Harry Lorayne, who enjoyed an international career as a memory expert, dazzling audiences with feats of memory from telephone books and magazines, died April 7 in Newburyport, MA. He was 96.

In a demonstration of his ability on July 23, 1959, he went into the audience of the Garry Moore Show and asked the names of hundreds of people. Then, when called on stage, he recited the names of all the people and where they were seated. He claimed that, over the years, he had met and recalled the names of more than 20 million people. He also memorized strings of numbers and foreign language vocabularies.

According to The New York Times, his most important act of recall was one that audiences never saw: Before every performance, he would discreetly check to be sure his trousers were zipped.