 Selected International Articles on the Great P.C.
Sorcar (1913-1971)
P.C. SORCAR: OUR ROTARY CLUB MEMBER
by Mihir Roy, Past President, South West Calcutta Rotary
Club, Calcutta, West BengalIndia India's Ambassador of
Magic, Protul Chandra Sorcar, more popularly known as the Great
P.C. Sorcar, TW's GM (The World's Greatest Magician) was then
a name already well-known to us all, as he was touring
throughout the world with his inimitable Magic Show IND-DRA-JAL.
He was earning fresh laurels for our Motherland by breaking
theatre attendance and box office records throughout the
world and above all by earning valuable foreign exchange for our
country. A man of erudition, amiable nature and pleasing
personality he was giving talks in the Rotary Clubs, Lions Clubs
and various travel clubs all over the world.
I
happened to be present during one such talk on 'Magic in Many
Lands' in the Rotary Club of Calcutta in the Grand Hotel and
once again at the South West Calcutta Rotary Club in
Kidderpore and the idea flashed in my mind that he should
himself be a Member of our Rotary Club. A man of resource,
integrity, having a name well-known everywhere and having his
business allover the world specially as a Top man in his
Vocation or profession, he should have no difficulty in
joining any Rotary Club. Within a few months we found him as an
Active Member of the South West Calcutta Rotary Club under
the Classification "Recreation; Magic ... Entertaining". His
most familiar picture with feathered turban was seen in the
Roaster of the club as P. C. Sorcar ... "the World's Greatest
Magician". At that time Rotarian Nitish Chandra Laharry amongst
many other veteran Rotarians of Calcutta highly complimented
us on having this fabulous SORCAR as a Member of the Rotary,
as he will inevitable prove to be an asset of our world-wide
organisation. Next, when I was the president of the South
West Calcutta Totary Club, we were glad to appoint him as the
Chairman of International Contacts Committee, which post he
serve most creditably.
 Sorcar took great interest in our
organisation. He regularly attended our weekly meetings and
tried to keep up his hundred per cent attendance records as
far as possible by attending the Rotary Club meetings in the
different countries on tour. As we go through our Minute Books
we find that he has toured Middle East, East Africa, Europe,
America and Japan after he joined Rotary and he has attended
Rotary Club meetings in each and every country he has visited.
He received Rotary Club banners from all parts of the world
and later presented them to his home club in Calcutta by dozens
to the utter delight and amazement of his fellow members. Our
meeting room is now full of the colorful Rotary banners that
he has brought from all over the world. He has presented us
Rotary Club banners from Chicago, New York, Las Vegas, Paris,
London, Hong Kong, Tehran, Nairobi, Mombassa, Kampala Dar-es-Salam
etc. and even from the Rotary Club of NEW YORK WORLD's FAIR
1964. He has brought Rotary banners from Japan by dozens
including the ones from Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Sorcar became
the Guest Speaker in the Rotary Clubs in all the five
continents. In India we heard him speaking amongst others in
the Rotary Clubs of Calcutta, South West Calcutta, Burdwan,
Barrackpore, Budge Budge, Behala, Garden Reach, Amravati,
Bombay and many others. Sorcar failed to give talkand bring
Rotary Club banners from only one country, through he stayed
there for more than one month with his Magic Show, on State
invitation in a Cultural Exchange Programme. It was the Soviet
Union which he visited in November and December 1962. On enquiry
the answer he gave was quite simple. There is NO Rotary Club
in the Communist countries.
 Sorcar is noted for his
persuasive talks and ready wit. In this connection one can
easily refer to the incident at the Rotary Club of Chicago.
After attending the World Magic Congress session (July 6-9,
1960) Boston, U.S.A. as the Chief Guest and Judge, Sorcar went
to Chicago and attended the Rotary Club of Chicago in the
following week. The election fever was already there and the
Rotary Club of Chicago was playing host to the entire
Republican National Committee who assembled at Chicago in
connection with the choosing of their nominee for the United
States Presidency. Mr. Sorcar, himself a Rotarian, was
watching the deliberations when the meeting requested him to
perform his most favourite trick. the request took Rtn.
Sorcar unawares. But then he smiled significantly at the array
of Republican party leaders and said that it was hardly an
ideal place to play his favourite trick because in the first
place he had arrived there fresh from Boston and secondly
because his most favourite trick was the 'Vanishing
Elephant'. That remark brought the house down. It was greeted
with no less a thunderous applause that any of his remarkable
feats of magic would fetch. It may be noted that the Elephant
in America politics traditionally means the Republican party.
And Boston is the home town of Kennedy, the Presidential
nominee of the rival Democratic party. The Republicans, of
course, enjoyed the joke instead of enjoying the Vanishing
Elephant trick. The idea of their being vanished, or even
vanquished, was hardly enjoyable anyway, specially when 'a guy
from Boston' plays the trick. In the past eight years (he
became Rotary member on 13th November 1958) Sorcar has served
our Rotary Club in various capacities. Last year he was our
Director, International Committee, and member, Rotary
Foundation Committee, in the current year he is the Chairman,
Membership Committee of the Rotary Club of South West
Calcutta.
The Rotarian, magazine of the Rotary
International, published from Evanston, USA, in its issue of May
1963, page 47 published an excellent illustrated article about
Rtn. Sorcar under the heading "MAGIC MAKER". "There are
tricks to all trades, but my trade is all tricks", says Sorcar.
Working on the ideathat it is possible to fool all of the
people all of the time Sorcar successfully presents his magic
all over the world. So trickery must not only be done, but
must be seen to be done some times. Sorcar's programme of
'Magic' leaves the impression that what seemed illusion might
have been fact; that one would like to see it all done again.
As a brilliant showman, he knows how to conjure up all the
thrilling mystery of the unfathomable East; and as an
entertainer, he is making money at it. As a brother Rotarian,
we are proud of Padmashri P. C. Sorcar, a most enthusiastic
member of our Rotary Club.
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