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THE VERNON CHRONICLES VOLUME IV

Dai Vernon, "The Professor"

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE

* Editors Bruce Cervon Keith Burns Associate Editors Linda Cervon Paul Hunt Produced By Bruce Cervon Cover Design Tom Gagnon

*

Published By L & L Publishing P. 0. Box 100, Tahoma, California 96142

A special thanks to these good friends for all their help: David Avadon, Bill Bowers, Richard Buffum, Chick Carrano, Tom Conti, Dr. Donald Desfor, Irving Desfor, Louis Falanga, Steve Falanga, Luke McKissack, Hal Meyers, Mike Perovich, Jim Patton, Tony Spina (Louis Tannen, Inc.), T. A. Waters, and Elizabeth and Ron Wilson.

FIRST EDITION O Copyright 1992

Bruce Cervon All Right Reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or any i~~formation storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented without the permission of the publishers. Printed and bound in the United States of America.

Table of Contents Volume 4 Foreword by Richard Buffum.......................................................................

xi

Introduction ..................................................................................................... xiv Magic's Past and Future................................................................................. 3 My First Hundred Years .............................................................................

6

PART ONE 1 8 9 6 1 9 1 6................................................................................. 9 I Try to Fly and Other Early Memories ................................................. 11 My Father's Principles for Life............................................................... 14 My Father and My First Magic Tricks ................................................... 15 My First Playing Cards ............................................................................ 17 Learning about Silhouettes ..................................................................... 18 My First Magician .................................................................................... 20 Going Backstage ....................................................................................... 22 Some Thoughts on Thurston .................................................................. 26 My First Trip to the Pawn Shop ............................................................. 27 Mother and Magic ................................................................................. 28 The Carnegie Library in Ottawa ............................................................ 31 Magic Books .............................................................................................. 33 My Attack on Magic................................................................................. 35 Practice....................................................................................................... 36 Know the Terms ....................................................................................... 38 You Should be an Engineer ..."............................................................ 39 Cliff Green ................................................................................................. 40 New York and Coney Island .................................................................. 42 Carny Games.......................................................................................... 45 Carnival Talk............................................................................................. 51 Larry Grey, the Dizzy Wizard ............................................................... 53 My Brother Napier and the Army ........................................................ 58 'I

PART TWO 1917-193938 ................................................................................ 59 New York ...1917....................................................................................... 61 New York's Magic Shops ........................................................................ 67 Powers' Magic Shop............................................................................... 69 Harry Kellar and Thurston ..................................................................... 73 The Short Card.......................................................................................... 77 Doc Elliott, He Played with a Full Deck ............................................... 78 vii

The Inner Circle ....................................................................................... 83 "Just Think of a Card ..."......................................................................... 85 "The Tricks of the Greeks" ...................................................................... 87 Gamblers................................................................................................... 90 The Three Card Monte ......................................................................... 92 The Masked Man. One of My Heros...................................................... 93 Hofzinser. Another of My Heros ......................................................... 95 On Using Trick Cards .............................................................................. 98 Jeanne Comes into My Life .................................................................. 99 ........................................................................................ Women in Magic 101 Nate Leipzig .............................................................................................. 103 My First Professional Engagement ........................................................ 104 The Union League Club.......................................................................... 107 Cardini ...................................................................................................... 109 Doc Tarbell ............................................................................................... 114 Jud Cole..................................................................................................... 1 15 Horace Goldin and the Unusual Cane ................................................. 116 Alfred Benzone. "Originator of Ectoplasm" ......................................... 117 The Man Who Fooled Vernon ................................................................ 120 Malini's Misdirection .............................................................................. 122 Malini. Still Another Hero...................................................................... 124 Malini and the Queen ............................................................................. 1 27 On Meeting Thomas Edison .................................................................. 128 Silhouettes and Agents ........................................................................... 129 Mr. Houdini and Madame Houdin ....................................................... 130 More Memories of Harry Houdini......................................................... 131 Houdini and Spiritualism ..................................................................... 136 Ted "Male" Vernon ............................................................................. 138 Cuba .......................................................................................................... 141 Sawing a Woman in Half in Cuba.......................................................... 143 My Black Magic in Cuba.......................................................................... 144 Sam Margules and Dickie the Dunce..................................................... 145 Mentalists................................................................................................... 149 Touring America....................................................................................... 150 Jarrow and Van Hoven ............................................................................ 152 Dai Yen or Dr . Chung ..............................................................................156 Fred Keating ............................................................................................. 158 Mr . Shock and the Rubber Bands......................................................... 161 Dad Stevens-"The Mysterious Kid" ...................................................... 163 The Fabulous Center Deal .......................................................................166 Charlie Miller. "I'm a Dice Man" .......................................................... 168 My Life as Edward Brown ...................................................................... 170 J . Warren Keane ....................................................................................... 171 William J . Hilliar ....................................................................................... 172 Tommy Downs. "The King of Koins"................................................... 174

Harry Blackstone ...................................................................................... 179 Vernon in Print ......................................................................................... 180 Jean Hugard .............................................................................................. 185 The Wonderful Faro Box ......................................................................... 188 Paul Fox and FDR .................................................................................... 193 Neepie ........................................................................................................ 195 The Cigarette Trick .................................................................................. 196 Frank Tobey's Gambling Furniture ....................................................... 197 Garnet Lee. the Chinaman's Toy............................................................ 200 Secrets......................................................................................................... 203 Australian Slang ..................................................................................... 204 Effects Defined.......................................................................................... 207 Entertaining the Rich ............................................................................... 210 The Linking Rings .................................................................................... 212 My Brother Napier Dies .......................................................................... 214 PART THREE 1939-1963 ............................................................................. 215 My Harlequin Act ................................................................................... 217 Doves Steal the Show at the Rainbow Room .................................... 220 Compeer. the Monkey ............................................................................. 222 How I Became "The Professor".............................................................. 224 Fu Manchu ................................................................................................ 226 The Mind-Reading Box............................................................................ 229 On the Same Bill with Charlie Chaplin ................................................. 231 Dante .......................................................................................................... 232 Sam Horowitz Becomes Me!................................................................... 233 From Blueprints to Broken Arms ........................................................... 237 .. C~tizenship ................................................................................................. 239 Shade ..........................................................................................................240 With the US0 in World War I1............................................................... 243 Dan Cummings......................................................................................... 244 Milbourne Christopher and the Cuban Lottery ................................. 253 Annemann's Bullet Catch........................................................................ 254 Annemann's Suicide ................................................................................ 255 Roy Benson ............................................................................................... 256 On Being Natural .................................................................................. 258 Cruising .................................................................................................. 260 A Couple of Funny Moments ................................................................ 263 The Old Vaudeville Formula .................................................................. 265 Old Cards .. .New Cards .......................................................................... 267 Authority.................................................................................................... 271 The Father of the Modern Lecture Series.............................................. 272 Great Tricks.............................................................................................. 274 Simple Ideas Drive People Crazy........................................................... 276 A Pocket Trick"....................................................................................... 278 /I

How to be Effective................................................................................. 280 Classics....................................................................................................... 282 An Original Thought ..............................................................................284 Art in the Craft.......................................................................................... 285 Traveling Magicians ............................................................................... 286 Through the Looking-Glass .................................................................... 288 The Pass...................................................................................................... 290 On Performing ..........................................................................................292 What's Wrong with Magic ...................................................................... 293 My Family................................................................................................. 295 Afterword .................................................................................................. 298 INDEX .............................................................................................................301

PHOTO CREDITS................................................................................... 307

FOREWORD Richard Buffuml The origin of this account of Dai Vernon's life took place in the living room of my home, then in Montecito, California, a suburb of Santa Barbara. Previously, Vernon and Charlie Miller had been house guests there when they performed on the "Like Magic" show. Vernon knew the bed was comfortable and the food good, although gastronomy was not one of his strong points, nor sleep either. He ate simply and little, and sleep he did, but not on the schedule of the average mortal. He'd go to bed at about three o'clock in the morning and arise in the early afternoon, if not sooner. His waking hours were intensely preoccupied with magic. There in Montecito Vernon began a week long story of his life and philosophy. For about five hours each day he talked into one of those old heavy Ampex tape recording machines. By the end of the sessions on October 2, 1965, Vernon had filled seven miles of tape, his recital occasionally interrupted by my questions. By the time I drove him home to Hollywood, I was punchy from loss of sleep but Vernon, then in his 70s and 30 years my senior, was as spry as ever, despite having talked and magicked the nights away until the wee morning hours. There had to be some mysterious youthful elixir for him in the fumes of whatever brand of cigars he was smoking. The transcribed manuscript comprises the foundation of this autobiography which, to my great delight, has at last been completed by its editors, Bruce Cervon and his associates. My intention was to write Vernon's biography, but procrastination, non-magical business and personal pressures conspired against it. A couple of other writers attempted to take over the task but organization of the taped material was daunting and the project was abandoned-until Cervon and company brought the work to splendid completion. During the taping I recall that Vernon remarked more than once on the importance of practice. He said he rarely watched television without a ' ~ i c h a r d"Dick" Buffum was born in Long Beach, California in 1921, and learned magic from Hoffmann's Modern Magic at the age of twelve. He was a Los Angeles Times newspaper columnist until retiring in 1987 to publish fine books through his own Abracadabra Press. He is in the Society of American Magicians Hall of Fame and has received the H. Adrian Smith Literary Award.

deck of cards in his hand as he perfected or improved some sleight. His hands and keen intellect were hardly ever idle. Such dedication to an art form is the mark of a master. To observe Vernon perform with the utterly disarming naturalness that concealed his expert, secret manipulations was to experience an authentic magical genius at work.

Dai Vernon relating his life story to Richard Buffum, October, 1965

For several days during the taping, he riffle shuffled a deck of cards on the table top. My impression was that he was merely idly toying with the cards as he talked. One afternoon I remarked upon the shuffling. Vernon confessed that he was doing his version of Herb Zarrow's Full Deck Control, a false shuffle during which a twisting action causes the interlaced cards to separate, leaving the original order of the cards intact. I was astonished. I'd noticed nothing out of the ordinary during at least 100 shuffles! This was a telling example of why Vernon was the premier concert and close-up magician of this century. He worked at it; magic was his magnificent obsession. It rightfully may be claimed that equal proficiency in sleight of hand was achieved by his peers. Yet two attributes elevated Vernon above all of them. The first was his vast depth and breadth of magical innovation with

playing cards in particular, and with coins, balls and other small objects. The second was his theoretical and physical approach to sleight of hand. This involved painstaking attention to natural actions as cover or "shade" to conceal the crucial secret movements of a sleight and disarming simplicity of magical plot, the ultimate design being to create a truly magical effect. It is upon this kind of subtle and difficult misdirection that the better, younger generations of magicians are building their reputations, inspired by this master magician and teacher who bears the respectful title of "The Professor". The Professor is to magic of our century what the great Viennese magician Dr. Johann Nepomuk Hofzinserz was to the 19th century. It is perhaps significant that Vernon was fond of quoting Hofzinser's dictum that, "Card effects are the poetry of ~onjuring."~ For if I were challenged to name one crowning quality the Professor brought to card magic it would have to be poetry. In fact, the sum total of Dai Vernon's magical legacy to future generations of magicians is, without doubt, soundly poetical. Richard Buffum Balboa Island, California, 1992

L~ohann Nepomuk Hofzinser, (Ph.D) was born in Austria in 1806. After graduating from the University of Vienna, he became a civil servant. He later became a full-time performer entertaining the elite of Vienna in his intimate salon. He was a brilliant innovator. Among his inventions are the Envelope Card, Shell Coin, Book Test, Everywhere and Nowhere, Black Art Table, Slit Glass, Spring Balls, Flags of All Nations, Card Frame, Card Star, Dancing Cane, Mirror Glass, and the small packet card trick. 3~ditor'snote: The complete quote is, "Card effects are the poetry of conjuring. Without poetry, there could be no poets. Without card effects, no conjurers-ven had one the power to cast spells." 0

xiii

INTRODUCTION Bruce Cervon More years ago than I'd like to admit, I received from Elizabeth and Ron Wilson a five inch stack of paper; the transcript of tapes which were to be turned into a book. Dai Vernon had spent a solid week at Richard Buffurn's home in 1965 for the purpose of putting his life story on audio tape. Dick was to write the Dai Vernon biography. Dick just related these memories so 1/11move ahead a short duration to when he gave the transcript to Elizabeth Wilson. Elizabeth, who is a fine writer, thought she might be able to get the material in shape. After working on it for awhile she instead wrote a shorter Sunday supplementtype article, "A Visit With Dai Vernon" which appears in the first volume of The Verno~iChronicles. Years passed and Karl Fulves employed a very small portion of the transcript to write the short history of Vernon's life which appears in the Vernon Folios. Finally, Elizabeth and Ron, with Dick's blessing, gave the transcript to me to see if I could get the job done. Performing kept me occupied so the material sat until an old friend, Paul Hunt, read the transcript and was fascinated by it. He felt that it ~ ~ l u be s f put into book form. His enthusiasm sparked me and together we asked another longtime friend and professional writer, Keith Burns, to try his hand at the project. After finishing nearly half of the book, Keith lost it all when his computer's hard drive went out. He had to move to other projects but still meant to do it. But after several years he did give me a manuscript of about 50,000 words which, because he was not a magician and was not familiar with the language, needed heavy editing. This was, however, what I needed.. .a start. So with my wife Linda's invaluable help I added another 60,000 words and the job was finished! Little did I know how long it would take before that stack of paper would become what it is now, Dai Vernon's life story. I only hope that this is the book that Dick Buffum would have written in the 1960s when he so painstakingly interviewed Dai. Unfortunately many good friends of Dai's are left out, but in a book such as this, one can only relate the most colorful and interesting portions of a person's life. Comfortable day to day experiences aren't very interesting to the casual reader.

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My sincere thanks to all who helped make this easier-my demon proofreaders; David Avadon, Tom Conti, Luke McKissack, T. A. Waters, and, of course, Jim Patton, who is a fountain of knowledge in many areas. Dr. Donald Desfor, Irving Desfor, Hal Meyers and Tony Spina (Louis Tannen, Inc.) for photos. Bill Bowers and Chick Carrano for taking care of Dai, Elizabeth and Ron Wilson for turning the manuscript over to me, and most of all Richard Buffurn for the original work. We have tried to keep the flavor of the transcript so that it would seem as if Dai himself is talking to you about his history and philosophy. Hopefully you will feel like you are sitting with him while he shares the experiences of his life. This is an anecdotal biography which follows Dai from his birth to his coming to the Magic Castle in 1963. Except for a few recent comments from Dai, this work represents the original transcript. Born in Canada as David Frederick Wingfield Verner, he learned a few tricks from his father as a boy and developed a lifelong interest in the magical arts. Upon moving to New York City permanently in 1917, he became one of the top silhouette artists. Shortly after he became one of the world's premier sleight of hand magicians. Dai is known world-wide as "The Professor" and was one of the five original members of the New York "Inner Circle of Magic". He was voted one of the ten greatest living "Card Stars" in 1938, and won the Sphinx Award in 1948. He was a teacher at the Louis Tannen School of Magic in 1961-62, and moved to Hollywood to become the Resident Magician at the Magic Castle in 1963. There he became the mentor of some of the best magicians of the modern day. I was one of the first to come to California along with Larry Jennings, then Ray Grismer and Michael Skinner, and later Earl Nelson, Jeff Altman, Steve Freeman, David Roth and John Carney. In 1968, Dai received the very first Academy of Magical Arts Master's Fellowship and was a member of the Academy of Magical Arts Board of Directors from 1976 to 1979, becoming then a Member Emeritus. Other awards received include the 1983 CMI Order of the Magic Lamp, the SAM Hall of Fame and the 1988 Fred Kaps Award. He performed for America's elite and hobnobbed with fellow entertainers, but his interest in carnivals, crooked games and gamblers led him in the opposite direction-the underworld. This is the story of a life like no other, the story of the greatest natural magician the world has ever seen-the fantastic story of the man who fooled Houdini. Bruce Cervon Hollywood, California, 1992

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

MAGIC'S PAST AND FUTURE There are amateurs in every walk of life but the people who are involved with magic are a different breed entirely. Magic isn't like any other hobby. Even men who have a sharp deadline for going to bed, find when they get together with a magic group their whole philosophy changes. It's a fever that seems to grip people at times. I have noticed this with all hobbies, the deeper you get into them, the more gripping they become. Skill is the key. I know any number of people who have collected a few tricks or pieces of apparatus and think that they'll learn or perform them sometime. Occasionally they take the now-tarnished coin out of a drawer and polish it; or if the rubber band on some piece of apparatus has worn out, they'll replace it. In other words, they are liable to give u p magic completely, but somehow they're still mildly interested in the subject. But if a fellow acquires a few skills, and learns to handle the apparatus fairly well, he is less inclined to give it up; the greater the accumulation of magic, or the accumulation of books, the less likely he is to give it up. It can the11 get to be your master after a time. A sculptor once told me the better you get at a subject the more your audience is limited. You can get so advanced that there is no audience in the world for you. I can see that. You could get to a point where you are ahead of everybody, there is nobody left to appreciate all the nuances. The deeper you get into anything, the more it fascinates you and you go deeper. There is so much in magic. I remember Fred Keating remarking that, "Magic has gone Rotarian," and I tend to agree. In the old days, it was a very difficult thing to attain a knowledge of magic; there were only a few books written and the libraries didn't carry them. You had to know the right people. Perhaps it would be a year before you could locate the book you were looking for or locate the place to buy the apparatus for a certain effect. But magic is so accessible today that you can walk into almost any book store and find a section on magic and most novelty stores carry little tricks. There are still secret places where they make the better types of apparatus. If you are in the know, there are places to buy a better gimmicked coin, a better Die Box, or a better fake card than the standard ones which are available to most people. True, there are some magicians who tend not to share these places with their fellows, but on the whole, tl~ere'sa tremendous new world of magic open to everyone that did not

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: exist when I started. There is an almost endless fascination about magic. You can't learn everything about magic, there are too many facets. It's a kind of challenge; you can't learn it all in a short time, you can't exhaust it. For people who are interested there is something fresh all the time, something to learn. That's why there are more entl~usiaststoday than in the old days. The funny part of all this is that people who can't sing, dance, play a musical instrument or do anything else to entertain, thirzk they can do magic. And many fall by the wayside when they realize it's not as easy as they first thought. The tragic thing is that a lot of people feel they can b t ~ y ability, but even the simplest trick requires a great deal of practice, experience, and showmanship. Anybody can read a story but few can tell a story well and it's the same with magic. The fortunate thing about magic (to flip the coin to the other side) is that a lot of people can mystify themselves in front of a mirror and get a great sense of enjoyment out of it because their imagination carries them away.

A major problem confronting the amateur magician is his approach to the subtleties of the art. Most amateurs are totally absorbed in the method of the trick and don't think enough about how tlie trick looks to the audience. A magician, either professional or amateur, must put himself in the position of the viewer. The magician may be doing twenty things he thinks are subtle and effective, but to the spectator he looks like he is clumsily shuffling the pack--cutting, crimping and bending. Amateurs have to bear this in mind, but a lot of them don't and sometimes it is deplorable. All through the ages, the amateurs have made contributions to method and technique; the professional found the commercial, amusing, or entertaining way to present the tricks. But many of the effects, the ideas-I'd say ninety percent-came from amateurs. They have the enthusiasm and the interest to create new effects. Then the professional takes them and is able to sell tl~emto an audience. My friend, Arthur Finley4, was quite an analyst and one of the brightest amateurs I ever knew. He once told me, and I believe the same thing, that some little boy, or amateur, somewhere, someplace, will develop something new; a new format, a new way of presenting magic that will make a terrific impact on the whole field. Somebody in magic is going to find a way, I don't know how. He may tie it u p with outer space, Mars; something that's going to capture the public's fancy. I feel certain 4 ~ r t h u rFinley was a highly paid commercial artist in New York City in the 1920s and 30s. He was one o f the five original members o f the New York "Inner Circle" and an extremely clever amateur card man. He was one o f Dai Vernon's closest friends during this period.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 that this is going to happen. Magic has been a pastime through the centuries and it has always intrigued people. It's mystical, mysterious; there's going to be a renaissance in magic.5

If this happens there will be a great surge with all the young talent who have all the new thoughts; it will be a wonderful jump forward. But there is much that has to change before this renaissance happens. Today, magicians are still doing tricks with candles, old blunderbusses, and other things that nobody sees except in antique shops. They still use the old tables covered with drapes right down to the floor and old top hats. We are rapidly approaching the 21st century and magic has to put aside the past and lead the way into the future. I am optimistic about the future of magic and the people who will carry on with this ancient art.. .professional and amateur.

5 ~ d i t o r r Note: s These thoughts on the future of magic were voiced before Doug Henning, then Penn and Teller, and David Copperfield made such an impact on the American public. They all had new formats and different methods of presenting the ancient art of magic

H E FOOLED HOUDINI:

MY FIRST HUNDRED YEARS My life has been multi-faceted to say the least. In my time, I have been a silhouette cutter, lamp shade painter, foreman, teacher, sleight of hand artist, magician, lecturer and author. I have known every magician, major and minor, and almost every would-be magician of this century. I have been told that I am the last of the old time magicians and I guess that's true as far as it concerns longevity. When it comes to magic, however, my thoughts are not old time, my mind is not old time. I still keep up on all the latest tricks and the latest magicians. I love to share my knowledge with the young people coming u p and still find pleasure learning something brand new from anybody who has talent. That all my fellow pioneers in magic are gone now is a simple statement of fact. That their talent and inventiveness continues on in a new generation of magicians is also a fact. I want to tell their story by telling mine. Like Isl~mael,in Herman Melville's Moby Dick, I alone am left alive to tell thee. This is not a book of dates. Many of the days and years of my life are melded together into a frightful stew of forgetfulness. What is not forgotten are the memories of the people I've met and the people I've loved. They can never be forgotten and I want to share then1 with you, the reader. But most of all, I want to share my first and longest love with you; my love with the most beautiful and gentle of mistresses.. .magic.

I learned early in my life that achieving anything was a great pleasure but I felt rather empty after I reached the goal. I don't think any child looked forward to Christmas more than I did. I used to wake u p Christmas morning, peek out from under my bed clothes, and run down to the Christmas tree and the presents. After I had opened all the packages and found some domil~oesor a little toy train, the whole holiday seemed to be very empty. The realization was not as exciting as the imagining. That's why I was always fascinated with magic, you never attain your goal, you can't reach perfection; but you can strive. In sleight of hand magic you can't promise to learn a certain tl~ing.It's possible for you to work on a thing for years, and after all that time be only a little bit better. The mechanics are the simple thing; anyone can pick out a scale on the piano with one finger but it takes hours of practice to gain the coordination, rl~ythm,and flexibility that it takes to become a virtuoso. All these things, coordination, rhytl~m,and flexibility pertain to magic in

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 the same way they do to music.

Pencil and ink drawing of Verner family crest

I thought about waiting for my 100th birthday to finish this book; the idea of my book of memoirs being issued as a centennial edition in my 100th year was definitely tempting, but quickly discarded. My life has been full of rich and wondrous things and it is my sincere wish that, in some small way, I can take my readers back to a time when giants trod the boards and magic was truly magical.

PART ONE 1894-1916

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

I TRY TO FLY AND OTHER EARLY MEMORIES That I am quickly approaching my first hundred years of life attests to the obvious fact that I was born. For the record, I was born on the eleventh day of June, 1894, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, in the fiftyseventh year of the glorious reign of Queen Victoria. My grandfather, Albert Cole Verner, came to Canada from Ireland in 1835, and ten years later, on March 14, 1845, my father was born and christened James William David Verner. Some years later a certain Miss Helen E. Spiers consented to wed Mr. James Verner and a short time later, on June llth, 1894, a son was born to this proper Victorian Canadian couple. I was the first of three sons they would have, and was named David Frederick Wingfield Verner. My two brothers, Charles Napier was born in 1899, and Arthur, quite a bit later, in 1910. Some years later, as a boy, I got the nick name "Dai" when a newspaper typographical error dubbed me Dai instead of David. My childhood was filled with all the fun and adventure, joy and pain experienced by most children of my era, or any era for that matter. Ours was a con~fortablelife. My father's work with the Canadian government gave us certain advantages over other families and my parents made sure we received a proper education and strong moral guidance. My father would spend a lot of time with his children and he began my interest in things magical from an early age with little tricks and games shown me while sitting on his lap. The first trick I remember ever attempting was at the age of two. I tried to fly ...but failed. I had made some wings out of paper and was climbing a tree to do a little flying over this plot of land when I fell. I broke my arm. It was 1896, right before Queen Victoria's Jubilee which was a year later. We were living on Argyle Avenue in Ottawa at that time. We lived in an old fasl~iol~ed house, not too large; the neighborhood was sparsely settled. There was a great big empty plot of land opposite our house where I used to play. In the winter, part of it would freeze over and my friends and I would skate there. This property was owned by a wealthy man named McLeod and later became the site for the Ottawa Museum. We moved a couple of times during my early childhood from Argyle Avenue to a large three-storey house on McLaren Street and then, not

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART ONE 1894--1916 very long after that, to a large house on Waverly Street in one of Ottawa's finer residential districts. The house had a furnished attic where the maid slept and once I built a Mysterious Cabinet against one of the walls. I cut a hole in the wall and put a trunk in front of it. Then I fixed up a fake panel in the back of the trunk. I could climb into the trunk, open the panel and go through the hole in the wall to disappear from my playmates.

David (Dai) Verner (age 8) and Napier Verner (age 3), 1902

I also made a magic casket that answered questions. We had a large cabinet which nearly touched the ceiling so I bored a hole through the tar and pebble roof of the house and my brother used to get up on top of the roof. He would rap the top of the cabinet with a thin stick and the kids would look with awe. I, of course, would pull down the blinds, light a

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 candle and create as mysterious an atmosphere as possible. Once in a while I would get ambitious and charge one or two pennies for admission and get as many as six or seven kids to watch the magic act I'd put on. My mother would always ask me, "Who are all these children tramping through the house?" Once, during a severe storm, water poured into the house from that hole in the roof. My father investigated, found out about the hole and gave me quite a reprimand about it. During my childhood years, I was totally involved in doing little boy things. It seems like I grew u p quickly and learned to ride a bike, skate, read and all the ordinary things a boy does. I was always interested in learning something, whether skating, tumbling, turning somersaults, I seemed kappiest when I was striving to learn. As I grew older, I became more interested in learning about magic, and also greatly enjoyed playing sports. I was a good scholar but a much better athlete. I was captain of my football (soccer) and my hockey team. As for magic, I couldn't learn enough about the art and read all the books I could find on the subject, whether they were encyclopedias, catalogues, or how-to books. I attended a normal public school for my elementary grades and then went to Ashbury College for my high school education. They called it a college, but it was actually a preparatory school for college. My mother chose Ashbury College because she always thought that the English masters taught better manners than the schools that had an English/ French mixture. It would be amazing to the average American to find out that we were not allowed to play baseball. This was, of course, BD. Before Dodgers. The English master wouldn't even allow us to bring a baseball glove to school. I was highly indignant about this; I loved baseball. The English master, who was an old Oxford or Cambridge man, said that baseball encouraged bad language. Baseball players always seemed to be a tough lot, some of them chewed tobacco and most had their hair cut in the same manner, the bowl fashion. This was the cut made by placing a bowl over the head and cutting the hair using the rim of the bowl as a template. He told us to go down to the cricket green and see how gentlemanly a cricket game is conducted; not like baseball at all. I bowled at cricket but I never liked it. It's the slowest game in the world; unless you are wicket-keeper, bowler, or at bat. You could stand out in the sun for four hours and never once handle the ball. There is no action in cricket at all compared to baseball.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART ONE 1894-1916

MY FATHER'S PRINCIPLES FOR LIFE My father was very lenient wit11 me. I wasn't what you'd call a spoiled brat even though he was lenient. My mother was the real disciplinarian; no nonsense of any kind. My parents didn't much mind what I did, but demanded that I have character through it all. I can remember only a few things that my father told me that really made ail impression. One was, "Never endorse a note. I don't care who it is, never endorse a note. If you have a good friend who wants you to endorse a note, lend him the money but don't put your name on a loan. You could be made very unhappy and inconvenienced if you have payments to meet and can't afford them." At the time I thought this was kind of strange but later on began to understand. He also told me, "Stay out of debt. If you're even a nickel in debt you can be unhappy. Never get in debt." The third thing I can remember was, "If you give your word to somebody, live u p to it. This is a case of character. Live up to your word, don't mislead people or 'con' them and you'll have many friends." I've always tried to live up to these things, of course, but still I'm far from an angel!

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

MY FATHER AND MY FIRST MAGIC TRICKS My father worked for the Canadian Department of Agriculture, in the Trademark and Copyright Branch. In fact, he was the head of his department. When I was a little kid, no more than seven or eight, my father taught me games like chess, parchesi, and poker. We had a little deck of Lord Fauntleroy cards, patience cards, which had no indices in the corners. "Pick out an Ace, a red Ace," he'd say, and I would pick out the Ace of Diamonds or the Ace of Hearts. Then he would say, "Now put it in the center of the pack." He'd hold the pack in his hand and I would push it in. "Now," he would say, "Blow hard-harder." And he would turn over the pack and there was my Ace on the bottom. "Dad, do that again!" I begged. He repeated the trick and got me again. He didn't tell me how it was done for a long time. This was the first trick I remember ever seeing.

I asked my father how he learned to do that and he said, "I learned a few tricks from my father; I was a boy once, you know." One day my father brought home a book which was being copyrighted. It was on gambling but it also contained a few magic tricks. I later found out it was S. W. Erdnase's6 The Expert af tlze Card Table. I asked my father if I could look at the book and he said, "Yes, but only the magic tricks." I was too young to read the parts that pertained to gambling. I was also too young to really understand the writing, but I was fascinated by the illustrations. Each picture had a notation beneath it reading FIG 1, FIG 2, etc. I really wanted to look at the figs; I didn't realize that fig was an abbreviation. Days and years went by and when I was twelve I knew that book by heart.

's. W. Erdnase is the author of Artifice, Ruse ntld Sz~hterfugenf the Cnnl Tnblc, T l ~ Expert e at tlzc Cnrd Tnblc. He is widely believed t o be "E. S. Andrews" which is the reverse of S. W. Erdnase. Little is known about this author, but one theory inakes hill1 Milton Franklin Andrews, a professional card sharp, who was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1872 and died in 1905. He killed hin~selfin San Francisco to evade arrest on charges of murder. This classic book on card sharping sleights had a profound influence on many card sharps and most leading card conjurors including Dai Vernon, Paul LePaul and Dr. Daley.

H E FOOLED HOUDINI: PART ONE 1894-1916 One of the first books I remember was an old, green, single volume encyclopedia which had things about animals, fish, whales, agriculture and a little section on entertainment. Under "Legerdemain" it told how to make the pass with cards and other basic bits of magic. I remember so distinctly, even as a little boy, wondering why did you have to put your fingers exactly in this special way and what did you do then? The answer the great, green encyclopedia gave me was, of course, PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. Sometimes on a special occasion, like my birthday, my father would say, "I'm going to show you something you will really like." This is how I learned my first trick, the chalk trick. We had an oval table, the type that could be opened u p and made larger with leaves, and this was the site of many of my father's magic demonstrations. He led me over to the oval table and took off the tablecloth and told me to bring him an egg cup. He then took my box of colored chalk (I was always coloring things) and he made a red mark 011 the table; then a green mark and finally a yellow mark. He pointed at the three marks and said, "Choose any one of the three colors." I pointed at one of the three colored marks and he covered it with the egg cup. He brought his hand down, with a loud bang, onto the egg cup and when he removed it there was a faint trace of colored chalk in the palm of his hand. "Can you d o it again, Dad?" I would say, "Can you do it with the green this time?" He would repeat the trick over and over again, always with the same results. Sometime later, my brothers and I were playing train under that table and I looked u p and saw three chalk marks right under where he had shown me the trick with the egg cup. My little brain started to work and I figured out that he had placed the marks under the table before he showed me the trick. This let the cat out of the bag and I told my father how he had done the trick. He had simply gotten the correct color on his hand from under the table after I chose. For nearly my entire life I've been trying to figure out how magic is done and my record, so far, has been pretty good.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

MY FIRST PLAYING CARDS My first pack of cards was the Volunteer (miniature) brand because my hands weren't large enough for a regular deck. I used to wonder if my hand would ever be big enough to palm a real card. They had very good cards when I was a kid. One of the playing card companies gave me a list of the ingredients that went into the making of cards: cellulose, lamp black, borax, wax-it's remarkable how many chemicals have been used in the manufacturing of playing cards through the centuries. In the old days, some cards were not opaque, you could hold them up to the light and see through them. This was not good because a person could look at another person's hand and see what they had. That problem was eventually solved by the addition of lamp black (a carbon compound) to the playing card formula. There were other problems which had to be overcome, such as warping and ink fastness; it was a long and difficult process that took several centuries before the modern playing card was perfected. People take for granted how nice and slick cards are, but they don't realize how long and difficult a history surrounds the development of the playing card.

Harry Houdini silhouette cut by Dai Vernon circa 1918

H E FOOLED HOUDINI: PART ONE 1894-191 6

LEARNING ABOUT SILHOUETTES I first learned about magic from my father. I first learned about the art of cutting silhouettes due to my father's job. Because he was an official with the Canadian Department of Agriculture, he was able to take several weeks vacation during the summer. Our whole family would go on vacation, and two or three times we went to Old Orchard Beach, Maine. On one trip down to Old Orchard Beach, I saw this fellow on the pier. I didn't know his name at that time, but he was cutting silhouettes. I watched him and I was fascinated by what he was doing. And what fascinated me more than anything else was an umbrella bag which he had fastened to the side of his easel. He was charging a quarter a silhouette and he would drop each quarter into this long umbrella bag. I brushed u p against the bag and I felt that it was over half full and it was solid to the touch. I remember thinking what a nice way to make money. I sat around for hours watching him. Later when we got back to Old Orchard House, where we were staying, I looked around to find some black paper to try a silhouette of my own. There wasn't any black paper to be had so I took a piece of white writing paper and spread ink over it until it was a wet purple sheet. It wouldn't dry by itself, however, so I held this purple mess over a nearby gas jet to dry it. With my dry purple paper in one hand and a pair of scissors I got from my mother's sewing basket in the other, I proceeded to try and cut my first silhouette. Because I had a fair talent at drawing, I was able to cut out the profile of a face witl~outtoo much difficulty. Later, my father came over to see what I was up to and I said, "Dad, did you see that man cutting those silhouette pictures on the pier?" "Yes," he said, "he's very good." "Look," I said and I showed him my silhouette. He looked at it and he said, "You know, the proportion in this is better than the man's on the pier." I remember I was quite flattered hearing my father give me such a compliment. He almost never gave me any encouragement when I was growing up so these few positive words about being better than the man on the pier just flabbergasted me. Then he said, "But you can't cut out the collar and mount it and fix it u p matted the way the man on the pier did."

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 So this was a challenge too. I thought to myself, how could you cut out a collar? At the turn of the century they used to wear stand-up collars and wing collars, and I began to fool around drawing with a pencil working at it until I made a collar. I felt I cheated a little because I drew it. Then I cut it out and showed it to my father; he said it was pretty good. That was the first silhouette I ever cut and I didn't cut another one until many years later when I was a grown man and had been through Ashbury College and was living in New York. It might be of some interest, at this point, to tell a short history of the silhouette. During the reign of Louis XN of France, the flamboyant King had a Prime Minister by the name of Etienne de Silhouette. He was a man blessed, or cursed, with an overabundance of frugality. The economy of France was one of his concerns and his attentions to things financial was well known throughout the country. The age of photography was almost two centuries into the future and if people wanted to have a picture of someone, either themselves or others, there were only two ways that it could be achieved: a painted or drawn portrait or a shadow picture. Portrait painters charged pretty large sums of money in the 17th century, as they still do today. To make a shadow picture, a person's profile was projected onto a wall thereby reducing it. Then it was traced and cut out. This could be done very cheaply. Because these shadow pictures were far more economical than oil paintings, and because the one man in France most concerned with economics was Monsieur d e Silhouette, his name was soon appropriated to describe the art of shadow picture making. That's how certain words enter into common usage.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART ONE 1894-1916

MY FIRST MAGICIAN The first magician I ever saw was a man named Warren Y. Soper who owned the Auto-Electric Railroad. He was a very wealthy man who used to give demonstrations of magic at children's parties. He didn't charge a fee for entertaining, he just enjoyed performing magic for children. When I was a kid I saw him perform at one of these parties. Once at Britannia Park, in a circus there, I believe I saw a magician do a few tricks, but Soper was the first one I really remember watching perform. He did a number of tricks including an illusion involving a glass casket and a coin with a shell which would fit over it. He would shake the coin in the glass box and it became two coins, then one again. Around 1904 Soper got involved in a controversy with a female spiritualist named Anna Eva Fay.7 She was appearing in Ottawa, posing as a true psychic, and a lot of people feared that she might coi~vincea great many people that what she was doing was real. Mr. Soper thought she was doing quite a bit of harm and decided to do something about her. Anna Eva Fay presented herself as genuine and did some pretty impressive things which convinced quite a few people that she was gifted with real psychic powers. Houdinis would in later years expose her as a fraud, but here in Ottawa, Mr. Soper gave a free performance and duplicated nearly everything she did when she contacted the spirits. This 7 ~ n n Eva a Fay was born Anna Eva Heathman in 1851 and married Henry Melville Fay. She worked a pseudo-psychic two-person mind reading act starting around 1874. She died in 1927. 8 ~ a r r yHoudini was born in the spring of 1874 in Hungary and was brought to the United States soon after. His real name was Ehrich Weiss. He moved to New York City in 1888 where he learned his first sleight of hand tricks. After reading Robert-Houdin's n~emoirsin 1890 he was inspired to become a professional and then adopted "Houdini" as a stage name. He started with sleight of hand and later went into escapes. He toured the world from 1900 to 1914 with great success. He starred in four motion pictures between 1918 and 1923 and toured with his full evening show of magic, escapes and psychic exposes in 1925-26. He coined the term "escapologist". He invented the Substitution Trunk, Straight Jacket Escape, Milk Can Escape, and the Water Torture Cell. He willed his 5,200 magic books, which was the world's largest collection at the time, to the Library of lg Congress. He wrote, with several "ghosts", Mnyic Mntlc Ens!/, Tlie L l ~ ~ r ~ n s kci~ ~f RobcrtHolidii?, Mirncle Morzgers nil11 Their Metllods, Mngicnl Rope Ties ntnd Escapes and A Mngicinrl Anlorlg the Spirits. He died of a burst appendix on October 31, 1926, after receiving a blow to the body.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 very effectively ended her influence in Ottawa and created a lot of notoriety for Soper.

Allan Shaw, 1920s (see page 27)

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART ONE 1894-1916

GOING BACKSTAGE When I was a little boy in Ottawa, I used to visit the Bennett Theater. Vaudeville was the staple form of entertainment at the turn of the century. When it finally died during the early years of the Great Depression, it left a large vacuum in the field of show business which has never been filled to this day. There were other vaudeville houses in town too; the main one was the Russell Theater where Kellar9 played. This was a legitimate playhouse. It housed all the Shakespearean works and everything else of note. The rest of the theaters in Ottawa included the Bennett, B. F. Keith's,lo and the Family Theater. Keith's was the big vaudeville house and eventually took over most of the other houses in our city and many of the other theaters in the rest of Canada.

I went to the Bennett Theater, and the other vaudeville houses in town, just to see the magicians who would perform there. I used to go backstage after the performance and talk to the magicians about their craft. Years later they told me what a polite little boy I was, that I wasn't fresh. I used to sit patiently and wait and then say, "I'd love to talk to you about magic." Because I never asked them how they did their tricks, they were able to relax around me and open up more t11a11 if I were just trying to pry their secrets from them. I was never bumptious or forward as a kid and the magicians could see that I was a sincere student of the art and I would compliment them 011 their acts and they were pleased by the way I approached them. I showed them a few things that I did and they realized I was serious and they helped me a great deal and advised me as to what books to read and how to approach magic both from an amateur and a professional standpoint. I made friendships which lasted for years. I met T. Nelson Dowi~s,'~ ' ~ a r rKellar ~ was born in Erie, Pennsylvania in 1849. His real name was Henry Keller. He became an assistant to the "Fakir of Ava" at eleven and soloed at sixteen. He toured with the Davenport Brothers and with W. M. Fay. In 1873 he started touring with his own illusion show and retired in 1908, naming Howard Thurston his successor. He died in 1922. 'O~enjarninFranklin Keith was a theater impresario. In 1883 lie oyeried the first vaudeville house in the United States, the Gaiety Museum in Boston. He owned or controlled nearly 1,500 theaters throughout the States and Canada at time of his death in 1914. l l ~ h o r n a Nelson s Downs was born in Iowa in 1867 and died in 1938. He was world-

....continued on the next page

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 "The King of Koins" around 1905, and Nate Leipzig12 the same or next year. Leipzig and J. Warren KeaneI3 were at Bennett's along with Silent Mora,14 who was a great artist and one of the finest billiard ball workers that ever lived. Nate Leipzig once told me that he showed me more about magic than he had ever shown anyone else. Because I had something to contribute myself, J. Warren Keane spent a lot of time with me and showed me a lot about magic. Keane was better schooled and more intelligent than most of the other magicians with whom I had spoken. He was a very cultured kind of a fellow; he had good ideas and was very pleasant around other people. I asked Keane where he got all the wonderful thoughts and ideas he had been sharing with me. He said, "To be honest with you, many were out of a book that doesn't deal with magic at all. I don't know the author but the title is W7zy People Tlli~ikCertai~lThirlgs at Certaiti Times." He explained that when somebody looks at flowers, that triggers a certain tl~ought,and when looking at something else certain other thoughts are generated which may have nothing to do with the object that triggered that particular thought. This can be quite useful in magic; I mean, using this concept for such things as thought reading and mentalism.

