$50 in 1965 is about $450 in 2022 U.S. dollars, still a pretty low budget for putting on a fund-raising event, but not bad for a single day's work for an unemployed magician with a drinking problem.
The title came from the song "It's Magic" written by Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn and sung by Doris Day in her film debut, Romance on the High Seas (1948).