburn met Tommy Tomasso. The later was an accomplished musician playing with many bands in New York and London. He had hung up his trumpet in 1934 to join his mother in opening Montreal’s famous Piazza Tomasso restaurant on Decarie Boulevard. Auburn performed weekly at the restaurant for over 26 years, with only his summers off. His shows ended in 1977, and the landmark eatery disappeared in the mid-1980s.

On January 20, 1961, CFCF-12 premiered as Montreal’s first commercial television station. Surprise Party with Magic Tom was on their weekday schedule. In July 1963, The Magic Tom Road Show taped segments were added, Auburn visiting local family attractions. By 1965, Surprise Party’s popularity had skyrocketed, reaching 70,000 viewers and receiving over 1,200 fan letters per month, and now airing six days a week, Sunday to Friday. In November 1966, the show was finally renamed Magic Tom. It became the number one kids’ program on CFCF-12 for another eight years receiving as many as 30,000 fan letters a year. Tom did his last TV show for CFCF on September 6, 1975.

From 1975 to 1976, he made a foray into French-language television by joining the colorful characters of the children's series Patofville on CFTM-10, where he enjoyed immense success. Subsequently, he was a regular guest on the show Les Nouveaux Tannants.

Perhaps because of his own childhood illness, Tom had always supported local charities and volunteer groups helping sick children. Throughout his career, he had formed close ties with the Montreal Children’s and the Shriner’s hospitals by regularly visiting their wards and by honoring a child’s last wish to meet Magic Tom.

Tom Auburn died on January 3, 1990 at the age of 72. He now rests with his wife Dolores at the St. Lawrence Valley Cemetery in Ingleside, Ontario.