Keane lived up to his name. I used to try things when I was a boy but I never had the scientific approach that Keane had. Once, he did this trick for me: He spread out a pack of cards, pulled one out and said, "You name any card in the deck." I told him the Ace of Clubs which was one of my lifelong favorites, and he immediately turned it over just like that. It gave me a creepy feeling.

"I know this interests you," he said.

famous as "The King of Koins", becoming a professional coin and card manipulator in 1891. He toured the continent playing only the top music halls, retiring in Marshalltown, Iowa in 1912. He was a prolific innovator of coin magic having invented the Back and Front Palm, Click Pass, Coins to Glass and a trick sold even today, a slum item, the Dime and Penny Trick. He wrote Moiierir Coil1 Mnriiplllntioil (ghosted by W . 1. Hilliar) and Tlre Art o j M ; F (ghosted by 1. N. Hilliard). Nate Leipzig was the stage nanie of Nathan Leipzigcr who was born in Sweden in 1873. He came to the United States as a child and learned magic fro111 reading The Secret Orit at ten years old. He was an optician by trade, but became a professional inagician in 1902, first as a society performer and then in vaudeville. He was one of the original five members of the New York "Inner Circle". He died in 1939. 13 J. Warren Keane was a popular vaudeville magician, world class card man, and billiard ball manipulator. He was born in 1879 and died in 1945. 1 4 ~ o u iJerome s McCord, "Silent Mora" was born in Pennsylvania in 1884. He learned magic at the age of ten from a local magician, John Lawrence McKissock. He was a wonderful sleight of hand performer and a Cliautauilua star from 1917 to 1929.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART ONE 1894--1916 "I don't know why it sliouldn't," I blurted out, "it's the greatest thing I've ever seen."

J. Warren Keane, circa 1930

"I got the idea for this trick from W h y People Tlzirzk Certai~lTlzi~lgsat Certain Times," 11e said. "This is very hard to explain and even harder because you are a young boy, but 1/11try to make it as simple as I can. "The principle lies in engaging your attention, your undivided attention. You are concentrating on one vein of thought and your mind is on this one track. When I do the trick, I emphasize something and I let you see the Ace of Clubs. If you are conscious that you have seen it, this thing won't work. You must stibcorlsciotisly see that card. Now if I can hold your attention beyond this point by continuing tlie conversation, the trick has a larger possibility of success. I suddenly say, 'Name any card in

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 the pack,' and you will name the card that registered on your subconscious mind." I was very intrigued with what Keane had said and shown. I started reading books by William James15 and anything else pertaining to psychology. This has always fascinated me in magic, how you can read a mind and play with a person's thoughts; how you can really lead them u p the garden path and divert them in some way. This is the highest type of deception; it's clever to be able to sway people in the wrong direction. Psychology is used in everything, but nobody can pin it down to a hard and fast rule that will work. As with fencing, there's no master parry. This is one of the reasons I am interested in magic, there are all sorts of little tricks and dodges and subterfuges, but also a lot of psychology attached to it. When I was younger and showed magic, I wondered about the reaction, whether the person would be annoyed, perturbed, amused, or resent the fact that I fooled them a little. Some people don't like to be fooled, they take it as a challenge to their intelligence; others are delighted. I have observed that the more intelligent or gifted a person is, the more they appreciate a good trick done with skill. Although it might completely bamboozle them, it seems to delight them just the same; they know that in putting this thing together there has been a lot of effort and study involved. On one of my many visits to Bennett's, I met Lincoln, "The International Card Expert". I saw this pronouncement on a sign outside the theater and I thought: what an imposter this fellow must be, using Nate Leipzig's billing for his own act. So, just for fun, I went backstage to see what kind of a fella this Mr. Lincoln was. Who should appear but Leipzig himself, with a towel around his neck. I said, "Mr. Leipzig I am so glad to see you; they've got your name spelled wrong." He said, "Leipzig is a bad name right now and my agent advised my changing it. So I am using the name 'Lii1co111' during these trying times." This was during the very start of WWI when they changed the name of Berlin, Ontario to Kitcl~ener.I thought the world of Leipzig, even wrote a whole book about him and his magic. It was Leipzig who really opened my eyes to the potential of a life in magic.

15

William James was a psycliologist and philosopher and was one of the founders of the philosophy of pragmatis~l~. He was born in New York City in 1842, and was the brother of novelist, Henry James. He died in 1910.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART ONE 1894-1916

SOME THOUGHTS ON THURSTON I first met Howard Thurston,16 as I had many of the famous magicians, at the turn of the century. As I said, all the magicians would perform at one of the local theaters when I was a young boy living in Canada. One thing that still stands out in my mind was that I fooled Thurston with the pass. I thought every magicia11 ought to know the pass and he didn't even know that I was using this sleight. He asked me if I could do a backhand palm and I told him, "Yes," as I had learned it from his book. I was only a kid but I think I did it better than he did! I was quite amazed; he put his hand down behind his leg every time he had to change the back palmed card from one position to another. I was bitterly disappointed. I met Thurston later at J. R. Booth's home. J. R. Boot11 was a boy I knew who invited Thurston over to his house. Thurston came because 11e knew that Booth's father was a multi-millionaire, not because he was interested in the young magician. All evening we two boys were just hanging, waiting and praying that he would talk magic, or do one little trick. All he did all night was discuss real estate with the father, and never once did he talk tricks or mention magic-he talked business all night long. We thought he was very frigid and untl~inking.I realize now that he might have been having trying times, or he might have wanted to know how to invest his money.

I knew Thurston years later in New York, but I was never too friendly with him, although I've known lots of people who thought he was a great magician and a fine fellow. I'm not of the same opinion, but he might have been.

1 6 ~ o w a r dFranklin Thurston was born in Columbus, Ohio in 1869, and became interested in conjuring when he was given a magic set. By 1899 he was a card manipulator and illusionist. He began a world tour in 1900, and in 1908 was 11amed Kellar's successor. He played his last full-evening show on April 20, 1931. After this he did a shortened vaudeville act. At the peak of his career he was the most famous magician in North America. He wrote Homnrd Tlnirstoit's Cnrd Tricks (ghosted by W. J. Hilliar), Fifty Ne7u Cnrd Tricks, 100 Tricks Wlliclz You Coil Do, 200 Trlcks Yolr Cnrl Do (ghosted by Walter Gibson) and 200 More Tricks Yoli C n i ~Do (ghosted by Walter Gibson). He died in 1936.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

MY FIRST TRIP TO THE PAWN SHOP Allan Shawl7 was the only person who ever charged me for a trick when I was a young boy. I went to see Allan Shaw to ask if he would give me a magic lesson and I told him that I was willing to pay for it. I wanted to learn the move of producing cards at the finger tips, and not from the backhand palm, but from the regular front palm. He told me he would show me a better trick. I said that I was only interested in that one particular move w l ~ i che l ~ used in his act. "If you want that particular move" he said, "it'll cost you $20." I emptied my piggy bank, borrowed from my kid brother and asked my father for the rest. My father refused to give me any money to pay to some magician, so I went upstairs and got my set of expensive drafting instruments, which my father had given me and which had cost him $50. I took them down to a pawnshop and managed to get $10 for them. I gave Allan Shaw his $20 and he showed me this move which I never did learn to do well. Years later I told Shaw about this and he quietly said that paying for something made you appreciate it more. I didn't. Months later after really pil~chingmy pennies, I finally reclaimed my drafting set ...it took some time, $10 was a lot of money in those days! Allan Shaw was a very curious sort. Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish, a social matron and leader of New York's Four Hundred, had booked Shaw into one of her elegant parties. When it was time for the entertainment, Mrs. Fish called to her butler, "James, will you bring in that magic person." Now, Allan Shaw was a ,ge~~tlei?lniz and always appeared perfectly attired and when he walked onto the floor he was more distinguished looking than the other guests at the party. Shaw went over to Mrs. Fish and said, "Mrs. Fish, I am sorry, my performance is all over." and walked out. He didn't like the way he was almounced.

l 7 ~ 1 l a nShaw a Canadiao, was born in Hamilton, Ontario in 1875, and war s top professional coin nlanipulator from the time of his debut, in 1894, in New York City. He retired to Australia in 1937, and died in 1953.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART ONE 1894-1916

MOTHER AND MAGIC My mother was a very religious and good woman, and she was also a classic Victorian. She was brought u p very carefully by her own mother. Her father was a Scotsman, and was very particular about how children should behave. Mother had funny ideas about certain things. Once, at a festival at my school, some kids recited, others played musical instruments, some sang, and I gave a magic show. I had a blunderbuss, a gun with a funnel shaped barrel, and it shot out a borrowed watch. The watch then ended u p hanging on the target at which it was fired. This was quite novel to the people in the audience. Both my mother and my father were sitting in the audiei~cewatching my act. At one point during the show I l ~ a dborrowed a hat, and opened u p the sweat band to show that it was perfectly empty. When the show was over, I went over to my mother and she was crying. Later she told me that I implied that there were some crawling things in there, but otherwise the hat was empty, which I hadn't meant at all. My mother said this was in very bad taste. She felt I was saying, "I fllirlk it's empty." She said, "I was so ashamed of you." Then she said, "I was also ashamed at how beastly professional you were. All the other children did their things so politely and sweetly, they were all so diffident and natural as children should be; people might well think I adopted you from a circus." My mother didn't understand me or my approach to magic. I was not a fresh kid by any means and I took magic very seriously. All the books say you must be dramatic when you make a pass with a magic wand, do11't just wave it listlessly. I read in Robert-Houdinlfi that a good 1 8 ~ e a n - ~ u g e nRobert-Houdin e was born in France as Jean-Eugene Robert i n 1805. After his marriage to Cecile Houdin in 1830, he adopted "Robert-Houdin" as his stage name. He apprenticed as a watchmaker in France and learned magic around 1827 from the accidental purchase of a magic book. He was an illusionist and sleight of hand artist who performed in his own "Theatre Robert-Houdin" in Paris from 1843 to 1834 when he retired. He came out of retiremei~tat the recluest of the French government to help stop an uprising in Algeria in 1836. A prolific inventor, he devised many itenls including the Orange Tree, Light and Heavy Chest, Shower of Plumes and the Aerial Suspension. He wrote several books which Esposal were translated into Ellglish: The Cord Sllnrper Detectal n~ldEsposcrf, Cord-Si~nryii~g (translated by Professor Hoffmann), The Secrets of Coi~jllrirzgnillf Mogic (by Professor

....continued on the next page

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 magician must play the part. I tried as faithfully as I could as a kid to act as a real magician. When we went away for the sumnIer, I did lots of string tricks. I always had a couple of lengtlis of string in my pocket and I worked very hard at learning various new tricks with this simple prop. I had about fifty of these string tricks and I decided that I wanted to have one for every card in a pack. It took me a long time to get the fifty-second trick and then I went beyond fifty-two. There are many different versions of string tricks, but I did them all. Mother thought I should d o more constructive things then playing with string.

I started to d o an occasional little show around town then. I had learned the thumb tie, a few coin and handkerchief tricks, a n d some others of that nature. All my experience u p to now had been doing tricks for the boys at school. Every time I learned a new trick I tried it out at scl~ool.Of course, this would so11ietir11es cause me trouble. Wlien we studied geography, we used a very large atlas a n d I would open this book u p on my desk. It acted as a beautiful screen and I could practice, even d o card tricks, during class. Sometimes a teacher would discover that I was practicing inagic bel~indthat tall atlas and confiscate the gimmick from me and tell n ~ yMother. The worst part for me was his putting the gininlick into his drawer-I wouldn't see it again until the end of term.

I just couldn't make my mother understand. She was too set in her ways, molded by the Victorian Age in which she lived. Slie believed that children should be seen and not heard. You never had candy between meals, you couldn't d o this, you couldn't d o that, your playmates had to be the sons and daughters of people that you knew and if they weren't, they must be hoodlums and were no good. "Wl~at'sthe father do? What's the mother do? Who are they? Where d o they live?" I didn't care who my friends were or if they came from the r.iglrf people, but my mother certainly did. My mother cou1di1't conceive of how anybody could possibly exist without having a steady position alid going to work regularly every day. She was the old-fashioned type and thought a job was different from a yositioli; a job meant you were a plumber or the like. She would say, "What firm are you working with?" When I told her that I didn't have an office job, that I was making a living at magic, she said, "You're not on the stage?" "Mother," I said, "you don't understand, sonietin~es I get a n Hoffmann) and Tlic Secrets of

Stilgt, Corlllrrlirg

29

( b y Professor Hoffmanll). He died in 1871.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART ONE 1894-191 6 engagement on the stage." She nearly died of shame; although m y brother, Napier, tried to explain the whole thing to her, she just couldn't imagine how I could be leading an honorable life.

Silhouette Dai cut of his wife, Jeanne Verner (see page 105)

Edward "Ted" Verner as a young man, cut by Dai Vernon

DAI VERNON A IMAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

THE CARNEGIE LIBRARY IN OTTAWA I spent a lot of time in the public library when I was growing up. I read a great deal on all subjects, not only about magic. In those days I had an inquiring mind and I wanted to know about everything. Take athletics for instance; when I studied about baseball I had to know about the wood that went into making the bat, for tennis I found out how they put the gut in and how they strung the racket. I loved to read.. .slowly, taking in all the words and doing my best to understand what was there on the page and storing it away into my young and eager brain. One day, when I was ten or eleven, I was sitting in the library reading by Hereward Carrington.19 He referred to an article in Scieiztific A~~iericatz a book called The Operr Cotlrf which was supposed to give authentic cases of people who had seen ghosts and communed with the spirits. I was very curious to read it, but it was not in the Ottawa Public Library. Anyway, I was reading Carrington's article when I looked u p and noticed a fellow about thirty years of age looking at me. I went back to my reading and couldn't help but notice that this man was still looking at me. T11en I began to be a little nervous. Perhaps, I thought, he might be a school teacher and was wondering why this ten year old boy was looking u p all these articles on magic and psychic phenomena and not studying his school subjects. I stopped my reading, put the Scientific Ailzerican away and quickly left the library. Over the course of several visits, I noticed this man watching me read. One day, he spoke to me and it changed my life forever. "Come here, sonny; I see you are very muc11 interested in the article on magic you are reading." "Yes," I said, "it's my hobby." He asked me if I knew any tricks. I always carried this little deck of 19~erewardCarrington was born in 1880 and died in 1958. Mr. Carrington was an amateur magician and famous investigator of psychic phenomena. He wrote extensively ~ I I Hnildciiff on psychic phenomena and also the following books on magic: H ~ I I LMngic, Tricks, Side-Slio7us nrltl Ailiwrnl Tricks, Tile Ba!yls Book of Mngic and (wit11 B.M.L. Ernst) Ho~~tlilli nrrif Corlnrl Doyle .

H E FOOLED HOUDIhTI:PART O N E 1894-1916 cards with which I would practice the pass whenever I could and I did it for this man. In those days, magicians never carried a full pack of cards-all the old books said: "A magician never works with a full pack, he works wit11 a Piquet (French) pack of thirty-two cards-a full pack is too bulky." I did the pass for him. He took the pack of cards from my hand and said, "You have to d o it this way." He did an excellent pass and told me that I had to make sure I squared the pack to make it work right. "Do you d o anything else besides the pass?" I eagerly asked. He told me he knew Buatier d e Kolta's2"xpanding Die trick and many other tricks as well. The rest of the day was spent with this man instructing me on the proper way of making the pass and telling me stories about the world of magic and the wonderful array of people who inhabited it. And so, on that special day in 1904, in the Carnegie Library in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada I not only learned the right way to do the pass from a mysterious man who never told me his name, I also learned what my life long love and work would be.

'O~uatier de Kolta was born in Lyon, France in 1847 and died in New Orleans, while touring the United States, on October 7,1903. His real name was Joseph Buatier and nearly all the tricks and illusions presented by him were of his own invention. Some of his best known inventions are the Vanishing Bird Cage, Multiplying Billiard Balls, Spring Flowers and Expanding Cube.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

MAGIC BOOKS I have bought and read thousands of books on magic during my life and have enjoyed reading all of them. Some were not very good while others have been of immeasurable help to me. I bought many of my books from mail order houses such as Roterberg's21 in Chicago, Garnage's22 and Davenport's23 in England. I sent away and got lists of books on magic from these companies and bought as many as I could with whatever money I could save. I used to read the advertisements that appeared in Chums and other periodicals like The Boys Ozon Paper, which was an English periodical much like Boys' Life here in the United States. I'd send away for anything involving magic.

1

I thought I was doing quite well collecting magic books, until I finally ~ ~ in the New York Public Library; it saw the Ellison C ~ l l e c t i o nhoused scared me, all those books I hadn't read. You take a book which you read at age twelve, and read it again today and you get an entirely different interpretation. The very parts you skipped over as not important are the for ~~ parts that are most important to you now. Take Professor H o f f ~ n a n n 21~ugustRoterberg was born in 1867 and died in 1928. He was a full time dealer in Chicago from 1894 to 1916. He sold his mail order business in 1908 to Ralph W. Read and his shop, "A. Roterberg", in 1916 to Arthur and Carl Felsman. He invented the Multiplying Thimbles (the eight thimbles on two hands version) and wrote The Modern Wimrd, h t e r Dny Tricks, Nezo Ern Cnrd Tricks and Card Tricks. 22~amage'slA. W . Gamage Ltd. was a major department store located in London, England, established in 1878. They opened a magic department in the 1890s and by 1917, it was one of the world's largest retailers of magical props. 2 3 ~ e w i sDavenport was a magic dealer from 1898 during which he founded Davenport's in London. He was a professional juggler and all around magician. He played music halls, some top theaters and toured the world. 2 4 ~ rS. a n m R. Ellison, (MD) was an early magic collector who bought W. E. Robinson's book collection and then added to its size considerably. This collection of books was later acquired by Dr. Samuel C. Hooker and given, in 1936, to the New York Public Library. Dr. Ellison co-founded, with W. Golden Mortimer and Francis J. Martinka, the Soaety of American Magicians in 1902. Ellison was member #I. He was born in Canada in 1852 and died in 1918. 25~rofessorHoffmann was the pen name of Angelo John Lewis, a barrister in London, England. He was born in 1839 and died in 1919. He was an avid amateur magician who was the most prolific and influential magic author until modern times. He

....continued on the next page

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART ONE 1894--1916 instance; he was a great writer with a good style. Hoffmann wasn't a great magician by any means; he did a few things well, but 11e was a good analyst and you could learn a great deal from him.

I used to go to the newly built YMCA in Ottawa, and I spent a lot of time in the reading room reading soaking in as much magic as I could. At one time I came across a magic magazine called the Malzatlna and I read every word. I was interested in other things besides magic, but it was magic that kept my interest all the time.

Faucett Ross, "Faucett Himself", circa 1960, the man who helped write Dai Vernon's classic books

wrote the classic Moderil Mngic, More Mngic, Tricks mitll Cnrds: A Corrlpbte Mntr~lnlof Cnrd Cotzjl~riizg,Lnter Mngic, Mngicnl Tidbits and h t e s t Mngic; as well as translating RobertHotidin's Cnrd Shnrpiirg Exposed, TIre Secrets of Coiljlrririg ni~liMngic and TIic Secrets of Stnge Colzjliring.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

MY ATTACK ON MAGIC I started doing the second deal about 1906, when I was a young boy of twelve. My byword was practice. I practiced everything. There's a very strange thing about my attack on the art-because I did attack it really. I couldn't understand how the magic catalogues and magazines could possibly imply that the tricks they talked about could be done in a few minutes, with great ease. All the advertising gave the same slant; do it immediately, buy it, turn the key or wind it up, use it in your performance that night. In other words, they were all so easy that anybody could buy a trick, even a moron, and do it right off. This seemed to be the selling point. When I used to read these words, I wouldn't even read the trick because I thought if it's that easy and that simple, what's the use of learning it, anybody would be able to do it. If everybody can do it, it's nothing.

,

Now, when I used to read that the trick was difficult to learn and you had to approach it with patience and determination, that was a different thing entirely and it really intrigued me. I thought, now this will be worthwhile because the average person won't master something difficult. 1 would read every word of it because I liked the challenge, I liked the attack. I liked the difficult thing because it kept me interested for a long time. A simple thing can be learned in five minutes, but if a thing takes you three or four months or years to learn then when you finally master it, you feel pleased that you had conquered something. That's my interest in magic anyway, it always has been; it's a challenge and I like to fight until I win. Maybe it was this attitude towards perfecting my magic that led to the greatest compliment ever in his column in The Sphinx wrote that New paid to me. Max H01den~~ York had the edge on magic over any other city in the world because it had Dai Vernon.

2 6 ~ a Holden x was the stage name of William Holden Maxwell who was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1884. He became a professional in 1905 and worked on the stage until 1929 when he left to become a major magic dealer. He opened Max Holden's Magic Shop in New York City, with branches in Boston and Philadelphia. He operated these until his death in 1949.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART ONE 1894-1916

PRACTICE I have fond memories of the old time pitcl~manwho used to ply his trade and sell his wares. Whether it was some kind of glue or vegetable slicer, glass cutter, knife sl~arpener,or other such do-dad he was selling, he would work out of a suitcase on the curbs of most of America's streets. This fellow always fascinated me because he collected a crowd by doing some kind of a trick. He would always d o a magic trick and as soon as a curious crowd gathered round him, then he would start selling his wares.

I began to realize that a pitchman would take a little tl~ing,like a paddle trick, and turn it into a minor triumph; smooth, effortless, and mystifying. A magician, on the other hand, could do the same trick and it would look totally obvious. The pitchmen created an absolute illusion with the trick because they performed it thousands of times, to help sell their merchandise. Well, when you repeat a move thousands of times, it acquires a flow-these fellows were doing it as part of their livelihood. What makes perfection is repetition. With repetition you can advance your magic although it might take you five years of practice to discover that flow. That's why I was so feverishly chasing these fellows, to try to acquire the same skills and styles they l ~ a dmastered by practice. I remember thinking about some of the great pianists like Ignace P a d e r e ~ s k and i~~ Vladimir Horowitz2%l~o practiced nine and ten hours a day-I would practice magic for the same number of hours; I wouldn't quit until I had accomplished something. Sometimes time doesn't mean anything to me. There are times when I intend to go to bed, get ready, put on my pajamas, and suddenly decide to work on some kind of card trick. It's kind of frightening, I look out the window and the sun is con~ingu p and I say to myself, "I've only been here for an hour and a half." My father used to tell me to maintain a happy balance between theory and practice. Too muc11 theory is no good...too much practice is equally Z/

Ignace Paderewski was a Polish prime ~liinister,composer and classical pianist. He was born in 1860 and died in 1941. 2 S ~ l a d i m i rHorowitz is a concert pianist who is known for liis mastery of technique, variety of tone and vigor of performance. He is married to conductor Arturo Toscanini's daughter and was born in Russia in 1904.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 good. A happy medium is best. For instance, ten minutes practice, once a day for a week, is much better than all those hours in one session. I know this is true about anything-piano playing, fancy diving, anything-but it's not necessarily the way I do it. 110

Ashbury College Hockey Team 1912-1913, D. W. Verner middle row, second from left

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART ONE 1894-1916

KNOW THE TERMS One of the most important things I learned as I began my life in magic was to understand the technical terms involved in the craft. When I first read S. W. Erdnase's The Expert at the Card Table, I started at the introduction and it told me to study the technical terms before I went into the body of the book; I had to understand what I was about to learn before I attempted to master the tricks within. Much as I loved to delve into those pages and read them, I religiously studied those terms for a couple of days until I was very familiar with them. In later years, when I came down to New York, fellows that had been in magic for years would say: "What's this in-jog, out-jog stuff?" This amazed me for as a little boy I knew this. They would say: "Erdnase is like geometry, who can understand that?" They would ask me: "Where did you learn this?" I would answer by telling them about the books I read: C. Lang Neil's Tile Moderri Corzjuror, Edwin S a ~ h sSleigl~t ' ~ ~ of Hafzd, S. W. Erdnase's The Expert at the Card Table, and all the rest. They would just look at me in wide-eyed bewilderment. If you tried to learn magic, without knowing the tecl~nical terminology surrounding it, it would be like putting together a baby's crib without understanding the instructions. Following technical things is altogether different from reading a novel. That's why my parents and everybody said I was born to be an engineer. I was always building something when I was a kid and when I went into magic I just carried this understanding about how things worked right into my life's work.

29~dwin Thomas Sachs was a sports writer who was born in England and died in 1910. He learned magic from Cremer's Tlle Secret Out and wrote one book, tlie classic Sleigllt of H n i ~ d .

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

"YOU SHOULD BE AN ENGINEER ... /I

Everybody said I should be an engineer when I grew up. I didn't know what an engineer was, I thought he ran a railroad engine. I did enjoy making things when I was a kid, toys and magic tricks being my favorite building projects. Down in the basement, I fixed u p a kind of a carpenter shop and made little things out of wood such as toy airplanes and submarines. I was always making something. I had a friend on the same street who had a m u c l ~more elaborate shop and I spent a great deal of time working at his house. As I reached college age, my father made sure I was directed towards an engineering career when he arranged for m e to go to the Royal Military College. Strictly spealung, it was a military college, although they stressed engineering as part of their curriculum. I went, but it didn't d o me any good. My first year there, as a raw recruit, was exactly what 1 had heard it would be. They "put you through hell." One of the things they did, in winter time, was to cut two ten foot holes in different places in the ice and then have the young, first year recruits jump into the freezing water or be pushed in if they refused to jump 011 their onrll. It was notl~ingto me, I just dove in and came u p out of t l ~ eother hole. After a year of this sort of treatment, you came out a hard and hardy fellow who could meet any situation witl~outcringing. The Royal Military College was fashioned after Sandhurst in England, and it turned out a great number of able-bodied officers for the Canadian Army. The first year was rough, we were put through hell. We lived at the College and you were not allowed to smoke outside your rooms. W11en a recruit went into the nearby town of Kingston and was walking down the street, he had to make a military turn if he wanted to go into a store. In the second year you could lounge around in town, date, smoke and d o almost everything, but you had no privileges at school. The third year you were a czar, you could command any recruit. Unfortunately, I never made it to the third year because of the First World War. I went into the service in 1915, the artillery, and then transferred to the Air Force.

H E FOOLED HOUDINI: PART ONE 1894-1916

CLIFF GREEN I hated Cliff Green." That is, I hated him before I ever really met him. Cliff was also an Ottawa, Canada boy and I used to see him walking down the street and didn't care for what I saw. He was always wearing very dressy, fancy clothing, fine wools, finely tailored, and had an air of disdain surrounding him. I later found out that his father was a tailor, a woman's tailor, and made his son's clothes out of the fabric he used for women's clothing. One day, in 1912, at the Russell Hotel, where I was getting one of my first real shoe shines, I put my foot up and there was a pack of cards lying at the side of the chair. I picked them up and shuffled them and said to the shoe shine man, "Think of a card." I hesitated a while, palmed it out, and, just for fun, I reached behind his head and pulled the card out. This fellow was absolutely flabbergasted. "That's wonderful," he said, "I've only seen one other man do things like that. He comes in every Surtday to have his shoes shined. He buys a new pack of cards every week and always gives me his old pack." I asked the shoe shine man who this card sharp was a11d he said, "Cliff Green." I was very interested in meeting this fellow who shared the same interests in cards as I. So I made an appoii~tment,through the mutual shoe shine man, to meet Cliff Green at the Russell Hotel. I arrived at the hotel on time and waited for a few minutes and when 1 saw Cliff Green I recognized him imn~ediately.He was the fancy dressed young man I had seen several times before and hated at first sight. As we shook hands I realized that any vestige of hatred towards him had instantly changed to curiosity and friendship. I asked Cliff how long he had been doing magic. He told me that he had been involved in magic for some time and that he used to go over to Detroit, Michigan for meetings of the magic society there. He asked me if I had ever read Sachs' Sleight of Hnrzd. I said I had seen it advertised but had never seen a copy of the book. Cliff told me it was a wonderful book and asked me if I would like to borrow it. I told 3 0 ~ l i f f o r dGreen was born in Canada in 1896, and died in 1969. He learned 111agicat fifteen and later moved to New York City where he became a professional vaudeville card manipulator. He did this for about twenty-five years, until the early 1930s, when he became a businessl~~an and semi-professional.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 him I certainly would. The rest of the day spent with Cliff Green at the Russell Hotel was taken up with card tricks. He did a lot of fanning with cards and all sorts of other bits. He was very rapid with his hands and did a lot of color changes and flourishes, making the cards hop around with ease. He told me he practiced religiously and had learned some of his tricks over in Detroit. "What kind of work do you do?" he asked. I took the cards and did a Hindu shuffle, which I had seen Nate Leipzig do around 1905, and then squared u p the cards and secretly put the Three of Diamonds at the bottom. I asked him to cut the cards as I didn't know exactly what I was going to do at this point. I had squared the deck and had a break at the Three of Diamonds. "Now what?" he said. I asked him to name a card and he said, "Three of Diamonds." What a coincidence! I cut at the break and turned u p the Three of Diamonds and he almost fainted. "That's what I do," I said; "What sort of work do you do?" I never did see much of Cliff Green in my home town, as we ran in different circles, but we did meet occasionally and talked magic.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART ONE 1894-1916

NEW YORK AND CONEY ISLAND I had come to New York in 1913 because I wanted to see the world, but told my father I was interested in art school. I was single, nineteen years old and looking for something to do. The city was great; electric lights mixed with a lot of gas jets, horse drive11 street cars and, of course, the subways. That's the way I took a trip over to Coney Island one day and fell in love with the place. I suddenly thought, "Gee, I'd like to live down here, but what can I do to make a living. I'd love to spend a season here on the beach."

Dreamland Circus Side Show, 1931

In those days Coney Island wasn't the way it is now, it was a very nice resort. Surf Avenue was the main part of Coney Island and it ran parallel with the beach. Two hundred feet beyond Surf Avenue was a beautiful beach. On a Sunday they would have a million people 011 the beach. The newspaper used to always say, "Over a million at Coney Island." To see a million people on a stretch of beach that is perhaps a

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 quarter of a mile wide is something. Of course the boardwalk extended all along too, like Atlantic City. You could run along the beach for probably several miles. It was a beautiful beach but it was solid with people. They bought everytl~ingand although there were trash containers, they still littered the place with sticky papers and banana peels. The weekend crowd, people from Brooklyn and Jersey didn't know any better. Some people were absolutely disgusted and would say, "I wouldn't go near that Coney Island." But on weekdays you would get a better class of people. Quieter, better behaved people. I don't think there was a finer beach in the world. It was a playground for the city, you might say. It had ezlerythi~zg.Several gigantic amusement zones, and there was always the sound of the carousel and the calliope and the player piano. These, con~binedwith the different weird sounds of the games, would fade in and out as you walked to different sections. Noisy horns blaring, barkers shouting out, children crying, it was really not for a person with sensitive ears. If that type had stopped to listen it would have driven them crazy. But after a while you became oblivious to this kind of thing. It was the age of the hot dog. That was our national food. Feltman's used to sell a hot dog for ten cents. This was considered pretty expensive but it was what could be called a high class hot dog. Later, when Nathan's put out a nickel hot dog with mustard and relish they took the business away from Feltman's. These were the first hot dogs. Coney Island was like anywhere so many people are together, everything was thrown in the street. Tons of wrappers from chewing gum, crackerjacks, apples on sticks, cotton candy (called candy floss then) littered the beach and all the walkways. It really was a kind of a madhouse with the whole place full of rides and roller coasters. Years later they put up the famous parachute jump. This was after the world had become air coi~scious.It was the tallest thing on Coney Island. One of the really towering structures on the Island. They used to take you up slowly, then you'd really drop! I went a few times but wasn't afraid; I used to like to go with other people, to see how it affected them but it never bothered me. The roller coasters, however were sometl~ing!"The Dragon Gorge" coaster in Luna Park and "The Mile High Sky Ride" coaster were really thrilling. You would drop down hundreds of feet, people could hardly catch their breath; if you had a weak heart you couldn't do a thing like that. The girls were screamii~g,the children crying. I used to do a lot of high diving and the speed was equivalent to jumping into space. You just dropped. Luna Park was the high class area of Coney Island. All the buildings in Luna Park were very nice. I11 fact Luna Park had no ground showing, it

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART ONE 1894-1916 was completely boarded over! The floor was a tremendous wooden platform painted green. When you walked, you were walking on wood not cement nor concrete. It wasn't over the water either, it was 011 the opposite side of Surf Avenue. Luna Park was 011 one side and the ocean was on the other. The entrance to Luna, meaning Moon, had crescent moons all lit u p and they turned. There was a tower in Luna Park called "The Tower of Jewels" which was absolutely blazing with electric lights of all colors. They didn't have neon but they used regular lights to make all kinds of intricate patterns. It was a fantastic sight. The better class attractions were in Luna Park. You had to pay admission to get in. You couldn't just walk in off the street like you could in these other places. This was a private park within Coney Island. When the other parks started charging admission, Luna's went up to fifty cents. A rather stiff price because you could get into some of these other parks for fifteen or twenty cents. When you paid this fifty cents it included certain attractions just like Disneyland. You could go down "Chute the Chutes" which was sei~satioi~al. You were high u p in boats which rushed down a ramp and went into an artificial lake. You could also ride "The Dragon's Gorge" roller coaster. If I could only d o something to make a living here, I thought. They had all kinds of carnival games and everything else for entertainment. At first I thought I might like to work one of those games. I didn't really want to get into that kind of life, but I did.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

CARNY GAMES It was on Coney I s l a ~ ~that d I first met a fellow who was to be a friend for many, many years, Sam Margules." He was a wonderful chap who took me home with him and was like a brother from the moment we met. I'd never in my life been in a Jewish home with Jewish cooking but I loved it. I had never heard of matzo bread or gefilte fish but, aside from the cooking, the thing I was especially struck by in Sam's home was the warm feeling that this family had for one another. They seemed to be so loving! Believe me, Sam was a wonderful person, I'd never met a guy quite like him. I explained to Sam that I would love to stay in New York but I had no means of making a livelihood at present. I hadn't started cutting silhouettes and or thought of commercializing magic. Sam said, "There are hundreds of jobs 011 Coney Island. I'll find you something." This appealed to me, because Coney Island was just one great playground, like a gigantic carnival. I was always intrigued by different games of chance. The people would throw a ball or a dart, or cover a spot with a bunch of tin plates, or swing a big bowling ball on a chain to knock a bowling pin down on the return swing. I knew most of the tricks of these games, knew how they were operated and knew that the player had very little chance to win. There are ways a fellow can easily guess your weight within three pounds. When you sit down in the chair to be weighed, which is hooked to a scale above, the operator will steady it. As he steadies the chair, with a very slight downward pull, he can add ten or twelve pounds to the scale reading. He can't possibly miss his guess unless he guesses wrong by twenty pounds but that's not likely. If he can guess anywhere within twenty pounds he's got it. This pull is done very naturally as the chair sways like a swing, and the operator steadies it. He can, of course, push it u p if he wants to subtract a few pounds. They really cheat you! You'd think, well, I must have gained or lost weight. If they hit within three pounds and you don't get a prize, but if they missed by four you get a kewpie doll or some kind of a furry animal. 31~am Margules was also known as "Ramee Sami", son of a Russian-Jewish lawyer father and a Rumanian n~other.He assisted Goldin in the 1920s and was influential from 1920 to 1950.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART ONE 1894-1916 Sam introduced me to a fellow named Goldie who operated a lot of games on Coney Island. Goldie asked if I would like to work behind a game for a few days and learn something about them. "Later," he said, "we'll look around the island and see if there's anything in the Dreamland Circus Sideshow that you could do." Since Sam worked there, this sounded great. In the Dreamland Circus Sideshow they had a glass blower, an ossified man, a bearded lady, a sword swallower, a talking girl's head on a sword which is done with a mirror, and many other wonderful effects. Twenty-one different attractions-it was called "The Dreamland Circus Sideshow, the Biggest Sideshow In the World" because there were so many attractions, each one a distinct novelty. The head man was known as Bill Hart. He was a western character, something like the William S. Hart32 in the pictures used to be. He had this glass blowing place and used to blow all kinds of glass ornamentsdeer, vases, and all kinds of glass boxes-almost anything. Of course, the people would stand around and watch him make all this glassware. It was not for sale, however you could take a chance on it. You could pick a card out of a big long box like an elongated cigar box with a lot of other cards. Each card was either blank or had an item written on it, like a glass ship or a glass case, or a clock in a glass case. The prizes were 011 shelves behind the operator and looked wonderful. The glass clock looked as if it was worth $25 or $30. You paid a quarter and you got to pick out three of these cards and you would get whatever was printed on your cards. When I was in there the first day, I noticed that every time anybody paid a quarter they got a little pair of glass cuff links, or a glass marble, but they never won any of the big prizes. The operator used to take out some of the cards and show you. He would ask: "What does that say on there?" and it read, "Glass deer and a glass case," or "Chain of glass," and other great prizes. Then he put them back in the box, if you drew these same cards they never seemed to read the same thing. Knowing something about card manipulation, I noticed that he made a top change before he put the cards back in the box. This is what magicians call a switch, a top change, and after the switch you would watch the wrong card. You would think: "I can pick that one out again, because I saw where he put it." Some people would take a dollar's worth of cards and pick a whole stack from one section and the card wasn't there. They got absolutely nothing, or a small prize. His exact method of working was that he'd have a stack of cards in his 3 2 ~ i l l i a mS. Hart was an American stage and film actor. He was born in New York in 1870. Famous as one of the earliest Wild West silent screen I~eroes,he died in 1946.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 hands before he'd look through the cards in the box. Then he would pick a good one out of the box. "What does it say on this card?" he would ask. A fellow would say: "A glass clock." The operator would turn slightly and, with the same hand that held the card, point u p at the clock and say, "You see that's the glass clock." As he moved his hand down, he'd cleverly switch the card that said glass clock for one in the stack he held that said nothing. He'd then put the card which they thought was for the clock in the box. They couldn't pick it because it wasn't there! That's the way every one of those games were. They had some kind of gaff, as they say, or a gimmick of some kind. He gave me a job working this dart game where you have darts and little round cardboard tickets, perforated, to hang on little nails on a board, and each one has a number on it to match the prizes. You get three darts for a quarter or one for a dime. If your dart penetrated a ticket, that's the ticket you got. If you didn't actually hit one, you were given the ticket closest to your dart. So you couldn't very well lose-you always had to get a prize. Among the prizes were hunting knives with $20 bills attached to them, or Elgin watches, nice leather pocketbooks, and of course a lot of minor prizes like cuff links, or little dinky things that you'd get in packages of crackerjacks, worth nothing. You always wound u p getting the nothing prizes. The so-called gaff, or gimmick, was the fact that by covering part of the number with your thumb you could show it as a different number. Before the person would throw the dart he would ask how to play the game. You would explain that there were a lot of winning numbers, and you'd take off five or six of these little round cardboard disks and show the numbers. You would show what looked like number ten-and number ten on the board would be a wonderful prize. But 11e didn't know that your thumb was over the upper part of the eight, so it was really number eighteen that you were showing him. Or a nineteen; you would cover the loop on the second digit, which would make a nineteen look like eleven. It was rigged up like that so you could show three of these tags that were all big winning prizes, wort11 $15 to $20, and a person would think this is a11 easy game. He would watch where these were put back, and even if a few were taken off the board or mixed up, he would know it was one of five or six. If he hit one of these tags there would be no need for camouflage and he could read it for l~imself.It would always be for a small prize. It went against my grain to do this and I sometimes let people win. I couldn't let them win a $20 bill, but I let them win a fairly good prize, if they happened to hit it. But they didn't often do that because the chances were still in my favor. After a while an operator came along and said, "Now, you understand 11ow this store works, don't you?"

