INDUSTRY FACES
Metallurgist La Sorda Was Ali’s Personal Magician Terry La Sorda isn’t somebody who
had just one brief experience with Mu- hammad Ali. When La Sorda speaks about Ali, who died in June at age 74, it isn’t from the perspective of a fan who met the legendary boxer once and got an autograph. La Sorda, now a metallurgist with Air Liquide, a provider of industrial gases such as argon, nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen and helium with value-added gas technologies to metallurgical indus- tries, was Ali’s personal magician and tu- tor. He saw the champ bored and alone watching television, but was also taken to parties with famous people where he was the only non-celebrity in the room. “During the time I was doing it I
couldn’t put it in perspective. It was happening so fast,” La Sorda said. “I had these experiences that were so out of the ordinary and so outrageous I didn’t have time to think about it. it was just hap- pening so fast.” Now 61, La Sorda was recruited to be Ali’s personal magician in 1978 when he was 23. The two traveled to- gether for about a year before La Sorda, with Ali’s help, got a contract in Las Vegas. But staying true to what he really wanted, La Sorda didn’t stay half a year and returned to his home in Pennsylvania to build a career in metallurgy that had a pragmatic start. When he was two years old, La Sorda contracted polio (he was the last person in Montgomery County, Pennsyl- vania to get it) and as a result was unable to play sports. La Sorda said he would routinely break his left leg brace and his dad would get sick of paying for new ones. So La Sorda, at 13, read a metallurgy book and figured out why his braces were breaking. “Right there with that little lesson in metallurgy I saved
Terry La Sorda is pictured here at age 60.
my dad quite a bit of money, and he was very happy,” La Sorda said. “He said, ‘Now that you’ve done that, you should really consider going into this.’” La Sorda, who still performs sleight- of-hand magic on the side and also when he visits metalcasting facilities where introduces, tests and installs a value-added patented process called EGAL, which provides a dense and inert gaseous blanket over molten metal in their melting furnaces, was deeply moved by the worldwide response. from grieving fans. Tere also was a sense of relief that
Ali, who died from septic shock, didn’t have to struggle anymore. About three months before Ali died, La Sorda was in the Phoenix area near the legend’s home and tried to get a hold of somebody with Muhammad Ali Enterprises to set up a visit but couldn’t get a hold of anybody. He then talked his way into Ali’s com- pound using photos of him with Ali but
nobody was home to see La Sorda. Ali was probably in the hospital, fighting for his life. “When I heard of his death it struck me because I re- member how much fun I had with him,” said La Sorda, who last saw Ali in 2003. “We were close when we were together.”
Terry La Sorda watches as Muhammad Ali learns a card trick. 18 | MODERN CASTING August 2016
Muhammad Ali gave this signed photo to Terry La Sorda.
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