The weekly editions of The Jinx must be getting us down or eight days to Bermuda wouldn’t and couldn’t have made such an improvement in our appearance (according to Miss Priscella Pratt, successor to Miss Romaine Featherngill, our last checker-upper). Officially it comes that there will be no daily Jinx. If, as and when such an (official) occurrence takes place, there will be but one consecutive issue.
The present occurring display of magical history a la collection material has New York quite agog, if certain magical papers can be believed. The man who talks and writes like a magician has done not a little thing in garnering much space in type and on the air for his acumen. One cannot deny this temporary curator of the Museum of the City of New York his prowess for obtaining erudite inches of columns in the better papers even though a majority of the boys are wont to deny him credit for deserving it from a performer’s point of view. Be that as it may, John Mulholland gets into print while others bash their heads against the wrong side of a handkerchief box.
Dr. Samuel Hooker’s rising card and bear’s head masterpiece of mystery was bequeathed to Mulholland and Quimby. The Sphinx of September 1936 said “for performance from time to time in the future as opportunities occur.” After Hugard detailed the effect in Greater Magic a lot of interest was shown by the new generation. We saw the last presentation of the Rising Cards and Miltiades III. We think it’s high time for those tricks to be shown again – even though it must be done by invitation to keep the audience within bounds. Charley Larsen, it is said, has offered to underwrite the costs of such a production, and, if true, there is no doubt but that he would duplicate the procedure for his west coast friends.
The gentleman with the money plus a yen to further magic as he sees it is reported as having been rebuffed, stayed off, and otherwise stalled. We know this can’t be true because John certainly wouldn’t pass up the opportunity of displaying, as beneficiary, the one great trick which has mystified magicians for many years. An “angel” – to underwrite the presentation of the Hooker routine in key cities with Mulholland’s lyceum contacts – would break even to say the least on his initial investment. He’d be doing magic a great favor to dig up this bit of cherished chicanery – provided, of course, that the present owners might see, not beyond their noses, but merely the distance from that back drop setting to the most important table.
In short, John, you’re overlooking the most potent piece of publicity getting possession in that entire collection. Don’t talk about what you have. Just get out and do what you’ve got. And I suppose that if you do it we’ll all be jealous of the publicity it will get you.
On the newsstands as you read this is RED STAR MYSTERY magazine. It’s a “thriller” bit of printing but it’s about a magician. Buy it on our “say so” and revel or rave as is your way of thinking. — Just before Walt Gibson left N.Y. for Miami and New Orleans he phoned to say that Sky Sense (#83) was extra good with a dovetail shuffle because, even if such a mixing does begin to separate the two important cards, the fact that the deck is cut into three piles (about 18 cards each) keeps the key close enough to the noted card to act as a trusty stool pigeon later on. — “Shadow” Gibson had to leave town for the reason that the big city’s nightlife was too much for the master and his plots began to bog down to where even Commissioner Weston could solve them. Either he had to find peace and quiet or Russ Swann would have had to go for that’s where most of Walter’s waking hours were spent – and I mean spent !
Cardini helps to open Marden’s Riviera this week, and Fairfax Burgher, the socialite magus, is at the Fox and Hounds. — One of the “boys” is haunting his favorite bar where the man behind the rail is a stooge for his tricks. This alcoholic psychologist has found that so-called bar betting tricks are worthless for no one is dumb enough to bet on another man’s game. However, it is a matter of pride with many when it comes to their personal capacity and this bet has to do with the quantity of beer one can swallow with a long breath. This malt monger says he can down a quart container and invariably is taken up on it. He suggests using the large glass (1 qt.) in which the scrapers are kept beside the taps. The bartender fills it, but not before he has put in an inverted celluloid cone around the lip of which has been applied beeswax to make it stick to the mug’s bottom. Thus the fellow doesn’t have to drink much more than a good glassfull and the insert is absolutely invisible through the sudsy glass. He hands it directly back to the stooge who dips it in the wash – losing the cone – and then replaces it in its accustomed and time honored position for examination if anyone wishes.