Lon in Illinois, Ron in Florida, Kimball in Ohio, and Geelia in Oregon.
Their four children, Lon, Ron, Kimball and Geelia were all born on the road. They later honed a two-hour magic show for nightclubs during the 1940s and into the 1950s. It was a small marital ceremony, and only two hours later, they were again on stage performing the first of two acts for the evening. After two weeks on the road together, Velvet and Leon were married. Having grown up on the road with her parents, Vaudeville musicians Betty and Frank Salerno, this was a lifestyle familiar to Leon's new 20-year-old assistant. Leon gave her the stage name Velvet and she became his new assistant. In December 1946, Leon Mandrake's manager, Bernard Abrams, paired him with Louise Salerno, who was an actress, line-dancer and former assistant to well-known magician Blackstone. When his first marriage ended in 1946, Leon also lost his main assistant. Princess Narda also appeared in the Mandrake the Magician comics of the time. In 1939, he married Narda ("Princess Narda"). Mandrake was married twice, both times to his chief on-stage assistants. Falk was said to have invented the name Mandrake the Magician coincidentally though there is no written contract, both parties verbally agreed to cross-promote each other, with the result that Mandrake the Magician became recognized throughout North America. Phil Davis, the strip's artist, did meet Leon Mandrake and they became good friends and corresponded for years. Many sources assert that the comic strip character was drawn to resemble Leon. In fact, Leon Mandrake had been performing well over ten years before creator Lee Falk introduced the comic strip character, and today, most people acknowledge the striking physical resemblance between them. Mandrake, the stage magician, known for his black top hat, black cape, and thin handlebar mustache, bears a strong resemblance to the central character in the Mandrake the Magician comic strip. By the 1930s, he traveled with his own magic show. In 1927, at 16 years old, he joined the Ralph Richards touring magic show for 6 months, traveling across North America until the tour ended in Winnipeg, Manitoba. By this time, he learned fire-eating, mind-reading and ventriloquism. In 1925, at 14 years old, he performed at the Moyer's Carnival for the Pacific National Exhibition.
He took the stage as one of the vaudeville acts of the Edison Theater in New Westminster. In 1922, at 11 years old, he began his magic career giving vaudeville performances in New Westminster, British Columbia. He soon learned to perform magic acts from some of the greats of that time, such as Howard Thurston, Alexander (The Man Who Knows), Chefalo, Doc Verge, Ralph Richards (The Wizard) and Bannister.
One year he was given the props and costumes of a magician who had left the show. He studied the great vaudeville magicians when they came to town. As a child, he watched magicians at the local Edison Theatre and attended circus shows at the Pacific National Exhibition. Born Apin Washington state, Mandrake was very young when his mother brought him to New Westminster, British Columbia on the West Coast of Canada to live with his aunt Mildred.