Servais LeRoy, a name to conjure with. I can only too well remember when I used to absorb every word and every name in the magic books and papers, wondering if I’d ever see any of them perform their illusions, not daring to expect ever knowing them personally. Well do I recall the magic pages of the Billboard (they had 3 full pages per week then) with probably the most militant fight against exposing ever waged by any magus. It was Servais LeRoy. We saw him but a few weeks ago and doubt if he was ever more dapper and full of life when the LeRoy, Talma and Bosco aggregation toured the world. And it seemed like the fulfillment of a dream to talk with a man so steeped in magical lore that he can rightfully claim the origination of more practical and widely used stage illusions than any other magus, living or dead.

Sam Margules, the S.A.M. impresario for more than a decade, is introducing LeRoy from retirement at the N.Y. Heckscher Theatre on June 6th. Tickets scale to a $2.20 top and can be had at Holden’s or Hornmann’s Magic Shops. With an entire company of assistants the curtain will rise, that evening, on a full evening show of his very own creations and illusions. I wouldn’t miss it for anything despite the attitude of a lot of modern so-called sophisticates. For one night I’m going to relive a lot of very valuable memories.

The war came close to us yesterday when a censored and military stamped letter came in from “somewhere in France.” It’s hard to realize that Cedric is picking up a gun more often than his favorite deck of cards. He has his magical magazines to read, and has done a few shows for the troops. He misses most, though, getting together for a gab-fest with other magi. We quote, “It sure is a long trail from Battle Creek, Chicago and New York, to serving in the B.E.F. How I’m looking forward TO THAT DAY when I’ll write you saying, “Ted – meet the Queen Mary at N.Y. next calling.” Hurry back, Cedric. We’ll have the deck stacked and the backs pointed all one-way.

It may be old to some but it wasn’t to Walt Gibson who penciled a postcard. A sheet of paper is placed on a glass with a coin on top of it. The trick is to get the coin in the water without touching either coin or paper. The answer is simply to set fire to the paper. Or did you know? — Davenport’s latest Demon Telegraph uses three pages to show that popular bead trick the property of Carmo and “the copyists have not even found out the secret, though they claim the whole effect.” Brunel White’s writings about the American “steal” say “I cannot help chuckling still at how all of us got this completely the wrong way about. We all thought that the beads, doubly strung, ran off one of the strings, didn’t we? Oh yes we did. Well, we were wrong. The beads do no such thing and never have to be restrung at any time.” So maybe the local pirates slipped on their own beads and the purchasers haven’t received what they should have, with a royalty going to Carmo. — The Green Lama (Double Detective – 10c – all stands – July issue) is once more victorious over crime because of his knowledge of magic and Tibetian hush-hush. In this issue ’tis revealed that the bloke knows we ‘uns and The Jinx! Curses! The secret of his great knowledge is out!

Hal Haber, the man clockwork decks has made famous, just presented us with one of those electric light puzzles games we diagrammed back in Jinx #58. I can see now that if we have enough people in for tea we won’t have to worry about the rent any more.

Publicity For Magicians (Robert E. Bernhard) has just been put down after its second reading. It’s amazing how many angles to get a good press are not known to, nor believed in, by most magicians. It’s a worthy mate to that collected storehouse of information about getting attention from the public, Forging Ahead In Magic, by John Booth. Mr. Bernhard, who reveals that he isn’t a professional magus by leaving his name off the cover, has done more than reveal inside secrets. He has written a good argument for the hiring of a capable and experienced press agent by any wide awake magician who can realize that for every dollar thus spent he’ll get back not less than two dollars worth of work.

Bernard Zufall’s second publication of his Memory Trix series takes you through the maze of remembering lists, appointments, names, sales points, etc., with concise details that are hard to forget. We cut our memory membrane on the Roth Course way back when Addison Simms of Seattle always remembered in time to catch the bus instead of missing it. Mr. Zufall’s series is of worth to magi for it is written, not to the householder with a grocery list, nor a banquet speaker with a committee on his mind, but for magicians who want to use these principles in their shows as entertaining features.

Bill Larsen will be getting plenty brickbats for what one person called “a swivel where his head should be – he can change hands without missing a revolution”. It all has to do with an overboard display of affection towards Julian Proskauer in the May Genii whereas, but a few memories ago, nothing, in caps, was too bad to be printed. It is being said that the sudden turn (that’s not exactly right because Bill and Julian were well photographed together last convention time) is a diplomatic move to build a good will attitude on the same pedestal where is the most active politico-magic figure since the days when Houdini dominated everybody in the S.A.M. through sheer importance by public favor.

We can’t be against a Genii campaign for next year’s bid at M.U.M. Did we want it we’d use strategy, too, except that the colors of the flag would be gradually changed daily into the new hue rather than haul one down – pull the other up – at high noon on a busy day. The Lord only knows that I keep Bill Larsen on a high column in my marble hall. Page Wright and he were turning out tricks of value when I got my first Sphinx (Dr. Wilson, Editor). I sincerely believe in him and like his honesty at admitting a change of feeling.

But doesn’t all of this pushing and pulling simplify matters? The S.A.M. can have their own private M.U.M. as they had before. Both the Sphinx and Genii go to non-members. Should Genii win the official organ plume, M.U.M. would still be censored and edited as it is now. And, in cold money, the S.A.M. can save well over one thousand dollars a year by printing their own private journal of more pages (unexpurgated) than they get now. The S.A.M. is ABOVE the wrangling of commercial journals and should be impervious to the wiles of those seeking personal aggrandizement and extra-hobby beneficiation.

That acclaimed Houdini breath control secret from last week’s issue is now revealed as a part of Yoga philosophy for body health and a step towards perfection. Its usage deprives the brain of oxygen – sapping a reserve supply of which few people are aware —– no wonder the yogi, bereft of much cerebration due to oxygen loss, can visualize the things they do!