This can be called one of the truly few tricks explainable almost in entirety by illustration. As we go on with words, however, please glance, from time to time, at the sketches. The magician may talk about Houdini's needles, should he wish, and then say that a modern mysticist, always beleaguered by advertising of the present day and age, must resort to the use of such articles if his performance is not to become dated. Therefore, he shows a package of double edged razor blades and drops them from the broken package onto a tin (anything that makes resounding noise)…
The trick is ruthless, but effective. The audience sees four envelopes passed out, and four cards taken from the pack by those people. The cards are sealed, collected by a fifth person, mixed well, and laid, BY HIM, in a row on a table between performer and audience. Now the magus speaks out. He wants to show that a sympathy exists between people and the objects they have touched. To emphasize that sympathy he will let each of the four people pass through a sieve of chance. Each of the four persons is given his chance. Each, in turn, keeps…
The boys on the front cover may not be of the best looking calibre, that is, as far as sketches go, but as a clan of conjuror thinking magi they can be depended upon to break down any problem of magic submitted to their collective brains. This elite crew of mystical trouble shooters are engaged in modernizing, by method, some of the classics. In the Jinx #73, the effect of rising cards was rather well taken care of, and in the present issue the effect of a torn and restored strip of paper will be made to look more attractive…
When Genii started publication one of its first great effects was the Tenkai Glass Levitation. It caused much comment and became popular as tricks go. Frank Ducrot added an ancient smoke effect to the feat to greatly enhance the presentation, AND IMPROVED THE GIMMICK. Whereas the original idea used a short bit of knotted thread, and subsequent tightening of the knots would cause failure, the Ducrot gimmick was of metal and entirely did away with chance of accident. Frank showed this to us on Nov. 8, 1937 and gave us permission to use it in The Jinx. We never did…
Our greatest magical regret is that we never saw Houdini on the stage. It hurts because, unlike Kellar and Hermann, we missed a performance of the arch mystifier and master publicist by but a few months. When mother woke us on that morning of October 31, 1926 with the paper that carried his picture on the front page we cried. As we can analyze it now, 14 years later, and with the name of Houdini still, if not more, important in every type of literature as a noun-verb, it must have been in anguish that we had lost an opportunity…
Here's an odd one for the notebook. Dave Allison forwarded it from Dr. George W Crane's column in the April 29 issue of the Daily (N.Y.) News. We quote, "Today I'll reveal Houdini's secret of holding his breath more than four minutes. Follow the instructions. (A) Without preliminary deep breathing, inhale a single deep breath. Hold it as long as possible. Record the time. (B) After resting a few minutes, rapidly inhale and exhale deeply for at least twelve times. Then hold the last deep breath as long as possible. Record the time. It should be at least 20 to…
Mr. Magician displays a cocktail glass... and patters about the strange qualities of the liquid within. Should you drink it -- your neighbor would feel the inebriating effects. Really ! Let us demonstrate. Sir Hocus-Pocus removes a drinking straw from a box, and rips it in half. Using one of the halves, he sucks it full of the strange liquor and transfers the filled straw to a spectator, who caps a finger over both ends of it. Now the other half of the straw is brought into use. It is empty, but is capped in the same manner by another…
This is a suggested "variation" of The Incredible Thumb Restraint utilizing an extra long thumb tip, with all due credit to its originator, Mr. Frank M. Chapman. In the December 1937 issue of GENII was explained how Mr. Chapman was suspected of slipping a thumb free by his physician who had just witnessed an exhibition of the Thumb Tie effect. The doctor tried to circumvent such a happening by having his subject, or patient, hold out his thumbs, not crossed as in the usual versions, but side by side. Around these he bound several inches of stout adhesive tape. Out…
For those who would emulate the "six finger" card rise of Mr. Clayton Rawson, as cleverly pictured in the Jinx of February 3rd (#78), form and contour two "clips from slightly flattened 16 gauge brass wire to fit (inside) the second finger snugly. Then remove the necessary paint from your favorite finger tip, solder or rivet the clips to this at the points indicated in the drawing and re-paint. Its purpose, especially after looking back at Mr. Rawson's poses, is quite obvious. The five digits are apparently seen to be holding the cards vertically and facing the audience, the thumb…