We are still trying to dig up #61-62-63 for those subscribers who came in a bit after the curtain went up. For all returned we’ll duplicate with any issue or advance subscription lists accordingly.
Now that Dante has started westward we got to musing over the meaning of the “Dante” and “Danton” billings, that is, how they directly apply to a magician. Dante is the first name of Dante Aligihiri who wrote Inferno (Hell) and Paradisio (Heaven). Of course, one might use the titles and bill the show “Dante presents ‘From Hell to Heaven’ with Okra, the Mystery Girl”. We get that way because after a full evening send off with Dante‘s party we couldn’t get close to the meaning of “Sim-Sala-Bim“. As for Danton, the only one in history was Robespierre’s successor in the French revolution — and that, incidentally was his surname. Warlock would be a good magical stage name for a professional. It’s one of the oldest in British history and is a generative term meaning “wizard”. And to come close to home we’ll suggest “SHAMAN“. (pronounce shay-man) Shaman is an American magician’s name for it’s the Indian equivalent of “medicine man”.
Meet The Ghost! On the newsstands right now is a ten cent pulp mag The Ghost. The first issue introduces a detective-magician and vice versa. The writer (we’ll have the real name in a week or so) knows quite a bit about magic as many of the lesser known (to the public) gadgets are of valuable use to the crime buster. Even “Topit” is a handy accessory to catch the gun and flashlight on the run. And how that fellow can sleeve his protective knife !
Dunninger actually has a working model with scenery et al, of his vanishing battleship. Three trips to Washington to date, with active cooperation of Capt. Marlin Blaine, of His Majesty’s Colonial Engineers, lifts the idea into the practicability class or into the super streamlined publicity division.
John Neuman, now about 80 years of age, has returned to this country when everybody for years has thought him dead. Shades of Charlier ! Neuman is a muscle reader par excellence and in the late nineties was tops with his work. He took the Nov. S.A.M. members by storm and those, who didn’t know of him nor who didn’t know their history, could say little more than “plants” and “confederates”, the “locations” were that fast and certain. We’ll have more information in a coming issue.
Is it true that the N.Y. Rainbow Room top exec John Roy uses astrology to determine “in” or “out” of the performers working there ? — On Armistice Day, just passed, an interesting article appeared on the “strange quirk” of the mind that “governed” the final choice of America’s Unknown Soldier. Dr. L. Vaughn, Prof of Psychology at Boston University, related how, from four battlefields, four unknown dead were put in a row for a final selection. Hero Sergeant Younger made this choice, third from the left, and the Professor says all others present, if allowed to choose, might well have done the same.
To explain the oddity which results in the frequent choice of the number 3, he continued that when a selection of four numbers or objects is offered, the human tendency to pick an odd number causes the elimination of two and four, or the second and fourth objects. One and three remain, but the first is so obvious that in the choice of the Unknown Soldier, he said, with all the caskets presenting the same appearance, it was reasonably certain that the Sergeant would select the third from the left, or number 3. The new detail which I have never seen in magical literature is the point that “there is a general tendency to pick an odd number in any sequence”.
Sid Lorraine has just produced A Magician In The House. Unlike usual trick books, this is a complete routined magical monologue with effects interspersed. Patter, preparation, tricks, and even a price list of the apparatus makes it a valuable asset to anyone who wants a five year tested act complete by a writer whom we have always admired for true witticisms and originality.
We heartily endorse that west coast suggestion that a deluge of letters be sent to Mr. Joseph I. Breen – Motion Pictures Producers & Distributors Association – 5504 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood, California, and emphasis put on the fact that an expose of secret methods in use by magicians is of definite harm. We also ask that you offset the Wanger statement that we should invent new ones by also emphasizing that any exposure tends to lessen the public’s respect for tricks and magic. Once the people in front are saturated with the knowledge that all tricks are too simple for words they don’t get much of a kick out of later ones or give the performer any credit for skill. And also don’t forget that magic is based on not too many principles of deception. If those principles are kicked around a la Wanger, how will it be possible to work out new effects ?
Talk of exposures reminds us that a friend lately told us a simple but overlooked fact. Exposes are invariably better written, described, and pictured than in the magic books themselves. He is assiduously collecting all such paper and magazine revelations, mounting them and binding them for what he says will be the greatest and most beautiful book of magic ever produced. The other mags and reviewers have done a nice job on Eddie Clever‘s Entertaining Children With Magic. We just want to say that Brunel White of England has carried almost two columns of praise for Eddie and his writings in the World’s Fair mag. The book must be worthwhile. C.T., Unknown, and Phantom, are beginning to get “boo!” from other readers and writers. It does strike us as a childish way to dish dirt. So “Boo! Boo!”
