Late again. Or didn't you notice ? Our staff was depleted by 50% during the month when brother Leland decided that matrimonial duties must come before magic paper distribution. The loss is somewhat offset by the fact that I am now being called "uncle", but after three and a half years of paying no attention to the business end of Jinxiana, I find myself appreciating very very much the work he did for me. What became of that meritorious effort on the part of the S.A.M. to contact all publishers and editors on the subject of expose material ? The…
Conventions are pretty well over except for the P.C.A.M. fest at San Jose in July. We are batting 300 this year by missing them all, and for silly reasons too, which doesn't help our temper. The S.A.M. convened at Cincinnati a few weeks before the I.B.M. closed in on the same city. Both organizations were sponsored by locals groups which isn't a bad way to get advanced ticket sales. Prize diplomatic boner was the publicity release which said "There was a magician's convention in Cincinnati only two weeks ago (the Society of American Magicians) but these, it appears, were the…
Daub, which is an appropriate name for the substance used by gamblers and card artists in shading the back of a card just enough to identify it in a spread or on a deal, has become rather popular in the past few months and several of the dealers are stocking it. However, no one as yet has revealed a truly inside secret of the brethren, most instructions reading that the container is to be in vest pocket or under the edge of same. The real dope is that daub is rubbed well over the lower vest button surface, and on…
One couldn't begin this page better than to say that Sid Lorraine's new Patter Book is just about the smartest thing in many years. Patter books had a vogue in the early twenties, and then they died out. This will give you a lot of laughs even if you don't do a talking act. Tricky idea: In Webster's Universal Dictionary under Music: - Magic Music; a game in which a person is required to find some hidden article, or do some act unknown to him, he being directed by music which is loud or soft, fast or slow, as he…
But few things of importance have cropped up during the past month. The spring atmosphere has taken all fire and fervor out of most of us it seems. Even the exposers have taken time out. And, being at the moment so low as to think of such people, it may be of interest to note that the most appropriate come-back in a decade was that made by the editor of Life, in reply to a letter of complaint "I protest against the exposure of the Indian Basket Trick in your magazine". The retort "If magicians do not want their tricks…
Before spoiling this page with venom, I want to bask for a moment in the memory of Frederick Eugene Powell, who passed away February 28th. I certainly didn't make much of an impression when, at 15, I greeted him with a masterful attitude near the home town. His memory is one of graciousness and unaffected kindness, for then, as well as during later years, he never was too busy or occupied to talk, give sound advice, and leave one with a sunny feeling. Frederick Eugene Powell was making friends and influencing people before Dale Carnegie had stopped throwing stones and…
Ending all space allotments to the Proskauer Publicity Pageant which has reached its odoriferous climax, we fulfill our promise of last month to let you know what happened. The New York Times reporter, whose findings are reproduced below, cannot be surpassed for his description of the events as they appeared to him. He certainly understood the situation very well. The Jinx congratulates Mr Proskauer on his successful evasion of the axe. Winding up the year we should bow low to The Mysterious Dr Ross, who is nearing the end of his second YEAR in the Rockerfeller Rainbow Room. Dr Ross,…
One wonders at times about the current fad of exposing and asks where will it end. Certainly at no time in the history of magic (and exposing has always been with us) has world wide revealing of secrets been so steady and thorough. It is our humble belief that it's mainly due to the greater production of picture and photo magazines. Like the radio, such publications are desperately hungry for material, and magical trickery lends itself very well for the purpose. Television, when it becomes a practical bit of household furniture like the radio, will be a boon to the…
When we say we don't take advertising, you readers are supposed to pass over letters (that we must honorably reproduce because of having made a crack or two in someone's direction) in which the writer gets back at us by unmercifully plugging his product. I like Keith Clark. I have since 24 hours after he first put a foot on our soil. He knows the psychology of deception. And he can talk intelligently about subjects other than magic or trickery. I like Jean Hugard. He's natural. He's as nice to the lowliest of amateurs as he is to the highest…
Nazi tactics are out of order in many ways, but it cannot be denied that they do right well by their magicians. The National Chamber of Theatres has decreed against exposing, and definitely forbids magi from explaining their artifices publicly. Sometime ago they were stopped from stage exposing, and now they are stopped from any printed exposures. Would like that we had a law like that over here. The Nazi edict sort of makes up for the other decree which forbids magi using any "eatables" in their acts, such as milk, eggs, etc., because a waste of food is not…