Regardless of how many say that magic is being killed by this and that, the fact remains that night clubs and hotels are still providing most lucrative spots for magi ever. Marlowe, the Mystic, recently closed nine months of table work at Philadelphia’s Arcadia, and opened at New York’s Hollywood Restaurant, a spot which no one else to date has had. He gave me permission to state that his ENTIRE routine of table mysteries have come from The Jinx. Who says the sheet isn’t practical ? And who are we to pass up such a good ad ?
And for those who want The Jinx bound, we’ll recommend Mrs. Gerald Kaufmann, 150 West 80th Street, New York City, for she does a very excellent job and the covers are hand letters in gold. The cost is around $2.00. Issue #50 (are we optimistic ?) will carry a four page index complete for the front of the book.
Incidentals : Sid Lorraine has used The Magician Chatterbox catch line for over nine years. We recently mentioned it in conjunction with Howard Brooks. — Rajah Raboid doesn’t seem to click with his combination magic and burlesque revue which floundered around New England one and two nighters preparing for the final nose dive in Paterson, N.J. Pretty bad complaints were registered by the help who were given 30 weeks contracts and then paid pro rata for the odds and ends dates, finally being dropped by the wayside without regards to the two week clause. We’d air some other pediculous facts but they haven’t been checked. — If you save or send news clips and articles, PLEASE include the date and name of publication. Magi don’t do it with their own scrapbook clips, and if there’s anything exasperating, it’s to see an old and valuable clipping with no date or location on it.
A complete manuscript routine with 8 photographs of the East Indian Sand Trick was in the Nov. 1929 Sphinx by Doc. Nixon with every necessary and original detail. Yet until David Bamberg used it in his recent N.Y. opening, only three people in the country actually featured it, Harlan Tarbell, William Arenholtz, and Gene Laurant. When David did it, U.F. Grant took 51 orders in three days and has passed the 100 mark now. Nixon’s method had the added point of all loose sand being gone at the finish, apparently being used up in the productions.
Laurie Ireland got me in a corner and asked for one nice mindreading stunt he could use in his program without much work or set-up but good for large audiences. We recommended the Extra Sensory Perception on the back page of issue #10. Laurie bought a copy right there and then read it and said “You know, I had forgotten all about that. And I like it too. It’s just the thing for me.” Moral. Check over your copies once in a while, instead of waiting for someone else to dig it out. Isn’t it better to be able to say someone is copying you, than to have them say you are copying them ?
A blanket “thank you” is in order for those who have written that they like the Modern Magician Programmes we have been running. Ellis Stanyon had the idea back in 1902, but coals of fire were heaped on his head for explaining the methods along with the routines. Holden’s late book was a valuable work of more modern times, and most magi like to know what the others are doing and in what order, the honorable and more wise ones using the information so they won’t be duplicating someone else.
In the May 1937 Sphinx appeared a reproduced program of Anton Kratky-Baschik in 1858. His #8 item read “Novel Feat, by giving the Professor one finger, he will take the whole hand”. It can be modernized by saying “By letting a magician see one trick, he’ll take your own act”. — Russell Swann is doing very well at Chicago’s Palmer House. He must be slipping though with the ball of fire mystery which we showed him ever so long ago (it seems) because one reporter wrote “Swann makes a flash of fire by the burning of paper which leaves no ash”. What’s the matter, Russ, all gags now instead of mystery ? And what’s all this about your exposing ? Just small tricks ? And will you divulge the pencil and loop trick, which has been your greatest publicity item ? Or is that one too small ?
Trick : If you use any of the Davenport silks with card pictures on them, try the idea that Anthony Ross forwarded. Tear off the corner of a selected (forced) card and let the spectator hold it. Wrap the card in a white silk and put it in a card box. When opened, the card is blank, the printed corner the spectator holds still fits, and on the silk is the picture of the card. Take a duplicate of the force card, put it against a blank and tear both together. The printed corner will fit the blank card close enough for all purposes. Tear the corner from the selected card and give to the spectator the corner you had finger palmed. The card box does the rest.
Magi who looked at the picture of Okito and David Bamberg in the April Sphinx have been asking dealers for the trick the father was showing to his son (and what an offspring!). And they didn’t know (and don’t yet) it was only a Chinese lock!!
The one-man copy magical monthly : Harry Opal, of Toledo and all points in all directions, puts out a monthly magazine, individually written, and sends the copy to a different person each time. Some collector will have a priceless bit of magicana when he gets hold of that !! And I mean nothing less than a complete file!!! — Bob Gysel, of the same town, has educated thumbs it seems, he being able to escape from three thumb cuffs with their key holes together. I wonder how he is at thumbing a ride?
And for a payoff paragraph we’ll tell you that one magician read a magical ad, bought the trick, and came from N.J. to N.Y.C. with a gun in his pocket for the advertiser. It actually happened!! ‘Twas too much money for too little!
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