Boston’s gift to the world of funny men, Mr Lane, is muchly overdrenched when he persists in advertising the Famous Three Pellet Card Trick as his own, or method either. Originally the idea was Al Baker’s. I know of one individual who bought it with two other effects from Al over 15 years ago and paid $75 cash. I learned it just ten years ago this past summer. Baker gives me credit for having worked on it a good deal and being the first to put switches on it. John Northern Hilliard used to do it (over five years ago) with the Two Souls trick which also was Al’s. The funny part is that Frank took down notes of my routine three years ago for a manuscript he put out of my routines on various effects. I had my method in my Complete Mental Routine book which Holden copyrighted in February 1935, so it preceded Frank by quite a spell. The method Frank uses with a stacked deck was just one of Al’s versions. I know of six different methods and routines. Four are Al’s and two mine. I can’t understand though why Frank should have given it to Rufus Steele for his book too. It doesn’t seem quite fair to the buyers disregarding the ownership. And my, my, what are fellows going to say when they buy it on the strength of that Sphinx ad to wit: ‘with your back turned, and the cards in the possession of three spectators, each one selects any card he wishes. The deck is thoroughly shuffled, yet when you turn your back, you look in each spectator’s eyes and tell him positively and without fail, the name of each of the cards.’ How will the purchaser feel when he finds out about the writing on the paper, the collecting, etc.? Such an ad (despite the trick still being good) is what makes Frank Lane the funny fellow that he is. Excuse for the use of space. I just want to keep the records straight.
Jinx effects must be good. Petrie-Lewis has put out a combination with a pencil in which it is apparently shown pliable when shaken and finally vanished. They are including a bent pencil with the set a la Swizzle Stick in Jinx N°3 which was this writer’s conception. While we are too pessimistic to expect royalties we would have appreciated a little credit. However, we’re glad to know that the material within these pages is found so practical.
A new low in magical psychology was hit during the past months when a well-known inventor marketed a slate and flap for spirit work. It is a very nice addition or improvement on the regular slates in use, but the demonstration and selling point is that it can be tossed in the air! Can anyone please give me just one little reason for a slate being tossed in the air? And what effect such a manoeuvre is supposed to have on the devout sitters?
Telephone conversation: “Is this Mr. Holden? We are having a little church supper and would like to have a magician come up and entertain us.” (Max) “This is the time of the year when even the bad ones are working. How much do you want to pay?” (Voice) “Oh, we can’t pay anything, but we’ll give him refreshments and his subway fare.” (Max) “What are the refreshments?” (Voice) “Ice cream and cake.” (Max) “I’m sorry, but magicians are very hearty eaters and attend only full course dinners on those terms.”
Harlan Tarbell is exposing (there’s no other word for it) in Opportunities Magazine. Without being told I know they’re just small things to stimulate interest in our Art. What makes this so tragically funny is the way every magic paper has mentioned the modern trend and wave of night club table magic without the definite thought that such magic is of the small and close-up type. And it is this type of trick the stage and auditorium magician exposes. DO EXPOSERS EVER EXPOSE TRICKS FROM THEIR OWN PROGRAM? Would Mr. Tarbell like to have a local magus expose the colored sands effect the day before he landed in town? Or the Seeing with the Fingertips method? I dreamed of great revenge one time. The exposer was beaten to each town by an expose of his program tricks, one after the other. Then the mean magicians sent a copy of each expose as it appeared to the exposer’s booking agent who figured it was bad policy to use a magician whose tricks were all exposed ahead of him, and so, dear children, the magician had to go back at work. However, it was but a dream.
Declining memberships in various magical societies might be stemmed a bit if the committee or officers in charge of stimulation would issue a questionnaire to the delinquent ones as to why they had allowed their membership to fade. After all, it’s more reasonable to suppose that members dropping out could give ways for the club to be jacked up a bit rather than from members who are evidently satisfied with the running enough to remain in. If an organization drops to half of its living members, something should be done over. It is what they generally do with apartment houses, and apartment houses don’t use whitewash either.
Did anyone ever see in print before the advice never to ask a magician how he does his tricks? I haven’t and so I bring it up. It’s terrible form, and very bad manners. Magicians who should know better persist in asking others how they do this trick or make that move. If YOU do it, just stop it for a while and see if you don’t get along better with the boys. You’ll probably learn more too, because if eager to learn how something is done, the wise boys generally close down and you are out of luck.
And after all, if another magician has a move or a trick you can use in your act, did you ever consider buying it or making it a business deal? If you can make money doing a trick, isn’t it worth buying? But although you don’t buy your tricks and moves, don’t make yourself appear like the veriest beginner when you ask someone to show you his pet trick.
Jacob Steisel, of New York, passes on a very cute tip when he suggests that those who have used the floating match trick, try it now with a small Christmas candle. This makes a miniature illusion of the trick. Use the matchbox as usual and take a match from it to start. The candle can be taken from the vest pocket and stood on the box where it is set burning. From hereon the working is the same as with the match version.
Controversies about the glass penetration frame have about died out so I’ll suggest that we go back to the original base of the trick which was The Lady Through the Looking Glass Illusion. Instead of clear glass in the frame, use a mirror. Have the clips on both sides as usual and a silk handkerchief with Alice, of Wonderland fame on it. Have the cards to be used in front and back of mirror plain white with star traps cut with razor blades. If you have a locking frame you are set for an excellent effect when you illustrate how Alice went through the looking glass into Wonderland. (Dealers please thank me for this if you decide to use the idea.)
Al Baker dropped in and asked me to suggest that buyers of magical effects always read the instructions with the trick first, and then do the trick at least once according to the inventor’s method. After that, one can work in his own variations. Everyone will admit that improvements are possible, but generally the originator has spent time and experimentation before putting out a trick and has reason behind each move. As Al very aptly remarked, “Many a trick has died of improvement.”
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