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART ONE 1894-1916 I said, "Yes, I understand tl-torougl-tly." Then he perplexed me when he said, "What do you d o if the cops come in?" I had never even thought of the police, I didn't know that the police had anytl-tiiig to do wit11 it. He said, "Sometimes a plaii-tclotl-tesn~an will come and grab all the tags off the board, and they'll inspect them, and if there are no winning numbers, you'll be arrested for fraud. What are you going to d o if there are no winning numbers on the board?" But then he said, "I'll show you. Look behind the board." The tags were on an upright board that was standing there and behind the board was a stack of about fifteen of these round tags stacked u p like a pile of poker chips-all the winning numbers. "If anybody jumps over t l ~ counter e and grabs that board, in the scuffle you manage to brush against it with your arm so some of the tags fall on the ground. Now, when they pick up all this litter they're going to find these winl~ii-tg numbers and there's no fraudulent practice. It's false arrest, and we have a suit against them," he said. Most of the games on Coney Island had at least three different kinds of gaffs. As they say in the vernacular of tl-te carnival, "tl~eyalways G it." They are constantly changing t11e gaff. They don't just say gaff, but, "the gaff on a joint,"-in other words, that's the trick to tl-te thing, the gimmick. The 7oord gaff got to be lu-tow1-ta little bit by the public, so they used to say the G. "Wl~at'st11e G of the joint?" Which means, of course, "What's the gaff?" Every game has some similar gaff. For instance, a lot of people have seen the game where you swing a big bowlil~gball, and it swings past the bowling pin and on tl-te way back you are supposed to knock the pin down. The operator can d o it without any trouble, and you try but it always swings aroui-td the pin and misses. There are three so-called gaffs in this game and sometimes when they work the thing strong, they'll even have a shill tell the fellow, "Don't you know what the operator does when he sets that pin on the nail? He sets it over a little to the right. Just push the ball a little to the left as you swing it and it'll hit." If lie tries, it works, then they build him u p to play for more money. Tl-te players doi-t't realize that there are many other ways to gaff tl-te game but one will soon be used to take tl-tebig bet. In fact even the milk bottles that you throw a baseball at can be magnetized to help keep them from falling over. There are a lot of games where you throw a ball in a basket or bucket. The best gaff is one very simple fake. You throw tl-teball in the bucket and it's like throwing it on a drum-they bounce rigl-tt out. No matter how skillful or l-tow much English you put on the ball it won't stay in. Even a good pitcher who can put all kinds of English on the ball ca11't keep it in the bucket. As soon as it hits the bottom it jumps right out. But when you put the gaff on this

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 bottom, there's no strain 011 t11e boards, they are loose, and every ball will just plop in there-it's like tl~rowingit onto a piece of felt or a blanket-it almost sticks inside. When the operator shows you how easy it is, he releases the tension on the bottom and the ball stays inside. But as soon as you pay your money the bottom tightens u p and is again like a drum and the balls jump right out. There's no chance to win. The great part of this is they can let you win at any time, they would say, "I'll give you a free chance this time, of course you won't win the prize, but practice a little." When you're throwing for nothing, you win. You think, now I've got the knack, and you pay and lose. Then there is this big wheel controlled by a squeeze which causes the spindle of the wheel to stop. The most famous of all the spindles is called a camel back because it's shaped like a camel's back and it creeps around these nails. They can stop it so exactly that when it goes by these spaces they can stop it rigl~t011 a nail. It will stop right next to the winning spot. To squeeze the control, they have somebody who leans against a partition or someone who seems to be an innocent bystander who's watching the game. There are all kinds of games and everyone of them have these things. Nowadays carnivals won't allow any of the games to go on unless they look like they are real games of skill. These fellows circumvent the skill but can prove to the most scientifically minded person that it is definitely a game of skill, which it is not. There's the Hoop Over A Block which is gaffed by switcl~inghoops. Lots of times they'll give you a set of these embroidery hoops w11icl1 are 11alf an inc11 bigger in diameter, and they let you throw them for nothing and you cop all the big prizes. When you pay they give you anotl~erset of sligl~tlysmaller l~oopsor the big prizes are on stands which the hoop will only fit over if it falls directly from above. Of course, they don't gaff the shooting ranges but if they advertised twenty-one shots for a quarter, and if you counted t l ~ e myou would find you only got seventeen or eighteen. They even cheat you on that, they save money 011 pellets. If you count them and mention that you were short they'll say, "Are you sure? You must have miscounted, but I'll give you a couple of extra." This is petty, but they do it because over a busy day they save tl~ousandsof pellets. This is universal. This is why these gallies are not as prevalent as they used to be, honest people 11ave gotten the word that these games are illegitimate. These days a large charity will run a carnival to raise money. The charity people don't know how to run the games so the people who rent them the games send in their own operators and they steal the money just the same. It's going 011 today in a different way, tl~at'sall. Anybody who runs

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART ONE 1894-1916 a Monte Carlo Night or a Carnival Night at these legitimate affairs would be very wise to get somebody who knows something to superintend. You can be hoodwinked very easily. You think you're getting a 50-50 split, or whatever it is, but those fellows are getting a great deal more. They have ways and means, it's like a magic trick-the average fellow just doesn't know. This is something foreign to him. When Goldie first put me to work he said, "We give you $40 a week salary, and all you can steal." That's the way he said it, "Forty dollars a week and all you can steal."

I had heard that the employees of the lunch counters in New York were paid $22 a week and all they could steal. Many people told me this. I said,"What d o you mean, all they can steal?" They told me that every lunch-counter man steals from the register. The employers always know that they steal, but if they steal too much they lose their job. Steal without being caught and without being too greedy. This struck me as very funny, because I'd always been taught that honesty was the best policy. One day while I was working the dart game it started to rain. I had on this very nice Bond Street coat for which I had paid $60. It was a combination spring and fall coat, made in England. In those days for $60 you got a very beautiful raincoat. As it started to rain a fellow came u p whom I didn't know, but he said, "I'm waiting for my old friend Goldie and I'm out of cigarettes. Could I borrow your coat to run across to street to buy some? Tell Goldie 1/11be back in a second." Like a sap I handed him my good coat and he walked away with it. This kind of hardened me--I thought, well you can't trust the people in this world-and it gave me a different viewpoint for a long period of my life. Out of the goodness of my heart I lent him my coat and he never came back. A few years later, in Palatine, Illinois, at a county fair ground I saw tliis fellow again, walked u p to him and took one punch. That's all, just one and walked away. I'm not a pugilistic type, but I was so annoyed and this had bothered me for years. When I walked up to him he had the funniest expression, I guess he recognized me. I only worked the tag-dart game for a while before I quit; once again wondering what I could do to make a living.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

CARNIVAL TALK I remember as a boy when I first heard the expression "a grand" for $1000, I thought, "This is way out. Where in the world did this come from?" When I heard a "C note" I thought the same thing. This is actually carnival talk; $5 is, for example, called "a pound". They still refer to $5 as "a pound"; they always say it cost them a pound. They have their own slang that's very picturesque. They use it all the time for everything. There is one expression in the carnival which is extremely important: "With it." If you were walking along in a carnival and some fellow says, "Come over here I want to show you how you can win some money," you just say, "With it." That means you're with the organization, know what it's all about, you're familiar with it, or perhaps know the owner-it means a lot of things-you're "with it." But if you don't have the right intonation, then they'll know you're a half-smart person who is trying to get away with something. But if you say it in a casual way they won't bother you because they won't know whether you're a friend of the owner of the carnival or who you are. But, "With it" is really a magic word. If you ever go to a carnival or a circus and you say, "With it," to a fellow if he tries to short-change you he'll say, "Sorry bud," and give you the correct amount. When my little boys were very young, one of my dearest friends, was Dr. dale^?^ a top nose and throat specialist. He later went into plastic surgery and became chief of the French Hospital in New York. Doc went to Fordham, a Catholic school, which was rather unusual as he was a plump little Jewish boy. At first they laughed and poked fun at him but, in his final year, he became president of his class. He was very well thought of and a wonderful guy. I used to spend a great deal of time with Doc as he loved magic and we liked being together. Doc wanted to take us all to the Ringling Brothers Circus, and, since he had spent his life becomil~ga physician, he didn't know anything about this carnival life but he loved to hear about it, as a lot of people do. He would say, "What's the G on it," as I had explained these things to him including "With it." 3 3 ~ r Jacob . Daley, (MD) was born in Russia ill 1897 and was raised in New York City. In 1934 he learned magic from a colleague, amateur magician Dr. Henry C. Falk. Dr.

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HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART ONE 1894-1916 If you went by a fellow and he said, "Roll this ball down," and you said, "I know all these tricks," or, "I'm wise to you fellows," they would still call you over, they would persist. But when you say, "With it," they forget about you. I told Doc this, but Doc didn't believe it. So we went to the circus and he got tickets for all of us-the tickets were $2.75 each and they short-changed Doc when he paid with a $20 bill. When he came back to me he counted his money and he was short. I said, "Doc, there's no trouble about it, just go back to the man and tell him you were short-changed and they'll give you your money back." Doc went back and they referred him to a fellow who was standing outside, and the fellow called him into the alley and said, "How much are you short?" and gave him the money right away. I knew this would happen, because they try to short-change everybody, even at Madison Square Garden when you buy five or six tickets. They'll give you your money back and even pay extra because they don't want any squawks. They don't want arguments because then they can't short-change the rest of the people. We finally were in our seats watching the circus when a fellow came around selling whips. He said, "How about a whip? Whips! Who wants a whip-the Tom Mix3bhip." My little fellow, Derek3 said, "I want a whip, I want a whip." Doc immediately said, "I'll get one for you-here, then he asked, "How much are they?"

two whips." And

"The big ones are a dollar," the man answered, "and the small ones are seventy-five cents." Doc simply said, "With it." And the fellow said, "Give me four bits for the two." So Doc got two whips for half a dollar. The two whips probably cost the seller twenty-four cents or something like that. It was just a case of not caring if he robbed the public, but he wasn't going to rob one of his own concern.

Dale was a plastic surgeon who excelled in the art of card magic. He died in 1954. 14 Tom Mix was a United States Marshal who turned actor. Born in 1880, lie was primarily known for his early film portrayals of cowboy characters in which lie was alwa s the "good guy". He died in 1940, after starring in over 400 low-budget westerns. Y5David Derek "Neepie" Verner was born to Ieanne and Dai Vernon in NEWYork City, August 14, 1932. Faucett Ross nicknamed him "Nepon-iuk" or "Neepie". He was briefly an amateur magician and contributed three original tricks in 1950 to Phoenix #200 under the by-line "Nepomuk".

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

LARRY GREY, THE DIZZY WIZARD Coney Island, what could I d o to stay there? That's how I met Larry the Dizzy Wizard, after I quit Goldie's t a g 4 a r t game. Larry Grey came to Toronto, Canada, from his native England in the early days of this century. Larry met a fellow called Enquist who taught him the backhand palm and some other tricks. Larry studied art and kept u p with his magic and finally came down to New York City. He took a job as a waiter because he couldn't d o anything else. He finally was fired and didn't know what to do with himself and was stranded in New York. He met this other waiter, by the name of Patrick Donahue, who had some money and wanted to open a place on Coney Island. Donahue said to Larry, "If you can sell magic, I'll get a space on Coney Island." So they ended u p on Kensington Walk, which is the walk which led to Steeplechase Pier. Now let me digress and tell you how green Donahue was. One of those sharpies at Coney Island, who rented spaces to the various vendors, waited until the visiting crowd was headed to the steamship that would carry them back to the mainland before showing the rental property to Donahue. Kensington Walk was the main path to the steamship and with this great crush of people all heading for the boat it looked like the busiest street on Coney Island. This fellow timed it perfectly for Donahue's benefit and, sure enough, he bit the bait and was soon hooked and landed.

I just happened to come along when Larry Grey was nailing u p a sign over his booth. The big sign he was putting u p read, "Learn to Entertain". I thought to myself that this "Learn to Entertain" must have something to do with magic, an illusion or something. This little fellow was hammering away and tacking some black stuff on a frame, and I said, "What does this sign 'Learn to Entertain' mean?" "Oh," he said, "I'm gonna sell some magic." 3 6 ~ a r r yGrey was born circa 1894, and died in the 1950s. Dai Vernon's last meeting with him was at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles, California in 1947. Vernon had come to Los A ~ ~ g c lto e sgive a lecture to the local magicians.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART ONE 1894-1916 "What do you mean magic?" I asked. "Card tricks, stuff like that.. .why?" he answered. "Well," I said, "I'm interested in magic-very

much interested in it."

This piqued his interest and he stopped hammering for a moment and asked me: "Do you do some tricks?" "Yes." "Yeah, so d o I. Come in here." So I followed him into this little store he had just been framing up and he took out a pack of cards and he made a beautiful fan with the deck and I could see right away that he was good with cards. "You're English, aren't you?" I said. "Yes ...yes, I'm a Limey." I asked him his name and he said, "Lawrence Grey.. .call me Larry. I've had a pretty tough time since I came down from Toronto. I've been working as a waiter but I think this thing is gonna go, we're gonna sell magic." Larry did a few more tricks for me, and I did some for him, and we became very friendly. I stayed around Larry for some time and watched him do his stuff for the crowds that came around. Well, they'd get a tremendous crowd and Larry Grey would do the magic very well, but when it came to selling everybody just walked away. Nobody bought anything. Time after time, I watched them walk away without buying anything. Larry just couldn't sell. I mentioned this to Donahue, who was bankrolling this little enterprise, and told him that Larry was a great guy, very funny but a little too meek and quiet. "For Coney Island you've go to be loud and blatant." I knew this instinctively, and told Donahue that I'd like to try the crowd once and see what I could do. There was nothing to lose so he let me try to sell the magic. I remembered this old pitchman who used this gimmick to sell his wares: "Now during this performance we only have one, two, how many we got here? We have only six to pass out. If you want one after these six are gone, I'm sorry. You'll have to wait until the next performance. We're only allowed to pass out six at a time..." And so on. So I gathered a good crowd around me and begin to demonstrate a few tricks and then told them that I could only sell six of the magic packs. I sold them all and wouldn't sell another even though they were trying to give me their money. "Oh, no, only six at this performance. Very shortly there will be another performance. We'll put the sign up." Donahue watched me sell and came up to me and said, "Listen, I think I can get rid of this fellow, Grey. Would you like to work here? I've

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 invested $700 in this and I don't see how we're gonna possibly get any of our money back, but if you work here at least I might be able to break even." I liked Larry Grey a lot and wouldn't do anything that might cost him his job, but here was a chance to stay on at Coney Island.

Larry Grey, circa 1920

Suddenly I thought of those days back at Old Orchard Beach and the nameless man on the pier who made all those quarters cutting silhouettes. And so I began asking around the Island if there was anybody cutting pictures out of black paper, silhouettes. One fellow spoke u p and said, "Oh, we call those 'silooties'. There's a fella in Luna Park who makes a lot of money. He's got a beautiful stand and he works there. He makes a lot of money." So I thought, well heaven's alive, if he makes a lot of money why can't I?

I told Donahue that I would like to cut some silhouettes. I said, "Let Larry be the magician and sell. I think I can bring in some additional income by doing silhouettes in this place." So I went and got a big piece of cardboard for ten cents and decked her up. I got some wallpaper and mounted it onto the cardboard to make it look decorated, put a frame around it, and drew a lot of fancy things like knights with armor and a horse. I made some ornamental things and cut them out laboriously and pasted them on as samples. I cut out several nice looking heads of girls and children, about twenty altogether, and mounted them onto my wallpaper display piece. In a short time, I was ready to go to work in

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART ONE 1894-1916 Larry's shop. I found this place in New York that sold black paper, mostly used as endpapers in prayer books and bibles, and bought a supply for my Coney Island stand. I got a jar of Carter's paste, which I used to stick the sill~ouettesto the backing paper, and started into work. The first night I took in $IS!

A short time after I began to sell silhouettes, this fellow Perry came by. He was the man I was told about, the one who cut silhouettes over at Luna Park. He was looking at the silhouettes and was particularly interested and asked, "Who made these? Who cut these?"

"I did," I said. "You must have drawn them first." I told him that I had cut them freehand. This impressed him and he asked for my scissors and he cut a double silhouette, one behind the other, superimposed on the line between. I had never seen this done before, it was absolutely new to me. Then he said to me, 'When you get a bank roll, come around and see me. I'll give you a few lessons. I work in Luna Park." I went to see him and while he couldn't teach me much about cutting silhouettes, he did give me some valuable tricks of salesmanship which are still important to me today. For instance, if you were looking at my display while I was working I'd say, "Would you like to have one of these made?" You'd more than likely back away instinctively and say, "Well, perhaps some time," or, "I'll think about it," or, "Let me go get my wife." Perry explained, "Never ask a person if they want it, say 'Just stand exactly as you are ...Hold your head up a little.' Cut t l ~ esilhouette and hand it to them. Nine times out of ten they'll take it. It's like catching a fish, you sneak u p on them. Don't ask them, this gives then^ an out." I've used his advice for over sixty years. Larry and I used to keep such terrible hours. We would stay up all night. Coney Island never slept then; places stayed open until three or four in the morning and we would go out and have something to eat and we would wind u p sitting and talking and wouldn't go to bed until daylight. One of the state banks had a bell tower and used to play The Star Spangled Banner on the bells at one in the afternoon, that was our alarm clock. We'd hear this and we'd jump out of bed like soldiers. There was nothing to d o on Coney Island in the morning, it was an afternoon and evening spot. We would go down to the ocean, put on our bathing suits and have a dip until sundown, then come in and open the store. Towards the end of the season I started to work with Perry; perhaps for a month, on weekends and other times. He used to ask me how I did

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 certain tricky cuts and this tickled me because he was the one who originally said to me, "When you get a bankroll, come around and I'll teach you." So here I was in New York and my father sent me a letter asking that I return to Canada and he enclosed the money to return. I very foolishly spent all the money and ended u p having to tell him that I had done so and didn't have the money to return. This, however, was not exactly true as I simply didn't want to go l~ome. The next time instead of sending me the money, he sent me a ticket to come back. After a lot of fooling around I finally got down to the station and was ready to leave. A fellow who came down with me said, "You know you can turn that ticket in and get the money." This sounded great to me as I didn't want to go home anyhow, I really wanted to stay in New York, so I turned in the ticket. Sold it, and stayed! Again my father sent me a ticket and he said, "I'll send you a ticket, but if you don't come home you're on your own. You've got to stay there." I told him I simply wasn't ready to come home, I really wanted to stay in New York. He, understandably, didn't want me there as he didn't know what I was doing. I wasn't going to art school so he wanted me back home.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART ONE 1894-1916

MY BROTHER NAPIER AND THE ARMY I finally did go home and went to the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario. I never did get to go overseas during the First World War. I was commissioned a lieutenant in the Artillery and later transferred into the Canadian Air Force. I had a couple of accidents and broke my arm and was sent over to the Headquarters staff. I was a good draftsman and they wanted to keep me in the office. Napier, my younger brother by five years, went overseas. I was an officer and I was stuck in an office in Canada, he was a private in the infantry and went to France. I told them I wanted to go with my brother but I was classified under section "B," they said I had an overabundance of thyroid and couldn't go overseas. The people in charge said that I would be subject to shell shock if I ever got into violent action. I told them my brother wasn't as physically strong as I was. I had taught him to dive, play football; I argued with them but to no avail. I did a couple of handsprings to show them how fit I was. I got very indignant; I fought like hell but it did no good. While I was giving them hell in Canada, Napier was going through hell at Verdun. Years later, he still had nightmares about all the mud and all the dead. This, I'm sure, had a lot to do with his lack of resistance to the pneumonia that finally killed him in 1937. I grew bored with the drafting department and longed to go back to New York.

PART TWO 1917-1938

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

NEW YORK ...1917 This was my one ambition, to live in New York and go to art school. I was twenty-three years old and now anxious to be an artist. My father, a few years earlier, had sent me to an art class up in Ottawa run by two old maids. I did a lot of charcoal drawing and casting in plaster-hands, feet and leaves. Artistic ability seems to run in my family. My father's brother, Frederick, was a Canadian artist of fame. He made his mark on the art world with watercolors of the American plains with its wildlife, buffalo, Indians and settlers. He went to London and was made a member of the Royal Academy and many museums have examples of his work. In 1969, his watercolor Portrait of Sitting Bull sold at auction for $4,800.

I always felt that Remington was a trite artist compared to my uncle. My brother has one of his watercolors that's worth thousands of dollars. I wish I had it. Three buffalo in a storm, with a blizzard blowing. He was sitting in a little shanty in a blizzard and painted this from life. It's a wonderful picture, you can see the wind across the plains; even the buffalo, it's too tough for them, although they are hardy animals. His atmospheric effects were wonderful, he was noted for them. Somewhere it was written that, "Verner enveloped his buffalo in a misty atmosphere more suited to the Scottish Highlands than to the strong contrasts of prairie shadows." My uncle was very careful with his colors; in fact he used to make his own. My father once said, "My brother made paintings that would endure, he made his own color, he didn't trust the store bought, he made his own color out of vegetable dyes. He worked like the old masters. Now if you were a true artist, you'd be like my brother, you'd do research on making color, make it last and make your own." "Dad," I told him at the time, "I do this. Not with painting, but with magic."

I still seem to have a natural talent for drawing, if I really buckled down I suppose I could do some creditable art work. It was 1917; Canada was in the war and my father had just passed away. Mother and my younger brother, Arthur, had decided to moved to Toronto. I got permission to come down to New York in uniform. I got six weeks leave because I had transferred from the artillery to the air force and had maneuvered myself the leave with some pretty clever dialogue.

H E FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938 So I came down to New York and was wearing my Artillery Officer's uniform and walking down Broadway. In those days, the American uniform was all buckled u p in the front like a chauffeur's outfit. This was before the United States adapted the Sam Brown belt and the tunic. I wore a regular British Army Officer's uniform with the red chevrons on it and was a First Lieutenant (Leftenant we called it) and was attached to Headquarters staff. Women used to stop me and ask how many Germans I had killed. I didn't want to create any stir so I finally took off the uniform and wore my civvies. The first thing I did in New York was to head for the Art Student's League, for two reasons; it was flre place to learn to be an artist, and they had some wonderful Friday night parties. I was never muc11 of a drinker but a lot of wonderful people were always sure to be at those parties; smart people, writers, cartoonists, wealthy people, and, of course, artists of all kinds and styles. I never missed one of those parties during my short stay there.

I decided the thing I wanted to do was portraits. Once, this other fellow and I got into a discussioi~about John Singer Sargent." He was saying that it was a pity Sargent was only commercial, he could have been a great artist. Sargent was a very successful artist just the same and he made a fortune. He met all the society people; 11e was like a court favorite, you might say. So anyway this fella was telling me how art scliool would ruin me; how great artists never go to art school. Once you learn something about perspective, something about foreshortening, a few little rules, art school can do only one thing-dwarf you and kill your style, your originality. He really convinced me art school was bad. I thought what he said was true. Like magic, if you go absolutely by what one person thinks and if he was not really very good, you're going to end u p with his style and do just what he does. Why not create something of your own; basically it's a good place to start, with yourself.

I was enrolled at the Art Student's League for some time, but I didn't attend very often ...off and on for perhaps four to six months. I had originally gotten only six weeks leave but my commai~dingofficer continued to grant permission to stay on in New York. I used to spend a lot of my time at the Allied Bazaars. Most of them, the English, Russian and Italian, were held at the Grand Central Palace. I used to entertain the troops by cutting sill~ouettes,sometimes in uniform, son~etimesin civvies.

37~ohnSinger Sargent was an American painter born in Italy in 1856. He was one of the most fashionable portrait artists of his day and grew wealthy painti~lgAmerican and English society figures. He spent most of his life in London and died in 1925.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

Dai Vernon in uniform, 1916

On one occasion I heard, from a Mrs. Fox, about this big bazaar in Boston. She had seen my silhouette work and thought it would be perfect for that bazaar. I made arrangements to go to the Boston Allied Bazaar where I soon had them lining up for my silhouettes. 1 was cutting a silhouette of a rather unruly child who wouldn't turn the way I needed him to and was taking up too much valuable time as there were quite a few people waiting in line. There was one rather elderly old lady in widow's weeds who remarked, "I think you are getting that very well, the proportion is very good. Why don't you dip his head?" I finally finished the profile and did some others, and this woman watched all the while and then said to me, "I hope you aren't annoyed with me but I had a little boy who used to do this work very well."

I said, rather curtly, "I know, they teach this kind of thing in

H E FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938 kindergarten; children cut out cows and rabbits, but this is very difficult; doing a portrait where the least little curl of the lip makes a difference. It's a very different thing altogether." I was sort of enligl~teningher and I noticed that she was getting rather indignant. She tl~entold me that her little boy was rather clever and I replied, "If your little boy was ever u p against what I am u p against right now, he'd find it wouldn't be so easy." She said, "My little boy, in fact, is grown u p now and is quite a well known artist. You must have heard of him, Charles Dana G i b s o i ~ . " ~ ~ Heard of him! I used to copy his pen and ink drawings out of Life Magazine.This was before Henry L ~ c bought e ~ ~it and turned it into t71e LIFE magazine twenty years later. Gibson was a sort of idol of mine. He was the pen and ink man in my era; Gibson and James Montgomery Flagglo were the two most influential pen and ink men of the first half of the 20th century. "Mrs. Gibson, I certainly apologize for being perhaps a little curt," I said in my most sincere voice, "but this work is very annoying, and I get nervous." "Would you like to meet my son?" she asked. "I'll give you a letter to him and you can meet him when you get back to New York." She went off into a back room and returned a few minutes later with the letter. Later I unsealed it and it said, "...this will introduce you to a very interesting young man I met.. .he cuts the kind of silhouettes that you did when you were a little boy." When I returned to New York, I went to see Gibson and stayed for quite a while. The first thing he told me, after we got a little friendly was, "Young man, you are talking to a very disappointed man. I am very disappointed; I went in for commercial art, my work.became quite the vogue, they call the women I draw T11e Gibson Girls-I really wanted to be a painter. 1 went to Italy and studied art. I made out very well commercially, but I always wanted to be a real painter, a real artist." He then told me a fable about the canary and the crow that was one of the most profound tl~ingsI have ever l~eard.And this is the fable that Charles Dana Gibson told me in his home in New York in 1917:

A canary met a crow one day and they began to argue about which of them had the best voice. The canary said, Why, you know you can't sing 3S~harlesDana Gibson was an American illustrator born in Massachusetts i n 1867. He was the creator of the immensely popular "Gibson Girl". He died i l l 1944. 3 9 ~ e n r yR. Luce was an American publisher and editor. He was born in China of American parents in 1898. He was the founder of T i m e , Fortulrc, and LlFE magazines. 40~arnesMontgomery Flagg was an American co~l~rnercial artist. He was born in 1877 and died in 1960.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 like I can,' and he proceeded to sing in his most beautiful tones. The crow said, 'That's not singing, listen to this, caw ...caw ...caw .... That's real quality.' They continued to argue until they decided to have a contest, and to let somebody judge which of them had the best voice. Just then a big fat pig came waddling along the road and the crow said, 'Listen, will you judge a contest; we've had an argument, we want to know who sings best.' So the canary did a beautiful song and then the crow went, 'Caw.. .caw.. .caw.. ..' The pig listened very carefully then he said, Well, crow, you have a real voice, you can sing. Canary, you can't sing at all.' The little canary started crying and then a very kind looking man came walking along. 'Hello little bird, what are you crying about? The canary wiped a tear from his eye and said, 'Ihad a singing contest with the crow and I lost.' The man said, 'You are not a good sport; a good sport doesn't cry when he loses.' The canary replied, 'I am a good sport. I'm not crying because I lost, I'm crying because the pig was the judge.' "Think of that," Gibson said, "in art, in all forms of art, unfortunately the judges are the pigs; you can turn out the finest thing and it will be criticized. The ones who pay you are pigs too. When I have created the finest thing in my life and the millionaire I am trying to sell it to says, ' 1 buy it.' This breaks my heart. I 'Great, paint that background red and 11 know just from talking to you for a short time, I know this will break your heart too. If you want your heart broken go into art." Gibson didn't know I did tricks, so I did a few for him. "What do you want to do art for?" he said, "This is great, you can have a lot of fun with magic. Take a lesson from a bitter man, if you want to go off somewhere and paint for you alone.. .and live a life of a hermit, perhaps you might be a very happy man, but don't think that you can make a living out of art. Take my advice." And I did.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938

NEW YORK'S MAGIC SHOPS New York was Mecca for a young magician in the early part of this century. All the great sources of tricks and magic paraphernalia were to be found in the city that was to become known as the Big Apple. This name originated after the name of the dance which premiered around this time by the American dance team Vernon and Irene Castle.41 It was reintroduced, in name only, twenty years later during the swing era of the 1930s. In fact it was because of Vernon Castle that I changed my last name from Verner to Vernon. Nobody in New York could properly pronounce my name because no one could say the "er" sound in Verner. The distinctive New York accent was used to speaking suc11 things as "Hoivey and Goity were sitting on the coib reading the Woild." There were two "er"s in Verner which were always spoken by New Yorkers as "Voinoi"; I got so disgusted I just allowed my name to become Vernon and let it go at that. As a child, a teenager, and young adult, I had read every book and catalogue I could lay my hands on that dealt in any way with the subject of magic. Now that I was in New York again, I was going to visit the very shops which had issued all those magic catalogues I had so long collected and studied. My first stop was Martinka's Magical Palaceu on Broadway. I expected to find some kind of an edifice that looked like a castle and walked back and forth several times before I finally found it. It was not a palace. What I found was a dingy little store with an elderly woman behind the counter. 'What do you want?" she said as I walked in. When I told her, slie handed me a catalogue, saying, "If you want anything call me." She then walked into the darkness at the back of the store. 4 1 ~ e r n o nand Irene Castle were a high-class ballrooni dance act before World War I. Castle (1887-1918) and his wife, Irene, created and denionstrated new dance routines which looked stylish but were simple to learn. Irene was responsible for introducing the fashions of bobbed hair and the slim, boyish figure. 4 2 ~ r a n c iJ.s Martinka owiied "Martinka's Palace of Magic" in New York City. During his ownership, 1873 to 1917, it was the gathering place of fa~nousn~agiciansand the leading magic shop in the United States. He sold it in 1917 to Charles Carter and it was

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DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 Tl~erewas nothing much displayed, just a few very old dusty magic tricks in a display case. Tliis was devastating. I had tl~oughtMartinka's was going to be a big substantial building, bigger than any bank building; bigger and more handsome than anything I had ever seen. Instead, I found this dingy little store on Broadway housed my dreams! I couldn't believe that this was the famous magical palace that I'd heard and read so much about. I walked out more than a little disappointed. Later, when I dropped in again, a young fella was there. I asked if he had any tricks that I would be interested in. I told him I was interested primarily in cards. He took a pack of cards, fanned them out and I saw that they were a deck of strippers, cards which were tapered at one end. He asked me to take a card, he turned the deck around and I put it back. He then found the card. I told him that I thought I already knew that trick. But he offered to do the trick again anyhow, so when I took out the card I asked to shuffle them. I shuffled them one-half end-for-ertd, instead of the regular way, which put the narrow cards at each end and ruined the trick. He went under the counter, pulled the turned cards out of the pack straightened them and then came up and asked me to take a card again. When I shuffled the deck I dropped several a n d put them back incorrectly then returned the deck to him. He again botched the trick. I finally had to tell him, "I know all about stripper cards." Then he went and got an X-Ray deck. This is a deck of cards that's gin~mickedby having a hole punched through about one-third of them right where one index is located. The cards with the l~olesare on the bottom and you have a card selected from the whole top cards. It is replaced among the bottom gimmicked ones. When the deck is square all you need to do is look at the bottom card and you can see the index of the selected card through the l-tole. He showed me several tricks with this deck; I was familiar with them all. I left Martinka's Magical Palace again without buying anything. These days I feel a little differently than I did then. It seems now that almost all magic emanates a n odor of s c i ~ kind. ~ e These old places like Flo~so's,"~ formerly Hori~mann'sMagicIMwhich have been located in the same place for many decades, are a wonderful experience. You walk u p renanied "Martinka & Company". 4 3 Flosso, ~ ~ "The Coney Island Fakir" was the stage name of Albert Levinson. A full time professional from tlie age of thirteen in circuses, carnivals and Coney Island sideshows. He became a magic dealer in New York City when in 1939 he purchased Hornmann Magic Company from Frank Ducrot. He was born in New York City in 1895, and died in 1976. 441'r~fessor Otto Hornmann was the stage name of Otto Horn. He was the owner of Hornmann Magic Co. in Manhattan, New York until his death in 1920, when Houdini

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HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938 these rickety stairs, there's dust and papers thrown around and there's a musty odor. It's easy to associate this musty odor with old books, with magic. When I smell that odor it brings back these old memories. It's sort of like reading Dickens. When you read about Scrooge in his office you picture this type of place in your mind. You don't picture highly polisl~ed floors and beautiful shiny counters like in a modern bank because part of the charm is the antiquity.

Harry Kellar turns his show over to Howard Thurston, 1908

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bought the shop. He was born in 1869.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

POWERS' MAGIC SHOP Down on 42nd Street I discovered Powers' Magic Shop; another magic store which was much nicer than Martinka's. It gave me a big lift. Funny how I discovered it. I was just walking along 42nd Street and walked into this store. I hadn't heard anything about it. I wasn't in on the politics about town and when I mentioned it to some of the magicians at Martinka's they said, "Oh yes, that place has been there for a month or so. Didn't you know about it?" It was so clean and modern looking, after this dingy place of Martinka's. It was owned by Clyde Powers.45 This shop was one of the turning points in n ~ ylife in magic in New York. The mail behind the counter was Paul Carlton,$A a warm, friendly, red-headed man who enjoyed his work and the people who frequented the shop. He asked me, "Are you interested in l~andkercl~ief tricks, card tricks or apparatus? What would you like to see?" My answer was simple, "Primarily cards. If there is any trick with cards which I don't know about that fools me," I said, "I'd be willing to buy it for $20." Twenty dollars was quite a sum of money in those days. He looked at me as if to say, "Who is this farm boy? He's probably some wealthy kid who thinks he knows something; I'm going to set him back 011 his feet." He proceeded to do some card tricks but everything he did I was familiar with. He did the bit where every second card is duplicated (later called the Svengali Deck). I told him I was familiar with that principle; 110 matter where I put my finger, no matter where I cut, I'll always get the Nine of Diamonds or whatever card it was. He asked me where I learned all of these tricks. "Where are you from?" and such questions. I told him I was a Canadian. He got a little disgusted because I was able to call all the turns on every trick he showed me. I said, "Can you d o 45

Clyde W. Powers, lived from 1876 to 1930, and was a magic dealer. He owned the Mysto Magic Shop in New York City which operated from the mid-teens through the mid 1920s. 4 6 ~ a u lCarlton was influential froni 1910 to just after lie helped write (with anonymous help from Max Holden) the infamous series of "It's Fun to be Fooled--it's More Fun to Know" magic expos6 ads for Camel cigarettes. These appeared in 1933. He also wrote the Mngicinrl's Hnirrly Book of Cignrctte Tricks (19331, a tie-in expose pamphlet also put out by Camel.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938 any tricks with an ordinary pack, not trick cards?" He did a few, not very well and not u p to my standards. Then he asked me what I could do. I thought that if I was going to show this fellow some of my technique I should really fool him badly. In order to do this I wanted to prepare his deck slightly. I told him that I'd been around town all day and my hands were dirty, if there was some place I could wash u p I would love to do a couple of tricks for him. He directed me to the washroom and once inside I took out my little silhouette scissors, which I was never without, and prepared the card I had secretly palmed from out of Paul's own deck. I cut a very, very fine crescent out of the card, so fine you could hardly see any light through it if you held it against a flat surface; an elliptical hair off each end. (It was an old deck so I rubbed my hand on some dust and dirtied the cut ends so they would conform with the other edges.) I could do this very expertly and that made a practical key card in another man's deck. I came back from the washroom with my newly prepared card palmed and secretly replaced it back onto the top of his pack. The11 I showed him three or four tricks that I used the key card for and he immediately called for Clyde Powers, himself, to come out and see me. When Clyde Powers came out he said, "Young man, you must be pretty good if Paul Carlton says so; he's one of the best magicians in New York." Clyde Powers was a nice looking, portly, smiling, middle-aged man. I took an immediate liking to him and his shop. He told me that I could make his shop my home. He had a back room and when magicians such as Harry Kellar or Ching Ling F o o or ~ ~Houdini or Dr. Elliotta were in New York, they always made their way to Powers' back room, the inner sanctum. "We don't have our customers back there, only professional magicians. You can go back there whenever you like." I didn't need a second invitation. I was there practically every day. I wasn't attending the art school regularly any more, just occasionally; but every afternoon, as soon as the magicians started coming in, I was at Powers' shop. Before I came to New York it was my ambition to meet these big time magicians and now Clyde Powers, himself, had told me to come to his shop. I knew I could hold my own if I ever got to talking with them as I 4 7 ~ h i n gLing Foo was born in Yang Tsuan, outside Peking, China in 1854, and died around 1923. This was the stage name of Qua Chee-ling. He toured the western world with great success working the United States from 1898 to 1900, then South Africa, London, Europe, and back to the United States from 1912 to 1915. 4 S ~ r James . William Elliott, (MD) retired as a physician to be a professional card man. He toured as "Bosco" with the Le Roy, Talma and Bosco troupe from 1913 to 1917. He began magic at the age of ten learning some tricks from 111s father who was an

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DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 read about them and knew their histories. Powers' back room was behind the coui~terthrough a little doorway. There was nothing back there really. A few chairs and tables. A rather nondescript, normal, old back room of a store. Nothing there except the people which made it different. Powers told me that every Friday night there was a seance down in the basement. All the socialites from Park Avenue used to come to his seances and listen to David P. ~ b b o t t ' famous s ~ ~ invention, The Talking Tea Kettle. Powers used to charge $20, and in those days this was a lot of money, to hear this talking tea kettle. Remember that this was a veritable mystery in those days. They used to send out invitations to different wealthy people who were interested in psychic phenomena. They put on this exhibition with the talking tea kettle. Paul Carlton played one or two instruments, a mandolin and a trumpet, and was the one who used to send these sounds through by some method of induction. People would hear this spirit music from the spout of the tea kettle. The presentation was along the lines of, "How is it done? Is it the spirits? You be the judge." Fooled everybody, of course. Remember, this was before the days of radio. Radio was unheard of; people had no idea. They had telephones, but no radio. Clyde Powers once told me that he would show me a card trick which he was sure I wouldn't understand. I said, "I'll pay $20 for any card trick I don't understand.'! Clyde told me to get the twenty ready as this was one that they didn't even sell through the catalogue and didn't show to the average customer. "I'm sure," he said, "you haven't seen it before and it will fool you." He took the cards and gave me a small stack, another small stack to a customer and gave a similar stack to Paul Carlton. He had us each shuffle our cards and freely select a card. Clyde then took back the packets. All three of us returned our selected cards to different parts of the deck. He squared the cards neatly then asked for the name of my card, he spelled out its name one letter at a time from the top of the deck. After spelling the name he turned the next card of the deck face u p and there was the card! Then the second and third selected cards were spelled out in the same way. It worked very cleanly and well. I had never seen this trick before but I knew something about spelling amateur. He was born in Rumford, Maine in 1874, and died in 1920. 4 9 ~ a v i dPhelps Abbott was born in 1863, and died in 1934. He was a wealthy businessman and amateur magician. His n ~ o s tfamous book, Belliild the Sceiles with tlle Medil~lllswas published in 1907. He wrote several others from 1908 to 1916, when he revised Bellilld Tlie Sceiles .... He had a private theater in his home and performed for invited guests. He performed the Talking Tea Kettle in 1907, and invented the Talking Vase in 1909.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938 tricks. I told Powers it was a very nice way of doing the spelling trick. I had never seen that trick done with three cards, it was a very good idea, it might take me twenty n~inutesor so to work it out exactly. I told him I knew the theory behind the trick. I explained, 'When you handed out the packets of cards I could see that you l ~ a dgroups of cards; I didn't know whether they were all of one color in each group or what but I knew you had to take off a specified number of cards. You betrayed yourself; you were too careful the way you divided the cards, and I thought you had to have an exact number in each pile. When you spelled them out the whole thing cleared u p in my mind that you had taken twelve cards that spelled with twelve letters, eleven cards that spelled with eleven letters and ten cards that spelled wit11 ten letters. When we returned the selected cards I noticed that you put them right at the bottom of the three groups we shuffled." Clyde Powers said, "My god, I can't believe it! You mean to say you just analyzed tl~atright now?" I got very friendly with Clyde Powers and especially with Paul Carlton. I ended u p teaching Paul how to do quite a few tricks. When I first walked into Powers', I thought, perhaps here I am going to find what I've been searching for, something new, something I've never heard of or read, or seen. I had a feeling of expectancy. When Clyde said, "Make this place your home," I was thrilled. Then when I heard Dr. Elliott, Ching Ling Foo and Leipzig came to congregate here in the back room-why this was t l ~ ethrill of my life. These were the people I really wanted to know intimately. I could hardly wait until the next day to see who was coming in. I thought when I left Powers' the first time: "There must be other wol~derfulplaces like this all over the world."

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

HARRY KELLAR AND THURSTON Harry Kellar was a wonderful illusionist. I first went to see Kellar when I was a boy in Ottawa. I saw him on two different occasions, in two different years, when he performed at the Russell Theater. The Russell was not a vaudeville house but a legitimate theater. I rushed there to see him, especially after seeing one of his posters on the wall outside a store. His posters were great, with little elves whispering in his ears, wonderful color and design; they were truly intriguing to a young would-be magician. Another thing that intrigued me was that Kellar was accompanied by Paul Valadon,jo the "World's Greatest Sleight of Hand Exponent". I thought that I would enjoy Valadon just as muc11 as Kellar; but I didn't. I enjoyed Kellar's show much more. Although Paul Valadon was very clever, I was entranced by Kellar. Valadon did some card tricks, a few billiard ball tricks and a few things with handkercl~iefs.He was very good, but Kellar was sensational and made Valadon look like nothing. Kellar's most celebrated illusion was making a woman rise u p and float into the air. It was a beautiful thing to watch. He used to talk about how he could make the little lady remain there for hours. He created the effect that she floated in the air and that she was suspended and floating; he really created a wonderful feeling of mystery. But, for some reason that I never really understood, Kellar sold his trademark illusion to Howard Thurston. Howard Thurston was a butcher when compared to Kellar. Kellar later realized what he had done and told me in Clyde Powers' Magic S11op one time, "I made a great mistake when I sold the show to Thurstol~.He isn't the right man. He butchered my levitation." This levitation illusion was very dear to the heart of Kellar. I'm not sure of all the details, but I think he originally got it fro111 Maskelyne and the11 made some i i ~ ~ p o r t achanges nt and perfected it, made it quite famous and did it 50

Paul "Val" Valadon was born Adolph Waber in Gerlnany in 1867. H e learned magic ill 1881, and did a two person mental act and illusions from 1887 to 1896. H e was with Maskelyne & Cooke i11 London from 1900 to 1904, and worked with Kellar in the United States from 1904 to 1907. He was replaced by Howard Thurston ill the Kellar show.

