Now that convention time is over I can rest (as if I don’t do enough of that !) again and glory in the memories. Out in Batavia, N.Y., the I.B.M. bought up the town as usual and received more newspaper space and more pictures in the city dailies of Buffalo and Rochester than ever obtained by any other magical organization or club. I can’t understand why more of the eastern and New York boys don’t take in these events. The high mogul of an eastern club told me that he wouldn’t go because he didn’t like the class of people there. From all I know, perhaps it is just as well he didn’t go. They wouldn’t have liked his tricks !

Few weeks pass without it being evident that one good trick can ‘make’ a magician. Seldom is this trick a new one, the magus having dug out an old timer that the “what’s new” boys pass over with a deprecating turn of the page. However, once such an effect is rediscovered by a magus with acumen and a head on his shoulders, the dealers are besieged by buyers. Not often, though, do the copyists get anywhere at all. No one has created the talk nor commanded the prices of Cardini with his type of act. Tommy Martin put together a varied routine but the egg and fan gets him the work and reputation. Incidentally, I’ve seen no one who could come near him in the way he handles the fan. All others are comparatively unimpressive with their nervous bouncing. The bills in the lemon was to be remembered in Jarrow’s routine; Jud Cole and Kling Klang are synonymous; the bird-cage made Keating quite famous; the baby chicks under the cups caused Galli Galli to become a drawing card; Mogul came to New York night clubs with a single sitter billet reading test; and Russell Swann’s piece de resistance is the Sun and Moon tragedy. Not that these old time effects alone made these performers worth their prices, personality and presentation, most important requisites, had much to do, but the fact remains that all those who have gotten into lights during the present era have featured one ‘to be talked about’ mystery culled from the limbo of long forgotten magic. Delve into some of the magic literature from 1900 to 1920. Then use your head. Others have made it pay good dividends, and they haven’t scratched the surface.

If you can use a candle in the act, try this for a simple interlude. Have one of the old metal fakes with a taper that you finger palm in your right hand. Pick up the candle with your left hand. Pick up a match with your right, picking up the feke at the same time. Light the candle and as the wick lights also light the taper. Blow out the candle, pass your hand in front of it and it relights. Repeat this once and the right thumb puts the taper out and drops the feke as you pick up the tube to cover or paper to wrap. It’s one of those little things.

John Mulholland took me to task in Batavia re the paragraph about Sphinx dealers in issue N°20. I am thus informed that he has a letter from the dealer in question which says The Sphinx will be sold only to magicians and persons known to be truly and sincerely interested. That clears that up.

Bob Gysel, “the burglar from Toledo”, was offered the key to the city at Batavia. Showing the Mayor a bent button hook, he said “I don’t need a key as long as I have this.” Practically all my laughs came from watching this example of ‘loco boy makes good’. His pastime (at 4 A.M.) was to pound on doors. When ignored, he’d pick the lock, push it open, and walk away with the brontosaurus yell “I could come in if I wanted to.” The highlight came when a group watching privately shown tricks couldn’t keep him out despite the lock and the bolt. With a stethoscope dangling from his ears and a specially built lock opening jiggle gun in hand, he came through the formidable obstruction twice. Max Holden hasn’t been seen to laugh so hard and long in well over ten years. If he reads this, here’s a good line for the new stationery; “When better locks are made, Gysel will pick them.” — Hardeen (brother of Houdini), Martin Sunshine and Jim Collins have left for Fort Worth, Texas, intending to make the fair-goers Svengali deck conscious. — An interloper named Kondo plays vaude houses with a complete steal of Jack Gwynne’s act. Reports are that it can’t last because of no comparison. As if there could be ! — Francis Finneran, the local nite clubbing magus, lost his whole act in the subway one night. Police are looking for a kleptomagicak. — And dealers at the conventions always suffer a loss from counter picker uppers. Somebody must be making good use of lightning pulls, profondes and vesting principles. — Being politically conscious this year, I’ll present The Jinx Platform in the forthcoming Extra issue due about July 15th.

Philip Foxwell has one of the most effective folders I’ve ever seen. His layout of new clips and illustrations tells the story at a glance and you are sold at that moment on the fact that he MUST be good. — From the Boston news column in the May Sphinx : “Albert Todd was next with a transposition of a bill, first to a cigarette, then to an orange and finally to the coin and wool boxes. Oh yes, the number was taken each time the bill appeared and it checked. It couldn’t be so – yet it was.” That makes me happy to know someone got something to use from the 1935-36 Winter Jinx Extra. — Dr Jacob Daley knows a medium who proposed to his wife by having “I love you. Will you marry me ?” appear on a slate. She had to marry him so she could learn how to say “Yes” with spirit raps! — Russell Swann has been held over for two months at London’s Dorchester Hotel. — Jane Thurston ironing out legalities but has all intentions of taking out the show as soon as possible. — That 12 page blast at me was held up after last month’s issue. Sorry. It was interesting reading.