In a nondescript building on West 34th Street sits Tannen’s Magic Shop. Though not a household name, the store has been serving professional and hobbyist magicians from all over the world for over a century.

Its unassuming location also belies its significance. To get to Tannen’s requires a trip on a cramped elevator to the sixth floor, where a sign points towards a hallway with harsh fluorescent lighting. But at the end of the corridor, a glass door opens into a different world, where illusionist props and shelves filled with card decks, magical instruments, and Houdini memorabilia conjure an atmosphere of history and wonder. 

But Tannen’s is more than a curiosity tucked away in Midtown. In an era where most brick-and-mortar magic stores have vanished — pushed out by soaring rents, online retailers and digital tutorials — Tannen’s has managed to endure.

Its survival is even more striking when set against New York’s broader small-business upheavals. While the city’s small businesses have bounced back from the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced 45% of them to close their doors according to a 2022 NYU Wagner report, the recovery remains fragile. Even as the city counted more than 183,000 small businesses in 2023—slightly above pre-pandemic levels, according to a May 2024 report from the New York City Economic Development Corporation, the constant churn makes long-standing stores rarer than ever. Between March 2023 and March 2024, 66,875 establishments opened and 64,442 closed statewide, revealing that longevity in New York’s small business landscape is the exception, not the rule.

Amid that turnover, only 35 shops in New York City appear on the State Historic Business Preservation Registry, an honorary list recognizing enterprises more than 50 years old — a reminder of just how few last long enough to become institutions.

“Tannen’s endures because of its long-established history in the world of magic…As a 100-year-old business with close to 20 years in our current location, our strong relationships with our customers, suppliers and landlord help ensure our long-term viability,” said Adam Blumenthal, the store’s owner, in an email.

The store, founded in 1925 by Louis Tannen, who started by selling magic props from makeshift stands across the city, soon found a permanent home in the Wurlitzer Building on West 42nd Street in the early 1940s. Moving decades later to its current location in 2004, Tannen’s has continued to evolve alongside magic, adapting from the era of stage illusions to the age of close-up performances popularized by David Blaine and social-media tutorials. 

The lasting success of Tannen’s is even more striking given the fate of its peers. In 1960 the New York yellow pages counted 16 brick-and-mortar magic stores according to George Schindler, the lifetime dean of the Society of American Magicians. By 2012, only two of those stores remained— Fantasma Magic and Tannen’s. Since then, Fantasma was forced to close its storefront on West 35th Street due to the COVID-19 pandemic and now solely operates online, leaving Tannen’s as the only historical magic shop still operating in Manhattan. 

When the pandemic hit, Tannen’s faced the same uncertainty as every other small business. But while others shuttered, the store found ways to keep its doors open. “Our website does very well,” said Lee Barret, an employee, recalling how the store stayed afloat during lockdowns. “It really was just tenacity and being able to adjust.” 

But unlike others, Tannen’s has leaned into what can’t be digitized: experiencing magic firsthand, including having employees who all perform as professional magicians. “Tannen’s is about an experience and living up to that image and the expectations,” said Barret.

Kade Kennedy, who recently visited Tannen’s for the first time, wholeheartedly agreed. “It’s really much more different when you actually experience it,” he said about the store. “I have never seen anything like this.” 

An expert on magic agrees. “The magic shop is the nucleus for discovery, for tutelage and for inspiration,” said Ian Frischer, author of “Magic is Dead: My Journey into the World’s Most Secretive Society of Magicians.”

This commitment to experiencing magic doesn’t stop at Tannen’s doors. Every summer, since 1974, the store organizes a week-long magic camp for aspiring and up-and-coming magicians where they practice the craft, perform on stage, and learn the business side of the industry. Some of the most recognizable names in magic, such as David Blaine and Mat Franco are alumni.

“It was incredible, no hyperbole,” said Reed Nussbaum, an employee and camp alum.  It’s the greatest magicians on the planet dedicating a whole week just to pass on magic to the future.”  

“The camp has been life changing for me,” said Derek Hughes, who attended as a teenager and now teaches at the camp every summer, held at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania.

Noah Levine, a camp alum, performs twice a week at Tannen’s, which hosts shows that are open to the public. He sees the camp as partially responsible for Tannen’s longevity. “I think by association, people have a lot of fondness for the store as well, because there’s that connection,” Levine said.

Amid an industry that’s shrinking, Tannen’s helps magicians build lasting connections, said Barret. “Sometimes they come here because they want to bring their kid to a real magic shop, like their dad brought them,” he said. “People come here because it’s a community. They come here to hang out.”