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HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938 really beautifully. He created the feeling that people could be made to float in the air through some strange power. Thurston ruined the aura of mystery and wonder of the floating illusion by crowding the stage with a motley gathering of people from the audience who wandered around looking for wires and clues to how the illusion was done. Kellar never had anybody on the stage when he performed the trick. He just presented it and let the audience marvel at the way it was performed. But Thurston made it a kind of challenge and it wasn't that kind of a trick. When Thurston played Denver years ago, he invited the entire Alexander Herrmann5' show over to his theater to witness his rising card trick. It was the first time any of them had seen such a trick and even the great Herrmann was fooled. Thurston capitalized on this and later billed himself as, "Thurston, the Man Who Fooled Herrmann," and he became very famous indeed, but he could never do the floating like K ~ l l a r . ~ ~ Kellar will always stand out in my mind as a marvelous magician because he did all types of magic and he created mystery and illusion and was a real artist. There is a distinct difference between an artist and a showman. A showman can be flamboyant, loud, and in some way or other intoxicate the people or make them think he's great, but an artist is a different person altogether. Harry Kellar's Cone Trick is a perfect example of his artistry. That trick has been exposed and shown and everything, but all of the other magicians do it as a trick; Kellar created a feeling that he could actually grow flowers in front of you-make flowers grow in an empty pot. He had a feeling for this, he seemed to know that there was such a thing as illusion and fantasy and imagination, and that's why I think he was great. At least he created that illusion for me. Kellar was a very nice fellow. He wasn't afraid to pay complimei~tsto other people, he spoke highly of others. He didn't speak too well of Thurston, though, w l ~ e nhe saw him doing his show after he sold i t to him. He simply didn't like the way Thurston did the levitation.

He died of tuberculosis in Phoenix, Arizona in 1913. 5 1 ~ l e x a n d e rHerrrnann, "Hermmann the Great", youngest son of Samuel Herrmann. He learned magic as an apprentice to older brother Compars Herrnianin from 1852 to 1859. He debuted as a professional in 1859, and toured the world until 1885. He and Compars agreed to divide the world between them. Compars would have exclusive perfornlance rights in Europe and Alexander the Americas. He married Adelaide in 1875, who was from then on his main female assistant. He was born in Paris in 1844, and died ill 1896. Alexander Herrmann is the model from which the "typical" magician originated. '*~ditor's note: Interested readers can find other versions of this encounter in Milbourne Christopher's Ill~,strntedHistor!/ Of Mngic and David Price's Mngic.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 Kellar wasn't afraid to praise other people; some smaller people are afraid to praise anybody. They seem to think it's some kind of weakness. They just haven't a good word to say about anybody. But if you're talking about them, they'll talk all night. If only they would praise others or be a little bit enthusiastic about the work of their contemporaries, people would be much more favorable toward them. Some people belittle everything except their own work, especially among magicians. As I said, I used to meet Kellar at Clyde Powers' Magic Store and talk at considerable lengtl~.We would to go into the back room and talk magic and he would share some of his secrets wit11 me. As for sharing other people's secrets, that was another matter. One such secret he never divulged was Dr. Hooker's Rising Card Trick-where any card called for would rise. One of the few people that ever got the true secret of that trick was Kellar and he kept it to himself. It was a great trick: you could take your own deck of cards and mark a card secretly or turn it upside down in the pack, and he would put the cards in a container, which is called a hot~lette,and put a glass bell over the entire thing. You could call for your card and it would rise from the pack. This had everybody fooled. Dr. Hooker" was a chemist from the Rockefeller Foundation, and the magicians used to say he must use chemistry; it's a chemical trick because he's a great chemist. The other magicians, of course, had no idea how l ~ did e it. But l ~ showed e Kellar. I once asked Kellar, "Will you tell me, Mr. Kellar, or will you give me some idea of how he does this trick?" Kellar said, "I would, but I'm sworn to secrecy, and the trick is not practical except in a man's home, where he lives and where he spends a lot of time experimenting. It's only a trick suitable to d o in your own home under ideal conditions." It's been the dream of every magician to have any card called for come up-not to have the cards selected and have them come up, but to have a person name any card and that card rises from the pack. The only other fellow I knew of who invented a similar trick was ~ ~$20 and used it Neyl~art." I bought one of his Neyl~artH o u l e t t e ~for when I was working in the Madison Hotel in New York on 58th Street. I 53

Dr. Samuel Cox Hooker, (Ph.D.1 was born in England in 1864, and moved to Brooklyn, New York as an adult. He was a wealthy chen~istwho was an amateur magic inventor, private performer, and collector of magic books. His fine collection was given to The New York IJublic Library in 1936 . He died in 1935. "A. P. Neyhart was not a magician but a consulting electrical engineer in Los Angeles. He invented the Neyhart Rising Cards apparatus in the late 1930s. This apparatus permitted any card called for to rise fro111 the pack.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938 used to show it as a curiosity to some of the people who were interested. I would say, "To show you to what lengths a man can go, here's a man who worked out this elaborate method to rise cards from a pack." I would show them how it worked but rzot how it was done. Neyhart's device involved a little gear you turned with your thumb and you had to set a button on it. Each card was prepared-you couldn't do it with just any pack of cards, you had to use these special cards. Each one was of a different dimension and cut in a certain way to fit into the houlette. The deck could be shuffled, but not examined, because there were odd little tabs and juts sticking out on one end. You could regulate the houlette so that any card could be made to come up. It was far from being a practical trick but it Toas ingenious. The only magician I knew who used it besides myself was Jack G ~ ~ n n e . ~never W e used it in his act, but 11e thought there was some merit to it. I think Jack Gwynne knew something about engineering; 11e was interested in the trick from a mechanical standpoint. But it was far from what a magician would like to do because the cards could not be let out of your hands and examined, and they had to be shuffled in a certain way. Dr. Hooker's trick was by far the better of the two in both the apparent simplicity of design and in its performance.

5 5 ~ e y h a rHoulette t is completely described in Grenter Mngic, page 416 56~osephMcCloud "Jack"Gwynne was born in Braddock, Pennsylvania in 1895, and passed away in 1969. He began doing magic at age twelve and then became a professional illusionist in 1913. He invented the Flip Over Box, Temple of Benares and others.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

THE SHORT CARD My method of using a short card, cutting an elliptical hair off each end, was new and very difficult to detect as the work was so fine. My favorite way of using a card which was cut shorter than the others was as a locator or key card, only in a very artistic way. Everybody who used a key card during the 'teens and 'twenties specifically cut or opened the pack at the place where the key card was located. Then the selected card was put in the deck next to the key card. I did this in an entirely different way, I let the spectator put the selected card anywhere in the pack. Anywhere they liked! Then I brought the key card next to their card with a cut or a shuffle, which is an entirely different approach. After this I brought the key card and their card either to the top or the bottom, and then let them shuffle. No matter how many times they riffle shuffled the cards the two cards would cling together and by locating the short card I was able to find the selected card. They'd have an idea that you've got to put the card in some certain place and in some way control it. They always looked at the selected card to be sure it wasn't bent or crimped but I was able to locate it because of the short card and make a pass or a side slip and produce their card after they shuffled. This absolutely bewildered them, they had no idea what control I used to find their card.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938

DOC ELLIOTT, HE PLAYED WITH A FULL DECK Dr. James Elliott was one of the few magicians in the early days, besides myself, who used a full pack of cards to do magic. He was a Harvard graduate, a doctor from Boston who gave u p almost all of his medical practice for a life in magic. He never became a professional magician because clients wouldn't give him the money he wanted. I would go to the agents with him and they would offer him $250 a week and he would argue for $1000; he said that he was doing something solid not some little cheap thing, and he wouldn't prostitute his art. He knew a lot of important people, and had an income of some kind; sometimes he would treat a hay fever case or perform a minor operation just to get enough to make ends meet. Everybody loved Doc, nobody ever heard a lewd word or a dirty remark from 11ini; he was a very wholesome kind of a man and had a funny sense of humor. Doc Elliott was so devoted to cards it became a mania with him. He would rent an extra storage room in a hotel, put a cloth covered table in there and as he said, punish himself practicing cards eight or ten hours a day. He had a mania for the pasteboards. When exl~austed11e would retire to his regular room and never touch t l ~ ecards! He got so good it was incredible; but found that lie couldn't do a trick standing u p because he always sat when he practiced. He said that he felt lost on his feet. When I met him I said that I had heard a lot about him and it was wonderful to meet him. I knew he was a student of cards, but I was very surprised when I asked him what he thought of S. W. Erdnase's The Expert at tlze Card Table and he replied, "The best things in there concern false cuts; I think the bottom deal is ridiculous as it is described, other parts are not too good either." Erdnase was a Bible to me and I told Dr. Elliott that most of the things I learned about sleight of hand, 1 learned from that book. One day he asked me to see if I could fool him. He said something like, "Do you think you could show me a trick that would fool me?" I told him that I wouldn't even begin to think I could fool him but, at his urging, I decided to try. I knew I couldn't get away with any kind of a sleight. Doc had previously told me that a magician who wants to make a reputation should learn to use a shiner or glim (a small mirror which reflects the face of the top card of the deck as it is dealt, usually concealed

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 in rings, matchboxes, pipes, coins, etc.) like a real gambler. Of course you couldn't betray it by staring at it ...but if you could use it like a skillful gambler you could kill another magician.. .they wouldn't know what you were doing. So I knew I couldn't fool Doc with a shiner as he knew all about them. Dr. Elliott had also told me that you could tell when a person was a card manipulator by the manner in wl~ichthey placed the deck on the table. They always squared them nicely and put them down like a block of wood. They handle the cards neatly. When they take the cards in their hands, the cards are squared. A good mechanic always keeps his cards squared like a little box. When he makes piles of cards they are neat-not spread all over unless he is acting carelessly on purpose. With these facts in mind I decided to try a trick on Dr. Elliott. First I let him shuffle his deck. Taking the shuffled cards I said, "I want you to d o this behind your back," and as I said this I made a gesture of putting the cards behind my back. Executing the Erdnase reversal with one hand, I reversed one card on the bottom of the pack while making the gesture. I handed him the pack which he put behind his back a n d I told him to remove a card and keep it. I took the pack from him and said, "If I was to look through this pack, and l ~ a da good memory, I might be able to tell you what card you have. Remember, you had the cards behind your back," and I made the gesture again behind my own back, a n d this time I tt~rlzedthe pack ozjer. The cards were now face u p with one card face down on top. Due to the fact that Dr. Elliott always kept the cards perfectly squared I knew he wasn't going to mess them up-at least I gambled on that! And he took those cards so nicely-I'll never forget-and placed them behind his back. I said, "Now keeping the cards behind your back, push the chosen card in anywhere you like-center, near the top or bottom-there are no restrictions." He followed my directions, and I was delighted when he brought the pack out squared nicely and handed it to me. Now his card was upside down in the pack!

I was thinking, how am I going to to finish this effect because he would see me turn the pack over. I felt that whatever I did he would have seen it. Then I had an inspiration. I moved my hand holding the pack about two feet u p and down and in so doing I let the top card fly off and brought the pack down with the backs u p . I said, "Oh, I'm sorry. I'm nervous in front of you, Doc!" And I picked u p the odd card a n d put it back on the pack. "Wait, I'll try it again!" This time I riffled the inner end of the pack, catching a glimpse of his card, which was face up. "There, it worked that time!" I remarked. I was going to show his card had reversed in the pack but on second thought I figured it would give him a clue to the secret. So I

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938 just looked at the top card and called out the name of the card 1 had seen face up in the pack, and then put the pack in the case. Doc shook hands with me and told me he didn't have the faintest idea of how I did the trick. I felt guilty when he asked me how in heck I had done it. Naturally I was tickled pink to know I fooled him and said, "Doctor, I'm ashamed to tell you-it's a kid trick." He remarked, "Well, if it's a kid trick so much the better!" So I showed him what I had done. He shook my hand again and said, "You've beaten me with my own weapons!" Many an evening we sat in that hotel room until the wee hours of the morning.

Dr. James Elliott, Challenge Card Champion, 1909

Every montl~,in some of the early magic magazines, such as The Splzi~lxand Mahatn.ln Doc Elliott's name was mentioned in one article or another. Some of his friends were indignant because Dr. Elliott was not a big star in show business; they didn't understand that he really loved magic as a hobby. They used to advertise him as the "Challenge Champion Card Manipulator of the World" and posted a standing offer of $5000 cash to anybody, anywhere who could best him wit11 an unprepared pack of cards. The conditions were that they had to do ten original things wit11 cards, ten standard classic tricks and then do all the standard sleights. Only two people ever decided to accept this challenge,

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 but they later backed out-Clinton Burgessv and Barney I v e ~Both . ~ ~men did certain sleights and flourishes extremely well but they didn't know all the things that Dr. Elliott knew. So nobody ever accepted the challenge.

I would like to illustrate what fantastic lengths Dr. Elliott went to in performing just one card trick. He had a long box, like a large sized pencil box. He used this box to hold his magic wand and during his show took the wand from the box and produced some coins from it. He also used the wand for a few other simple bits. However, unknown to the audience his main trick with the wand and the box was one in which the wand seemed incidental. It involved a card and an egg. Instead of having a card selected he would let somebody think of a card and then allowed that same person to pick an egg out of a bowl full of other eggs and place his or her initials on it. Doc would then tell the person holding the egg, and the audience, "You have been tl~inkingof a card, what card?" The poor soul holding the egg would blurt out the name of the card and Dr. Elliott would then crack the very top end of the egg open with his wand and show that inside the egg, among the white and yoke, was a card. Upon pulling the card from the egg it proved to be the correctly thought of card. The victim and the audience were enthralled and mystified by the trick, but wouldn't be if they knew how devious Doc Elliott was in setting them up. He had twenty-six wands in his box! At each end was a plunger, so that he could load a rolled u p card into both ends. The box had a dial wit11 twenty-six initials on it. This dial was attached to a roller assembly so he didn't have to dig down. There by any card he might want could be easily made available. By maneuvering the dial and wands he could nznke any card appear in the egg by ejecting it out of the proper wand. With a combination of misdirection and perfect timing and execution he was able to set up both the victim and the audience. It was an easy trick, all you needed was an ingenious system in a box with rollers and a dial and eggs...plus twenty-six identical plunger ecluipped wands. Doc Elliott was the one person in New York, the one and only among the magicians, who did a very fine second deal. He was outstanding, the best at the bottom cleal, the second deal and t l ~ epass. He was the best of anyone that I knew back in those days. The memory of his work is still wonderful. He never gambled in his life, but he could give a wonderful exhibition of gambling moves. He would do all these terrific things and 5 7 ~ l i n t o nBurgess was born in 1880 and died in 1932. He began his professional status wl~enhe played Tony Pastor's Theater in 1902. He loved card magic and edited Elliott's Lost Legocy (1923) with Harry Houdini. This book led to a bitter break between Burgess and Houdini. 58 Barney Ives was the stage name o f Walter G . Barney a professional card

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HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938 absolutely thrill all of us who watched him work. Once a professional gambler came into Clyde Powers' shop and asked to meet Doc because he had heard that he could do some wild things with cards. Doc Elliott did a couple of moves, including a rather dazzling second deal, and just floored the gambler. All he kept saying was, "Do that again. Do that again. I've never seen anything like that." He was absolutely flabbergasted by Dr. Elliott's moves and second deal. The last time I saw Doc Elliott, I was making the boat trip from Providence to New York. I was looking over the rail as the boat pulled out and suddenly discovered Dr. Elliott standing right next to me. I hadn't seen him for three or four years and was delighted! He was on his way to New York also. He had me cancel my cabin and join him in his stateroom which had double berths so, as he said, "We can stay up all night doing tricks!" Shortly afterward he passed away at the age of fortysix. Dr. Elliott was one of the really great artists; he had a passionate love of magic in all its phases. Although I don't think he contributed anything particularly new to sleight of hand, he did develop some original card tricks and put everything he knew of magic into notebooks, which eventually ended u p as a truly terrible book written by Houdini and Clinton Burgess entitled Dr. Elliott's Last Legacy. Houdini, with his limited knowledge of cards, took a few scattered things and tried to make a book. It was really unfortunate that they didn't understand Doc Elliott's notes. Most of things in the book are all wrong. Harry Houdini, whose real name was Ehricl~Weiss, was a master of escapes but not much of a magician and even worse at cards. He once billed himself as the "King of Cards" but couldn't even shuffle a pack without bending and breaking them. One thing he could do fairly well was spread the cards 011 his arm and catch them. He could do a fairly good spring from hand to hand and a couple of things like that but he was never the king of anything in cards. I have to laugh when I've read in some of the books about the "Houdini Invisible Pass". He could no more make an invisible pass than could the average man on the street.

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manipulator and one-time partner of Dr. James W. Elliott.

82

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

THE INNER CIRCLE It was quite a surprise to learn, many years later, that what some of my magician friends and I were doing at Clyde Powers' Magic Shop way back in 1918, was the cause of so much discussion and apparent envy within the magic community but, that seems to be the case. There was a small group of magicians who became a sort of an inner circle at Clyde's shop and the other magic shops around the city; Arthur Finley, Sam Horowitz,59 A1 and myself were among them. We used to stay together as a group and discuss the latest innovations in magic. We were always amused, too, because the fellows who were rather far behind us in magic wanted to join us. These fellows were copycats, even resorting to mimicking our mannerisms in turning a card and the way we stood when we performed. On one occasion we staged a little trick experiment just to see how much influence we really had over these other magicians. I was showing some card moves to Finley and Sam Horowitz. A couple of other fellows just happened to be there too so I leaned over and began to secretly show a new move to my two close friends. I made sure that the others got a good look at what I was doing. I began by putting a card half-way into the pack, placed my forefinger on the underside of the card at about the center and spun it around, made it rotate on its own plane and then pushed it in. As I was doing this useless flourish I was whispering to Finley and Horowitz, indicating to the onlookers that this was a very special thing indeed. For the next week or so all the fellows around New York were doing this nao move and saying to each other, "They pushed the card in this way.. .now they turned it.. .I don't know what this does but it is very secret." We were very much amused because it had no meaning whatsoever. Years later, I still occasionally see some fellow do this move. 59~amuelLeo "Sam" Horowitz was also known as "Leo Hartz" and "Mohammed Bey". He became a full time professional as a teenager. He was one of the five original

members of the New York "Inner Circle". 6 0 ~ 1Baker was born in Poughkeepsie, New York in 1874 and died in 1951. He was a professional comedy magician starting in 1895. He became a Chautauqua star from 1911 to 1928. A1 Baker was one of the five original members of the New York "Inner Circle" in 1932. He wrote five books: A1 Bnker's Book Owe, A1 Bnker's Book TWO,Mngicnl Ways a d hbmls, Merrtnl Mngic, and Pet Secrets.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938 They, of course, have no idea that it originally started out as a gag to do some peculiar movement which onlookers and eavesdroppers could look on and copy. On another occasion, Sam Horowitz walked into Macy's Department Store to buy a pair of socks. He picked out a pair of seventy-five cent black socks and presented two half-dollars to the clerk. The girl told Sam that the store was about to close and she couldn't process his purchase unless he had the exact change. Sam showed the girl the two half-dollars and rubbed them together and suddenly one of the coins changed into a quarter. He told her that he was a magician and could make l ~ i sown change and gave her the seventy-five cents and took away his socks. The sales clerk was stunned. But t l ~ ereal topper to this story is that in a big city like New York, that incident sped around town like a bullet and every single amateur was telling the story as if it had happened to him. They didn't even change the locale around to Gimble's instead of Macy's or a tie instead of socks. They all used the same identical story. Sam Horowitz was quite a character and he had never bee11 out of New York in his life. The first time he met my good friend Faucett Ross,61 whom he liked very much, he said, "Where are you from?" Faucett said, "I come a long way from here. I come from St. Joseph, Missouri." Sam said, "Missouri! Oh, that's where they grow stuff." Sam was a nice guy, bright. He wrote nice letters, but here's the kind of thing he would say. He'd stop a conversation with, "Wait, there's a saying for that: Don't cast pearls before swine," or "Wait, there a saying for that: Look before you leap." Ross, Dr. Daley and I made a real gag out of this; every time somebody said something we'd say, "Wait, there's a saying for that." Ross said, "Cliche: It's not what you do, it's the way you do it." Sam would say these as if it were the first time these pearls of wisdom ever came out of anybody.

6 1 ~ a u c e t tW. Ross was born in 1900 and died in 1987. He became a professional in 1930. He was a close friend of Charlie Miller, T. Nelson Downs and Dai Vernon, and has been called "Vernon's Boswell".

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

"JUSTTHINK OF A CARD.. .N The main thing that made my reputation in New York was the phrase, "Just think of a card.. . I used this in my act, and even put it on a card with a little silhouette. "Just think of a card ...." I had a lot of methods for discerning what card a person would think of but most revolved around subtle eye changes, body position or some aspect of psychology. I began with some pretty crude principles but soon refined them into a polished routine. One trick that got great acclaim was the one where I put down five cards and let somebody think of one and worked out which card was thought of by using reverse psychology. Dr. Elliott told me that there is one card in the pack a person never names, the Nine of Diamonds, The Curse of Scotland, but I don't think that's true today ...nobody knows about the curse of Scotland, or much of anything else for that matter. .'I

This playing card became known as The Curse of Scotland in the 1790s when, after the battle of Culloden Moor in Scotland, the English commander, the Duke of Cumberland wrote, on the Nine of Diamonds, the order to execute all the captured Scottish soldiers.

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Then there was Herbert Brooks6* who used to do Any Card Called For; he put half a pack of cards in each coat pocket and he would bring out any card called for instantly and with much flourish. He showed me the cards from his pocket; some were well worn, others brand new. He showed me those that were never called and he remembered that the Nine of Diamonds was one of them. I later wrote to Brooks to find out the reason why some cards were never called; presumably you could go on stage without those cards in your pocket and still do the trick. I began to see when I came to New York that most people, even magicians, were very limited in their knowledge of card tricks, consequently I used to be very audacious.

I would say, "Don't draw a card, just think of one." And I would find their card by peeking or fooling around and I made a tremendous reputation among magicians because of this one phrase. Lots of times I did miracles by lucky breaks but I always managed to bring the trick to a 62~erbertBndy Brooks was born in England in 1873 and died in 1923. He began playing big time vaudeville circuits and was famous for the Brooks' Trunk Escape, which he debuted around 1910. He invented Any Card Called For and the Cards From the Pocket.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938 successful conclusion. In that way I became very well known among the professiol-lals,and they in turn travelled around the country and mentioned the Canadian named D-A-I and his "Just think of a card. .." act. Any reputation I made among the magicians was made at that time and I have never since tried to add to it. I have contributed something, I suppose. I have thought of more useless things in magic than probably any other magician. For more practical things, take Paul Curry's63 Otrt of This World. I give him the greatest credit in the world for that. This is really leaving your footprints 011 the sands of time, and I told him so. Nobody up to that time, in the history of magic, had ever given a spectator a sl~uffleddeck of cards and allowed them to deal the cards face down onto the table into two piles and then showed that they had sorted them into the red and black cards. The idea that you could make a spectator so psychic that he could sort out the colors of all the cards was ingenious. It almost compares wit11 the Light and Heavy Chest@by Robert-Houdin. This is a wonderfully classic example of presentation, a clever presentation of a principle. I've twisted and changed and made a few things more logical with my approach but nothing like this. Max Holden wrote several times that I was unquestionably the greatest exponent of cards in New York; he started exaggerating the whole thing and pretty soon I began to get letters from Europe and my name became well known among magicians.

( i 3 ~ a uJ.l Curry was a gifted amateur magician who was a hospital administrator. He invented the Open Prediction, Out of This World, and the Curry Turnover Change among others. He was born in 1917 and died in 1982. 64~ightand Heavy Chest: a burly spectator was asked to lift a small chest. After putting the chest down the performer spoke to the spectator and told him that his strength had left him and he didn't even have the strength of a small child. The spectator was then asked to lift the chest again, which this time he could not do! This was a very early application of electromagnetics.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

"THE TRICKS OF THE GREEKS" When I was quite a small boy I was fascinated by the tales RobertHoudin wrote about gamblers. I'd read these stories and say, "Wow, the tricks of the Greeks." Robert-Houdin and others of his time called gamblers Greeks instead of sharpers, because the Greek people were stereotyped as notorious gamblers. I never aspired to be a gambler, never wanted to cheat anybody, but I was still fascinated by the work of these people. I can't really explain this fascination with gamblers except I must have some sort of inner urge somewhere down deep that is attracted to this sort of thing, a little gambler in my heart, so to speak. I discovered very early when I read Erdnase that I could see the superiority of the sleights used by gamblers over the ones used by magicians. The simple reason is that a magician can misdirect by word of mouth or gesture, and he can make the conditions under which he performs. He can do anything within the limits of acting. He can trip or fall and do a hundred things. But at a card table, where you are subject to the closest scrutiny and people are betting their money, which is very dear to the hearts of most people, you're under the closest observation. When you do a trick move of any kind, whether dealing a bottom card or making some kind of a pass or something, all eyes are focused on you and it has to be faultlessly executed or, needless to say, you will wind u p in an alley with a broken arm. When I was about ten years old, my father took me trout fishing. We would be out on the lake all day fishing, catch some fine rainbow trout and come back to the lodge and eat them. Then we'd sit on the veranda and enjoy the beautiful Canadian night. There was this other fisherman who was staying at the same inn as we were and he would join us on the veranda and pull out a pack of cards and begin doing some tricks. He'd ask me to shuffle the cards and pick one and then he'd produce it with as clean and s n ~ o o t al ~pass as I'd ever seen. I thought at the time that I would give all the tricks I knew if I could just do that one trick as neatly and as cleanly has he did it because I couldn't detect any false move of any kind. I asked my father about this maiI and he said he was a gambler, a poker player. So this, I think, was the first time I made the mental distinction between a magician and a gambler. And this rather fascinated me and

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938 from then on, anytime I'd hear about some professional gambler, I'd want to find out if he knew anything in the way of what they call advantage play, sleights, or moves. One of the most interesting gamblers I ever met was a fellow named Nightingale. The one move that he did that most impressed me was his second deal. He put the Ace of Hearts on top and dealt through the whole pack and when he finished he still had the Ace of Hearts in his hand. I was ten years old and had never seen the second deal before and I've rarely seen it done better since then. I don't think there is anyone living who has put more research and time into the second deal than I. This is a very, very difficult sleight and the two greatest writers on magic, RobertHoudin and Erdnase, both say that there is no more difficult sleight that can be attempted than the second deal. And Nightingale dealt through the entire pack of cards and never once did I detect his action. I used to chase gamblers down. I'd travel miles and miles just to see one at work. For a time, as a young lad, I had a motorcycle and used to ride hundreds of miles to see some gambler who was supposed to have a special knack wit11 cards. Many times I was disappointed finding out what they could do because they were very limited in their abilities but I kept going to see them whenever I could.

I have learned many things on carnival grounds and in places where they play cards. I've picked up many new ideas and nuances for tricks I already knew directly from these people. I owe a great debt to them for teaching me their secrets of the game. When you do card tricks, the first thing a person says to you is, "I would hate to play poker wit11 you." But this is a great mistake because magicians are often unlucky at cards. Some of these unfortunate card playing magicians who have lost a great deal of money include Alexander Herrmann, Max Malil~i,~Vaul Rosil~i,"~ and countless other fellows who think mastery over one type of card manipulation is mastery over all. Which brings us to the subject of cheating and detecting the cheat. If you 6 5 ~ a Malini x was a inaster performer, who was born in Ostrov, Poland in 1873. His real name was Max Katz Breit. He learned from Professor Seiden in New York City at tlie age of fifteen. He was a professional close-up and parlor performer who worked private society dates for the most part. He toured tlie world and died in Hawaii in 1942. 6 6 ~ a u Rosini l was the stage name of Paul Vucci who was born in Trieste, in what is now northern Italy, in 1902 and died in 1948. He moved to the United States when lie was ten and in 1917 assisted Julius Zancig in a two person milid reading act. He got into niagic in 1919 when Theo Ban~bergtaught him tlie Cups and Balls. He later assisted Carl Rosini froin whoill he took his stage name, 111~1~11to Carl's annoyance. He worked mainly in nightclubs in the early 1930s. He was very skillful, but financially uiis~~ccessful, due mostly to a drinking problem. His catch-phrase (said to his musicians) was, "Play a teeny

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DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 were a magician and wai~tedto cheat in a card game, you would have to learn a whole new repertoire of sleights because a gambler may use sleights that are never brought into use in magic, it's an entirely different study.

Dai Vernon, circa 1937

tiny valse".

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938

GAMBLERS I have already mentioned Nightingale, one of the first gamblers I ever met. This was in my home town of Ottowa before I ever came to New York. Nightingale dealt "seconds" and was what the gamblers called a "railroad man"; he used to play on the trains. Later, when I came down to the States, I met many others.

One of the first I met was in Orange, New Jersey, when I had gone out to a carnival to see a magician whom I heard was quite good. I was very much like a little boy attracted to the circus; this carnival life always entertained me very much. I was interested in the type of characters one could meet. So while I was waiting around for the magic show to start, I struck up a conversation with a fellow on the lot. It turned out that he was in charge of what they called a privilege car. A privilege car in a carl~ivalis where the employees have the "privilege" of gambling when they are travelling long distances from one city to another. It's a big railroad car where they have crap games and card games and there is always one fellow who has charge of it. He supplies them wit11 the cards and the dice. Sometimes they gamble for large stakes.

I was always on the lookout for crooked card moves so I asked him to introduce me to some of the other fellows who were "in". I figured that some of them had ideas that hadn't been published. I met several that day and they were quite impressed with what I could do and they showed me a couple wrinkles I'd never seen. Anytime I heard there was gambling going 011 I used to try and see if I could learn anything that could be applied to magic. Naturally, because I knew cards and wasn't a "square", it was simple for me to join right up wit11 them. Many times gamblers would ask me why 1 fooled around with magic, they figured if you could do somethil~gwith cards you should be working the card games. They all had this larceny in their hearts. But I would tell them that I couldn't take the money. And they'd tell me that anybody else would take it from me if they could, so why wou1di1't I take it from the suckers? Their philosophy was different, "As long as you don't get caught, get the money in any way you can." I've sat in games with fellows and watched them cheat many times, knew them quite well and watched how they did it, but I was brought u p very strictly in my boyhood. I never, at any point in my, life cheated at

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 cards. They say there is honor among thieves and I'll back that u p with my experience. I've known characters that would probably steal your right eye; and, of course, there are people in any walk of life, from the top of government down to the lowest levels, who will steal anytime. But there is absolutely an integrity among these fellows who work together. I could have walked out of my room and left $1000.00 on the table and these fellows wouldn't have dreamt of touching it! There's nothing lower in the minds of these fellows than a welsher or a squealer and they'd never steal from one another. They'll steal from an outsider readily, but if it happens among the fraternity, the perpetrator is out immediately. He's lost, dishonest, crooked; he's ostracized. They have a code among themselves and they're very ethical.

Dai Vernon on the road cutting silhouettes, 1943

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938

THE THREE CARD MONTE One of the most legendary of all gambling street games is the Three Card Monte. The object of the game is to find a particular card, usually the Ace of Spades or the Queen of Diamonds, from a group of three cards which have been thrown down. The monte man challenges anyone in the crowd, for a wager, to find the one card out of the group of three and, needless to say, almost never loses. This is not really gambling in the true sense of the word because there is no element of luck involved for the players. The monte man controls the cards and the action. Wit11 the help of a confederate, who acts as a shill for the suckers and a look-out for the cops, a good Monte man can make more money in a shorter time than any other card sharp. There is also a distinct sing-song patter to Three Card Monte and a lot of it will include words meant to help the confederate with the game. When he's throwing the cards, he might say, "Ten gets you twenty, twenty gets you forty, over on twenty." When he says, "over on twenty," that's a code to the confederate that the Queen is over on the right-hand side. If he says, "over on ten," that means the Queen is on the left-hand side. The Monte man has to do this to help his confederate because he moves too fast for even his own man to follow the action. The patter of a good Monte man is a joy to the ears: "Here's a little game from hanky poo, black for me, red for you. Where she goes nobody knows. Ten will get you twenty, twenty get's you forty, over on twenty, all right boys, lay it down ..." The shill hears, "over on twenty," and bets accordingly and wins! The crowd sees how easy it is to win money from this fellow and bets ...and that's all brother. From then on, all the money laid down is picked u p by the Monte man.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

THE MASKED MAN, ONE OF MY HEROS L' Homme Masque, The Masked Man, was a magician who was of great interest to me. Unfortunately, I never met him. He passed away around 1913, and I never knew anything about him except hearsay from a lot of different magicians. Theo ~ a n 1 b e r told ~ 6 ~me as much about him as anybody, because Theo had met l ~ i mand knew him well.

L' Homme Masque was a very powerful man, with large hands. He did a lot of things that were really very wonderful. I thought he must be good because he didn't have to do magic to make a living but he loved it passionately. He came from a titled and aristocratic Spanish family. His real name was Jose Antenor de Gayo y Zavala, a titled nobleman who loved magic so much, he became a performer. His family practically disowi~ed11im because they thought he was a mountebank. He made a name for himself all over the continent, and he had entree to all the finest circles because of his family. They were glad to have him entertain because he was from such distinguished lineage. Bamberg said he was a great magician, absolutely marvelous. He told me that he used to go down into the audience and borrow a hat; in those days everybody wore a hat. He'd make a scooping gesture with the hat over the heads of the people and when he brought it down it would be full of cigarettes, unlighted ones. He'd tl~rowthem out like candy to everyone and he'd do it again. He'd supply them all with cigarettes; two, three, four apiece. Then he'd say, "You don't like cigarettes?" and he'd throw cigars. Okito said the cigar and cigarette factories would d o anything to get him to use their brands. "T11ere were no false moves," Bamberg said. "I don't know how he loaded the darn things. It was amazing!" Okito claims he was the only man that could count cards by springing them sideways from hartd to hand because he had such powerful hands. 6 7 ~ o b i a sTheodore "Theo" Leendert Bamberg, "Okito" was born in Holland in 1875, the eldest son of David Tobias Bamberg. Learned by assisting his father at the age of eleven. He became a professioi~alill~~sionist and i~iovedto New York City. He continued to perform and was also a magic dealer from 1908 to 1919. He lived in Chicago froin 1947 until his death in 1963.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938 He'd bridge the cards lengthwise and spring them into the other hand. He'd say, "ten," and ten cards would jump right up into his hand. Or he would count to thirty just as easily as ten. You know it's awfully hard to let cards spring off sideways, but Okito said l ~ could e do it.

L'Homme Masque had a lot of things which he could do but it wasn't so much his tricks or his technique, it was just the fact that he was a romantic character.

Jeanne Verner, 1933, at the Chicago World's Fair (see page 103)

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

HOFZINSER, ANOTHER OF MY HEROS J. N. Hofzinser is a real hero of mine. I'd never even heard the name until sometime in the 1920s when a British magical publication talked about this marvelous man. Hofzinser lived in the mid-1800s and died around 1876. It touched me that he died with all his secrets. This is what's said about Houdini, but it's nonsense. He never had any kind of secrets to die with. The reason Hofzinser kept his secrets was that he was very bitter about magic; he gave so much and didn't get any thanks for it. He told his wife to destroy everything he owned having to d o with magic upon his death. I understand he kept prolific notes on any ideas he had concerning magic. His dying instructions were followed to the letter and his secrets were lost to the world. He had two pupils, however, in whom he confided. He wrote them many letters and these two men have been found. One of them was still living during my lifetime and was questioned, so a lot of Hofzinser's methods were saved. Ottokar FiscklerIbsan Austrian, dug it all u p and wrote a book in German, which was later translated into English by S. H. Sharpe. Hofzinser was from a well-to-do family in Vienna and worked as a civil servant in the Viennese Retail Tobacco Agency. Later he became an official in the Finance Ministry. He had a good education and was a wonderful philosopher. Being a very clever man, he did many things. At one time he studied the violin very seriously. He began his lessons when he was just a little boy. After many years he happened to go to a concert at which a twelve year old girl played the violin beautifully. This little girl played so beautifully that Hofzinser realized he wasn't really gifted in this line and was wasting his time. So, after all those years of studying, he 68 Ottokar Fischer was bori~in 1873 and lived in Vienna working as a professional magician and managing a theater. He was also a 111agic collector, teacher of magic, and author of seven books 011 inagic in Gerlnan, several of which were translated into English. He was voted an absentee inember of the New York "Inner Circle". He passed away in December of 1940.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938 set his violin aside and never played it again. He felt he really needed some kind of a hobby and took up magic. With this new interest he really blossomed forth. He invented all kinds of things; The Mirror Glass, The Mirror Casket, The Clock Dial and many others.

Hofzinser, drawn by Dr. Jaks

When he took u p tricks with playii~gcards, he revolutionized the field. At that time all that was available as far as trick cards go were double-ended cards; cards which showed as different cards on each end. He used these for a time, but he used them artistically. At the e i ~ dof effects he would perform, the cards he used could be passed for examination. As a philosopher he developed beautiful plots for his tricks. He was

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 really a student of the art. That's why I was fascinated with him and tried to learn all about him. I wrote to fellows who had read the letters from Hofzinser and I became very deeply interested. Arthur Finley, a dear friend of mine, was also deeply interested in Hofzinser. Finley always said Hofzinser was the greatest card man of the last 200 years. Some of l ~ i stricks, the plots and the patter, are way ahead of anything we have today. His plots were very simple and beautiful; he had a keen insight into what women liked. In some of his patter he would say, "This deception involves a very mysterious secret." Now I know that even today if you tell a girl that something involves a very mysterious secret, she'll immediately perk up her ears. She's interested, she wants to know what the secret is. If it can be tied up with her by saying, "This will tell us something about you," she will be intrigued right away. She won't care if it's true, she's just curious to know what you're going to say, how you're going to analyze her. Hofzinser knew these little things and used them in his entertainments. He always said something to interest the ladies. His patter would be very old-fasl-~ionedtoday; very courtly and gallant. As an example, he used to say, "Most magicians like to be at a distance, but I prefer the closest proximity, especially when ladies are present." There was great culture in Vienna compared to the rest of the world and his salon was the rage. He had these soir'ees, "An Evening of Magic, By Hofzinser." He was really serious competition as he drew the operagoers away from the opera. He was the rage of Vienna. He was good not only as an entertainer, but he also knew psychology. He knew how to interest people, how to fascinate them besides being a very n~arveloustechnician. His thoughts were way ahead of the times. He says in one of his letters, "I have taught and tried to instruct some of these other n~agicians to do my best [effects], and they take them and butcher them in front of their audiences. They don't understand the theories, they don't understand the thought behind it." I imagine he was hurt many times. He said, "When I die tl~ev'renot going to come like vultures and get all my things. I'll destroy them." He must have been a bitter man, but I never found out how he died. In the book it says, "We hate to mention the last days of this brilliant mind. If it hadn't been for the kindness of his friends he'd have been buried like a pauper." A tragic ending for a genius.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938

ON USING TRICK CARDS If a fellow wants to make any kind of a reputation in cards, or wants to be known as a magician among his friends, he must not use trick cards. You can use marked cards, cut cards, double-faced cards, or other such special decks and never get caught, but it's always a hazard. Warren Keane once told me when I was a young fellow, "Vernon, if you value your reputation, never employ trick cards." I really didn't have any reputation at that time, but he said this to me anyway. "Once you are discovered among your circle of friends you'll never have a reputation as being clever. They'll always minimize your skills by saying you use trick cards. If you're caught with a double-faced card for instance, your talent flies out the window. There are enough good effects that can be done with cards without resorting to phony packs. Don't be weak and use trick cards just because you see ail effect you like."

I feel the same way as Keane and strongly urge my fellow magicians to stay away from such cards.

