Ending all space allotments to the Proskauer Publicity Pageant which has reached its odoriferous climax, we fulfill our promise of last month to let you know what happened. The New York Times reporter, whose findings are reproduced below, cannot be surpassed for his description of the events as they appeared to him. He certainly understood the situation very well. The Jinx congratulates Mr Proskauer on his successful evasion of the axe.
Winding up the year we should bow low to The Mysterious Dr Ross, who is nearing the end of his second YEAR in the Rockerfeller Rainbow Room. Dr Ross, who graces a table only on request, and generally after the waiter has presented him with the customary $5 bill in an envelope (it wouldn’t be quite kosher for the Dr to ask for remuneration so his stooges suggest it), presents an array of close-uppers. A spread of cards is made to turn over while a selected pasteboard “ride the wave”. A spelling trick follows, and recently he has been using a “controlled coincidence” idea from Farelli and Orville Meyer “a la Jinx”. After a four card location to take in all at the table, Dr Ross shows a few mechanical puzzles of the snap back and ring on coil type, and follows into coin effects such as the coin in hank, the Hang Ping Chien classic, and the Card and Coin photo trick. Off and on he uses the well known but little used Cap and Pence and the Deck That Cuts Itself. His cutest payoff is a production of a fresh flower for each lady at the table. In his short floor presentation, Dr Ross cuts up a spectator’s necktie, and the subtle part (?) is that the stooge happens (?) to be carrying the shears! However, two years at the class N.Y. spot where they mean it when they give you the check, means that The Mysterious Dr Ross either has something on the ball — or something on the boss.
Fred Rothenberg’s Gold Bug effect is quite a masterpiece of thought and ingenuity. I first saw it at his recent “circus” party (the whole apartment was decorated and lithographed, the only thing missing being sawdust) where, after a mention of Poe’s nightmare, a golden spider slowly lowered itself to the deck and arose carrying a genuinely shuffled up card from the middle of the pack. It’s a sweet looking trick.
It seems as if all magic publications now carry mention of Extra Sensory Perception, due to the Rhine build up of telepathic possibilities. Two and a half years ago (Jinx #10) we published an effect under that very title, when Rhine first got well under way at Duke University. We didn’t use the Rhine symbol cards because of possible duplication so made up 30 different picture cards. Two well knowns are, and have been, using this one man version steadily in their acts (one is a stage mentalist). Two and a half years is rather a record scoop. No?
Incidental dept: Rajah Raboid closed at the Ambassador (N.Y.) Trianon Room and took a S.S. Munargo cruise during the lay off. We’re wondering how that blindfold knife throwing will work out on that deck platform if the sea is a bit angry or just swelly. — Orville Meyer recently won $5 from Genii for a trick The Finders which he had in Jinx #21 — One of the better knowns wanted to do the Galli-Galli chicken effects because everybody else seemed to be doing it. He auditioned at a N.Y. swanky-swanky place, and the chicks started jumping or falling off the table. Result – no job. Albenice, a coming up manipulator is at the place (St Moritz) now and, according to the manager, quite the rage. — The Tablets of Osiris, the Baltimore club’s official blaster, has turned out its hundredth consecutive issue. For almost nine years it has been stamping on magical lice.
Which reminds us that Percy Abbott’s Tops is celebrating the end of two years and is still a lusty infant. — But India’s only magical paper (in English) is folding up because of lack of subscribers. I’ve always thought this the most unique of them all, but in the main, I guess American magi just couldn’t warm up to it.
Henry R. Evans, that able historian of all things magical, pens “I admire the two black cats at the head of your paper. I have always had an admiration for the feline species, not only for their beauty and grace, but for their almost clairvoyant powers. Of all the animals the cat is the most “psychic”, and in the ancient days in Egypt they were revered as sacred. The goddess Bast had the head of a cat.”