May 21st saw the passing of Henry Welsh Miller at the age of 72. The younger magical generation doesn’t know much about him but the older ones will remember when, over thirty years ago, he was ‘tops’ in coin manipulation and more than held his own during the card and coin manipulative era at the turn of the century. Foreign cities especially, made much of him, and even at 72 there were few who could duplicate some of his coin manipulations and palms.

On May 24th, the Opera House on East 67th Street in New York saw the Knights of Magic giving the first competitive amateur magic show a la Major Bowes. I mention this because it turned out very enjoyable and seems like a constructive idea for other clubs to try.

In the obituary column this month should be a note about the Jordan Series which did a remarkable bit of floundering before the final dive. I just couldn’t sell the idea even though the material was away from the beaten path and would have been a textbook (350 tricks) of card and magical principles. That’s that.

David Embury, of New York, has a nice way of making a brief of his programs. First a routine of effects is put together. The first page has a description of the routine as it is seen by the audience. Following this comes a page of requirements and the preparing of same. Lastly are the working instructions. Mr Embury has four of these, and like other busy people, has thus systematized his work so that he can always have a tested program at hand when he needs it and without effort and thought lost.

Should you go in for a little comedy, this bit of by-play can be put to use where a lighted candle is needed. Have a boy up and give him a box of matches for lighting the candle. Hold it in your right hand towards him but keep watching the front and say nothing. Each time he lights a match it goes out before he can light the wick. After the second time and on the third try, the audience will be having much fun, but you still say nothing and patiently wait. Take the box and hand him a paper of matches with the remark, “Try these.” He lights one and it explodes. Shake your head, light the candle yourself while he holds it, using the same paper matches and say, “You’ll have to try harder than that if you’re going to set the world afire”. Then continue with the trick. The matches that go out and the ones that explode harmlessly can be obtained at any trick and joke store.

No charge has ever been made for the reproduction of business cards of magicians in these pages from time to time. The feature has been found of interest so I include it and will continue to do so with any cards sent to me. The only income from The Jinx is what is paid for each copy. There is no sideline and no paid ads are accepted. Occasional boosts are my own opinions.

Requests have come in for the address of a concern selling the candy ice cream cones used in the Otis Manning effect Brrr ! in Jinx N°16. The firm is out of business now, but Mr Manning has supplied this substitute working. Get a real cone and use the rubber ice cream dip sold by S.S. Adams, Asbury Park, N.J. and which is in most all novelty stores. After producing, start to hand to the spectator. As an afterthought, take the cream off and put it in your pocket with the remark that you’ll save it for your little brother. It’s a funny bit.

TRIVIA

Jinx N°2 is out of print except for a few complete files. — The Tops is lucky to have the best book reviewer in magicdom, Lloyd Jones. — Mogul the current New York mindreading marvel (see clipping later in this issue) may have gotten his trick from the back page of Jinx N°6. — Harry Dreilinger’s idea of new twists on old tricks is shown in his version of the well known vest turning trick with the hands tied. Harry turns his trousers inside out with his ankles tied ! However, many a magician’s wife has done the same trick during the darkened hours. — Magic’s greatest inventor and most prolific man of letters has a twelve page blast on the press in which he will undertake the task of answering me by evading the questions and digging into the dirt. It is all very amusing (?) to those who have paid money for nothing received (he doesn’t even answer their letters of complaint) to see how he wastes time and credit printing tripe which proves I’m under his tough skin. My superiors ignore me. His picture in last September’s Nudist magazine reveals to me the cause of his mental attitude on life. The new overflow of residue should prove entertaining. Don’t miss your copy. — The era of floor show magic and table entertaining only proves that a magus must be versatile. Learn a couple of tricks with all objects and in all phases of magic. They do not need to be difficult sleights or moves, and one who can do something with anything is indeed a master of the situation. — Gene Dennis, the renowned girl psychic, is delving into horse race finishes, and prognosticating the results for a popular racing magazine. When, at a dinner for scribes, she was asked about two nags running the following day, she gave one as a winner and the other as a loser. It happened just the other way around ! — Swann, billed as ‘The Magic Man From Kalamazoo’ sailed away to London town and opened at the Dorchester Hotel. Tommy Martin goes across in June for six months at a head swimming price for magi, but worth it. Ade Duval, Larry Gray and Glen Pope are still over there. New York actors go to Hollywood and American magicians go to Europe. — Harlan Tarbell shows letters from S.A.M. assemblies congratulating him upon his Woolworth cut-out magic book. Then why the preferred charges? — Tom Worthington put out an Extra edition of The Osirian upon Thurston’s death. It was a nice tribute. — My bit of Thurstonia consists of about a dozen letters twelve years old when I continually tried to hire myself out as an assistant. I didn’t know at the time the antipathy of a magician towards magically inclined assistants, and now I appreciate the collection because he bothered to answer all of my requests. Incidentally, Jane will have control of the show. That’s quite definite. — Otis Manning, the Toledo magician, and whose picture is up front on this issue, is coming along plenty fast with his night club table work. I’m sitting tight in New York and expecting him at any moment. — I wonder why the name of I.I. Altman has vanished from the S.A.M. list of committee members, especially the committee on Ethics and Standards, of which he was chairman for so long ? Can it possibly be that he has changed his views and is contemplating an expose of sorts via the screen ? — Quite a few pains in the neck have been recorded since the $75.00 Neyhart Rising Card Trick was cut in half. Well, after all, how would you feel ? — Dr Jacob Daley is seriously contemplating the publication of anatomical terms for magic writers and teachers which should make the understanding of complicated finger and hand positions much easier. — Among the visitors to the Jinx headquarters this month were L. Vosburgh Lyons, Dr Jacob Daley, Judson Cole, Keith Clark, Dai Vernon, Al Baker, Dr Gordon Peck and Mike, the Educated Rooster.