Horace Goldin "Sawing a Woman in Half", circa 1920

98

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

JEANNE COMES INTO MY LIFE In 1922 and 1923 1 traveled to Cincinnati and Chicago to teach. T was a very strange fad-type of art: painting lamp shades. During these years I, of course, always had my trusty silhouette shears handy to earn a few dollars. I met my future wife, Jeanne Hayes,6' short for Eugenia, while I was working at a bazaar some seventy years ago. Coney Island was given to Jeanne's ancestors by one of the English kings. I don't know all the details of this but it was stolen from Jeanne's grandmotl~erby Tammany Hall lawyers at the end of the last century. Her grandmother, by the way, was the first woman dentist in the United States. I remember seeing an old lithograph picture of her grandmother on a big horse whipping politicians and runi~ingu p the steps of the Capitol Building. Those politicians wound u p stealing Coney Island from her family. Jeanne's aunt still owned a very valuable piece of property on Coney Island and they wanted to build a little schooll~ouse011 the property. She sold it for nearly $100,000 back when a dollar was still a dollar. Jeanne's mother and father had separated and she went to live with her aunt in Sheepshead Bay, which is right near Coney Island. When she was only 16, Jeanne was bitten by the show business bug. She and another girl had put together a "sister" act and 11ad auditioned for George White's Scandals, but it did not work out. Fate stepped in and directed her to an advertisement in a paper that Sam Margules had placed, looking for a couple of girls for Horace gold in'^^^ Sawing a Woman in Half act. 6 9 ~ e a n n eHayes Verner was born Eugenia Maria Hayes. She married Dai Vernon (Verner) and occasionally acted as his assistant from around 1925. She was noted for her papier-machri- face fitting masks. She made these under the name "Jeanne Verner Masks" for Dai Vernon (in 1929), Sam Horowitz, William J. "Foo Ling Yu" Arenliolz (in the 1930s), La Follette, Faucett Ross, Mike "Kolma" Bornstcin (in the early 1940s), Danny Dew, and a complete chorus line at Radio City Music Hall. She also made medical prosthetic devices (rubber noses, etc.) for Dr. Jacob Daley. 7 0 ~ o r a c eGoldin was born in Vilna, Poland and lived fro111 1873 to 1939. His real nanie was Hyman Elias Goldstein. He moved to the United States in his teens and debuted at twenty-three. He was a top professional illusionist, touring the world at the turn-of-the-century. He was noted for his fast-paced style and invented several classic

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HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938 Jeanne wound u p with the job but, because she was so shy, she would only be the bottom half of the sawed woman and never the upper head part. The only part of Jeanne the audience ever saw were her feet. Sam Margules got booked into a very fashionable county fair up in New Canaan, Connecticut. Sam took Jeanne and the rest of the Sawing act up and I was there cutting silhouettes. I made $109 that night and was closing down when I spotted this girl. I didn't recognize her, she had l-on-g eyelashes, an inch and a half long, and I thought they were artificial, but they weren't. Her face looked familiar, but I couldn't place it. It seemed we had worked together in the same theater 011 Coney Island for some time, but I had never seen her face, only her feet sticking out of the box where she was sawed in half. She used to come in, do her job, and run back to her aunt's place. I walked up to this pretty young girl and told her she looked familiar to me. When she told me that we were working together in the same show I was taken aback and then I finally recognized her. She seemed very intelligent and I found her easy to talk to. We started talking about my work and I told her that people called them "silooties" at Coney Island but they were really called silhouettes. "Yes," she said, "I know, they were named after Etienne de Silhouette in Louis XIV's time." I asked her if she watched me cut silhouettes while I was working and she told me she hadn't but had read about the history of silhouettes some time before we met. I wanted to talk to her some more but she said she was driving back with Sam Margules and Horace Goldin. I watched her walk away and quickly decided that I wanted to get to know her better ...I did just that. Jeanne was a very beautiful girl of sixteen when I first met her, just under five feet tall, blonde, and weighed about eighty-five pounds. Cardini71 once told me that she was one of the most beautiful women he had ever met.

I felt the same way and I knew I would marry her. It happened on March 5,1924, at The Little Church Around the Corner in New York City.

illusions: The Film to Life, the modern Sawing a Wonlan in Two, and the Buzz Saw Illusion 7 1 ~ i c h a r d" D i c k Cardini, Iiicl~ardValentine Pitchford, his legal name, was born in Wales in 1895, and took this stage name in 1923. He became a professional in 1918, and was initially very small time. In 1926 he moved to the United States where he married Swan Walker, who became his assistant through the rest of his career. He debuted his famous silent act in 1927, and was noted for his flawless technique, superb misdirection and elegant style. He died in 1973.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

WOMEN IN MAGIC There aren't many women magicians. I don't know why exactly, but I have never seen a woman, who, like the men, will sit in a corner, mull over some move, argue about it, practice it and offer suggestions. This carries over into the fact that there are so few women magicians, amateur or professional. There have been a few notable women magicians; Dell O'Dellfn Lady Frances,73 Litzka Raymond74 Talma75of LeRoy, Talrna & BOSCO?~ Maden~oisellePatrice,v and Madame H e r r n ~ a n n . ~ ~ But the vast majority of the women involved in magic d o so as magician's assistants. This would be a good quiz for any magician; 7 2 ~ e l O'Dell, l was born, Nell Newton, in 1902 and became the most successful professional comedy magicienne from the 1930s through the 1950s. She had a TV show in Southern California in the 1950s and was famous for her rhyming patter. 7 3 ~ a d yFrances was the stage name of Frances Hess who learned magic by assisting her husband Larry Hess. She performed from the 1930s until the early 1950s. 74~itzkaRaymond, Pearl "I'erlitzka" Beatrice Evans was the real name of this widow of a nlusician who niarried Maurice Raymond in 1927. She becanle his assistant and also did her own act. Widowed again in 1948, she married Walter B. Gibson in 1949, his third wife. 7 5 ~ e r c e d eTalma s was the stage name of Mary Ann Ford who was born in London, England in 1868. She learned magic in 1890 assisting and then marrying Servais Le Roy. She did her own act the "Queen of Coins" from 1899 until retiring in 1930. She died in 1944. 76~eanHenri Servais Le Roy was born in Belgium in 1865, and became a professional illusionist in 1886. He married "Talma" in 1890, and toured the United States with Frederick Eugene Powell and Imro Fox as "The Great Triple Alliance". From 1904 to 1930 he toured all over the world as one-third of "Le Roy, Talma & Bosco". He invented the Duck Pan, Duck Tub, Duck Vanish and the Asrah. He retired in 1930 after being crippled in an automobile accident. He died in 1953. 77~ademoiselle Patrice was the stage name of Patrice (Mrs. C. Lang) Neil. She was of French ancestry and was taught magic by Felicien Trewey and Charles Bertram. She was a professional sleight of hand perfor~nerand wrote up several effects in Magician Monthly around 1911-12, making her one of earliest female magic writers. 7 8 ~ d e l a i d eHerrmann was born Adelaide Scarcez, of Belgian parents and was a professional dancer. She met Alexander Herrmann who married her in the United States in 1875 and trained her in magic. After Alexander's death she became a famous professional magicienne on her own. She was born in London, England in 1853, retired in 1928, and died in 1932.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938 "Name ten women in magic." If he could name seven, he would be through, I know I would.

Cardini and his wife Swan, circa 1930 (seepage 109)

Nate Leipzig, 1934 (see page 103)

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

NATE LEIPZIG Nate Leipzig was a kind gentleman and a great humanitarian. Nate never said a disparaging or evil word. He was never critical; many people have tried to emulate this. I remember one time when I was sitting with Dr. Daley and Leipzig watching Ted h n e m a do ~ a~trick. ~ The trick he was doing had been stolen, absolutely lock, stock and barrel, from Leipzig.

Dr. Daley commented, "Nate, he's doing your three-pellet trick." It was a trick with three-pellets of paper and a hat. "He's doing your three-pellet trick, exactly like you." Nate said, "Yes.. .but he's doing it so well." In other words, he complimented him. He didn't show any bitterness. Leipzig always had a kind word. Sometimes, at these magic club meetings, there would be some young boy practicing the pass, or practicing a color change and everybody would ridicule the kid. Leipzig would say, "He's only a young boy. When some of you fellows were young you had to work at it too." Or, he would say, "He hasn't had the time to practice. I can see he has the touch, he'll learn." Leipzig was a very nice man that way. He had feelings for people and everybody liked him. I never heard anybody say anything bad about Leipzig.

79~heodoreJohn "Ted" Annemsnn was born in East Waverly, New York on February 22,1907 and died January 12,1942. His given name was Theodore John Squires, but he was adopted by Stanley Anneman. He added the second "n" in 1930. He started learning magic at fourteen and debuted at eighteen with the Doc Kries medicine show. He was a professional mentalist whose best publicity stunt was the Bullet Catching Trick. He founded and edited The Jittx- magazine from 1934 to 1941and wrote several books. A major collection of tricks from The liitx- appeared as Practical Mental Effectsafter his death. He committed suicide in 1942.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938

MY FIRST PROFESSIONAL ENGAGEMENT I first met Miss Frances Rockefeller Kings0 in 1924, during my days in Atlantic City. It was my custom to go there in the summer to cut silhouettes and make enougl~money to live all winter without any trouble. One morning, I bumped into some fellow who told me that a bunch of engineers from Canada were over at the Traymore Hotel, so I went over there and found that I knew a few of them. One of the guys asked me if I still did magic tricks and I started to d o a couple. A crowd soon gathered around in t l ~ lobby e watching me; Miss King was there too. When I finished my little impromptu magic show, Miss King called me over and introduced herself. She had a rather masculine, horsey looking appearance, as though she might own a stable. I had been told many times to see Miss King but I had never given it much thougl~t."I am the booker for the Keith Theater" she said. "I want to talk to you." So the next day she dropped in at the silhouette studio (my wife Jeanne was with me at the time). I was busy and she patiently waited and then asked me to cut her a silhouette. She was impressed by my talents and told me that the magic I did was phenomenal. I told her that I didn't do the magic professionally, that it was a lifelong hobby with me and silhouette cutting was my main money maker. I didn't cl~argeher for her silhouette, whic11 was fifty cents for one and seventy-five cents for two, but she insisted on paying. She asked for adhesive tape, took out two quarters, put a piece of tape around each coin, and initialed the tape. She gave one quarter to my wife and the other to me and said, "Keep this, this is going to bring you good luck." We sat down to talk and she asked me whether I was interested in $5000 for a couple of months' work. I told her that it sounded appealing but I didn't know what she meant. She said that she could book me into private parties in New York and could guarantee me at least $5000 for two or three months work in the wintertime; both with magic and silhouettes. Around Christmastime that year I went up to her office in the 'O~rances Rockefeller King started as a chorus girl and after a mildly crippling auto accident, she became the main booking agent for the B. F. Keith Circuit and later for the National Broadcasting Company. Slie booked and managed several prominent niagiciaris including Alan Shaw, Nate Leipzig, Dunninger, Dai Vernon and Cardini.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 Palace Theater and accepted her generous offer. She booked me to perform some magic at this grand country club function she had been hired to put on to celebrate the recent $5 million purchase of Aeolian Hall on 57th Street in New York. Miss King was unique in the booking field. The Rockefeller in her name gave it a sound of money. I understand she was a chorus girl who had to quit performing after an automobile accident. She was friends with B. F. Keith who founded the Keith Theaters. He liked her personality and efficiency and gave her the privilege of booking the acts that played in his theaters. Even Will Rogers had to book through Miss King; she was the booker in the United States and handled the most exclusive acts. Miss King had just booked me into this important event and I was very nervous to say the least. I sent for my friend Arthur Finley and he came down from Canada to act as my moral support, for this, my first professional engagemei~t.I was getting $100 for the night, but I was so nervous that I offered Arthur the whole amount if he would do it for me. He said he wouldn't do it for $500. The reason I was so nervous was that I was on the bill with so many well-known professional people like the famous monologist known as "The Virginia Judge" and Frances White.81 These were but two of the six acts who were scheduled to perform with me on my first night as a professional.

I inherited my nervousness from my mother and I was fit to be tied; I wanted to dodge. I was sitting out on the rotunda of this country club and took out a pack of cards and began fanning them, and Frances White came by hun~minga song. I hate magicians," she said as she stopped and looked down at me. "There you are sitting there so cool and collected, so relaxed; and here am I, a nervous wreck. I can perform on Broadway before a crowd and it doesn't faze me, but in front of all these millionaires in dinner jackets, all this wealth and pomp, I an? just trembling." Her talk of being nervous herself did me a world of good and I performed my act without a flaw and with the cool, calm approach of a professional magician. I/

I used to speak to Garrick Spenceru aboout my nervousness and he said that it was a sure sign of a true artist. He told me that before Jack "~rancer White was a well known, beautiful chorus girl and later Ziegfeld star. She was born in 1898 and died in 1969. She was married to Frank Fay at one time. R2~arrick M. ''Spencer' Spencer was a wealtl~yNew York corporation lawyer and patron of the arts. A skilled sleight of liand amateur magician, he took private lessons from Dai Vernon to whom he gave the nicknall~ethe "Professor". In 1936, Garrick put u p the inoney to found the "Academy of the Art of Magic", a formal "Inner Circle" of voted hi111 a founding member of the group. He magicians. The other 11 n~e~-r-tbers

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HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938 Dempseys3 went into the ring he would bite his nails and walk around like a caged lion; but when he got into the ring he was a killer, a coolheaded calculating fighter. Garrick told me that he knew of a certain famous violinist who almost fainted while waiting in the wings, but once he walked onto the stage to play, all his nervousness left him. I told him it was nice to know that other people felt this way. Miss King sometimes got $250 for me when I would have been content with $100. I was really tickled when I went out and made this kind of money. Then somebody let the cat out of the bag and told me that I was a better entertainer than Joseph DunningerS4and he was getting $1000 a show. I worked consistently for Miss King from 1924 until about 1934. During the Depression, most of the vaudeville houses disappeared, including the Keith group and Miss King joined u p with NBC. I still worked for her, but she had to give NBC twenty percent of all her earnings which didn't leave much for the performer. She also booked Dunninger for the magic shows which were quite a flop; she was very disappointed. She said to me once, "I made a great mistake in pushing Dunninger, I should have pushed you. But I can always count on him." Part of her loyalty to Dunninger lay in the fact that he fawned on her, he licked her shoes, and I didn't.

financed Dai Vernon's famous Harlequin act in 1938 and died in 1942. 83~ackDempsey, born in 1895, was a boxer from Manassa, Colorado. He was known as the "Manassa Mauler". He won the world heavyweight title from Jess Willard in 1919, and lost it to Gene Tunney in 1926. He died in 1983. 84~osephDunninger was born to poor Ccrlnan imniigrants on New York City's Lower Eastside in 1892. He became a professiotlal in 1908 and began specializing i n mentalism around 1920. He had a mentalislll radio show in 1929 and 1943-44. He also had his own local TV series in New York from 1948 to 1950 and a national TV show in 1955-56. H e retired d u e to Parkinson's disease in the early 1970s. He was without question America's most famous mentalist. He wrote several books including Holrdini's Spirit Exposes, Joseph Dllrir~ii~ger's Hero to Make n Gliost Wnlk (ghosted by Walter B. Gibson), Dl~~liriizger's Wlrnt's 011 Your M Z I (also I ~ ghosted by Gibson), 100 Hollrliiti Tricks Yo11Cnrr Do and Durulingcr's Corrzplctc Eric!/clope~linof Mngic.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB Then there was the time Miss King booked me into the Union League Club. New York loves money, always did, always will. Millionaires seem to need places to gather and talk about all the money they inherited, made, or lost. New York accommodates these men (women need not apply) with all sorts of private clubs with nondescript fronts to the buildings and leather chairs and velvet curtains inside; all of which are coated with the ever present haze and acrid smell of cigar smoke. One such den of dollars was the Union League Club (not to be confused with the more prestigious Union Club, where the size of your bank account doesn't always mean membership). Anyway, Miss King asked me if I would like to entertain for the Knights of St. Kelly, a group within the Union League Club who played poker and were considered a faster crowd than the other members of the club. Most of the club was made up of bankers, brokers, and businessmen, as were the Knights of St. Kelly, but they were a more festive lot and every so often they would give little entertainments, usually several variety acts, but this time it was to be a magician.. .me. Before I accepted Miss King's booking for the Union League Club, she warned me that these millionaires liked having fun, especially with magicians, and Malini almost quit because of the way they treated him when he appeared there. She said, "I don't think they are particularly interested in entertainment from a magician, but they think they'll be able to heckle you and have a lot of fun. With every trick you do, they'll make it tough; you won't even be able to do the tricks because they won't watch. They'll even irritate you off the stage." I told Miss King that I loved engagements like that, just as long as I got paid. She said they would definitely pay me, "But not before they make you miserable." So I went over to the Union League Club. I was let in the front door and escorted into the room where the Knights of St. Kelly held their social inquisitions and sat down and waited. After some little time had passed and the Knights had finished their knightly things, the chairman rose and tapped the table with his knife and said, "Quiet down, gentlemen, quiet down.. .gonna have some magical entertainment here-one of the world's experts here, knows all about cards. Some of you fellows who think you're good poker players, he'll show you you're not so good." He introduced me as "Verno1-1,the Magician."

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938 Somebody piped up and said, "What? Vermin? We've got to put up with vermin? During lunch?" This kind of thing started right away. t ill the ring," or anything. I Then I walked in. I didn't say, "My l ~ a is smiled and started to make some introductory remarks and started with a trick, some kind of rope trick. They started to holler, "We can't see ...We can't see." There were tables all around the room and probably 150 men there, so I moved a little to one side but they kept hollering, "We can't see." There was a table in the center of the room and I climbed u p and stood 011 this table and somebody shouted out, "He's a pretty good sport;" others started to heckle, but I paid no attention to them. This was the only time I'd ever really been heckled, but I was prepared for it in advance. I began to do my act and, after a short while, they stopped shouting and heckling and began to watch. It ended u p as one of the best shows I ever did. I adlibbed a lot of things because I was up on that table where they could see. Then later, I got down, and went around to other tables and showed them some really good tricks close-up. After my act was over, a very nice looking man came over, and said, "Mr. Vernon, I would like to shake your hand. You know, we had a little fellow here one time named Max Malini and we caught him wit11 a card right in his hand. We were shuffling and he had the selected card i11 his hand; he had it palmed. We liked him, 11e was a lot of fun but we caught him that night. We didn't catch you though. You handled this crowd very nicely. They're a rowdy buncl~,but somehow or other, you handled them and quieted them dowi1." I considered this a kind of victory at the time and Miss King said that they were hearty in their praise of me. Well, these were the Knights of St. Kelly. Most of them are gone now, probably playing poker ill purgatory.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

CARDINI Larry Grey and I once had a silhouette shop on Broadway, between 53rd and 54th Streets in New York. The year was 1925 or 1926 and we had this big store where we used to cut silhouettes for the tourists and other passersby. Magicians used to drop in all the time to talk magic and pass the time. My wife, Jeanne, used to laugh at Larry and me because we had as many as sixty visitors a day and only a few customers. She wondered when we were going to reverse the situation. We decided this was rather stupid to have a big store like that with magicians congregating for no reason. People were always tramping in and out and bringing friends in, so I thought we might as well make this place pay a little. We were paying $300 a month in rent and it was about time to make a little money. At this same time, Jack Davis and Bob Shermanfi5were selling magic in Grand Central Station and they also had a place in t l ~ eHudson tubes. I told Bob S11erman he could set up a magic counter in our store and thus sell magic on Broadway too. We didn't charge them any rent but asked for a percentage of their sales. We screened off their section of t l ~ estore from where we were cutting silhouettes and they moved in their stock of magic and had a little place at the back of our store where they did business. Once in a while some magician I didn't know would walk in and go over to the magic counter and I would talk to him. Finally, lots of magicians who were new to me were coming in and our shop became very popular. I was getting to know many of them and also becoming a valuable source of information on things magical. I was always being asked, "How do you do this trick? How do you do that trick? I want to buy it!" I would tell all these fellows that it wasn't my magic store and to see Jack Davis or Bob Sl~erman.I had to tell Jack and Bob not to call me back to the magic counter unless, "...it's somebody interesting that you think I would like to meet, or some gambler with information to share. I can't be quitting the silhouettes all the time and going back there. If there's some fellow from out of town or something, tl~at'sdifferent, but not for just every Tom, ' j ~ o b e r t "Bob" Sherman was born in Russia in 1892 and joined a minstrel show in the United States at the age of thirteen. He became a professional magician at around seventeen. He was the luanager of the Philadelphia Magic Shop in I'l~iladelpl~ia and then open" Sherms, IIIC.in Bridgeport, Connecticut which was open from 1926-7 until 1946. He died in 1969.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938 Dick, or Harry." I keep going back there and getting into these long drawn-out talks and end u p losing money." One day Jack Davis came over to our silhouette cutting area and said, "There's some Englishman back at our magic counter; he doesn't know you, but he's just come down from Vancouver or somewl~ere,and he's very good with cards. He does a few things very well." I was interested and went back and met this fellow. It was Cardini. He had just come to town and wasn't known by anybody...yet. Cardini's real name was Richard Pitchford. He used the name Cardini, and I remember thinking it was a ridiculous name-Cardini. I had heard all the names, but Card with an i-n-i on the end was really bad. He asked me if I was the artist who cut sill~ouettesand I said that I was. Then he told me that Jack Davis said I was interested in magic. "Yes, I am, and I'm more interested in cards than I am in silhouettes." He asked if I did anything with cards and I said I fooled around with them a bit. "Would you let me see what you do?" T11ere were some cards sitting on the magic counter and no one else in the shop but the three of us, so I took the cards and made a fan, just a straight fail. He asked me to repeat the fan and I did. "Would you d o that again please?" And I thougl~tthis is a funny Englishman, but he was kind of blask, so I made a fan for a third time. He finally said, "That's funny...you make it in one movement."

I told him that I didn't understand what l ~ meant. e He told me that he didn't know how to make a card fan in one movement and had never seen anybody d o it like I had just done. The11 he asked if I could do a blank fan, so I did one. He began to talk to himself. He wanted to know if I did any card tricks and I said I could and proceeded to show him a few. And evidently, every trick I did fooled him. "My word," he said, "I don't quite understand, I don't quite understand. Where did you learn these?" I told him I had been fooling around with cards all my life. He asked me to do more tricks which I did. I asked Cardini if he wanted to see someone do some really good fan productions and he said 11e would love to. So I called Larry Grey to come back to the magic counter and see a fellow countryman of his. Larry walked back to where we were and took the cards and did a few moves beautifully. He produced fans of cards by doing back-hand palming. Cardini said, "My word, my word! Who is he?" I said that Larry was my partner in the silhouette business. "Where did he learn..." I decided to have a little fun with him at this point and told him that everyone along Broadway could do these sorts of things with cards. His mouth dropped open in disbelief while I continued to tell him that, "all the boys

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 do this stuff."

I didn't realize at the time how sick he was getting; he believed me and thought his career was over in New York before it had even begun. He had just come into our store to check out the little magic counter, and he sees a guy cutting silhouettes who fools him with card tricks. Then Larry Grey, the other silhouette cutter, does this great back-palming, better than he does it himself. And, finally, that the talent was so commonplace that nearly everyone did it. This was on his first visit to New York and he was absolutely flabbergasted. Cardini looked at Larry and me and then said, out of a clear blue sky, "You're good, you've got me beaten with the cards, and your partner too, but I've got a prettier wife-a very delicate, petite and beautiful wife."

I said, "Well, I don't know. You may have a prettier wife, but I know you haven't got a more petite wife." He motioned with his hand that his wife came about to mid-chest, about five feet or so and he said, "My wife's only about that high." I said, "So is mine." He told me that he would bring his wife back with him the next day and for me to bring mine in too, so we could see which wife was the most petite.. . this was really absurd! He walked out of the store and Larry and I began to laugh at the antics of this crazy Englishman. The next day, sure enough, Pitchford brought his wife Swan into our store. Jeanne just happened to be there, and Jeanne was much prettier and much smaller than Swan...Cardini lost again. Jeanne and Swan became fast friends and so did Cardini and I. I thought he was a very nice kind of a guy, and as we started talking about magic I was amazed at how much information he had. I asked Richard why he'd come to New York and he said he had met a fellow named Dr. Tarbell86 out West who had given him some good advice about his act and suggested he come to the Mecca of magic, New York. Dick had a beautiful manipulative act, a great deal of which consisted of producing cigarettes. 111 a rather short period of time he X 6 ~ Harlan r. Eugene "Doc" Tarbell was born in Illinois in 1890 and learlied magic at fourteen from a travelling salesn~aii.He was, for a time, a homeopathic doctor and semiprofessional magician, then later a full time professional. He was hired as illustrator for a magic course to be written by Walter Baker but was given the entire job when Baker defaulted. Beginning in 1927 as a series of sixty mail order lessons, he produced the influential Tnrbell Course i r l Mngic. He wrote several other small books and illustrated Hilliard's Grenter Mngic. He invented several hundred effects, including the Color Changing Handkerchief, Chinese Laundry Ticket, Tarbell Rope Trick and the Tarbell Egg Bag. He died in 1960.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938 found work in a local theater. I encouraged him and thought he was fine, but there was one flaw in his show; "Dick, you have a beautiful act, only one thing mars it and that is your talk. If you didn't talk, you would be one of the greatest stars 011 the stage. Don't feel hurt about this-but the puns and the type of humor that you use in your act are very corny around New York; and it's ~ l o f funny. When you come out and do your cigarette act it's beautihl, but as soon as you open your mouth you fall flat on your face. You create this beautiful illusion and then you talk and ruin it with bad jokes."

"I make them laugh," he said. "No, Dick, you don't. Perl~apsa few little girls in the gallery laugh-a couple of girls who work in the five and ten cent store-but sensible people sit there and say why doesn't that fellow keep his mouth shut." Part of his patter went like this: "I have a green handkerchief, a yellow handkerchief, and an orange handkerchief. It looks like a bloody bunch of bananas. But these are handkerchief-f-f-fs. Now I put them in my hand, and notice that my hand never leaves my fingers, and my fingers never leave the end of my hai~d.I taught this trick to the King of Siam, and he said, 'You're very clever Cardini', and I said, 'Yes, I am. ...I"

Leipzig, Judson Cole,s7and all the boys thought I should tell Richard to forget about making it big in America and go back to England where his sort of patter worked better than it did over here. And Dick used to hear them talking that way sometimes, and I told him to pay close attention, that these fellows were all hardened show people and were in the business.

I told him, "In my opinion, you have one of the greatest novelties I've ever seen, the way you do those cigarettes and the billiard balls-you do it great. Stick wit11 it and you'll go someplace." He did stick, and he played everywhere-even played the Palace! But he never became a real star until he stopped talking. He went on the road with a review called The Crazy Quilt; full of interesting acts, including the dance team of Veloz and Yolanda, some comedians and other big star acts. Several years later he came back and went into Billy Rose'ss8 Casino de Paris.

Many things had been happening to me during the years Dick was on the road improving his act. I'd lost touch with him for a period of about a year as I was on the road myself. One day I spotted him and his wife S 7 ~ ~ d s 7ud1' o n Cole was the stage name of Milton Greisliaber. H e was a professional vaudeville colliedy magician. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri i n 1894, and died in 1943. 8 8 ~ i l l yRose w a s an American nightclub owner, showman and songwriter. He was

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DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 walking down the street and I called to him. We had a great reunion right there 011 the sidewalk. I asked him what he was doing and he said he was working for Billy Rose. I was impressed. Dick came up with the idea that I might be just the thing that Rose needed at the Casino and told me he was going to set u p an interview for me with the great impresario. I went over to the Casino de Paris and Dick introduced me to Billy Rose. Rose asked me about my act and what I did so I showed him a few card tricks. He was impressed. He told me to get a suit of tails and report back the next evening. I rented the suit of tails and showed up at the Casino and began to work doing an intimate close-up act from table to table-it was the first time such an act was ever done in New York. Most of my routine was with cards and coins, no apparatus. I did the old Papers On the Knife, I would do tricks with the salt shakers, and different things that were on the tables. I tried for a time to work with the Okito Coin Box and several other tricks with apparatus, but they never seemed to go as well as the tricks I did wit11 just normal ordinary objects.

I did practically every trick I ever knew with cards. I used to do the Color Changing Pack, the Rising Cards, Cards To Pocket, and even find someone sitting on their selected card, and all that sort of thing. I didn't use gags, but I had a few little things that I used to amuse people; little stories, jokes and puzzles. I was with Billy Rose for quite a while and then went over to the Madison Hotel, where I played for over a year, entertaining some of the biggest names in show business, as well as everyday folk from all over the world.

married to vaudevillian Fanny Brice. He was born in 1899, and died in 1966.

113

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938

DOC TARBELL Harlan Tarbell was a very conscientious guy. He had this reputation not only from his course on magic, but because he was always willing to help. If he saw a struggling amateur magician doing a trick with ribbons, the next day he would come down with two or three packets of ribbon. "Listen, that trick will be so much more effective if you do it with big, thick ribbons, use wide ribbons." The amateur would, of course, agree. "Yes, that's a good idea-how much do I owe you for the ribbon?" "You don't owe me anything." Doc would say, "Just try this at your next show." Doc was a very helpful guy. He even helped Cardini a great deal when he first started. I don't know if this is casting your bread on the waters or what, but if you have warm feelings for people and help them, they will help you. They will in someway return your help, you'll be repaid.

Doc Tarbell, 1939

Jud Cole, 1940 (see page 115)

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

JUD COLE Some performers were very funny, and then there was Jud Cole. He was billed as "Judson Cole, A Humorous Interlude-Assisted By The Audience". This meant that he always got somebody out of the audience, a little boy and girl. He'd have a great comedy situation with them. Very, very funny. He would introduce the little boy to the little girl and say, "Johnny, have you ever met Mildred?" Now he would secretly cue the little boy to straighten his tie, and act like a grown-up person. People were greatly amused and they would think, look at that little boy, straightening his tie to meet a girl, he's hardly eight or nine years old. Cole cued his whole act. He used to give the kid a piece of chewing gum to chew and he'd tell him to chew the gum with animation. Then when the kid would chew the gum, he'd say, "Johnny, would you please throw that into neutral?" In those days, everybody knew low gear, high gear and neutral. Then the poor kid would stop chewing. Jud would cue him to take out the gum and put it in his pocket. The kid would do what Jud told him to do and to the audience this was funny. To see this kid take the chewing gum out of his mouth and start to put it into his pocket was great. As he got his hand to his pocket, Jud would whisper, "...not that pocket ...the other one." The poor kid would take his hand out and try to get the gum from one hand to the other, to put it in the other pocket. Then Jud would whisper, "Stick it under my magic table." The boy would walk back, lift up the fringe of this little magic table and stick the gum under the table. The audience would howl at that precocious little boy going over and sticking the gum under the secret magic table. He would have all kinds of situations like that. He'd always pick a pretty little girl all dressed in white. Then at the end, the whole scene changed, as the little girl and the little boy were leaving the stage and he'd tell the boy, "You escort Mildred to her seat." He'd cue the little girl to take the boy's arm and he'd lead them down the runway. As they walked up the center aisle, the orchestra would break into the wedding march. This was a very pretty ending. The two little children, going up the aisle, and the orchestra playing the wedding march. He did comedy and also did magic.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938

HORACE GOLDIN AND THE UNUSUAL CANE Around this period, back in the 1920s, Horace Goldin was living in a room at the Palace Hotel on the Eastside of New York City. He had invited another magician u p to his room for some talk about magic. This other fellow brought his beautiful new and expensive cane to show Goldin, and beautiful it was. This cane it seems was made from an elephant's penis. It had been stretched and ossified, and it was hardened by drying. The cane looked exactly like ivory. Goldin was very impressed by this fellow's cane and asked to keep it for a couple of days so he could really look at it and give it the attention it deserved. This fellow finally agreed to leave his rare and valuable elephant penis cane with Goldin and went on his way. Goldin set the cane on top of his steam radiator and promptly forgot about it for a couple of days. Well, the temperature in New York went down, and the steam in Horace Goldin's radiator went up, and this elephant penis cane started to react to all the heat and steam and began to shrivel u p until it became a shrunken mass of flabby, smelly, dead elephant penis and the most horrible sight in all the five boroughs of New York. Horace had to sneak this smelly mess out of his hotel and dropped it into the closest garbage can he could find. The other magician never forgave Horace Goldin for ruining his beautiful, ivory-toned, elephant penis cane.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIEE, VOLUME 4

ALFRED BENZONE, "ORIGINATOR OF ECTOPLASM" Alfred Benzone was a very remarkable man. I first met him in New York in the early 1920s. I remember reading about him in a full-page article in one of the Philadelphia papers. He had his hands insured for $250,000!I was very anxious to meet him. He was a very cultured looking man; he had a beard and always wore a frock coat or a Prince Albert coat, with striped trousers. He looked like a diplomat or a professor, very dignified, and nothing like a performer or show person. He was a very clever performer and had the oddest way of making money. He did private readings and skances at private parties for big fees for people who believed in psychic phenomena. Many people told me he was the originator of ectoplasm. He had a pill that he would sometimes use in his act; he would put it into his mouth and when he chewed it, it would foam up and out of his mouth. He would use this gimmick in some of his psychic performances if he had to go into a trance. He must have had lots of closet space in his apartment as I counted over twenty changes of suits. He was a very mysterious person, none of the magicians knew how he got his fees, how he managed to live in such elegance-gold headed canes and the like. When Benzone was engaged to perform by somebody such as J. P. Morgans9he would get perhaps $1000 to entertain. He was on the same scale as Malini, but he was more literate. Benzone could talk on many subjects and he spoke several languages. When I first met Alfred Benzone, at Powers' Magic Store, he came in asking for the Canadian fellow who does "Just think of a card ...." He asked me how I got started in magic. I said it was a lifelong hobby and asked him if he wanted me to show him something. I got a pack of cards and had him shuffle them. I told him to think of any card in the deck and had him tell me which card he had chosen, then I just happened to turn 89~ohnPierpont (j.P.) Morgan was the most powerful figure in finance and industry at the turn-of-the-century. Born in Connecticut in 1837, he created one of the world's most prominent banking firms, gained financial control over most of the country's railroads and

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HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938 over the top card and there was the one he had cl~osen.He got pale, took me to the back room and said that he would give me anything to teach him that trick. I said that it was impossible to teach it to him and, of course, I never did because it was just luck. He would come into Powers' shop nearly everyday and ask me to teach him that trick but I told him I wouldn't. Benzone understood this as he had many of his very own tricks which he would share with no one else. He once went into the office of this big railroad man; he had suc11 an impressive appearance, bearing, and manner, he got in without any trouble. This important railroad fellow told Benzone he was very busy and to come back another day. Benzone took this very calmly, but secretly introduced an insect onto the man's desk. The insect had been clipped between his fingers for just such a moment. Benzone tllen pretended to see the insect crawl from under some papers and killed it. Benzone's manner and handling of this stopped the protests of busyness, put the railroad man ill at ease and somewhat more receptive to what Benzone was to say next. He then started in, very dramatically, to say, "I am the seventh son of a seventh son. I have studied in Siberia.. ."; lie would go into this fantastic tale of his bizarre life and travels. Benzone told his story and then showed this stunned railroad man some simple tricks and finished off the demonstration with a sales pitcl~,"If you are ever giving a party here's my office number where you can get in touch with me. I charge a pretty stiff fee but no one else in the world can give this kind of eiitertainment." He would sell himself by a very convincing sales talk but if, by chance, the man had said he didn't have any time, although the tricks were clever, Benzone was already prepared. He would pull a real prayer rug from out of his pocket, get down on his knees crying and wailing, "Here I am, the seventh so11 of a seventh son, gifted.. .my forefathers told me this day would come and I would be turned down." If the man called for help from his office people, Benzone would suddenly start foaming from the mouth, recover and go into anotl~erweird story concerning his being taken over by spirits. It was sort of creepy but it was very successful for him. He put it over and made people believe it was true. He went to the top of his field and even made it into the Who's Who. Benzone, some time later, disappeared from New York under mysterious circumstances. The story was that a widow told him she had $150,000 to invest and would he use his powers to help her. Benzone knew nothing about investments but he went right ahead anyhow and put 11er money into the stock market.. .and lost every organized the U . S. Steel Corp. He died in 1943.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 dime of it.

Jeanne and Dai Vernon, "The Magical Harlequin", 1939 (see page 21 7)

119

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938

THE MAN WHO FOOLED VERNON Yes.. .I have been fooled. The ones who have fooled me usually have been gamblers, using moves that were done so beautifully I was hard pressed to figure out how they did it. The one magician who really fooled me very, very badly was Max Malini. A wealthy dentist friend of mine from Glens Falls, Dr. Gordon Cadwell Peck,gOwas very anxious to meet Malini. One night, Dr. Peck called me, all excited, and said that Malini was at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel and would I meet him there and introduce him. We met Malini and went u p to the second floor bar and had a few drinks and talked magic. At one point in the conversation, Dr. Peck took out his cigarette case and removed one of his cigarettes, an ornate looking Russian brand named Boguslosky. Malini reached over and took one of these tan wrapped beauties out of Dr. Peck's cigarette case and said he'd like to show us a little trick. We all turned towards Malini and watched him perform a real stunner. Malini took the cigarette and split it open, lengthwise, and dumped the tobacco out onto the table. He laid the split cigarette paper in his hand and said to Dr. Peck, "I want you to watch this. Watch as closely as you can." He slapped his hand down on the table, over the tobacco. When he removed his hand, the tobacco was gone. He then tore the cigarette paper into tiny pieces, closed his hand around them and blew into his closed fist. When he reopened his hand, there it was, the restored Russian cigarette, complete with its imperial crest. Dr. Peck's jaw dropped open. I wasn't exactly fooled with this part; I knew something similar, and from the vantage point where I was sitting, I could see part of the trick. But then he took the cigarette apart, again, and laid the tobacco down the table in a little mound, and he took this piece of paper, and laid it on the mound of tobacco and picked it all up and began rolling everything between his two hands, as though he was rolling up a ball of 011

9 0 ~ rGordon . Cadwell Peck, DDS, was a wealthy dentist from Glens Falls, New York who had been interested in magic from 1908. He was ail amateur magician with acts ranging from sleight of hand to occasional full-evening stage shows. He was a good friend ....continued on the next page

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 clay. I remember thinking at the time that the tobacco must be in his left hand-it couldn't possibly be in his right hand, unless Malini had somehow made the tobacco sticky so it could be rolled and stuck together, because his right hand was perfectly flat. Suddenly, Malini opened both hands and the tobacco and the paper had disappeared! I was absolutely astounded. There was no sleeving of the tobacco, it was done openly, and Dr. Peck and I were both completely mystified. Then Malini reached across the table and lifted the ashtray, and underneath it was all the tobacco-the paper wasn't there-but the tobacco certainly was. Malini then excused himself and went to the rest room. This trick perplexed me for years before I finally found out how it was done. I've been fooled many other times by magicians in my long life, but Max Malini is the one I remember most. There are some people who watch a card trick with only one intention; they know it's a trick and they're watching just to catch on to the trick. There are a great many people like this, they think it's a challenge, and they want to find out how it's done. They don't do it to be nasty, but they just want to find out how it's done. Now some people, usually the more intelligent ones, don't care how it's done, they just want to be mystified, to be entertained. They don't want to be disillusioned by knowing the secret of the trick, they want the magic in theentertainment to wash over them. I'm the type who watches for the effect, I don't want to see how it's done and I've been criticized by other magicians for this. Other magicians ask me to describe in exact detail how some other magician performed, "What did he do? Exactly how did he perform his act?'All I would say was that his act was very good; he produced a couple of balls, did some card tricks, and did them very well. I like to enjoy the tricks. If you worry about the pigments in the paint, how the canvas was prepared, you can't enjoy the picture. Later, when you're going over a trick, studying every facet of it, then you can analyze it in minute detail. That's why I've been fooled quite often. I don't analyze or try to reconstruct it. I've been delightfully fooled and I love being fooled.

of Hany Blackstone.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938

MALINI'S MISDIRECTION A perfect example of misdirection is wit11 the illusionist. The assistant carries a duck off the stage and trips and falls. Under the laughter you can move a large box onto the stage and nobody will see it pusl~edout on stage if the timing is right. With gamblers, misdirection is used wit11 the same effectiveness. Say there is a man leaning backward 011 a chair, watching the game, rocking. If he falls over, anything can be done by the gambler; uncutting the cards, slipping an Ace, switching the deck, anything during the few seconds the crowd is misdirected over to the fallen man. Max Malini learned the hard way, he went to Washington a n d performed before Senators and Congressmen. He learned under the hardest of circumstai~ces,by trial and error, how to fool people. Charlie Miller" asked him what was the real secret of performii~gand Malini answered, "Charlie, it's the eye." What 11e meant was that if you were performing and wanted to make a move surreptitiously, make them look at your face or catcl~their eye, and in that instant d o the move. In this way you can d o things under close scrutiny that would be impossible to d o invisibly. They become invisible under a cloak of cover. In England, they despised Malini a little because he could always fool magicians; that "he conjures for conjurers." All t l ~ eold books, RobertHoudin and Professor Hoffmal~n,say if you want the audience to look in a direction, you look there yourself. This is very misleading. Malini understood this when he said, "It's the eye." Charlie Miller used to tell a story about Malini and n~isdirection. Charlie saw Malini working for a very astute man who was sitting with a small audience. Malini was very anxious to fool this man and he wanted to slip a card out of the center of the deck to the top of the deck, a side 9 1 ~ h a r l e sEarle "Charlie" Miller was born in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1909 and learned magic from a n older brother at the age of seven. His family moved to El Paso, Texas when he was nii~eteen,and in 1933 he moved to Los Angeles. He was one of the first "trade sliow" magicians, perforn~ingdaily at the 1535-40 Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco. He was always fascinated by card sharps and moved regularly between the magic world and tlie world of gambling. He has been reported to be the inventor of tlie notorious "Beansl~ooter"holdout device. He was a regular performer at the Magic Castle starting in the early 1960s and worked cruise sl~ipsin the late 1970s. He wrote the "Magical~a"coluinn ill Gorii Mngnziilc, 1964-S8 and passed away in 1989.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 slip. This fellow was watchii~gevery move wit11 a relentless stare. Malini wondered how long he would have to wait to do the side slip. Suddenly, he said, "Where's that man who introduced me?'and he looked around in desperation and so did the audiei~ce,including the man with the relentless stare. At that moment, Malini brought the card to the top. That was a good illustration of misdirection in practice.

