After overseer Abraham "Abe" Hurwitz died in 1981, the remnants of the club became the Society of Young Magicians, which was started by F.A.M.E alum Dick Brooks.
Most notably, Shari Lewis (daughter of overseer "Abe" Hurwitz) would gain major recognition in the Emmy and Peabody award-winning children's TV series Lamb Chop on PBS; Stan Burns would principally star with Madonna in Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)[2] and in Woody Allen's Radio Days (1987),[2] both as a New York ventriloquist; George Schindler would write for many Billboard magic/comedy columns (1950s-1960s), publish at least 8 magic books, do TV commercial voice acting, star as a magician in Woody Allen's New York Stories (1989)[3] and hold title as spokesman, president and dean of the Society of American Magicians; and Dick Brooks would open the Magic Towne House (now closed) in Manhattan and the Houdini Museum, the Only Building in the World Dedicated to Houdini, in Scranton, Pennsylvania with collaborator Dorothy Dietrich.
Hurwitz was a Yeshiva University education professor who was so reputed in the American magic scene that he was named New York City's "official magician" by then-Mayor Fiorello La Guardia.
Hurwitz was a city recreation director when Mayor La Guardia gave him the official magician title during the Depression.
In the 1950s, the then members decided the name of the club was childish and changed it to FAME Future American Magical Entertainers and included Dick Brooks, Ken Silverman (who became a Pulitzer Prize winning author and wrote a biography of Houdini), John Hope, Robert A. Olson, (Hope and Olson later wrote a column on coin magic in Hugard's Magic Monthly), Richard Bangs, Al Callus, David Levy, Burt Kaplan, Jeff Spiller, Dan Ritchard, Mike Eberton, Melvin Kelger, Sheldon Weiner, Mike Goldstein, Leonard Heller, Kichi Iamoto, Hank Lifson, Jerry Goldstein and many others.
The acronym FAME came about when the members decided the Peter Pan name was a bit childish, especially after a comment from comedy magician Carl Ballantine, "I love your peanut butter".
met once a month in Manhattan at the West Side YMCA on West 63rd St; here, in addition to giving the young members a chance to perform and polish their technique, adult performers/lecturers would often take part in the proceedings by offering guidance, advice, and impromptu performances for the young magicians and ventriloquists that comprised the club.
Several times in the mid and late 1960s, the group was even visited by talent scout Mark Letti (who was well known in NY entertainment circles as a 'talent spotter' for Ed Sullivan's popular Sunday night television variety show).