If you exploit the name of Cagliostro in any manner, you should run to cover a moment after reading this newspaper answer to the question "Who was Cagliostro, and what is the present-day application of the name?" The answer. "Cagliostro was Giuseppe Balsamo, an infamous charlatan, impostor, faker and literary thief, who assumed the title and name Count Allessandro Cagliostro and toured Europe towards the close of the eighteenth century, posing as a miracle man. He was born in Palermo, Sicily, in 1743, and died in jail at St Leon in 1795. Hence, the name Cagliostro is applied to any…
Jim Sherman has been in town (N.Y.C., Ed.). He masterminds the Gift Shop at Chicago's Palmer House, and with Vic Torsberg as manager operates a magic emporium on a higher floor of the same hostelry. We like his attitude towards the "wise guys" who come into the spot and admit they know how everything is done. No matter what is demonstrated, the fellow "knows" and doesn't quibble about telling everyone present of his claimed knowledge. He gets the "silent treatment" which we have suggested for several years as an effective weapon against exposers in the magical ranks. The poor boob…
As of September 5, 1941 - - - Undoubtedly what I now record will be a madman's pecking at his typewriter, to most of you who read these lines. We met an unusual person a few weeks ago, and, among other weird ideas propounded, he told us how he had developed his senses of sight, hearing, and touch, to an extremely sensitive degree. His actions were based on the known fact that a loss of one sense results in making one's remaining senses proportionately more acute. First he stuffed up his ears for a week. His sense of sight gave…
As of October 28, 1941 - - - Orson Welles, the Martian Mystic, did better than The Jinx during past weeks. He made an appearance. However, the Sacramento (California) reporters for the Bee and Union newspapers saw fit to tell their readers that the "boy wonder of stage, screen and radio" might have but evidently didn't send 15,000 people away from the State Fair impressed with his omnipotence. It seems that Mr. Welles was willing to do his magic before reviewers who said that "about the most unexpected thing he could have done last night, as the featured attraction" --…
As of November 18, 1941 - - - I must say that I was thinking the same thing, even if only to bolster up that egoistic complex within all beings. It has to do with what Jinx dealers are passing on to our ears. Subscribers, as well as counter buyers, are getting disgusted with the ne'er-do-well appearances of this sheet, supposedly a weekly, but obviously a weakling. An alibi? Only our blood would suffice. An answer? Only something unsaleable to outrageous fiction magazines would be your reply. A promise? Only something. At the end of our first set of fifty…
As of December 15, 1941 - - - The Clinic, so called, has taken space here before. The magicians who attend the meetings believe that one should help another to be a better prestidigitator. This New York City group started as a clique of the S.A.M. They made a point of asking only members of that society to be present. The Clinic was well founded. It was born of a weak spot in the society's make-believe constitution. You just can't accept members a la recommendations per application blanks without giving those persons (whether they deserve it or not) some sort…
As of August 4, 1941 - - - We know that but a comparative few of our readers entertain in clubs and restaurants where the tabled guests demand close-up tricks, but Dell O'Dell's "perambulator" deserves description. Her chromium plated "push-around" is a veritable magic shop on wheels. About 3 feet high, 14 inches deep, and 20 inches wide, this demi-demonstrator wagon opens on top and to her side giving access to endless gags, give-away novelties, and quick tricks of the always ready type. When the customers haven't been satisfied with the amount of floor trickery she presents, it takes but…
As of August 20, 1941 - - - One of the most popular of Jinx issues was #69 which featured Sefalaljia, a miniature spirit cabinet routine by Stewart James. A weird happening among the others occurred when the "spirit" or "entity" visibly drank from a milk bottle placed inside with a straw. From Herb Rungie comes a means of accomplishing the effect without the need of an expensive and mechanical bottle. Insert a small white-rubber balloon part way in an ordinary milk bottle. Blow it up to correct size and tie the neck shut. Push it way down into the…
As of August 25, 1941 - - - Our honor, presuming that we have such a thing, is at stake, at least to us. Some years ago Thayer advertised a Knock 'Em Dead effect of Arthur Buckley's (and, by the way, whatever has become of he and his wife, who, as "The Australian Buckley's", did a very neat telepathic act and horoscope business?). The stunt depended upon the securing from the pocket of one of ten paper pellets, the container being a block of wood with holes bored for the carrying of rolled papers. The effect was exceedingly nice, and…
As of June 30, 1941 - - - It seems as if the heat wave around the East has driven most of the local from cover, which is why we can't find them in their usual dark haunts. Lucky Russell Swann opens at the Rainbow Room (N.Y.C.) on July 2nd, where, some fifty stories high he can feel what breeze there may be. The press has been receptive to mystics, however. John Mulholland snared a 3 min., 50 sec. reading time article in Liberty mag for July 5 entitled The Smarter They Are, The Harder They Fall. "Magic," says J.M.,…