Max Malini

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HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938

MALINI, STILL ANOTHER HERO Malini felt he was superior to all the other types of magicians. Of course he was an ignoramus as far as manner was concerned, but I still almost worshipped him. It wasn't a case of polish or culture that I admired, it was just the fact that he had ability. If I had to choose between two people that were equally skilled and one was a newsboy and the other was a college graduate, I'd take the college graduate. In Malini's case I always thought he was terribly ignorant and boorish and he used to murder the English language; but at the same time 11e was wonderful! I used to read about Henry VIII who ate with his fingers and had eight wives, and if it wasn't that he was born to the purple he would have been considered a pretty crude, vulgar person. In the same way, I've heard great singers in opera who were almost like animals, but boy, they had glorious voices. They're characters, and Malini was one too. Malini had a bearing about him, he had something that told you he was not just an ignorant little guy. He'd hobnobbed with royalty, he'd been with all the famous congressmen, he'd been with the Prince of Wales on his ranch in Canada. Something had to rub off. Although he was crude and he used "dees, dems and doses," he had that bearing because he knew the best people in the world. He knew the finest brains and the most cultured people, and this must in some way have given him this important look that he had. He had the bearing of being somebody important. This always kind of amused me. He'd stand there in his fur-lined overcoat with a hat and cane and there was son~ethingabout him, he had something; and he was very, very fine at magic, too. The first time I ever heard the ilame Malini, I was a boy at llome. I must have been in my early teens but I remember it as though it were yesterday. My father came home and said, "David, this is something that will interest you," and handed me the paper. He hadn't done that very often, so I took it eagerly. The first thing that struck my eye was this little picture of a guy with a felt hat turned up on one side. Under it was the caption, "Famous Magician, Malini, who has traveled all over the world will appear tonight." I read every word of it, "He's been all over the world.. .hers entertained sultans, kings, rajahs.. .the greatest exponent of pure sleight of hand the world has ever seen." Really flamboyant. "This

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 morning, while visiting the House of Commons, he tore the button off Lord so-and-so's coat; and he made a card stick to the ceiling." But father told me,"I don't know how you're going to see him; they doli't allow little boys at tlie Rideau Club. I'd like to take you but they're all men." I coaxed and coaxed thinking I was going to die or something if I didn't get to go and finally niy father said, "Perhaps you can watch the first part from tlie door." So we went u p there and I stood in the hall to see the first part of his act. Later I started reading in some of the magic magazines about Malini and I was fascinated. He had marvelous publicity, better than Houdini. I didn't meet Malini until years after. Wlien I did meet him, I saw he kept his newspaper clippings in crates and cardboard covers. Really a tremendous amount. "Malini in Singapore astounds General," or "Senator & Malini install the cornerstone of the fanlous..." always Malini's name in the paper like that. He was a promoter, but lie also was a drinker and somewhat lazy. If he'd been like Houdini he could have made a tremendous name for himself, but Malini was only known to the upper crust. That's all he wanted, to be known by the right people. Kings, queens, that's what he did all the time, promote wealthy people and he became known. He made them remember him and his magic. His favorite trick was producing a brick from under a hat, or sticking cards to a wall. There was a card in the old Waldorf Hotel in New York stuck on the wall in one of the best suites, and the management wouldn't touch it. Wlien tlie suite was rented, strict orders were left not to remove tlie card. It was signed by five Senators and Malini stuck it to the wall. The hotel wanted it left there. The last time I saw Malini was at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, California. I was working the opening of a new night club in the hotel and people were too far away to see ordinary card tricks. So I did the Cards Up the Sleeve whicli has good visibility and also Stabbing the Cards. In that trick you mix the cards, while blindfolded, all over the table then stab the selected ones. I stabbed three cards. It was Malini's favorite trick and tlie one that lie performed at tlie Buckingliam Palace command performance. However, he stabbed as many as ten cards on the table. At the end he'd pretend to lose one and while swisliing the cards around several would go on the floor. He'd stab and come u p with the wrong card, then he'd fuss around and suddenly stab down on the floor and come u p with the right card. Then to finish he'd stab into the table, tip the whole table over and all the cards would slide off except one in tlie middle whicli he'd show. He sold this trick very dramatically.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938 I did the trick in a very simple way and it was well received. But later, after the performance, Malini came over and said, "Vernon, I don't want you to d o my tricks." "What do you mean Max? I don't do your tricks." "You did the stabbing trick," he said. "Max, that's not your trick. For goodness sake, that trick is explained in books written before you were born. They called it the Divining Card." "One card!" 11e shouted. "Not ten!" "Max, I didn't do it with ten." "But you did it with more than one card! That's my trick with more than one card!" and he bawled me out for doing his trick. Finally, I told him that I didn't do it as a rule. He just didn't want me to do that trick at all, ever. And so while Malini was living, I never did his trick again.

Dai Vernon, June 5,1948

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

MALINI AND THE QUEEN When Max Malini went to England to perform, he received word that he was selected to give a Command Performance before Queen Elizabeth 11's grandmother, Queen Mary. The usual location for this type of entertainment was the Palladium Theatre but this was to be at Buckingham Palace. Malini was told he was to perform for the Royal Family and a few of their friends and was duly briefed as to the proper demeanor and protocol. He was told how to address royalty, how to bow and everything else. He listened to all this and it went in one ear and out the other. When Malini was finally announced, he walked directly into the room u p to Queen Mary and said, "Mrs. Queen, I'd like you to take a little peek at the card." The Queen smiled at this pompous little character and he received national publicity because of his boldness. Malini had unmitigated gall. He got away with these things because he knew just how far he could go. He knew they thought he didn't know any better, so he took advantage of it.

Harry and Bess Houdini presenting Metamorphosis (see page 138)

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HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938

O N MEETING THOMAS EDISON I had a little stand at the Electrical Show in New York, burning portraits in leather. The Electrical Show stressed the many uses of electricity to a world whicli had just ended its dependency on gas lighting and power. Because this was a show that stressed electricity, I could not set up a stand cutting silhouettes with scissors. I remember seeing a man who used a pyrographic needle to burn pictures into leather and fabric al-td I thought I could d o the same thing at the Electrical Show. I obtained a pyrographic burning outfit and set up shop at the show. I got an air pump, which I operated with my foot, to increase the heat of the needle and I rigged the wl~olething to look electrical. As I was sketching, I looked up and saw a man watching. It was Thomas Edison. He said, "I am deeply interested in that, is that a platinum point?" He asked me some questions about the kind of heat I was getting, if I had a condenser, a rheostat or what. I showed him m y outfit and said I felt flattered to talk to him and called him Mr. Edison. Someone heard me call him by name and that created a stampede of people to come around him and my stand. This crush of humanity soon swamped Mr. Edisoi~away and I never did see him again.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

SILHOUETTES AND AGENTS Every summer, for a lot of summers during the 1920s, I went down to Atlantic City to cut silhouettes and do an occasional magic date. I was able to make it through some pretty thin winters because of the money I made cutting silhouettes on the Boardwalk during the previous summer. The money I made also allowed me to hold out for a bigger fee in the winter with the magic. I was very fortunate that way; being able to command a pretty good sum for entertaining around New York. These other poor fellows I knew were forced to reduce their fees to get work. They really had to do this in order to pay their room rents and feed their children. And who was it that made sure these fellows were in such desperate straits? AGENTS. Agents are like vultures. They want to get you down where you'll take anything they offer. They take eighty to ninety percent of the fee and give you what's left, which isn't much. They lie and tell you, "I've got to split this fee with the caterer and I've got to give the manager his cut." They just rob you. They weren't able to do that with me, because I was independent. I'd say, "Well, get someone else, then." My silhouettes made me independent of these agents and that has made a lot of difference in my life. All this happened over sixty years ago and it still makes me angry thinking about these so called agents.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938

MR. HOUDINI AND MADAME HOUDIN I am not an admirer of Harry Houdini. I never was. As I stated earlier, Houdini was a great escape artist but a very poor magician. He took his name deliberately from Robert-Houdin, the famous French magician and writer. Later he became, as he said many times, three times more famous than Robert-Houdin, which, unfortunately, I must admit is true. I might say that the one big regret of Houdini's life was the book he wrote: The U?znzaskingof Roberf Hotrdi~z.Houdini tried to tear down and disprove a lot that had been written about the great French master magician. Here is an interesting story of how Houdini got rebuffed by RobertHoudin's widow. Houdini was playing Paris and he decided to pay a late visit to Madame Houding2 who lived in Boulogne. He arrived at the Houdin home around midnight and found everyone asleep. He couldn't arouse anybody in the l~ouseholdso he began to tl~rowlittle pebbles against Madame Houdin's bedroom window. Finally Madame opened the window and said, "Who is there, what do you want?"

"I am Harry Houdini." She looked at him and responded, "I'm sorry, I have retired for the night," and she shut the window.

9 2 ~ e c i l eHoudin, the wife of the Father of Modern Magic, Jean-Eugene RobertHoudin.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

MORE MEMORIES OF HARRY HOUDINI Years ago in the 1920s and 30s, I used the line, "He Fooled Houdini" in my advertising. This came about from my having fooled Houdini in Chicago back in 1919. He always said no one could fool him if he saw a trick three times in a row. I did a version of what is now known as the Ambitious Card eight times and he had no idea of how it had been done.

I had him initial a card on the face to identify it as his and then turned it face down. I very slowly placed it under the top card ...making it now the second card down. I snapped my fingers over the deck and then very slowly turned over the top card and it was his initialed card! I did this over and over and can still remember Houdini saying, "You must have two cards the same." Of course I kept pointing out the fact that he had initialed the card and 1 could not have duplicated his initials on a similar card. Then Harry would say, "Do it again." My good friend Sam Margules was there at the time and he said, "Harry, admit it-you're fooled!" Harry would never admit that anyone could fool him, but I have a letter from his wife, Bessg3, in which she stated that Harry had stayed u p all night worrying about that trick. I had really fooled him badly. Once, Frances Rockefeller King was on a train going out of New York during the time when Houdini was writing his Red Magic page for the Nezo York World. There was a rather aristocratic man sitting on the train, perhaps an Englishmal~or a German, reading the paper. Just as the train pulled out Miss King saw a perspiring man get on with his collar turned u p on one side. It was Harry Houdini. He cared very little about his appearance and looked a little grubby and as if he needed a shave. Houdii~ispotted Miss King, saw this man reading the paper, walked u p and, without a word, grabbed it out of his hands. As he walked toward Miss King he said, "Miss King, you see I have this whole page in the paper, I have one every week." 93~eatrice"Bess" Houdini, the wife of Harry Houdini. Born Wilhelmina Beatrice Rahner in Brooklyn, NY in 1876. This petite vaudeville dancer n~arriedHoudini on July 22, 1894 and learned magic as his assistant. She llioved to Hollywood in 1934. Her career after

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HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938 The aristocratic looking man was flabbergasted and stood u p and said, "How dare you, sir, snatch my paper that way." Harry said, "That's all right, I'm Harry Houdini." The man said, "I don't care who you are, you are an ignorant ruffian." Houdini's first aim was to push Houdini all the time. He once told me, "If you want to succeed in this business, have your name in the paper every day; don't mind what they say, get it in the paper by hook or by crook." He lived u p to this. If there was a fire in New York, a murder on the street, a stabbing, or a pickpocketing, Houdini would immediately rush u p and say, "I'm Houdini, Officer, can I help? I'll testify, 1'11 witness." He did this solely because a stabbing on Broadway might be quite sensational. Often the newspaper headlines would read, "Houdini Witnesses Stabbing!" Later he got more and more publicity as he became a famous escape artist and a weird, mysterious kind of a character. His name became a household word. Today a lot of people say Houdini died with his secrets. This is nonsense; Houdini didn't have any real secrets. Houdini's assistant, Jim Collins,"has always wit11 him and when he did these overboard escapes out of packing cases dropped off bridges into cold rivers, it was Collins who lowered the block and tackle. He looked very nondescript and people hardly noticed him. But he was Houdini's right hand man and knew exactly what to do. Collins was the real brains surrounding Houdini and he was the one who worked out many of the "Master's" escapes. Houdini had a rather cute slogan which I thought was given to him by some advertising man. He used to sign his photographs with these words; "My brain is the key that sets me free." Houdini certainly made a sensational hit all over the world with his escapes, but the real inside dope is that almost anybody could have done them if they had the same kind of promotion. And as for his famous jail escapes, Houdini's good friend was the Police Commissioner of New York and when it came time for an escape from jail he'd say, "Commissioner, you know I can escape from this jail. It may take me twenty to twenty-five minutes, however I'd like to make it really sensational. Put a man on 1can trust; when they close t l ~ edoor have them just make a feint of locking it,", or perhaps he'd say, "Don't let them search me." In other words, the Commissioner made it very easy for Houdini when he gave the orders to the jailer. Houdini's death in 1926 consisted of lecturing. She passed away in 1943. 94~arnes"Jim" Collins was Houdini's chief assistant and after Houdini's death became Hardeen's assistant. He was with Hardcen until the late 1930s. He was a professional carpenter and metal worker. He was born in Highgatc, London, England in 1860 and died in 1942.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

Houdini

This type of fraudulent entertainment is still conducted today. What the public reads or sees and what actually happens are very different things. On the other hand, Houdini was a very good and kind man to his mother; and kind to several vaudeville actors with whom he used to share the bill. There were several people he knew during his circus and carnival days that he used to help when he became financially successful, even paid their hospital bills without any thought of thanks or publicity. I knew Houdini quite well; he had a very bad temper and was the most obnoxious audience to show a trick to. He had a chip on his shoulder. He felt that you were trying to fool the great Houdini if you showed him a trick. If you started to do a trick he would grab the cards and say, "Let me shuffle them first." Then he'd take the cards, scramble them, reverse half, and other such things. You just couldn't d o anything for him. If you started to deal the cards on the table, he would take them away and say, "Deal them on my hand." If you were dealing them on his hand he would say, "Deal them on the chair." He made conditions so impossible that you could hardly do the trick. He would always try to be the magician in a group of magicians. One time we were with the Society of American magician^^^ at the 9 5 ~ h Society e of American Magicians (SAM) was co-founded in 1902 by Dr. W. Golden Mortimer, Dr. Saram B. Ellison and Francis J. Martinka in the back room theater of Martinka's Magic Shop in New York City. 1978 membership was 6000 magicians in 250

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HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938 Hippodrome Theater, where we used to hold occasional meetings. There was a large group assembled, including Houdini. It was a regular magic society meeting and during the course of it people were sl~owii~g different tricks.

"I have a good slate trick," Houdini said, "but I must have something large to write on. Is there a big piece of cardboard handy?" Somebody told him there was a sign painting cupboard in the back so Houdini quickly went over to it and went inside looking for a piece of cardboard. He was rummaging around inside when one of the fellows quietly walked over, shut the door, and turned the latch. Houdini started to rattle the door and then pound 011 it. Someone shouted, "Harry, that ought to be easy for you. Let's see you get out." Harry fumed and stormed and would have probably broken down the whole structure if somebody hadn't gone over and let him out. He was furious.

I understand one time in Scotland he challenged some old jailer. There was a tiny jail in the town and Houdini said, "Pooh, pooh, I could walk right out of your jail." The jailer dared him to escape and Houdini accepted. He was put into this little cell and simply couldn't get out. The Scotsman's idea of a joke was to keep him locked u p for a few days before he finally let him out. Houdini had very few friends among the fraternity because he was always pushing everybody aside. I am particularly prejudiced because I was never pushy myself and don't like to be pushed. I hate the idea of grabbing the last seat when there are ten people who would want it. Houdini was like this to the nth degree. Houdini had a brother, Tkeo Hardeen," who also did magic. I saw them both in Keith Vaudeville. Hardeen fought in the ring for awhile; he was bigger than his brother, with a strong and powerful looking physique. On stage he looked more the type of man that could escape from a milk can or a straight jacket or l~andcuffsthan did Harry. He was a forceful, muscular man and had a much nicer personality than his brother. I always thought that Hardeen's act was the more sensational, but Houdini had the big name so naturally people said he was the great world wide "Asse~l~blies". The SAM is the world's oldest surviving and second largest magical association. It has an official journal, the M-U-M magazine. 9 6 ~ a r d e e nwas the stage name of Theodore 'Tl~eo"W. "Dash" Weiss. He l e a r ~ ~ eby d assisting his older brother Houdini. He adopted "Hardeen" when lie left tho Houdini Brothers in 1900 to take his own act on the road. He was a professional escape artist and the first to appreciate the potential of a full-view straitjacket escape. He headed Houdini's unsuccessful Film Developlllent Corporation that produced newsreels and feature films

....continued on tlie next page

DAI VEI'WON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 one and not his brother. Houdini was not, by any stretch of the imagination, a good magician. He had been interested in handcuffs and escapes all his life, but he started as a pit magician, a carnival magician. After doing escapes to become famous, he suddenly switched to doing magic and he did the same things he used to d o when he was a boy. So he wasn't well versed in legerdemain and didn't know the proper way to perform. He was strictly a publicist. If he had been a butcher, a cobbler, an architect, or a lawyer he would have been known all over the world. He was obsessed, as I stated earlier, with one thing: to make his name a household word. He managed, through some congressman who was interested in handcuff work, to get his name into the Funk and Wagnall's Dictionary: hotidinize; a verb, meaning to bewilder. Houdini could do some amazing feats but they were not magic. For example, he could hold his breath until it almost frightened you. The man never smoked or drank and led a very clean life witkout a word of scandal ever attached to it. He kept in good physical trim and could hold his breath for longer than anyone else I've ever l~eardof. If it wasn't for his fatal accident, involving a student from McCill University, Houdini would have lived a long and healthy life. Houdini boasted that he could take a punch to his stomach, any punch. "I can harden my stomach so that even the strongest fighter, like Jack Dempsey, couldn't hurt me." "Right now?" this big college boy asked Houdini. Houdini stated again that he could take any punch. "Go ahead," said Houdini, and with that, the fellow hauled off and hit Houdini a terrible blow. Houdini sort of shook it off and said that it didn't hurt him at all but the punch l ~ a dbroken some blood vessels and peritonitis set in and he died several days afterwards. I would say, on the good side, that Houdini did a lot to make magic popular with the people. Folks from all walks of life would talk about this man, Houdini. His fame sort of rubbed off onto the whole profession. He was a great showman who knew how to play on the people and made it quite sensational. He was the P.T. Barnum of magic.

from 1922 to 1926. He was born in Appleton, Wisconsin in 1876 and died in 1945.

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HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938

HOUDINI AND SPIRITUALISM After a while, even Houdini was having trouble drawing a crowd to watch him escape from handcuffs. People began to learn that if you had the key for a set of Giant Bean Handcuffs, or an Army and Navy cuff, or if you had keys to all the other types of handcuffs, then unlocking them would only require the knowledge of which cuffs you had been locked into. This is what happened with Houdini; the public became too smart and he needed something else to win their attention and praise. Spiritualism, or rather the unmasking of phoney spiritualists, became that new something. He had originally thought to expose the tricks gamblers used to bilk their victims of money, but there seemed limited appeal to this, both in the numbers of people who actually gambled and the definite feeling that the whole subject of gambling was too unseemly for a person of Houdini's position and fame. Spiritualism, on the other hand, was a different thing entirely. America, during the 1920s, was enamored with spiritualism and the people who claimed they were in contact with the other side. One famous personage who believed in such things was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the world famous creator of Sherlock Holmes. Conan Doyle believed in spiritualism as a way to keep in contact with his dead son. Doyle visited spiritualists and wrote considerably on the subject and became well known for his psychic investigations of the phenomena. He also became the butt of a few jokes over his dedication to this pseudo-science. Houdini immediately thought this was something to exploit for his own ends. He would expose spiritualism and gain much acclaim for the deed. He was advised that this would better appeal to the intelligentsia; exposing psychic phenomena, pseudo-sciences, and spiritualism was much better than exposing gambling. So during a big magic show, about twenty minutes was devoted to exposing how spirit mediums wrote on slates, played tambourines in the dark, and other lnystic manifestations. He exposed all of this in front of the audience. First he would bring someone out of the audience and perform a few

spirit events, and then show the audience how it was done. For the spirit writing slate, Houdini sat down at a chair and table and had his volunteer subject sit opposite him. While Houdini conducted a spirit seance, his foot was busy writing on the slate under the table. Houdini would, unknown

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 to his volunteer, take off his shoe, exposing his foot with the bottom half of the sock cut off. He would then take hold of the slate with his other foot and pick up a piece of chalk with his toes and write on the slate. This amused the audience greatly but the man in the chair just sat there holding Houdini's hands and wondering what all the laughter was about. Houdini then put his shoe back on and presented the slate complete with writing on it to the bewildered subject. Everyone agreed that this expose of spiritualism was the best part of Houdini's show. But after a while, even the great Houdini became convinced that spiritualism might possibly be genuine. Sure, he was exposing the charlatans and crooks, but there still could be something to it. After all, eminent, brainy people like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sir Oliver Lodge?' and other prominent individuals stated that such things did exist. The death of Houdini's mother also added to his change of mind and until his death he tried to make contact with her. He finally told his wife, Bessie, that he had written down all sorts of signs, signals, and codes.. .and, "If you ever feel a ringing sensation in your ears, a tingling in your fingers or toes, it's possible. If I do come back, I won't be able to talk to you but, perhaps, I could make you feel warm with a fever or make your ears burn." After his death she constantly hoped to get communication, but she never got anything. She would hold seances on the anniversary of Houdini's death and noted spiritualists and other interested people would come and try to contact Houdini. Bessie always carried to these seances the sealed letters from her husband that contained the secret codes which would prove true communication. But after many years nothing ever happened. Bessie finally discontinued the siiances, but others have been held in the years since her death and Houdini has yet to send word from the other side that he is still watching, still the master of escapes.

"sir Oliver Lodge was born in ,1851 in England and died in 1940. He was president of the Psychical Research Society, was a professor of physics, and pioneered wireless telegraphy.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938

TED "MALEf' VERNON I a m not the most religious of people. My mother was raised a Presbyterian but by the time she married my father she had converted to the Church of England, commonly called Anglican. When I was born, I had to be christened in the church of my parent's faith in accordance with Church of England's beliefs. My father was twenty years older than my mother and quite set in his ways. And as I was their first child they wanted to get my christening done just right and they had quite an argument about what they were going to call me. Before I was born they had pulled names from a hat. They had nine names, and one of them was Wingfield, which was from my fathers side of the family; and another was Erskine, from my mother's side. Anyway, Wingfield was the name that was drawn. On both sides of the family there were Davids; my mother's father was named David and there was a David in my paternal grandfather's name. My father was James William David Verner. So David was decided for part of my name without any argument at all. The rest of my name was another matter entirely. The Frederick came from my father's brother, the famous Cai~adianartist. So my formal, given name became David Frederick Wingfield Verner. I ultimately dropped the Frederick from my name and adopted the initials, D. W. Verner. All of this is a preamble to how my wife Jeanne and I came to christen our first son, Ted, who was born on May 27,1926. When we got around to naming our first born son, I told Jeanne (remembering the story of my own christening and of all the trouble it caused), "Now we don't want any argument about what we're going to call our baby but we should decide on some kind of a name. I'm not a great believer in carrying on family tradition or anything. Do you have any preference for any particular name?" Jeanne said, "Yes, I love the name Robin and another name I like is Guy." My reply was something like this; "Now listen, Jeanne, I've been to school and the name Guy is just.. .well, there was this old song.. ."I'm the guy who put the fish in the ocean, I'm the guy who ..." and so on. And don't forget wise gtiy. When you're picking a name, why give the boy a couple of strikes against him when you don't have to."

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 And she said, "How about Robin?" And I said, "I have a personal prejudice against the name Robin because a cousin of my father is named Robin. His name is Robin Coventry. He's related to Lady Godiva of Coventry, incidentally. Anyway, when I was a kid, this Robin came to stay with us for about three weeks and ended u p staying over six months and my father was stuck supporting him the whole time." Now all of this was happening while I was appearing in Atlantic City. I had long since changed my last name from Verner to Vernon and Jeanne had given birth to our first son who was by this time nearly one year old and still without a name because we couldn't decide what to call him! People would ask us what our son's name was and we would say that it was "Male" Vernon as it was on his birth certificate. The name Ted sort of came into our heads about this time. Jeanne and I both liked the name Edward, and since Ted is a nickname for Edward, we just quietly decided to call him Ted. So he became Edward "Teddy" Wingfield Verner. We were on our way up the boardwalk towards the Episcopal Church in Atlantic City when we saw our friend Bessie, Harry's wife. She asked where we were going and we told her that we were off to have our son christened. Bessie asked us if we had a godmother for our little boy. We told her we were just down from New York and hadn't had time to find godparents as of yet, when she immediately offered to be our son's godmother. We accepted her touching offer and headed off to the Church. A short time later, we were standing in front of an Episcopal minister as he was christening our son. The ritual proceeded with sprinkling water on our boy's head and giving the blessing. Then he asked us, "The father's name?. ..The mother's name?. . .The godmother?" Bessie said, "Bessie Houdini." The minister looked up from our son and said, "What was that last name?" "Houdini," said Bessie. "H-0-U-D-I-N-I." The minister's eyes widened and he said in an excited voice, "You're not related to the Houdini; the wonderful man who.. . " And Bessie beamed back, "I'm his wife." This man of God nearly fell apart and for a few moments forgot why we were all there. But Ted finally received his cl~risteningeven though he played second fiddle to Bessie. From the Episcopal church our little christening party proceeded over to the Traymore Hotel for a little celebration honoring this important day in my young son's life. We put Ted in a high chair and ordered him some sort of soup or gruel and a regular dinner for Bessie, Jeanne, and myself.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938 Sometime later as we sat finished and well fed, the waiter came and began clearing the table. As he lifted Ted's plate, there was $100 bill under the plate. "That's for the baby," Bessie said in a firm voice. "He was just christened." It was a wonderful and thoughtful thing to do and I still remember it with much emotion. There is another interesting story concerning the birth of Teddy which has become a sort of legend among magicians. The story was started by my good friend and famous vaudeville wit, Judson Cole. I knew nothing about being a father and was very nervous well before Jeanne was due to deliver. When that day arrived, I took Jeanne to the hospital by taxi. At the hospital, I handed Jeanne over to the experts and I asked what I should d o until the baby came. I was told there would be nothing happening until the early evening, at the earliest, and I should go home and wait for a call. I asked my friend Larry Grey to keep me company until I was needed back at the hospital. The story continues, as told by Judson Cole, that Larry and I were doing card tricks in my living room, and right in the middle of a trick as I was saying, "Now, Larry, you cut the cards into two piles, pick one and count down the number you named.. ." the phone rang. I picked it up and a voice said, "Mr. Vernon, you have just been presented with an eight pound baby boy!" And I went back to Larry and said, "...continue counting and turn over the last card." My wife always believed that it was a true story. As a matter of fact, I was asleep when the phone rang and they told me I had a son.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

CUBA Back before politics, the Mafia, Communism, and embargoes took their toll on the country, Cuba in the 1920s, was a great place to play. We used to take a cruise boat down there; Sam Margules presented the Sawing act and I did the other magic. I studied French when I was younger, but didn't know any Spanish at all so I learned what I needed to know just like a parrot. I was doing the regular Egg Bag trick in my act and used the typical patter line which went, "keep one eye on the egg, one eye on the bag, and the other eye on me." I was doing my act at the Blue Stocking Club and the Teatro Nacional in Havana and had learned enough Spanish to get me through my routine.. .or so I thought. As I was performing the Egg Bag at the Teatro Nacional I got a howl of laughter after I spoke my patter in Spanish/English; "Keep an ojo on the huevo, an ojo on the saco, and an otro ojo on me." Later I asked why that got such a laugh. They said, "This was one of the funniest gags we ever heard! You know what the otro ojo is? That's the backside! Here's the way it sounds, "Keep an eye on the egg, keep an eye on the bag, and turn your behind to me." (Not a literal translation.) At one point Sam Margules was forced to return to New York to straighten out a mess of trouble. This involved some Ohio gamblers who had taken over one of the amusement parks Sam was working with and he had to take the rest of the cast with him. They all went back to New York but I stayed in Havana. I saw great possibilities of making a lot of money cutting silhouettes and I was right. It was like a gold mine, I made a fortune and got independent as the devil. I was making money hand over fist and the city officials offered me space in museums to work. "iAh, artista!" they would say, "iOh, magnifico! ;El rey del mundo!" They knew I performed magic, too. I was quite a celebrity. I don't think they had ever seen anyone cut silhouettes before I came to Cuba and it was quite a novelty for them. The city gave me a place to work right in front of the American Club; they even put in a special light at their expense. I used to leave piles of coins with bills underneath and go sit a half a block away having a drink; people would come by and look at the silhouettes and walk on, nobody ever stole a penny. One night a fella said to me, "Can I talk to you a minute, Bud?" I told him I was busy but he was very insistent. He told me he was a dip (a

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938 pickpocket) and he would cut me in for twenty percent if I let him work the crowd who gathered around me while I was cutting silhouettes. My reply was short aild sweet; "Get lost!"

I also did a lot of private magic shows during my long stay in Cuba and made a lot of money and a lot of friends. ~11eCubans were very superstitious about magic in those days. When I walked into a restaurant I would do tricks for the waitresses and the proprietor and they wouldn't take any money from me. I was sort of a medicine man to them. I enjoyed the eight months I stayed there very much. When I finally decided to leave Cuba I presented my return ticket, which Sam Margules had given me prior to his departure eight months earlier, and the Cuban officjals told me that my ticket was only good for six months; I had overstayed two months. I was not an American citizen at that time so I went over to the British Consulate to explain my situation and find a way back to the United States. I told the Consul, a man named Brooks, that I was cutting silhouettes and had stayed too long. He thought for a few seconds and said, "I'll tell you what I can do, have you ever worked on a ship? Do you think you can take a job as a steward? I can book you on a ship as a crew member and you can go to New York and desert ship." I didn't care how I got back to New York just as long as I did. Consul Brooks got me that job as a ship's steward and I had a great time. I was very popular on the ship and they treated me like a passenger; I had a nice comfortable bunk, wonderful food and I performed a lot tricks for everyone. I got so friendly wit11 the crew that I didn't mind admitting that I was going to get off at New York. I didn't even have to jump ship, they helped me by signing me off as an incompetent employee.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

SAWING A WOMAN IN HALF IN CUBA In Cuba, when Sam Margules and I did the Sawing a Woman in Half routine, we had two girls in the box. For the head part we had a very pretty American girl, whom we brought with us from New York; we used a Cuban girl for the feet. The first girl we got for the trick was the homeliest girl I have ever seen in my life. She was cross-eyed and had every blemish a girl could have.. .but her feef were all right. All during her time in the box, with only her feet showing, her mother would be sitting on the stage acting as chaperone. She would sit just offstage but in full view of half the audience and, at other times, she would scoot right out there for everyone to see. This Cuban girl could never appear at a performance without her mother/chaperone. We finally got rid of this first girl and found a prettier girl to be the

feef of the act but she, too, had to have her mother sit on the stage and make sure her daughter was all right and well protected from mashers. Sam and I talked and laughed and suffered through these mothers but there was nothing we could do. Cuban customs, like their Spanish forbears, had to be strictly observed or we would have been in a lot of trouble with the theatrical authorities. The Sawing a Woman in Half act always seemed to cause Sam Margules problems. There was the time on Coney Island when one of his girls went on strike right before a big holiday. Sam searched for a second girl to put into the box but couldn't find one in time for the performance. And finally in desperation he saw a little newsboy and asked him what size shoes he wore. He dragged the confused newsboy over to the theater and put him into the girl's shoes.. .and they fit. Sam put the newsboy into the bottom of the box and then had his one remaining girl assistant stand by for the show and everything was ready for the performance. Anyway, Sam was in his glory-now he was going out there and present his illusion. He had the box, he had his female assistant climb into the box and then he spun it around, and the feet of the girl were exchanged with those of the newsboy and everything looked just fine. Then Sam opened his mouth: "Now you will notice on this side you see the little lady's head, and on this side you see his feet ...." It took a long time for the laughter to die down in the theater.. .and backstage.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938

MY BLACK MAGIC IN CUBA While working in Cuba I purchased a long hank of hair at a wigmaker because magicians sometimes use a long black hair to secretly move things. It was very hard to get just exactly the right shade, which had to be very dark. One day the Spanish maid was waiting to make up the room and as she came in I noticed that she had almost exactly the shade which I had bought. Long dark hair hanging down her back in a pony-tail. Without attracting her attention, I took this switch of hair out of the bureau drawer and at the same time picked up a pair of scissors. I spoke with her and asked her to turn around, as she did so I grabbed her hair in the back, and made a pretense of cutting off her hair. I held up this switch and the look of horror on this girl's face was terrible to see. She actually thought I had cut off her hair. I felt very stupid for playing this trick and said, "I'm a magician," but she just stood there speechless. I rolled the switch up, palmed it, and pretended to throw it back on her head. She grabbed at her hair, feeling it was there and went screaming out of the room. Pretty soon, a lot of maids were peeking in the door wanting to see who this magician was.

Dai Vernon and A1 Baker backstage, 1942

144

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

SAM MARGULES AND DICKIE THE DUNCE Sam Margules used to run all the fund raisers for the Society of American Magicians which were held at the Ritz Theater. He would always put at least $1000 in the treasury, the bank, every show he ran. If he happened to make $2000 he'd go around to all the performers and say, 'We had a good night, here's $150 extra for you." He divided the extra money among the performers. He wasn't a professional, he had gotten into the automobile business at that time, but he had a great love for show people and show business. His mother had been a singer and his father was a lawyer who had been a great benefactor of the Jewish theater on New York's Eastside. Sam always wanted to help the performers. But he always had that $1000 in mind for the treasury of the S.A.M. Sometimes he would say, "Sorry, fellas, I'm just giving you exactly what's coming to you; or will you take a $5 cut, 1 want to put that $1000 away." All the performers liked Sam. When I came in from a date in Chicago I was really broke, I had gotten into some money trouble and went to see Sam. He was running this Sawing a Woman in Half show on Coney Island. So I went down to Coney Island and found Sam. I went backstage and into the dressing room and there was this fair-haired fellow named Eddie Ackerson preparing to go on. I asked if Sam Margules was around and he said that Sam was out for a while. "Who shall I say was asking for him?" he asked. "Vernon. Dai Vernon." I told him. "Oh," he said, and went out onto the stage and picked up his props; a Die Box, an Egg Bag and a few other things and started packing them away. I realized then that he was the magician who was working on the show in between the Sawing. He had worked around Coney Island for quite some time most of the time with a partner, Tommy McNeil, doing a verbal code mindreading act. "I suppose you wonder what I'm doing. I'm getting ready to leave. Sam told me I could have this job as long as one fellow didn't come to town. Sam said, 'If Vernon ever comes in, you're fired automatically, because he's gonna work here.' Sam means what he says, so I'm through." I told Eddie Ackerson not to be so silly, I wasn't going to take away his job. I never told Sam I would work for him, but he took it for

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938 granted. He was like a fairy godfather. Sam always used to call me "Dickie". The reason for this was one time, when I was working in Cuba, they couldn't pronounce the name Vernon so I used the name Dallas Davenport; Davenport was for the famous Davenport Br0thers.~8Sam heard this and said, "What kind of a name is that, they should call you 'Dickie the Dunce'." So for a long time after that he would call me "Dickie".

So when Sam finally came back he said, "Dickie, you go right to work immediately. Get u p there and do the next show." I told Sam that I had just come in from Chicago, I had hitchhiked and needed a shower. He waved my excuses away and told Eddie to give me the Die Box and told me to get out there and to also do Cards Up the Sleeve. You couldn't get away from Sam. He wanted it his way. "Do it, Dickie. What are they going to do, kill you? What do you care; all right, you flop, so what." "They're liable to throw things," I said. "All right," he said, "you dodge them. Now get out there." I went out there and did Cards Up the Sleeve and a few other tricks and amazingly, they didn't throw anything at all. When I came offstage, Sam took me aside and told me, "You're going to make a lot of money. 1/11get you a nice clean room; in fact, I know a nice new apartment. After your act I'm going to introduce you to a fellow named Raoul; we are going to make up a package of magic to sell. I don't want you to pick out good tricks; you give them the Chinese H a n d c ~ f f ; ~ ~ get a keyhole puzzle and tell the fellas that what they see through the keyhole is nobody's business. There will be nothing in there, just the card, but that really makes people curious and they always want to buy. Sell them the Flip-Flop Blocks and the Diminishing Card that works by folding it up. Make up a package that may cost you three cents and that you can sell for a quarter. That would be a good profit. Put a rubber band around it." So I bought several boxes of envelopes and this fellow Raoul printed them so I had them ready within a few days. After a show, I would say, "Now anybody who wants any of these tricks I just Erastus Davenport was born in Buffalo, New York in 1839 and died in 1911. William Henry Harrison Davenport was born in Buffalo, New York in 1841 and died on tour in Sydney, Australia in 1877. They did the original pseudo-psychic world-famous spirit cabinet act which was billed as "The Davenport Brothers". They toured the United States and the world from 1855 to 1877. After William died, Ira returned to the United States to become a farmer. Ira attempted a comeback in 1895with William Fay but failed. "~hinese Handcuff: A colorful, woven straw tube. Left and right forefingers are inserted into each end and, as one tries to remove the fingers, the tube becomes tighter and fingers cannot be taken out.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 performed, come up and help yourself.. .for only a quarter you too can become a magician." After one particular show, this nice looking man and his wife walked up to the stage. He was well dressed and polite, not the ordinary riff-raff or the typical Coney Island grifter. He came u p and said, "I watched your entertainment in here, my name's Harry Usher.100 You are going to make a lot of money if you stay in this field for the summer, more than you ever made in your life. You have sincerity. If you're a phony, even this Coney Island crowd will pick you out. But if you're sincere, people have faith in you and you can tell them anything. However, you're not selling these tricks correctly. Throw that envelope away. People are suspicious, they don't think they are getting all the merchandise. Coney Island is the flimflam place, everything's fake. They probably figure they are only getting a sheet of instructions. If you want to use the envelope then don't fold the Diminishing Card, leave it standing up. Put the Chinese Handcuff in so it sticks out." He then proceeded to show me how to load the envelope correctly. "When you hold it u p with everything sticking out it looks like a Christmas tree. Make u p the package so you see every piece of merchandise, put a rubber band on it to hold it in place. Do each trick and put it in the envelope. When you finish your tricks, say to the crowd, 'Now, who wants the one I was using?' They know that they've seen you use this packet and they know it's authentic; that you are not demonstrating one thing and selling them another. This has the ring of truth in it, your sales will jump 100, 200 maybe 500 percent. Try this and make sure, for yourself, that what I'm telling you is true." I couldn't make change fast enough. It worked like magic. Sam Margules would come in as soon as the show was over. He was very fast at counting change. He would add u p all the change, putting all the dimes, quarters, and halves in neat piles on the table. If there were $50 or so on the table, he would give me $10 or $15 and take the rest to hold for me. I knew he wasn't going to keep the money, he was trying to make sure I would have it when I needed it. By the end of each season he would give me all that he'd saved-$700 or $800. Sam was a great guy. He would give you the shirt off his back and give you his heart. It didn't make any difference who you were: white, brown, yellow, black, rich or poor, he was always helping people in trouble. He was trying to help me save my money. When he died, he left me his magic collection and his -

'OO~arry"Hal" Usher was born in New York City in 1887 and from around 1920 did a second sight act with his wife Frances. In 1927 they became vaudeville headliners as "The Ushers" doing magic and second sight. He retired in 1935 to go into the horoscope business in Venice, California and died in 1950.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938 books.

Malini in the front seat, Goldin in the back seat, Sam Margules on the running board, women unknown, circa 1920

I remember when Sam got interested in publicity and wanted to boost attendance to the Sawing a Woman in Half act. So he went down to the Coney Island Hospital and made arrangements with them to drive their ambulance. He got this ambulance to rush up to the theater, its bell clanging, and stop in front. The ambulance attendants would rush into the theater with a stretcher and come out a minute later with a body on it, the body was actually a dress form that Sam had made up to look like a woman's body. The attendants would put the stretcher and body into the ambulance and cry out, "Another woman hurt!" and then they would drive off, clanging all the way. It was a great publicity stunt and packed the theater for days afterwards.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

MENTALISTS I have always been interested in mentalism: mediums, spiritualists, slate tricks, table turning, table lifting, mind reading, Ouija boards, and other things of this type. Some of the performers I have met, especially the spiritualists, treated their profession more like a religion than show business. One such mentalist was Professor Reese.lo1 He wasn't a professional performer, on the stage, he was more of a medium and had an office on Madison Avenue and catered to a wealthy clientele. He used to do fabulous things, such as realli~rga message on a piece of paper while it was hidden in the pocket or purse of a person sitting across the table from him. This wasn't true but it seemed to the onlooker that this is what happened. It was really accomplished by a simple diversion orchestrated by Reese and a long-ashed cigar. Reese was always well dressed and always smoking a cigar, which always had a long ash on it. Sometimes, when he was giving a reading, some of the ash would drop off, onto his vest. He would first, switch the client's small folded piece of paper for a duplicate. Then while he was brushing the ash from his vest, Professor Reese was also catching a glimpse of his client's written message or question in a most subtle fashion. He then again switched the paper as he told the client to fold his or her message again and place it safely into a coat pocket or purse, making sure that it had been done with great secrecy. Reese finished dusting himself off, fully aware of what was on that piece of paper and proceeded to get the answer to the cluestion from the "great beyond".

