• 1961: Marries Lee and Shane St James is born. Lee now assists Martin onstage. She is trained to demonstrate ESP with Martin.

• 1962: Tahiti. Martin hypnotises members of the cast of Mutiny on the Bounty.

• Arrives in Los Angeles with a lot of ambition and very little money. Martin embarks on the quest to find Oscar Davis, the promoter of the Grand Ole Opry, with whom he had a contract which was not honoured.

• Martin is waylayed in Hollywood. Serendipity takes over. He is in the right place at the right time. He befriends a waitress at a late night diner who introduces him to Irwin Zuker, an influential PR man from Henry Mancini's office. He is invited to attend a party at Irwin's house in Beverley Hills. Everyone who is anyone in Hollywood was there. Martin and Lee performed mind boggling demonstrations of ESP. The sophisticated and appreciative audience wanted to see more.

• Wins an award for "the best act to perform at the famous Beverly Hilton Hotel", Beverly Hills, Los Angeles.

• Appears on the Merv Griffith Show three times; Les Crane twice; Mike Douglas show twice, plus many more.

• At the Chase Park Plaza Hotel, a mecca for the who's who in the journalist's world of St Louis and the home of the famous Pulitzer Prize, Martin's ESP powers are tested by leading journalists. Someone over the past few weeks had made several attempts to burn down the huge hotel. So far they had been unsuccessful. Martin predicted where the next fire would occur and ended up being interrogated by the arson squad for many hours. Martin was subjected to lie detector tests before being released. Eventually he was invited to assist the police should he have any more premonitions.

Chicago, The Sahara Inn. Martin performs for two weeks in which the hotel was threatened with two bomb scares. An unusual experience with a woman of dubious connections, believed to be head of the underworld, who became a serious fan, inviting Martin to contact her on a secret number should anyone mess with him- like immigration, theatrical agents, etc.

• He heads to Nashville, Tennessee, to find "The Box Office Baron", Oscar Davis.

• With the help of the Country Music Association and Acuff Rose Publishing, Nashville, Tennessee, the address of Oscar Davis was acquired. Martin found Oscar Davis who was paralysed. Oscar recognised Martin and smiled. His wife explained that on his arrival from Australia, he was struck down with a massive stroke. Martin realized that the paralysis is the reason why Oscar had left him high and dry in Australia and wasn't able to honour the contract in 1959, guaranteeing Martin $17 000 against royalties- quite an amount in those days.

Doris, Oscar's wife, invited Martin, Lee and Shane to stay a while in Nashville. They were introduced to Shelley Snyder, the manager of the country and western singer Faron Young. Shelley, a loveable character, invited them to share an apartment with some of the top artists and song writers in the business.

Around this time, huge country rock hits were created by the collective talents of Martin's flatmates and their friends. “Wolverton Mountain”, “Honky Tonk Woman”, “Long Tall Texan” to name a few. Merle Kilgore, who wrote “Ring of Fire”, co-wrote a song with Martin. Martin recorded it with Elvis' backing group. He was signed up with a major label immediately after the recording engineer announced at the famous Bradley Studios, “You've got a hit there, y'all. Let's go to Tootsy's Bar to celebrate!” The rest of the story can be found in the “Songwriter”.
(click THE SONGWRITER)

Several top National Television shows in the USA presented his talents that year including the Chase Park Plaza Hotel, St. Louis, USA who booked Martin for two weeks and held him over for five months.

ON FIRE IN ST.LOUIS

• Investigated by St. Louis, MO, Arson Squad after correctly predicting a fire would occur in the hotel.

THE C.I.A. GETS INTO THE ACT

Due to public demand, Martin's one-week contract was extended to several months at the Shadows Club, Washington DC, where he appeared with famous groups such as the Mamas and Papas and Loving Spoonful.He was investigated by the CIA on suspicion of reading the President's mind.

• In New York, Martin performed at the famous Greenwich Village "Cafe WHA" for over two years where he appeared with many of the world's leading stars including Jose Feliciano, Richard Pryor and Bill Cosby. It was here that he gave Helen Reddy her biggest break by introducing her to the the man who became her manager and husband. Helen went from success to success.

• Signed a contract with the largest agency in the world—the William Morris Agency- and toured the USA.

• Performed at most leading venues throughout the USA: Playboy Clubs; Concord Hotel, New York; El San Juan Hotel and Americana, Puerto Rico; and Chateau Laurier Ottawa, Canada.

• 1964: Performed and lectured in hypnosis in over 80 Colleges and Universities in the USA.