As a kid, one of my favorite magicians was a gent named Don Alan (1926-1999), who was one of the first sleight-of-hand guys to work regularly on television. His tricks weren't all that remarkable but he always "sold" them so well with smooth 'n' funny patter. An awful lot of kids took up magic because of Don Alan and a fair percentage of them took up his routines, often verbatim. I worked with him on a show in the early eighties and it was a joy to watch how well he did what he did. Here he is on some show around 1960, leading off with one of his signature feats…