'Ol~ertReese lived from 1841 to 1928. His real name was Berthold Riess and he was a world-famous pseudo-psychic who fooled Thomas Edison in 1926.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938

TOURING AMERICA People often ask me how I got started traveling around the country cutting silhouettes. Miss King once booked me for a house party performing magic in Norfolk, Virginia, for the family of a well respected judge named Olde. I stayed there over the weekend and got friendly with the whole family. Mrs. Olde showed me silhouettes of her ancestors and I told her I could do the same type of work and did some for her right there. A few months later they booked me again to do magic a ~ l dcut silhouettes of some of their guests. I got to be almost like one of the family. I met people there from the Junior League and different Church movements and also received an invitation to help raise money for a good cause in Asheville, North Carolina. In Asheville, I met a very wealthy fellow who had an estate next to the Vai~derbilts.He hired me to perform magic and cut silhouettes of his guests. I worked in Asheville for about three months and on the last day another judge and his family invited me to the Civitai~Club to perform some of my magic tricks. I told him I was a professional entertainer and belonged to the union and that I couldn't do these tricks unless I got paid. He said they had a budget for that and would be glad to pay me for my time. But he cautioned, "I want to warn you, we have a man here in town who is very clever with sleight of hand, everything you do, he'll probably explain to the other members; he is very keen." So I went with the judge over to his club and after being introduced I said, "This is like carrying coals to Newcastle; I understand you have a member who knows all these tricks but I hope he will refrain from telling you how they are done until after the performance is over." I performed for perhaps half an hour, and when I finished a very tall, distinguished, nice looking young man walked up and said, "I want to congratulate you for a remarkable performance; not so much for the tricks you did, but for the way you handled the committee. You had two wellknown men in town in your audience who try to do magic, and you treated them like gentlemen and didn't poke fun at them. Other visiting magicians often make them the butt of their jokes, but you made them enjoy your act as much as the audience." This got around to some of the other social leaders in Asheville and I was soon being invited to perform at many of the huge estates around the area.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 Without trying, I had quite a few people writing to me; society leaders who remarked that they had heard of my shows and would I come to their towns and perform for one thing or another. In other words, I was a wonderful man that made money for them; I was house-broken and was easy to get along with. Not being a businessman, I never asked them for testimonial letters, but I should have. For a time I was going like a housea-fire. Jeanne was in New York all this time, and I began to gather so much money I didn't know what to do with it. I bought a car and then sent for Jeanne to join me in Savannah, Georgia. I drove to Savannah and met Jeanne and Teddy, who came down by boat, and they stayed with me for some time. We toured America together. I used to travel around a good deal during those years. I got letters from Mexico to New Orleans and still have a big scrap book filled with memories of those days on the road. One time in Wheeling, West Virginia, a woman by the name of Mrs. Cook wrote that they had nowhere for me to work, so I suggested a local hotel. What they finally did was to set u p a booth in the lobby of the post office. While I was there, an old fellow with Buffalo Bill-type whiskers kept watching me. He told me he was a friend of Colonel Buffalo Bill Cody and in all his days with the Wild West Shows he had never seen anything like my show. There was more than a little nervousness among the post office staff as it was strictly illegal to d o this in a government building, but the Postmaster turned his head and looked the other way. I worked there for four days and no one said anything.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938

JARROW AND VAN HOVEN Of all the magical comedians, Jarrow102was tops. His Dollar Bill In Lemon was great. Horace Goldin was playing in a theater across the street from him once doing Sawing a Woman in Half. Everyone in town was talking about it and Goldin told Jarrow, "You won't have an audience this week-because I'm here sawing a woman in half." Jarrow had a rich sense of humor and had them put on his marquee, in lights, "Emil Jarrow-Sawing A Lemon In Half". Jarrow was the only comedian who did really good magic, he did mysterious things and still made people laugh. The average magical comedian doesn't do good magic, he fluffs his tricks, they go wrong and so on. But with Jarrow they'd talk about how he could do these tricks; how he made tobacco go from one hand to the other; how he cut the lemon and took the money out. He only did one corny thing. This was a tree that he made out of newspaper.lo3 He'd say afterward, "That was Johnson's trick," because, when he first walked out, he'd told the audience that his partner, Johnson, hadn't shown up. Jarrow was opening in London once and the conductor was a man named Fink. Fink was not a very good musician, but by some hook or crook he had become a social favorite. People back then went to the theater as much for the opening overture as for the acts, so Fink felt he was pretty important. Near the end of the show Jarrow walked out and began his act. In his guttural voice he'd say, "With the help of the orchestra, 1/11 do a few simple tricks of sleight of hand. Go ahead kids, fiddle," and looked at the orchestra. Fink had never been talked to that way in his life. So after the show the manager told him, "Mr. Jarrow, you are an American act but you 1 0 2 ~ r n iJarrow l was born Emil Jarowcii~skiin 1873 in Germany. He became a professional strongman, then a juggler and finally, around 1909, a magician. He invented the Bill in the Lemon and the Tobacco Trick. He was one of the highest paid magicians in vaudeville. He died in 1959. 103~ewspaper Tree: Several lengths of newspaper are rolled together to form a tube. The tube is cut three times, evenly spaced, around the top and the center is pulled out forming a tall rod with what looks like "leaves". This trick has been made famous in recent years by celebrity/comedian Orson Bean.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 must understand that Mr. Fink is very much respected in London. He is a great orchestra leader and you can't say, 'Go ahead kids, fiddle."' Jarrow told him, "This is part of my act. It's a joke; this is the way I do my act." So, Jarrow continued to say "Go ahead kids, fiddle" and Fink was absolutely livid. After the third time, Fink and the whole orchestra walked out. But Jarrow went right ahead without music and his act still registered. The only way they could solve the thing was to get a stand in for Fink!

Emil Jarrow and unknown lady, circa 1939

Jarrow was one of the really high priced acts, he got very important money in those days. He was right up there with Houdini; he and another comic magician, Van Hoven.104 Van Hoven, of course, was the greatest comic we have ever had in magic. He wasn't a magician really, more of a comic and used magic as a foil. A monologist you might say. He did all kinds of crazy, loony, nutty things. That was the day when the nutty comedian was something new to vaudeville. There hadn't been any really l o 4 ~ r a n kVan Hoven was born in 18% and was taught by Harry "Dante" Jansen. He was a top comedy magician, billed as "The Man Who Made Ice Famous". He died in 1929.

H E FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938 nutty comedians, aside from old Weber and Fields. They did slapstick and low Dutch comedy; a lot of talk, and they were very amusing but the real nut comedian hadn't been developed. Van Hoven was just using magic as a vehicle. Jarrow was much greater than Van Hoven because he was still a magician, and made them laugh. Nobody in their wildest imagination could say that Van Hoven was a good magician because everything he did was nutty. Comedy. But Jarrow did really mysterious, good tricks. However, he also made the people laugh. This is a very hard thing to do, magicians have tried to do this for years. The only place where I have heard of laughter and bewilderment is in Shakespeare; laughter born of bewilderment. There is such a thing as laughter born of bewilderment. Lots of times people are bewildered and don't know what to do, so they laugh. This is a different kind of laughter. To combine a really mysterious trick with comedy is difficult. You either have to laugh, and think it's funny, or be amazed and watch with an open mouth. To combine the two is terribly difficult. The way Jarrow did this was quite ingenious. He had many ways of getting laughs, during his Nickel and Penny Routine105.He would ask if the fellow had a nickel in his fist. Then he'd say, "Are you sure you've got the nickel?" The fellow would answer, "Yes, I've got the nickel." "Would you make a bet?" Jarrow asked. The fellow would say, "Yes." "Would you bet your life?" The fellow would say, "Yes, I'd bet my life." "Would you bet $20?" Jarrow asked This was a lot of money in those days, so the fellow would say, "Well, no!" And Jarrow would say, "Oh, you'd bet your life but you wouldn't risk twenty lousy bucks!" But when he came to the mysterious part, no funny cracks, it was a mystery. He didn't try to be funny.

I noticed the same thing with his lemon trick. When he borrowed the money for the Bills in the Lemon, he would always borrow three bills: a $5 bill, a $10 bill and a $100 bill. When he was borrowing the money to wrap up in the handkerchief he had all kinds of talk. l o 5 ~ i c k eand l Penny Routine: this whole routine can be found in Mngic of Ross Bertrnnz.

ntld

Metllods

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 He'd ask, "Has anybody up in Heaven got a $100 bill?" Heaven was, of course, the balcony. Sometimes somebody would answer, "Yes, here's a $100 bill." Then Jarrow would say, "What are you doin' sittin' u p there when you've got a $100 bill." It was very funny. If there would be no $100 bill forthcoming he would ask, "Does anybody in the dress circle have a $100 bill?" He would have them in convulsions of laughter during the time he was down in the audience borrowing the money. But when he cut that lemon open and found the money, it was one of the most dramatic things I ever saw. He wouldn't open his mouth. He told me when he first started performing this trick he used to say, as he cut the lemon in half, "Does this remind you of a synagogue?-You can see the 'JUICE' come out!" He told me this was in his very early days. The joke was bad and it was bad to try to be funny at a dramatic moment. He never did that in his later days. He was one of the few comedians who combined good magic with good comedy. To me he was one of the greatest magicians we ever had. Now we have Carl B a l l a n t i t ~ eBallantine .~~~ never really does any tricks, he does a little backhand palming and makes some comical remarks. He is capable of doing very fine magic, but in his comedy act everything is hoked-up. Hokum, you might say, but hilariously funny. He is a skilled magician, capable of doing good magic, but he doesn't do it.

lo6carl Ballantine was born in Chicago in 1917. Hia real nanle is Meyer Kessler. He began as a regular magician working under the name "Count Marakoff" and "Carl Sharp". He then turned top comedy professional and has worked as "The Amazing Mr. Ballantine" since. He became a regular on the "McHale's Navy" television show and is also a movie actor.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938

DAI YEN or DR. CHUNG One of the many incarnations my life in magic has taken includes my time as "Dai Yen" or "Dr. Chung, the Chinese Magician". I had been thinking of doing an oriental act for some time and around 1929, Jeanne made a beautiful mask for me. It was of an old and venerable looking Chinese fellow. Then, in an old second hand shop, I found a beautiful silk robe and hat that once was owned by the famous Broadway producer David Belasco. I worked up a Chinese routine and looked for a booking at some good spot around the city. There was a high class Chinese night club out in San Francisco called the Forbidden City and one like it was opened on Madison Avenue. The room once housed the fashionable Queen Mary Restaurant. It was a high-priced place with a wonderful clientele, but was an unprofitable business. They actually wanted an autize~lticChinese magician and called all over New York but couldn't find one. There was a Chinese fellow named Ming in Chicago, but they couldn't get him. I was asked if I knew anyone and I said that I was working on a Chinese act. Carlton Hobb said he could book me into this Chinese night club for good money, but the audience must think I was Chinese. Carlton took me over to the club and I met the owner who was not Chinese, but used all Chinese performers. Sitting off to the side, I could see the owner was not impressed with Hobb's build-up of me.

So I walked over with my little case and said, "Mr. Hobb, I think I can save a lot of words, just give me two minutes." Then I turned to the owner and told him, "I will show you exactly what you will see, if you will turn those lights off." So I turned around, put the gown, hat, and mask on and turned back to the owner. His expression changed from apathy to excitement. I did a couple of little passes with a ball and he hired me right then. I did the Cut and Restored Ribbon trick, the Linking Rings,and a few others. They played soothing oriental music during my act and I performed to much applause by the audience. I did three shows a night there, and after a show I would put on my dinner jacket and come out. Once I got to talking to one of the musicians about his instrument. He, in turn, asked me if I was one of the bosses-I said no. Then this fellow asked me, "You know that Chinese magician, Chung? How in the world does he get in and out of here? The boys in the band keep watching, all of a sudden he

1

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 appears here and then he is gone again. The other night we tried to watch him enter and leave, but he disappeared on us. He should know this is the best trick he does."

I got a terrific bang out of this. Finally when I got to know him better, I said, "You still worried about how that fellow gets in? You've been talking to him for ten minutes. That's a mask I wear." He couldn't believe it! I told him that was quite a tribute to my wife's talent. He was really fooled. I worked there for two weeks and I really enjoyed it.

Dai Vernon on board ship, 1946 (see page 261)

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938

FRED KEATING Fred Keating107 was funny, very funny. He was a satirist, the George Bernard Shawlo8 type; very caustic, but with a clever, witty manner. He did light comedy which appealed more to the sophisticate, humor that was of a very high class. You wouldn't find it funny unless you were posted on the events of the day. Keating was a little above the heads of the normal variety show audience. He played in some Broadway plays and did magic between the acts. He was very, very good, on the order of Frank Fay,lo9 the famous master of ceremonies who was one of the greatest that ever lived. Keating came from northern Ireland stock from where a lot of the playwrights used to come. He was really gifted, and had very smart patter. For example, in his act he'd moisten an envelope on his tongue, then seal the envelope, and say, "I'll now seal this envelope-in this unsanitary manner." Little things like that. He was the one responsible for saying, "Magic has gone Rotarian." This was one of the smartest things ever said about magic. This explains it exactly, everybody and his brother now buys these little tricks and tries to do them. Keating had a great knowledge of the theater. In fact he went to Hollywood and made two or three pictures. As an actor he was very good, but Keating made his fame on Broadway, with the Vanishing Canary and Cage. He even had to appear in court because of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The SPCA people were very strong in New York. These women were constantly writing into the theater manager and the authorities, claiming that Keating was cruel to lo7Frederic"Fred" Serrano Keating was born in 1897 and debuted as a magician around 1915. He was a professional comedy magician until 1930, when he became a full time actor performing on the stage. He went to Hollywood and appeared in films from 1934 until 1940. He survived a suicide attenipt in 1948. He returned to magic in 1951 continuing to perform until 1953. He died in 1961. l o S ~ e o r g Bernard e Shaw was a British dramatist and critic born in Ireland in 1856. As a witty iconoclast attacking social conventions, he was perhaps the outstaliding playwright of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prizc in literature in 1925 and died in 1950. lo9Frank Fay was one of vaudeville's first regular master of ceremonies. He later turned to acting in the "talkies". For eight years he was married to movie actress Barbara Stanwyck. He was born in 1897 and died in 1961.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 the canaries. Finally it led to a law-suit. It created such a furor that they arrested Keating. In court the judge put his initial on a lead seal which was on the canary's foot. Keating performed the bird cage in the courtroom in front of the jury and everyone. He made the cage and the canary disappear. The whole courtroom was completely flabbergasted and then He retired to one of the anterooms and brought out the little bird, very chirpy, and still alive. He didn't disclose how he did it, but he showed he didn't harm the bird. It might have been otherwise, because you can break a bird's leg and Keating had experienced prior accidents. In this case everything went smoothly. Of course, nobody wants to hurt a little bird, but he did have accidents on many occasions. The public never found out. Keating used a fairly small cage but Blackstoneno, who also did the trick, used a much smaller cage. Later Bert Allertonul made a running gag out of the bird cage. He used to reach under the table to get a bird cage, apparently it was at his feet on the floor, and he'd bring out the cage and make it vanish. During the next few tricks people would say, "What happened to that bird cage? What happened to the bird?" even though he used a fake bird. Then he'd go ul~derthe table again and apparently pick u p another cage and vanish it. He did this as a running gag, he'd even do it on the street. People would meet him, he'd turn around, and he'd turn back holding a bird cage between his hands. He'd make it disappear. Bert had two things that made him: a flower that used to jump from one lapel to the other, and the bird cage. These were his trademarks. Bert Allerton was, I think, the first one to use the bird cage as many as twenty or thirty times. He did it on every occasion he could. Even when walking into a restaurant; or he would be paying his check and would say, "Look at this cage-where did this come from?" BANG, it would disappear. This way people talked a great deal about the man who had a bird in a cage and "O~arryBlackstone was born Harry Boughton in Chicago, Illinois in 1885; he died in 1965. He was a professional stage illusionist from around 1906. His principal assistant and stage manager was his younger brother Pete (Boughton) Bouton. He was well known for the Vanishing Birdcage, the Dancing Handkerchief, the Bear Illusion and the Floating Light Bulb. From the time of Howard Thurston's death in 1936, Blackstone was America's undisputed top stage illusionist. He was the father of Harry Blackstone, Jr. He wrote two books which were ghosted by Walter 0. Gibson (creator and writer of the fictional character The Shadow): Blnckstor~c's Secrets of. Magic - (1929) and Blnckstoiie's Moilern Cnrri Tricks (1932). l l l ~ e rAllerton t was born in Illinois in 1889 and passed away in 1958. His real name was Albert Allen Gustafson. He was of Swedish extraction and a top sales executive who became a semi-professional in 1934 after learning magic from the Tnrbell Cocirse in Magic. In 1939 he became one of the earliest professional close-up performers. He worked in the Pump Room of the Ambassador Hotel in Chicago from 1941 to 1955.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938 made it disappear. Zai~eyBlaneyH2is doing this today, he got that idea from Bert Allerton.

Fred Keating, 1936

'''waiter

Edwin "Zaney" Blaney was born in Dallas, Texas in 1928 and began learning magic from library books after seeing the Blackstone show. Billed as "Zaney Blaney" since 1946, he has been a full-time professional stage comedy magician since 1950.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE,VOLUME 4

MR. SHOCK AND THE RUBBER BANDS During my stay among the country club set in Asheville, North ~ an old fellow named Shock who owned Carolina in the early 1 9 3 0 I~met a stamp and coin shop. He was also a bit of a gambler and quite a character. I introduced my friend Cardini, who was playing in Asheville at this time, to Mr. Shock, and we both learned a few things about dealing seconds with the use of a puncl~eddeck. A punched deck is a pack of cards in which each card has a bump on its back, caused by pricking the cards with a pin. These bumps are in different positions and can be felt to learn the identity of the card so that seconds can be dealt.

I asked him how he learned to do this and he told me that when he was a young man, way back before the turn of the century, he travelled around the country with another fellow. The way they made money was to break into gambling rooms at around three in the morning and find the trunk which held a11 the cards and gambling chips. Then they would pick the lock or force it open in such a way that no one would know the trunk had been tampered with and take out all the cards. They would sit up the rest of the night making them all and put them back in the trunk. When the gambling room would open up for business on Monday, they would go to work. The cards were all marked but many times, because of the dim flickering light of gas lamps or lanterns, they couldn't see the markings and had to resort to the punch. This was attached to a finger with adhesive tape and looked like you had cut your finger. Shock told us that only the high cards were punched. They retained them themselves when they'd deal. Shock was a gambler for more than forty-five years and finally saved enough money to buy his stamp and coin shop. Shock had another story about fixing cards that revolved around a man he once met who used rubber bands to aid him in marking the cut. This fellow used to sit up all night in his hotel room with rubber bands and a pair of scissors and he'd cut them up into a thousand little pieces, just like little grains of pepper. He would end up with a little pile of minute pieces of rubber which he would put into one of his pockets. When he was playing poker he'd put his hand into his pocket to get his pipe or a cigar and he'd dig his nail into this little pile of rubber and one or two pieces would stick. When he put the cards out to be cut he allowed

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938 one or two pieces of rubber to fall onto the top of the deck. The cut was completed and the small pieces marked the original top perfectly. After the cut he could break the deck at the exact spot he had placed the pieces of rubber. I tried this out for a magic trick and it worked beautifully. I mentioned this gimmick to two or three magicians and one of them said that Judson J. Cameron had written this trick into his book, Cheati~lgat

Bridge.

Dai Vernon performing Cards To Pocket at the Kit Kat Klub, 1933

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

DAD STEVENS, "THE MYSTERIOUS KID" "Old Dad Stevens" was the name he was known by on the streets of Chicago. He's been dead many years now but when he was young, he was known as "The Mysterious Kid". A Czechoslovakian by birth, I believe. I met him because I happened to be playing checkers with a fellow named Eddie Yankovich. Eddie mentioned that he gambled a good deal and knew a few fellows who could do good seconds and bottoms. Eddie, himself, did some fine things with cards for me so I was very interested. In fact, I was quite intrigued because I hadn't see11 anybody do work like he did in years, and then only 011 a few occasions in my life. I immediately asked him where he had learned these various moves. He said, "Oh, I learned this on the other side, over in Poland. I've always played cards and my father was a card player. But if you really want to see some great work you ought to see Old Dad Stevens." "Who's Old Dad Stevens?" I asked. "I've never heard the name before. Where can I meet him?" I didn't know whether he said Old Sad Stevens or Old Dad Stevens; it sounded like "sad" because he was a foreigner and spoke with an accent. Later I found he meant Dad. "I've been working as a waiter lately," he told me, "and I know he plays at the Waiters Club on State Street. He plays there every Saturday. Stevens is probably worth a half million dollars." "So what's he doing in the Waiters Club then?" I asked. "Oh, he isn't a waiter, he just loves to play cards and comes down there every Saturday night. He trims all the waiters. He can beat them all. It's his way of staying in practice." "Do they stand for being beaten every Saturday night?" "You know how waiters are," he said, "they think they'll catch him sometime. They don't know what he's doing but he gets the money."

I knew I had to meet this fellow! Eddie told me that he was leaving town for awhile, but if I just walked into the Waiters Club on Saturday, and hung around I'd see an old guy there with a derby hat. Stevens was the only one that wore that type hat

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938 and generally he pulled it down over his eyes. He was rather thin, about seventy-five years old and very quiet. Eddie said that he might not be playing, he sometimes read the paper, but he was always there on Saturday night. I was lucky, as the first time I went in I met him. I spotted him right away. I saw this old fellow with a derby hat, walked over and said, "Are you Stevens?" "Yes, who are you?" I said, "I'm a friend of Eddie Yankovich's and he told me I should look you up. I'm very interested in cards. In fact, it's almost a mania with me and I hear you do some things with cards that are quite unusual." He looked at me and said, "Let me show you something." He took out a bank book and showed me a real, legitimate $250,000 in the bank. "You don't generally see an account like this among people who play cards," he told me. "I beat the racket and I'm proud of it. I've got money in the bank, I've got a nice house and a housekeeper." "I understand you play poker and always win," I said. "That's my fun, I like to keep my hand in. But I don't go around gambling like I used to. I was known as 'The Mysterious Kid' when I was young. It's an unusual nickname and the reason for it was that I'd always go in and win the money. No one ever suspected I knew a crooked card move. They couldn't figure it out. I decided when I was very young that I'd make money and save it. Most people who win money at cards lose it shooting dice, at the race track or in the stock market. I didn't make that mistake. I won the money and I kept it." I told him that I'd love to see him do something. So he picked up the cards which I had been mixing and I noticed that he was left-handed. He table riffle shuffled at a medium speed several times and turned over the top four cards showing me four Queens! Then he shuffled again and turned over the four Aces! He was so good tears came to my eyes. Really, I cried. When I was a boy I used to think that if a man was locked up in Alcatraz or went to Siberia and he had nothing but a pack of cards and practiced for perhaps twenty years, he might do something like Old Dad Stevens. I told him that I never thought I'd see the day when I'd see a man do what he just did. "My boy, what you are looking at took eighteen years of practice." "It's phenomenal, I never thought it was possible."

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 "You won't see anyone else in the world do it. When I was a young boy I practiced this for eighteen years before I went into action." He did other things, too. He dealt thirds beautifully; seconds, bottoms, shifts. Absolutely marvelous. Skillful was not the word. He also showed me his shiner, gamblers call it a "glim" or a "light". This is a small mirror with which you can glimpse the cards as they are dealt from the top of the deck. Gamblers use these three terms interchangeably; the glim, the shiner, and the light. The light is the most picturesque to me because the apparatus comes down the sleeve. There is also a hold-out machine which brings the mirror down the sleeve. But Stevens used just a plain little piece of cardboard tag with a mirror on one side and a piece of wax on the edge to stick it under the table so the mirror protruded slightly. "This is crude," he said, "I only use this to beat these dumb waiters. I know everything they have in their hand. Sometimes I give them their money back." He did some marvelous things with cards, but I never got to see him again. I had some el~gagementout of town and when I came back, I couldn't find any trace of him. He hadn't been aroul~dthe Waiters Club and I didn't have his address. But he had shown me enough of his shuffle work, so it wasn't lost forever.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938

THE FABULOUS CENTER DEAL One of my greatest adventures started on a rainy afternoon when I was cutting silhouettes at the George Innes Department Store in Wichita, Kansas. My old friend, Faucett Ross, rushed in and told me that he had been talking to the night jailer of the Sedgewick County jail. The jailer told him that a Mexican gambler and card cheat was being detained at the jail. H e had seen him do some wonderful things with a deck of cards and had invited Faucett and me to the jail that evening for a demonstration. I was very excited about this and wanted to leave immediately, even though several people were still waiting for silhouettes. I was always this way about business; my interests first, business last.

I could hardly wait for evening and rushed Faucett to a very early dinner. After we ate, Faucett and I went over and waited around the jail until his friend came to work. When we finally got to see the Mexican gambler we were not disappointed. He knew his subject well and was able to keep us interested and entertained for quite a while. He demonstrated several subterfuges which I felt were excellent. But the most interesting thing I learned that evening wasn't a move. He told me about a another gambler that he'd seen in Kansas City who could actually deal from the center of the deck! This would mean that you wouldn't have to shiftH3 the cards after the cut. This is a very difficult thing to do under close scrutiny; if you could, instead, deal the cards from the center after the cut, it would be the ultimate crooked move.

I was scheduled to work the next day but told my boss at the department store I wasn't feeling well. Instead, I got in my car and headed for Kansas City. I spent several days there in search of this center dealer. Unfortunately I learned little except that his name was Allen Kennedy; but then I ran out of funds and was forced to return to Wichita. A short time later I told the story to Charlie Miller, who had just come into town for a visit. He insisted we make another search the very next '13shift: Secretly transpose the two packets of cards so they were exactly as they were before the pack was cut.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 day. We had no luck finding Allen Kennedy, but had quite a time in spite of that. I'll detail that trip with Charlie separately.

I finally got lucky on my third trip and located Allen Kennedy in a little town twenty-five miles southeast of Kansas City. 011 this trip I happened to have my seven year old, Teddy, along . Teddy knew a few little things about magic and I had even taught him how to deal a second and a bottom, after a fashion.

I finally gained entrance into Kennedy's home by halfway pretending to be a transatlantic gambler. Kennedy was quite flattered that a "big time" gambler had looked him up. After I showed him a few moves he was happy to demonstrate his center deal and he revealed its workings.

I wanted to see him do it several more times so I could get a few points I didn't understand so I said to him, "My boy has a sharp eye, Mr. Kennedy. Deal some centers so l ~ can e watch you. He'll tell you if he detects anything suspicious." Kennedy obligingly dealt a few centers and after he had finished he said to Teddy, "Soi~,did you see anything?" "Didn't see a thing, mister." At this point I told Kennedy that Teddy could l~andlea deck of cards pretty well for a kid his age. "Teddy," I said, "Show Mr. Kennedy a couple of things." My boy took the cards and did a few fair seconds and then did a simple four ace routine. Kennedy didn't know anything about magic and was very impressed. He turned to me and said very approvingly, "Mr. Vernon, I want to coi~gratulateyou. You're really bringing that boy up right!"

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938

CHARLIE MILLER "I'M A DICE MAN" I hate to say it, in fact I probably shouldn't, but I was the one who got Charlie Miller excited about gamblers. This caused him more trouble and problems in his life than anything. It's funny because he didn't know a thing about gambling at all. He'd ask me where I got my ideas, and I'd tell him that they weren't my ideas: that I had learned them from gamblers. So Charlie immediately wanted to meet gamblers. In those days, Cl~arliewas really a kind of a mama's boy. He wouldn't even say, "Damn." If someone told a risquk story, he would walk away, highly indignant and say, "I don't want to lose respect for you, please desist from this type of conversation." Charlie wasn't a prude, but that's the way he was brought up. He really tried to overcome this in later years, but it always left its mark. Charlie was one of magic's real cl~aracters.For a period of time he made a career out of staying at various magician's 11omes. He became known in magic as "America's Guest". Years ago, when I was in Kansas trying to find a fellow who dealt from the center of the pack, I had to contact some of the gangster-types of Kansas City. People with names like "Old Snakey Davis"; real people who were very tougl~and very suspicious. I learned to talk their language and could make them think that I belonged. They'd think I was a landsman, a fellow member of the craft, because I knew their lingo. Charlie was with me at the time but he had no idea then of how to talk to these guys. Every time I'd be talking to some of these fellows, they'd turn to Charlie and ask him what he did; or they'd say to me, "What's the boy do?" And Charlie would make just exactly the wrong reply. He'd say, "I do tricks," or, "I'm a magician." And, naturally, they'd clam up. Finally I had to tell him that when I was trying to seek out information from these fellows he should let me do all the talking. I told 11im to keep his mouth closed and to not say a word. If they were to ask him a direct question w11en we were talking about cards, he should say, "I'm a dice man;" just, "I'm a dice man." That's all. I told him not to say anything else. If we're talking about dice, he was to

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 say, "I'm a card man;" not, "I do tricks," or, "I'm a technician," or, "I'm a mechanic." Just, "I'm a card man." On this one occasiol~we went into a rundowi~building and u p a little dark stairway, and a fellow came down the hallway in a wheel chair. As he came closer I noticed that he had a revolver across his knees; and he asked, "Who sent you?"

I told him Red Langworthy, who ran the Kansas City Card Company. So we walked to a door and someone 011 the other side opened a little wirtdow in it and looked out. It was a very sinister arrangement. We finally got into the room and it was very touchy because I easily could have been the police searching for the fellow that dealt from the middle of the deck. Charlie was sitting quietly in the corner as I was talking to three characters, one was the crippled fellow who had the gun. Then one of the funniest things that ever happened to me occurred. Somebody pointed over to Charlie and said, "What's the kid do?" And Charlie, who was quite young and nervous looked up and in voice which sounded like he'd just filled his lungs full of helium, said, "I'm a dice man!" It was the way he said it, so quickly and high pitched; they looked at me and it just chilled everything. It was obvious he didn't know anything about it at all. However, Charlie did what I told him. He just said, "I'm a dice man," but not the way he should have said it! That was what was so funny. Faucett Ross would often say when the occasion called for it, "I'm a dice man." And we would laugh uproariously and nobody knew what we were laughing about. It was an inside joke. Charlie himself even laughed. It was a great moment and I often wondered how we got out of there alive!

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938

MY LIFE AS EDWARD BROWN For a short time during my vaudeville days, I was billed as and performed as Edward Brown. I had become an Office Act. Now an Office Act meant that you were allied wit11 a specific booking office, and they found you work and collected the fees and paid you a salary to perform at private parties, clubs, and in vaudeville. It didn't give a performer any personal choice of engagements, but it did provide many performers wit11 some sort of professional management and security. My first job for the office was a booking into a vaudeville house in Brooklyn. I hurried over to the theater and checked in, but failed to tell them m y name. I read the theater bill and didn't see my name but the name of "Edward Brown, A European Novelty Act". The show began and the other acts performed and I waited for my turn. Then the stage manager called out, "Edward Brown.. .Edward Brown.. .where are you? You're on! Where is that damn magician?" He meant me! How did Dai Vernon get changed around to Edward Brown? My only guess was that the telephone line was less than perfect on the day they booked me into this place a n d my name was garbled and Vernon became Brown. Anyway, I was introduced as Edward Brown and performed my magic act under that name for the rest of the engagement. The act I did as Mr. Brown included the Rising Cards ending with all the cards jumpii~gout of the glass as the finale, the Cut and Restored Ribbon, and several other card and handkerchief tricks. I was performing alone and Jeanne stayed in New York while I was treading the boards in Brooklyn. I was glad I was alone. I didn't like this act and I didn't like vaudeville. They were doing three, four, and five shows a day-it was terrible you had to hang around the theater all day long with no time to change your clotl~esor see your friends.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

J. WARREN KEANE J. Warren Keane was a fine performer. H e spent many years performing on the Keith Vaudeville circuit and had a unique form of presentation. Numerous other famous magicians, such as Blackstone and Thurston, used the entire stage area for their act, but Keane's act used a drawing room motif, complete with a coat rack and mirror on the wall. Off to one side of the drawing room, a beautiful girl sat at a piano and played a waltz. All of a sudden, at the back of the set, out stepped Keane; a handsome man in top hat and full dress suit. He quietly, and with style, took off his white gloves, put his overcoat and top hat on the rack, and removed the scarf from around his neck. Keane took the scarf and made a fancy knot in it, then held it out, and the knot untied. That was just the first inkling that something truly unusual was about to happen. As this first trick ended, the girl at the piano stopped playing. Keane told her to continue as he walked into the middle of the room and produced some white billiard balls. His act was done as though he was visiting his sweetheart. All the time he was performing his act she kept playing the piano and looking over at him, smilii~g.It was a beautifully composed routine. It was smooth and lyrical and, while the tricks were not overly complicated or special, Keane gave it so much flair and interpretation that it made the act very special and memorable. Warren Keane was the one who first told me not to worry about methods. He said to me, "Vernon.. .you have the knack-look in the old catalogues, find these old tricks, sometimes the methods are very bad, but the effects are excellent. Look through the old books and pick out the things you would like to do, just the effects, not the n~ethod.Then if you can't puzzle out a good way to d o the trick, find out how the other magicians do it. Try to perfect the trick yourself. Use your own ideas. Then you'll have a good act. Pick out the effects you want-for instance, if you would love to walk on and produce a big bouquet of flowers or suddenly produce a bird, you'll figure out a way to do it...and that's my advice to you."

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938

WILLIAM J. HILLIAR Nevil Maskelyneuhnd David Devantllbrote a book entitled Otrr Magic and in it they said that you could do all the card tricks in the world for wild savages and they wouldn't be interested. But if you could catch shiny discs out of the air, they'd be fascinated. The first person I ever saw pick coins from the air was William J. Hilliaru6 who wrote the The Moderrr Magicia~rs' Haizdbook. He was performing at the Ringling Brothers Circus in a booth with a large banner over it saying, "William Hilliar". I had his book, Hilliar's Handbook, at the time, and I watched his act for three straight shows. He had a small pail which he held in his left hand by the top edge. He would reach into the air and produce a coin, which he already had along with several others, in his right hand. Then he would toss it into the bucket. After tossing a bunch of coins into it he would give it an upward shake and was able to catch a number of coins which flew up, by inertia, from the bottom of the pail into his left haizd. Now, by switching the bucket to his right hand, he could continue to catch more coins. I fooled around with that trick, The Miser's Dream, for a while and finally read about it in several books years later. I knew the basis of the effect and had already figured out my own methods of catching the coins '14~evilMaskelyne was born in England in 1863. He was the son of John Nevil Maskelyne who founded the great Maskelyne dynasty of Englisl~ magicians, and established the Egyptian Hall. He co-wrote, with David Devant, the classic 0 1 1 1 . Mngic. He died in 1924. ' I 5 ~ a v i dDevant was the stage name of David Wighton, son of Scottish landscape artist James Wigliton. He learned magic around around age fifteen and becaine a professional illusionist and manipulator. In 1905 he was taken on as partner by J.N. Maskelyne. He left the partnership in 1915 to go on his own and was forced to retire in 1920 due to illness. He continued as a writer and teacher. He was a prolific inventor and created the Artist's Dream, the Birth of Flora, the Mascot Moth, the Vanishing Motorcycle and other fine illusions. He wrote many books which included O u r Mogic (with Nevil Maskelyne), Lessoirs iiz Coiljliriilg, M y Mogic Lift. and Secrets of M y Mngic. He was born in Highgate, London, England in 1868 and died 1941. l l 6 ~ i l l i a r nJohn "Big Bill" Hilliar learned by working in a vaudeville troupe at the and age of fourteen. He wrote Moilrrrl ffniitl S/rntit17vs,Tlrc Morleril Mn~icin1r3'HnrrtlP~~c~k Cnrtl ghosted both T.Nelsoil Dozuirs' Motlerii Coil1 Mniri/7lilntiorr and Htlzunrll Tll~irstcli~'.s Tricks. He was born in Oxford, England in 1876; and despondent over his health, committed suicide in 1936 .

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 from the air. Of course, Allan Shaw and Downs did this to perfection so I eventually got the finest methods extant.

William J. Hilliar, 1935

H E FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938

TOMMY DOWNS, THE KING OF KOINS I had first seen T. Nelson Downs when I was a young boy in Ottawa. Many years later, I finally met him and showed him some of the coin and card tricks I'd been working on. I fooled him! I was never so thrilled in my life as when I fooled the great Tommy Downs. "What are you doing there?," he asked. I told him that I learned the trick out of his book, The Art of Magic by John Northern Hilliard.l17 The book has several coin tricks in it, all given to Hilliard by Tommy Downs. He said, "Hell, some of that stuff doesn't even work." "Sure it works," I said. This seemed to irritate him a little and he asked me to repeat the tricks again.. .and again. Tommy Downs was famous for one specific trick he used to do, where he would push coins into his closed fist and then turn his hand over, and the coins would vanish. At one time he did this trick with twelve coins; he would push them into his hand one by one, and they would vanish. It was a beautiful thing to watch Downs perform this trick; the coins were actually moved onto the back of his hand, but he kept it so flat and natural, they didn't look like they were there at all. "You can't back-palm that many coins without some sort of gimmick." I told Tommy that he must have a horse hair, a clip or some kind of a gimmick to keep the coins on the back of his hand. He said, "I d o it by using the dexterity at the fingertips. Watcl~!"and he would d o the trick again, just as beautifully as the first time. I knew that nobody could possibly hold that many coins stacked behind 11is hand, especially a hand so perfectly flat and natural looking. So one time when I was u p at his home in Marsl~alltown,Iowa, in his ow11 living room, I decided to find out how this trick was done. Tommy 'I7~ohnNorthern Hilliard was born in New York in 1872 and died in 1935. He was an amateur magician and reporter who took the job of being Howard Thurston's advance man because he knew the newspaper business. Hc ghosted T. Nelson Downs' The Art of Magic and wrote Grcnter Mngic one of the finest magic books ever published.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 wanted to learn 11ow to do several card tricks I had performed for him, and asked me if I was going to teach them to him. So, I said, "Tommy, 1'11 make you a trade. You show me the lowdown on the coins on the back of the hand, the gimmick, and 1/11show you the card tricks you want to know." "Damn it, Vernon. .. I don't use any gimmick. Watcl?." And he'd do the trick again. I said to Tommy, "There's 110 use trying to fool me that way. I know you use some kind of a gimmick, there's something." "Look Vernon, are these legitimate coins?" He put the coins down on the table and I could tell they were real. This time he did the trick again but the effect was different than before. "Tommy, that isn't the same thing you were doing the first time." He kept insisting it was the same thing, but this time his hand was very cramped. I kept insisting and finally, Tommy reached into his vest pocket and started to take something out, then stopped. "Vernon," he said, "I'm telling you, I don't use a gimmick." This went on for about half an hour. Finally, in desperation, Tommy took something out of his vest pocket and threw it onto the couch. It broke his heart to show me the gimmick and I don't think in all his life he ever showed anybody else how he performed his most famous trick. This was the one with which he had attained such a reputation for dexterity. The fact is that it was what magicians call a holder, a clip to hold coins together en masse, so that they don't talk or rattle. You can clamp together a dozen coins. But the clever part of this clip was that it was made from a coin. Instead of having a metal gimmick: the coin itself was the gimmick, so the other coins would cling together with this coin. Afterwards, when he put the coins away, this one additional coin was put away with the others and there wasn't anything to give the trick away. Our argument had gone on for almost an hour, and how that man had suffered. He had never shown this to anyone before; so I lived u p to my part of the bargain and showed him all the card tricks he wanted to know. He kept insisting, however, that he only used his gimmick once in a while, BUT he did use it. He just didn't like to admit that part of his skill was owing to the fact that he had to use a certain appliai~ceto accomplish the trick. When Tommy passed away he left all of his effects to his dear friend Eddie McLa~ghlin."~ When Eddie died, his wife Martha, sent me this l1'~dward James "Eddie" McLaughlin was born in Iowa in 1897 and was a serniprofessional magician and travelling salesman for a banana company. He was a very close

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H E FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938 gimmick and I still have it. But even with the gimmick, the trick requires a lot of practice to do it correctly. I have all the original silver dollars and the gimmick that Tommy used and willed to Eddie McLaughlin. Eddie was a dear friend and he had then willed the gimmick to me. I had the coins re-plated because they were so worn, but it would take a lot of practice to use them with all the skill of Tommy Downs. Tommy didn't use these coins in his act, he only did this particular trick when he was with other skilled magicians, people he really wanted to impress. But he still used a secret gimmick to do it.

