Buffalo, N.Y. had honor of first showing of Religious Racketeers the medium
expose movie by Beatrice Houdini. The Lily Dale crowd dusted off the
photostat of the Houdini code message received by Arthur Ford (pastor First
Spiritualist Church, Manhattan) back in January 1929, and went to town.
On January 10th, the N.Y. Evening Graphic denounced the communique as a
hoax, diagramming an apartment where Ford was purported to have admitted it
a fake. Most intriguing detail was that Mrs. H. and Ford immediately protested
and claimed message genuine. Pay off came when feature writer Rea Jaure
admitted possession of the code, its translation and the message 24 hours before
the final seance was held ! According to the reporter, they had been given to
her by Mrs. H. herself, the day before, at her home where she rehearsed for
the reporter the details of the seance and personally explained the method of
translating the code.
The story of seance and message in secret code was written day before, and
its release for publication telephoned by Rea Jaure from the Houdini home,
immediately on the conclusion of the seance, where, evidently, everything went
off like clockwork. Claim was substantiated by both Managing Editor and City
Editor. So, if those statements are O.K., and there’s no reason to doubt them,
the whole thing was a hoaxial farce for publicity and a rumored lecture tour,
and not genuine as spiritualists now claim. However, it leaves Mrs. H. between
fires. If she admits it was genuine, there’s no ground for the fake angle. If she
says no good and a fake, it makes her a party. Anyhow, I suppose it will all
help keep the name up front and help the box office. West coast report is that
Paramount has shelved plans for Life of Houdini because this quickie will play
up Houdini name to get by. Too bad, for the life of Houdini is a damned sight
more interesting than a few floating trumpet exposures.
Dr. Jacob Daley, who gave plenty when when he furnished us with his own cup
and ball routine (in this issue) which excites the N.Y. boys, has a pet definition
for a magician – “is the worst type of egocentric exhibitionist, who despises those
who can do things better than he, tolerates those who can do things equally as
well, and simply adores those who are inferior”.
Kuda Bux has been in N.Y. a month and isn’t far behind the pace setter. On July
7th he got a nationally broadcasted program with the X-Ray Eye act, using bread
dough as a bracer on the optics. Awfully swell listening, even if some smart
reporters afterwards held a single sheet of paper before an object and asked him
what it was. Bux was off duty then. On August 5 he crashed Ripley’s program
with his firewalking, staged in Radio City’s backyard. Again good listening.
Bux is a natural for lecture work with a few examples of India’s strangeness.
Otherwise he’ll wind up in back street nightclubs. He claims it genuine (the
X-Ray eye) so is asking for trouble from the skeptics.
For the historians : Howard Thurston was playing Indianapolis in 1917.
Theo (Okito) Bamberg was a speciality on show. It was freezing weather
and Bamberg found Thurston on stage before first curtain wearing gloves.
Reminded to take them off, Thurston said “Nothing doing, Theo, I keep them
on”. Bamberg thought he was joking but Thurston did the whole first act,
INCLUDING HIS CARD MANIPULATIONS, with his gloves on. Okito wrote
in his diary that this was the first time he had seen a magician do a show with
gloves on. (Sphinx May 1919) The basic presentation for what later became the
Cardini specialty was advertised first in 1918 by Stanyon for $5, one year later
than the Thurston event which happened in 1917.
Atlas influence : Wonder how many magicians live in Magic City, Texas;
Mystic, Conn.; Presto, Pa.; or even in Force, Pa.? — Telephone book mania
: N.Y. and Brooklyn phone books list a Mr. and Mrs. Sleight; Mr. Palm;
Margaret Tricker; Mr. Ball; Mr. and Mrs. Pass; Mrs. Force; Mr. Card; Joe
Hank; Mr. Stand; Miss Hare; Mr. Hattrick; and an Otto Deck. Wonder if any
of them ever took a card ?
Something wrong dept : that line in TRUE for Sept. in the 8 page story of magic’s
fatal stunt which reads “I am a mentalist and know little of chicanery”. — There’s
a rumor that a real magic-musical production may hit Broadway this fall starring
that magic-moody maestro Richard Himber. — Dai (Harlequin) Vernon (still
at the Rainbow Room Grill with his manipulative melange) had his two sons
at ringside one night. Jean Vernon, as assistant, made her appearance. The
boys, silent till then, started telling nearbys “That’s my mother!” — Requests
kept coming in for the Jinx Programs in convenient form. Max Holden lent
an appreciative ear and has published the five to date in uniform printed and
illustrated style for quick reference and neat binding. Too many have tricks but
no act. These will really help. — John Northern Hilliard’s Greater Magic
tome will be out this winter. It’s been a long wait, but 960 pages, 600 original
illustrations, and 400,000 words should put the work high on your “must” list.
Carl Jones of Minneapolis is taking plenty pains in the printing and binding.
And speaking of books – Joseph Dunninger is readying one for the trade of
monumental proportions. John Mulholland is hard at work too, which excuse
is given for some of the Sphinx shortcomings. Grant has a vest pocket book on
the press called Tips on Thumbs by Stuart Robson which will fill a need for
machinations with the valuable gimmick. Everybody’s writing a book. I could
write one too about the magus who talked for 24 minutes straight and then said
“I’m doing all of the talking, it seems. You say something. What do you think of
my act ?”
Richard Dubois read what we said about his radio magic program (#46) and
remarked to listeners in the magic shop “We’ll see”. — On July 21, Abril
Lamarque, art director for Dell Publications threw a nice cocktail party in
the EmpireState Bacardi Room for Harold Lloyd, in N.Y. for the opening of
his latest picture. About 15 magi were present and presented their best for the
movie artist whose love for magic is deep. One N.Y. nite-club (and working, too)
magus missed a sweet bit of publicity with pictures by being “busy”. We hope
the hotel press agent doesn’t hear of the passed up opportunity. Everybody has a
swell time anyway – including Harold Lloyd.