Thomas Nelson Downs, circa 1910

Downs was a wonderful character and always did everything with a grand gesture. If he'd pick up a tray of peanuts to pass to somebody it was always with a flowery, grand gesture. He was the old-fashioned showman, he strutted like a fellow doing a cake-walk but to see Tommy do it was very amusing. Tommy had such great, funny, little remarks. He would say crazy things like, "Now next season-I'll appear again. The company will play East Lynne and we will carry two special drops and a couple GIRAFFES." He always got all his words mixed up. Oskaloosa he'd call, "Oskaloosy". ..colorful patter. He'd say, "Give it the Missouri Poke, don't give it the Oskaloosy Push, give it the Missouri Poke." This kind of ridiculous patter. friend of T. Nelson Downs. He died in 1959.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 He only used this "Missouri Poke" because he became very friendly with my good friend Faucett Ross. Ross was from St. Joseph, Missouri and until then he thought Missouri was a hick, corn-belt kind of a place. But, after he became acquainted with Ross, he always put in the "Missouri Poke". After he went to France he learned the french word "VOILA", which he pronounced as "Wall-eye!" Whenever he would vanish something, he would say, "Wall-eye!" and gesture. Here's a very characteristic thing that Tommy used to do. He loved to drink other people's liquor. It hurt Tommy to spend his own money on drinking, but if someone else was supplying the liquor, he was always anxious to take a little nip. He used to drink his liquor straight in a shot glass. He would pick up his little jigger and hold it out with his fingers over it. Then he would spread his fingers and say, "Not another drop. Not another drop." In other words, he was inviting them to pour another drink between his fingers and it was funny the way he did it. One recollection that my wife had about Tommy Downs was that Tommy said his wife was probably glad when he was away because she could have a couple of extra glasses of milk. Tommy continued by stating that, "I drink milk and she drinks milk, so when I'm away she can have the whole bottle!" Jeanne thought this was very silly, why not buy extra milk? But she said, "All magicians are the same. They're all a little bit screwy!" He was at the Follies Bergere in France; he played everywhere. He could go out into a three-ring circus with all three rings going, and everybody would be watching this wonderful character, Tommy Downs. He was very flamboyant, a born showman. He did everything with a flair, he lit up the room when he walked into it. Talking about "a fellow lighting up a room," Francis Carlyle119 once said about the orchestra leader Richard Himber,l20 "The only fellow I know who could light up a room by walking out of it is Richard Himber." Which was very true, too, very true. Himber was one of the most obnoxious magicians in the business. He was always doing something wrong, or getting in somebody's hair. 1 rancis cis Xavier Carlyle was born in 1911 and died in 1975 from the effects of

alcoholism. His real name was Francis Finneran. He was a professional close-up performer who did stand-up shows as well. In 1955, he was vqted one of the ten living Card Stars. l Z O ~ i c h a r"Dick d Himber was born in ~ e Jersey & in the early 1900s and died in 1966. He became a well known big-band leader around 1934. He was a semi-professional magician and magic dealer. He was also known as an eccentric and world-class practical

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HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938 Tommy was one of the two magicians who ever had a chance to work in the Ziegfeld Follies. The other was Houdini. Houdini went out to Marshalltown and brought Downs to New York because Houdini knew Ziegfeldlzl very well. He introduced him to Downs, and Ziegfeld was very impressed. He saw Tommy do some of his coin tricks and catch some coins out of the air and thought he could use him. Ziegfeld said, "This will be great! We are going to have a circus scene in my next review, you will be the barker. You'll be on this box to sell tickets and while you're selling tickets, you'll have some coins. You won't have to sing a song, you'll have a few lines and you'll do a little something to attract the crowds." Downs said, "Well, Mr. Ziegfeld, when will I do my act?" Ziegfeld replied, "You won't do an act, you'll have a part in the play." Downs was insulted. He wouldn't do it. He said, "I'm an artist, I'm T. Nelson Downs, I was featured at the Palace in London for sixty-six weeks." Ziegfeld wasn't interested in a vaudeville act, he was interested in something that would fit into his scheme of things. So Tommy didn't do it. He made the greatest mistake of his life. He would have been a sensation and had a second start, but he considered his act as a unit, intact. To him, it was like telling a musician to paint a beautiful violin red. Tommy used to tell me that the other magicians had him pegged as a coin man but he was really a "card man". It seemed to me that he wanted to be a card man, to have the reputation as a great card man. This is the way it is in life, I suppose. People want what they haven't got. Tommy Downs was acknowledged as "The King of Koins", but he wasn't satisfied with this, he wanted to be "The King of Kards" as well.

joker. He invented and sold hundreds of excellent tricks that were well manufactured . I 2 ' ~ l o r e n z Ziegfeld was an American Broadway impresario who was born in Chicago in 1867. He was noted for the Ziegfeld Follies, his annual musical revues. He died in 1932.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

HARRY BLACKSTONE When I first saw Blackstone perform, I thought, "Now here's a great performer." I liked him very, very much. I thought he was bright, breezy, and he did a good show. H a r q Blackstonethat dancing handkerchief of his alone, the way he did it, was worth the price of admission. It was a beautiful thing to watch, the way this simple handkerchief acted; it was like a spook, a little spook. He also had several other things in his show which were outstanding. Harry was a beautiful whistler and he used to whistle through his act. He also had a wonderful, jaunty manner and handled children beautifully. He had little children up on stage and he would wrap up a rabbit or give them a box of Crackerjacks and he treated them with great charm. He would sit on the steps of the stage, talking to the little children and you could see the wonder and amazement in their eyes and faces. He was a handsome chap with a little mustache, just like mine, and he'd kid with a little girl and she would be looking up at him just enchanted. The proof of it is that he played all over the world and made several fortunes. He was a great spender in those days and loved to throw his money around like a drunken sailor. In my opinion, Harry Blackstone had a really good magic show. I was older when I saw him and feel that I was a better judge than when I was younger. I still feel that Harry Kellar was a better magician, but much of this feeling might be that I first saw Kellar as a young boy and the magic was all the more magical when seen through the eyes of a child. I realize that when I saw Blackstone I was much better qualified to judge a magic act than when I saw Kellar as a boy. If I had seee Kellar at the same time that I saw Blackstone, I might have a slightly changed view. But as I recall, Kellar had a show that really fascinated me and carried me into a land of enchantment. With Blackstone, I realized that he was just doing a magic show.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938

VERNON IN PRINT Up until the early 1930s, I had never written or sold anything much in the way of magic. I had written a small booklet of tricks for the public in 1923 called Secrets, but nothing for magicians. People used to ask me to write an article for the old Sylzi~lx,the Liilki~zgRizzg, or other such magic magazines but I always refused. I had such pressure that I would finally show a trick to a fellow and tell him to write it up himself. He would write, "Dai Vernon explains how to do this or that." I never wrote the instructions, so often the writer hadn't a clear coi~ceptionof the trick and there would be little errors in it. I think, if my memory is correct, that I once actually wrote an article titled Ace Tricks for Experts for The Sp1zil.z~. It was written to show the magicians a gambling palm that had never before been exposed in print; the object of the article was to show them how this palm could be utilized. When I was with Faucett Ross in Wichita, Kansas he said, "Why don't you write something just for fun, a manuscript on magic?" It sounded like a good idea and we finally put out Tlze Tzoerlty Dollnr Marluscript. In those days no text in the magic world sold for $20--unless it was a rare edition of Scot's122 Discovery of Witcl~craftor Hoctis Poctls, Jr but to put out a few words explaining a handful of tricks to be sold for $20 was unheard of. I thought, "I have a certain reputation among magicians, they think I have all kinds of mysterious secrets and knowledge they don't possess, why not sell a mimeographed text for $20?" The magicians who are dying of curiosity will pay that for it. Ross and I talked it over and we told Tommy Downs about it; he laughed and said, "Fellows, do you realize there is a depression? You can't sell anything like what you've written for $20!" We advertised that we would sell a dozen autographed copies. Within a week we had taken in over $700! They sold like hotcakes; at first we didn't know what to do but finally lived up to our word and only autographed the first twelve. We did very well. This just goes to prove the power of curiosity. I had never sold anything before, but the fact that a great many fellows knew I had a lot of fairly good card tricks let their 1 2 2 ~ e g i n a l dScot learned magic in 1580 from John Cautares. Scot was a country gentleman and amateur magician. He wrote the classic The Discoz~eryof Witc/lcrnft in 1584. King James I, who believed in witchcraft, ordered that Scot's expose be burned.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 curiosity get the better of them. This first publishing venture was ultimately pirated and reprinted into countless numbers, some of which have been sold for as little as one single dollar. Julie11 J. Proskauer,l23 who ran the Colljtrrer's Magazine offered me a free page of advertising in exchange for one of my mimeographed booklets. This set Ross and me forth on another publishing journey without knowing what it would be. Ross finally came up with an idea for the ad which read something like this: "Mr. Veri~on'sreputation is such among the card enthusiasts of this country that it is not necessary for him to tell you what he is selling. We have a manuscript of five fine effects which we will sell at $3 apiece, and contrary to the custom, no effect will be described here. You can count on their being well worth the money." We got busy and met the deadline and sold a great many. The first trick in the mimeograph was a short change trick with dollar bills, but most of the rest involved various card tricks. Several of those tricks are still being used today, nearly sixty years after I first wrote them down. Years later, in Brooklyn, I wrote my first pamphlet called Select Secrets. Bill Arenholz,l** a good friend who worked at the telephone company, had asked me to write a little book with tricks that would appeal to everybody: "Don't just put card tricks in there, include a couple of handkerchief tricks, some close-up, some mental tricks-in other words, run the gamut so that it will appeal to every magicia11 no matter what branch of magic he's in." I took his advice and wrote this type of booklet. Inside Select Secrets is a trick with matches, how to stick them to a ceiling; a method of palming the top card of the deck very cleanly; a little mind reading trick; a stage trick involving a piece of paper which is torn, dipped in water and fanned, to create an atmosphere filled with confetti, around the performer. It was called "A Snow Storm in China"; and a couple of others. This booklet also enjoyed a great success. Proskauer printed it on heavy stock and charged me about thirty cents each to make tl~em.We sold the book for a $1.25. I mailed them out myself; I never got so tired in my life sticking stamps and addressing envelopes by hand and mailing them.

I got a deluge of mail saying things like, "I don't quite understand the 123~ulienJ. Proskauer was a printer, businessman, arnateur magician and psychic investigator. He wrote Sfmi~kCroi~ks,HOZU'L~ Do Tlmt?, S~icki~rs All, and Tlzr Dead Do Not Talk ( hosted by Walter B. Gibson). * ~ i l l i a r nJ. "Bill" Arenholz was born in Texas in 1891. He was a student of A1 Baker and a semi-professional since 1932. His everyday job was as an executive with the New York Telephone Company. He did a fullevening pantomime Oriental magic act as "Foo Ling Yu", his oriental mask was made by Dai Vernon's wife, Jeanne.

9

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938 second trick." It was virtually impossible for me to answer all those letters, so I had a postcard mimeographed which said, "Read it more carefully." Sometimes the questions were very stupid; the explanation was correct but they were reading it all wrong and not concentrating on it properly. I did try to answer those questions that seemed the most sensible. 7

Over the next few years much of my material was written up in several books, including The Stars of Magic and The Dai Ventort Book of Magic. The latter was published in England, although a great deal of the pre-writing work for the The Dai Venlon Book of Magic was done in the United States by Faucett Ross and myself. The tribute to Max Malini, Malitti and His Magic, was almost entirely done in St. Joseph, Missouri with Faucett. The re-writing, printing and publishing was done in England, because it was cheaper to print a book with photographic illustrations over there than in America. Of course it helped a great deal to have some wonderful people in England do so much work and sink so much of their own money into these projects. The other books which were published in England were The Inner Secrets of Card Magic, More I?lrler Secrets of Card Magic, Further 1~z~ler Secrets of Card Magic and Dai Venton's Tribute to Nate Leipzig. All of the books which were published in England are authored by Lewis Ganson.125 But as I said earlier, Faucett Ross and I did a great deal of the work and Lewis edited, photographed and polished the descriptions of the tricks. In some cases he missed the boat a little, but all in all, the books are worthwhile. One book which I did fiot write caused me more grief and got me into more predicaments than I would have thought possible. It is an excellent l ~ ~Fred Braue1s127Expert Card Technique. When book, Jean H ~ g a r dand 125~ewis Ganson was born in London, England in 1913 and died in 1980. He was a professional close-up performer and was taught by his father who performed amateur magic at his pub. He edited Tlze Geii magazine for magicians from 1958 to 1970. He was an extremely prolific editor and author, putting out fifty-eight books and booklets. 126~eanHugard was the stage and pen name of John Gerard Rodney Boyce, he also performed as "Chin Sun Loo". He was born in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia in the early 1870s and started learning magic in 1880 by reading Robert-Houdin's Secrets of MRgic and Hoffmann's Moderli Mngic. He was a professional from 1900 and worked vaudeville from 1916 to 1918. He had his own magic theater in Luna Park, Coney Island from 1919 through 1929. He retired in Brooklyn to write and edit magic. He was a prolific author and edited Htignrd's Mngic Motitlzly from 1943 to 1959 and Tlie Eiicyclopedin of Card Tricks. He wrote Coili Magic, Tliintble Mngic, Silkeii Sorcery, Mortey Magic and Tlie Moderii Magic ~ n n u n l . also ~ ~ eco-authored several classic books with Fred Braue, notably Exprt Cnrd Tecl~niue and Roynl Rmd To Cnrd Mnsic. l2'FrederieL George Braue was born in 1906 died in 1962. He was an Oakland, California newspaperman and semi-professional magician who specialized in card magic.

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DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 this book came out I was absolutely astounded; it could almost have been written completely by myself. There were so many things in it that I felt were my brain children I couldn't believe it! Also included were other secrets of magic which were entrusted to me by my friends. I asked Jean Hugard where he got all the information for this book because there were dozens of tricks described in there which I knew originated with me. Jean said he got most of them from Fred Braue in California. Fred in turn had seen the tricks performed by my dear friend Charlie Miller who also was in California. I had shown Charlie many of the items which appear in Expert Card Techniqtre and asked him not to divulge them. He betrayed the confidence I had placed in him by sharing the secrets I had shown him with these fellows; but it wasn't his fault they turned around and put out a book, without giving credit to the inventor of the material. I asked Jean Hugard what he was going to do about it and poor old Jean's answer was not completely satisfactory: "Vernon, you understand how difficult it was to write this book. It was all done through correspondence between Fred Braue and me. But I know now that several of those tricks are really yours. When we print the second edition we will try to highlight your contributions and we will apologize for not giving proper credit to you in the first place." In the Foreword to the second edition it does say something to the effect that there are many things which should have been credited to Dai Vernon, but it was a little too played down and a little bit too late to make me feel much better about the whole situation. Erdnase's The Expert at the Card Table is my favorite book. This book has been my Bible and I have constantly referred to its pages for help most of my life. In fact, I have re-read it many times over the years and have encouraged many of my fellow magic ei~thusiaststo read it also. Lately a great deal of my material has gone to press without any work on my part at all! In 1984 a book that I had completed many years ago, called Reuelatiolzs, was finally published. It totally reprints a first edition of Erdnase's The Expert af the Card Table wit11 my comments on its contents appearing on each page. I had also written u p some items which had not been referred to in the book and they have been placed in a section at the rear. This book had waited many, many years to be published, as Faucett Ross helped me write these comments in t11e 1950s. As I look at the book I can't help but feel that many of my comments were deleted or were lost over the years the manuscript was out of my possession. To me, it is still a He wrote (with Jean Hugard) Expert Cnrti Teclrtli~1ue(1940), S1rozu~f0t)p~rs 7uitl1Cnrrls (1948), TIre R(~!ynlRood to Cnrti Mngic (1948) and Fred Brnne o i l F n l s Denls (1977).He edited Hllgnrd's Mngrc Morltlrly magazine fro1111959 to 1962.

183

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938 really wonderful book as it fulfills a childhood dream. Imagine me commenting on what I have considered, all my life, the master work. In 1964, I met a young man who had moved to Hollywood to meet me. He was as possessed with magic as I was when I was young. And so Bruce C e r ~ o n l and * ~ I became fast friends. Bruce took notes on everything I told him over many, many years, secrets which were kept from print and reserved for the use of a privileged few. He has, with my permission, been producing books of my material based on these Castle Notes. They are called The Verrton Chro~liclesand I must say I am very happy with the way they are done. Stephen Minch'Z9 is the actual writer and he is doing a wonderful job! Louis Falanga130 at L & L Publishing is the publisher and he Bruce and he are sparing nothing to produce the finest volumes they possibly can. As for other books any person interested in sleight of hand should read, I would recommend Erdnase, C. Lang Neil, Sachs' Sleiglif of Hand, Hilliard's Greater Magic (a must), as well as the Hoffn~annand RobertHoudin books.131

1 2 8 ~ r u cCervon e was born in Akron, Ohio in 1941. He learned magic as a child of seven and moved to Hollywood in 1964 to become a full time professional close-up and stand-up magician. He is also an expert court witness on gambling. He wrote The Real Work (1976), The Cervorl File (1987), The Black G. Mlite Trick a i d Otiler Assorted Mysteries (1989), Ultra Cervoil (1990) and produced The Veriioir Cl~roiricles(four volumes, 1988-92). lZ9!3tephen Minch was born in Tacoma, Washington in 1948. He started learning magic at the age of seven from library books. He is now a professional writer specializing in magic books. He has not only written eight books and booklets of his own material, he has also written books for some of the finest talent in the magical world including: Bruce Cervon, Alex Elmsley, Ken Krenzel and Dai Vernon. 130~ouisFalanga was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1955 and learned a few tricks from his uncle w h e i ~he was eight. He moved to Lake Tahoe in 1973 and became a semiprofessional close-up magician. He started "L & L I'ublishing" in 1986. 131~ditor'sNote: The last four paragraphs of this chapter are taken froni recent conversations with Dai.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

JEAN HUGARD

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Jean Hugard wrote a number of standard text books on magic and worked in Luna Park on Coney Island for a number of years. He did a very nice show, but was not cut-out for a place like Coney Island. It was a rough, tough circuscarnival atmosphere. A fellow that had a lot of nerve or, as they used to say, a lot of guts could fight it out. But Hugard was a gentle kind of a man, a very nice man, and he didn't even like the idea of ballyhooing. All the shows brought in business by displaying their attractions on a platform and hollering, "Hear, hear, watch this or that Professor," and so on. There was a lot of banging of cymbals and tweeting of horns to attract attention. "When you step inside you'll think you see something you couldn't see any place else in the world. Hugard used to send out a couple of people that he used in his magic show and then very quietly, he'd come out and do a few tricks. This was a very nice theater in the park that he played in, and you had to pay admission; fifteen cents, very reasonable. You went in and the show probably lasted twenty-five minutes. There were nice seats and a nice stage and a very good show, but he hated to come out in front and "hgwk" the show. ,

He had several different fellows working for him making oyerrirrgs as they called it. Hugard hated this ballyhoo; he always felt the marquee of the theater marked with the name of the act should be enough. People weren't attracted to a magic show when they saw these half-naked, Egyptian belly dancers. Poor old Hugard never made a success. He made a living, but he never got wealthy down there. He was there a number of years on and off and he tried to make a go of it and would always think, "Next season, I'll try a differentformat," but was never really successful. Periodically, I used to cut silhouettes in those days, and usually, in the summer time, I'd go down and work in Luna Park where Hugard was working. Sometimes I would be working magic out of town. On weekends &hen the big crowds were there and the money was freely spent, it was tough to stay away. In a few hours I could pick u p enough to live on all week.

So I saw Hugard often. He did a very, very fine Chinese act. He did it very well and was a good performer for stage work. He had a thorough knowledge of magic and tried many different things. He even tried the

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938 Varicolored Water F0untains13~but they didn't work too well. He cut it out later but he did it for awhile. I don't know of any magic show that ever really made any money on Coney Island except the Sawing a Woman in Half. It was sensational; they thought a woman might be hurt. The sensationalism was what made it successful. Just the word ~uagicis not strong enough to lure the people in when there were so many exciting things. It had to be done with sensationalism. Houdini, for example would have managed. He'd have done the handcuffs or the milk can escape and by some hook or crook he would make it sensational.

I

I

Jean Hugard performing the Birth of a Pearl illusion in Luna Park, circa 1928 Once, around that time, Jean Hugard wanted me to put out a trick which I had worked out called All Backs. New effects are awfully 11ard to get with cards. Variations and methods can be made up endlessly, but a new effect is nearly impossible. The effect was removing the faces from the pack; that was new. There were no faces 011 the cards, only backs. Jean immediately said, "011, I'd like to publish that. We'll put it out, sell it."

"No," I said. "Why not?"

I explained, "I do several effects with a trick card that nobody knows 132~aricoloredWater Fountains or Chinese Water Fountains: An elaborate stage illusion where the magician takes little jets or sprays of water from a central bird bath type.fountain and places them on various objects; the tip of a wand, a hand or other props. For the finale of the illusion all the assistants and props on stage are spouting these little

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DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 about. I use a double-back card as a secret fake. If you show the public a trick like this, it puts the idea in their minds that cards can be manufactured with two backs. I don't want them to think that, so I won't publish the trick." Years later, Hugard did end up writing an explanation of the trick. I didn't invent the double-back card, it was original with, I imagine, Hofzinser. He used it very artistically in one or two tricks. Hofzinser had a trick in which three cards jumped out of his pocket and they all fell face down on the floor. This was quite an idea because when cards jumped out and fluttered to the floor everybody knows that one might turn face u p or all three might turn face up. But they couldn't turn face up; they had to fall face down because they had no faces on them. When he picked these cards u p they were substituted for other cards. But the subtle suggestion that these cards fell face down was due to the fact that they had backs on both sides. One time when I was going to South America, I told George Kargerl33 about an idea I had for some publicity. In those days, helicopters were brand new and I said, "If you can arrange with LIFE magazine to have me taken up in a helicopter over New York harbor, I have a great trick. We could have a card selected from a giant pack of cards and have it photographed on the deck of the ship which is bearing the helicopter. Then just as the ship is going out, I go up in the helicopter taking the giant pack of cards. After we get up a hundred feet I drop the cards down into the ocean and every card falls face down on the water except the selected card, which falls face up." I was going to be a bare-faced cheat because I was going to have all double-backed cards except one, the selected card. It would be double-faced and I couldn't go wrong. Later I thought, why take a helicopter, why not save this expense. Just wait till the ship goes out in the harbor and throw the cards from the upper deck of the ship. Let the people look over the rails, to see all the cards. This thing never came off because we couldn't get the pilot boat to take George and his staff back. The thing fell through, but I still think it's a good idea.

jets of water and colored lightsare played on them for a varicolored effect. 133~eorge Kargcr was a professional magazine photographer and later an antique dealer in New York City. He was an amateur magician who was expelled from the SAM in 1941 for exposing magic in a LEE magazine article. He also was the photographer for the original Stnrs of Mngic series.

1

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938

THE WONDERFUL F A R 0 BOX For many years I had this fabulous faro box wl~ichwas described in Slzarps and Flats. It was said that, "...this box and a clever dealer could impoverish a prince." This was true, the box just takes all the money. Faro Bank was the fairest, squarest card game known and was the big American game in the 1800s. There was very little percentage against the player and all the gentlemen of the day used to play faro, just as many played bridge later. This was a gentleman's game and it was quietly conducted. No ruffians played and it became very prevalent. They played it on the river boats, they played it in saloons, they played it everywhere. The cards were held in a metal box which showed the face card of the pack. Then this old German mechanic came to Cincinnati and started making crooked boxes, known as Brace Boxes or Screw Boxes. The purpose of the faro box is to hold the cards but in this case also to cheat in the game. The cards are put face up in the box and there is hole cut in the top so you can see the face card. The cards are removed from the face through a slit in the side, thus exposing the next card and the cards are dealt into two piles. There's quite a layout on the table for betting. But the box that I got hold of was the '%ox of boxes". It was a combination box that locked and unlocked. It could be examined by ail expert mecl~anicand even he couldn't find anything wrong with it. It had a secret lock, which operated by a little spring that fell down. You had to tilt the box one way and tilt it the other way then this little catch fell and released so that you could take it apart. The works were in the thin walls. It looked like a watch inside, all inlaid, no solder; and all those springs! I lost one little spring when I was showing it to somebody in Europe. I had taken it apart to show and one little spring n ~ u shave t dropped on the carpet. When I got back to the States, I wanted to show it to some of the boys at the Magic Castle and the spring was missing.

I heard about the box when I was in Miami. A fellow I knew, who was a blackjack dealer, told me that there was an old faro dealer who pawned his far0 box for $40. The fellow told me that he didn't know how the far0 dealer managed to get $40 from a hock shop for it unless he demonstrated what could be done with it. The box looked like an ordinary card box

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 made of German silver. He said it was highly mechanized but unless the old faro dealer showed the works he wouldn't get anything from a pawn broker. Somehow the black jack dealer had the pawn ticket and he gave it to me saying, "You can get the box out. I'm quite sure that you can buy it for $40 or $50." So I went into the pawn shop with the pawn ticket and the pawnbroker said that the ticket had expired, it was past due I told him, "I'll give you $40." He answered, "No, no. That's what I lent on the box. I've had this box here for a long time now, over two years, and I wouldn't dream of giving it u p for what I lent." "But, after all, what are you going to do with it?" I asked. "My partner lent $40 on it," he explained, "and I've got to make a good profit." I argued and argued with him and couldn't get it for $40, so I offered him $45, then $50 and he still wouldn't take it! Finally I left very disappointed.

A few days later, I stopped by and again offered him the $50 but once more he said, "No." I asked him to whom he thought he was going to sell the box, but he still wouldn't give it up. Shortly after this, my family and I were leaving Miami. I had the car all loaded and we must have had about all we could carry as we couldn't even close the trunk. It was roped shut and the back seat stacked full. I still had an idea that I might redeem that faro box so we drove to the pawn shop. Parking wasn't the problem in those days that it is now so I was able to park right in front of the pawnshop, where the pawnbroker could see the car. Jeanne was sitting in the front seat waiting and Ted came in with me. I'd taken five perfectly new $10 bills with me and counted them on the counter as I said, "There's $50, I'm leaving for New York, this is the last chance you'll have to sell me that box." I could see this guy look at the money and look at the car, and I could just read his thoughts. "You want that box pretty badly, don't you?" "Yes, I want it. I'm a magician; I'm not going to gamble with it, I'm interested in the workn~anship." He picked u p the $50 and gave me the box. I was never so delighted. It was in a beautifully-made leather case, and I jumped in the car a very happy man. I had wanted that box in the worst way. Eventually I met up with the old faro dealer, the original owner of the box. He was too sick to deal faro anymore and besides, faro was and is an

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART T W O 1917-1938 extinct game. I didn't tell him I had his box, but I told him I had a box and I'd love to have him show me how to use it. Faro dealers don't talk with and don't hobnob with other card players; tl~ey'realoof. They consider tllemselves tile intelligentsia or the royalty of the card world and they are. Tlley're always dignified old fellows, very beautiful card handlers. Faro is conducted like a chess tournament. It's the only game I can compare it to; like two gentlemen playing chess. Faro is a dignified game, no boisterousness, no kidding, no laughing, everybody conducts themselves in a serious manner and it's played for big stakes. They wanted to get away from the gambling idea and these old dealers were the masters of ceremonies or the conductors. They were always very cultured in manner. They may have been rogues, but they were certainly smootl~and intelligent. They also shuffled beautilully. They d i d perfect faro shuffles. That means they were able to intermesh eztery other card card perfectly. None of the players shuffled, the dealer always shuffled the cards but the players could call for a shuffle anytime. The reason for the faro shuffle is because it separates the pairs. This kind of intermeshing shuffle really separated the cards; another shuffle might let those pairs stay together. In the old books of Americana, in nearly every story of the Old West, you'll read that, "They retired to play faro." So back to the old faro dealer. Not one out of 20 million people knows the work with the faro box, and when I asked llim to show me he said, "Have you got the old If you do I'll show you." I knew right away he meant a gimmicked box. Gambler's have a picturesque language. I already knew a lot about these boxes but he explained it from his vast experience. The box I had was a lzeellle fell and also a s o i d fell. Sand tell means that you can tell what the card is underneath the face card because there's a little slippage ill the face card. You can also deal a double card out of the side automatically. You don't have to d o anytlling because the cards are pushed out of the box and automatically it will hold two in perfect alignment. I mean in absolutely perfect register. It's impossible to pus11 13401d thing: The "old thing" was a gambler's term very similar to "the old gentleman". A magician wouldn't understand the phrase, "the old gentleman", it's a gambler's term for a bent or "crimped" card whicli marks a place to cut the pack. A seasoned gambler will look around and say, "Is the old gentleman in?" This, to an outsider, doesn't sound like anytl~ing.It means, "Is there a brief", the gamblers call the space a bent card creates a brief. Another crooked gambler will reply, "Yeah, lie's here."

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 two cards through the slit in the side until you press on the end. Then, automatically, the slit drops down the thickness of one card and there's a little roller there so it holds those cards in perfect alignment, and you can deal two at once. So it's a double dealing box and a sand tell and a needle tell. With the needle tell you can let anybody shuffle the cards and after the cards are put in the box, you always know the third card down in the box. You don't know exactly what it is but you know whether it is a winning or losing number. You know whether it's odd or even or whether it's high or low. It seems there would be no possible way because the cards are encased in a frame; yet, incredibly, you always know the third card down in the box. It was a little thing, like a snakes tongue, which shoots out right where your finger lies. Almost invisible, a little like a coarse hair it darts out and then in. If it darts out, it tells you that the third card down is odd or high. If not, the third card down is even or low. It works however you set it up.

i

"The old thing" was also used to get information about the third card. Some cards were made rougher than others and a spot so infinitesimal that you could hardly see it, a little fly speck, was placed on one of these rough cards. When the cards were dealt normally from the box the slit was exactly the thickness of one card. But when you made the inner wall drop down the exact thickness of another card, and you pushed on the top card, two cards would slip across slightly. Then they would come to this other offset so only one would continue out. The one under it had dipped the thickness of half the wall. The little dot was at this point exactly level with the edge. By these little dots you could tell whether the card under it was a slippery card or a smooth card which denoted red or black. Only far0 dealers knew these things. By subterfuge, I discerned what "the old thing' was and found out all about it from the old far0 dealer. I didn't want to look ignorant, as he wouldn't have shown me anything then. I wasn't entitled to know, but by hook and by crook I made him think I knew other far0 dealers and he went into it. Occasionally I would use the box in demonstrations. I worked for a while at "21", which was a very fashionable restaurant in New York. They also had private dining rooms and very select parties got together for dinner. One night there was a "Back-to-Health" party for a millionaire who had been sick. I was hired to entertain these men. "They're going to play poker most of the evening. Dinner first, then a little entertainment, then poker. There are only going to be seven or eight men and they want someone who really knows something about gambling to give them a little talk," I was told.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938 "What? To scare them all?" I asked. "No, no, just give them a little talk so they can digest their dinners before they sit down to play poker." So this was the first time I used the faro box. When I told them about faro, took the box apart, and told them some of the things that could be done with it they were all so intrigued and asked so many questions I hardly had to d o anything else. This was the entertainment. They had never seen anything like it.

I got a good fee for the show and sometimes after that when I'd work, I'd show the audience a few little so-called gambling tricks. Then I'd tell them about faro a n d I'd say that I had one of the faro boxes with me. A dozen or so men would crowd around and be hooked with this box. They really were interested in seeing it. I used to take it apart and put it together and show them how beautifully it was made. Audley W a l ~ hhad ~ ~ twenty .~ of these faro boxes, but there wasn't one that even compared to mine. It was like comparing the finest Parisian gloves to a cheap pair of Woolworth's. Tom Blue, a well known collector a n d son of the famous entertainer Ben Blue, now owns the box. He wanted it as badly as I once did.

1 3 5 ~ u d l e yV. Walsh was born ill New York City i n 1894 a n d performed a s a vaudeville comic before becoming a policeman in 1927. He took u p magic in 1932 and specialized in gambling exposes. He was a premier collector of faked gambling apparatus. He passed away in 1937.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

PAUL FOX AND FDR Around 1930 or so, my friend and fellow magician, A1 Baker told me that he had a dear friend by the name of Paul who was away off in Colorado dying of consumption. I had heard his name mentioned often among magicians. He originally ran a school of engraving in Chicago and was also a successful magician. Many of his ideas and much of his material was incorporated into the original Tarbell Course in Magic, without credit. Later he was stricken with TB,and placed in the Glaukner Sanitarium in Colorado, and told he had but six months more to live. A1 Baker asked me for instructions on cutting silhouettes so he could send them to Paul Fox to while away the short time he had remaining. I put together some notes on silhouette cutting and included with them a pair of scissors and some black paper, and gave them to A1 to send to his dying friend. Two or three years later I happened to be in Virginia Beach and my wife and I noticed a lot of publicity being given to the Nevada city of Reno. We had no particular place to go so we just decided to see what Reno was all about. It was a long, hot drive through Kansas and Oklahoma in the middle of July, but when we got to Colorado Springs, it was cool and most pleasant. There was a little carnival going on outside the town and they had a local magician who was doing some very clever things. I pricked up my ears when I heard about this fellow's reputation and asked his name.. .it was Paul Fox. This rang a bell immediately. I was told he was not interested in meeting amateur magicians as they bored him to death. I said, "I think he'll meet me."

I found his name and address in the telephone book and called him, saying I would like to meet him; "I'm from the East and interested in magic." He said, "I'm sorry, I don't discuss magic with people very much, there are only two people I would be interested in seeing--one is A1 Baker and the other is Dai Vernon." 136~aulFox is the stage name of Paul Fuchs who was born in Chillicothe, Ohio in 1898. He was an Art Deco designer for the Black, Starr and Frost Silversmith Company and teacher of engraving in Chicago, where he was also a society magician. He suffered from tuberculosis and moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado. He was a major apparatus designer and improved many outmoded effects. He died in 1976.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938 "Well," I said, "you happen to be talking to Dai Vernon." He became quite excited and asked for my exact location and then came and picked us up. We soon became great friends and not only did I stay in town for the rest of the summer, but wound u p cutting silhouettes at the fancy mountain resort of Manitou at the foot of Pike's Peak. It was 1932, right before the Presidential election, and Franklin Roosevelt came to Colorado Springs to give a political speech and have a short holiday. Paul Fox and I had the pleasure of entertaining him and his wife, Eleanor. He was under the weather from all his speech making, but enjoyed the little show Paul and I staged for him. A few days later, a local lawyer named Logan asked me if I would make a silhouette of Roosevelt. I went over to the Antlers Hotel and cut a few silhouettes while the future President of the United States graciously posed for me. While he was posing, I decided to make a few more silhouettes and have him autograph them for me. Suddenly I was aware of somebody behind me; "Be careful, he has such a beautiful aquiline nose." I was getting annoyed and was just about to turn around and say something rude when I realized it was Eleanor!

Franklin Delano Roosevelt silhouette, cut by Dai Vernon, 1932 Roosevelt was very gracious and autographed a total of six silhouettes for me. I gave Paul Fox one, another to Logan, two to FDR, and kept two for myself. I heard later, that in the Library of the White House, my silhouette of the President was hanging right under a light switch.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

NEEPIE While Jeanne and I were in Colorado Springs, our second son was born on August 14,1932. I had told Jeanne I wanted a boy, as the way we traveled around we couldn't very well bring up a daughter properly. She seemed to want another boy too, so as luck would have it that's what we got. We named him David Derek, but he's always preferred to be called Derek. A short time after Derek was born, we got a visit from one of my Eastern friends, Faucett Ross. Soon we were in a discussion about babies, heredity, and magic. Faucett said, "Let's see if he recognizes playing cards." I made a fan of cards and held them up in front of the baby's face and there was absolutely no gleam or sparkle in his eyes; you might as well have held u p a dead frog. "Well," Faucett said, "So much for heredity." Faucett asked what we named our son and was not impressed with David Derek. "You ought to call him after one of the great card men ...Hofzinser for example." I said that Hofzinser's first name was Johann and I didn't want to saddle my son with a name like Johann. Faucett said that Hofzinser's middle name was Nepomuk, after some sort of Viennese bridge god or something, and that we could call him "Neepie" for short. So after joking about that name it sort of stuck to our young son and I still call him "Neepie" from time to time. He became a technical writer but, due to a hand injury caused by a lathe, had to cut short this career. Derek then turned his attentions to the electronics industry and worked for many years in this field in Terrytown, New York. My first born, Ted, graduated from Annapolis and then went into naval aviation. Both my sons served in Vietnam in the 1960s and I a m very proud of them.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938

THE CIGARETTE TRICK I have been asked many times if I did cigarette tricks like Cardini. I had available at the time as good a cigarette trick as was ever conceived. It was given to me by Paul Fox, but I refrained from using it due to my friendship and respect for Cardini, the master of the Cigarette Production. The beauty of this trick was that you only actually used seven cigarettes, but it looked as if you produced hundreds. Sometimes you only pretended to throw a cigarette into a brass bowl, but even if you didn't, more smoke would come from the bowl. Gradually as you threw them in or pretended to, more and more smoke would come from the bowl and it got smokier and smokier as if you had hundreds of cigarettes in there. I had this trick but I never performed it in public. Cardini was a friend, and he was also very bitter about anybody who used a cigarette in their act. And I never wanted anybody to tell him about a fella named Vernon who did a good cigarette trick, or produced a cigarette, Cardini would have disliked me for that. Oh, once in a while I did a cigarette vanish, or something like that, but I never did a cigarette act.

Drawing of Dai, 1934

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

FRANK TOBEY'S GAMBLING FURNITURE Frank Tobey was the sheriff of Dodge City for five terms. After this he kicked around a little and came to New York. I don't know how he got into business, but he started to manufacture gambling furniture. He was a tall, big man; a well-built fellow with a wonderful face. He had great integrity among the fraternity and began making gaming equipment. He made gambling furniture for Deauville, Cannes and Monte Carlo; and even Canfield's gambling place in New York. He made the finest gambling furniture that was ever made in this country. Beautiful, smooth things that women couldn't tear their dresses on. He was an excellent workman and had customers all over the world buying all kinds of gambling furniture. Some of it was quite legitimate, but he also made crooked roulette wheels and things of that type. When Jeanne was a little girl in Sheepshead Bay, Coney Island, it happened that this same Frank Tobey had his workshop next to where Jeanne lived with her aunt. Jeanne would wander away from her home and into Frank's shop. She liked the man very much; he was, of course, an elderly man then, over six feet tall and wore a tremendous diamond ring. Jeanne was fascinated with this ring. He used to tell her stories about the West, and was always talking about coppers. She said she always thought he was talking about pennies. But he was talking about police-coppers. He told her that they'd have to close the window shades because the coppers had a way of looking in on them. Jeanne had a photograph of Frank Tobey standing with her aunt because the woman had fallen in love with this tall, handsome Westerner. In this picture you see what looks like a spotlight, like a flare of light. The sun just happened to hit this tremendous diamond ring Tobey wore and it looked like a defect in the photograph. Frank Tobey, the gambling furniture craftsman, had competition, of course. Arthur Popper, who died years ago, ran a place in New York which sold backgammon games to Black, Starr and Gorham, and Tiffany. He made beautiful stuff and manufactured gambling furniture also. He really made more games and chess sets but he was the one that, the underworld says, put t l ~ efinger on Frank Tobey. He was very jealous of Frank and went to the government and complained that Frank was selling crooked apparatus. The government stepped in and arrested

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938 Frank. He never served any time but they closed his shop and he had to go out of business. In his later years he was around Chicago and dealt a faro game. During the 1933 Century of Progress World's Fair he was running a far0 game in a booking office where they were taking horse bets; that's where I met him.

I told Jeanne I had met him and she wondered if he'd remember her as a little girl. So we invited him u p to the apartment and, of course, he recognized her as the little flaxen-haired seven year old who used to play in his shop. While he was with us the coi~versationturned to gambling. "Frank," I said, "I see you're dealing far0 downtown. This far0 shuffle worries me because every now and again you miss. They'll mesh almost perfectly but there will be one or two places where they're off." "You never miss," he told me emphatically. "But it is possible to miss," I told him.

"I tell you, Vernon, you never miss." "But, Frank, you could miss." He said, "I tell you when you're playing cards in far0 you never miss when you use this shuffle. You never miss." He was so adamant about it.

I asked him to show it to me but he said the conditions weren't right here, there was no proper table, the height of the chair was not right and he was out of practice. But he did say, "Take my word, you never miss." Frank Tobey was the only man that ever lived, they say, that could load a solid ivory roulette ball wit11 a iron center. It looked and acted like solid ivory but it had a magnetic center. They don't know to this day how he did it. John Scarnel" got hold of one of the balls and took it u p to M.I.T., raving about it. I told him that I knew about this a long time ago, and knew the man that made it. When Tobey died he left a cigar box full of these solid ivory roulette balls with steel centers; and he told his wife, "Guard these with your life because they are very valuable. They are an instant sale, people are always trying to get them. If you ever get hard u p you'll have plenty of 137~ohn Scarne was the stage name of Orlando Carmelo Scarnecchia. He was born in Steubenville, Ohio in 1903 and became a noted expert on gambliiig and cheating methods. He was voted one of the ten living Card Stars in 1938 and became a member of the New York "Inner Circle" in 1940. He wrote several popular, best selling books includil~g Sctlnlt7's Corrrplctc Gurrlc tc~G n r i ~ h l ~ i i ~ .

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 money." She later said she noticed the box was missing two or three days after he died. There were a lot of people milling around, former friends of his, and somebody picked these up, knew the value of them and took them. Crooked roulette wheels, which are worked magnetically, use a clay ball like a composition ball in pool. Real ivory balls have a sound, a click. You can't imitate the real ivory click with clay or plastic. Roulette players love this click because then they know it's ivory and couldn't possibly be "loaded. Tobey was the only one that put a steel center in these balls. Some people say it's ridiculous, it can't be done, it's a figment of your imagination. But I've seen the balls. I've put the little balls under a magnet. I've looked at them up close. They must have been split in some way but the balls had no seams; besides, a cracked ball makes a dead sound. Perhaps it was melted. The ball was exactly like a real one; it rings, you can't see any join, and you can see the grain. I've even looked at them under a magnifying glass. Good roulette players know an ivory ball can't be faked but he faked it, that's why these were so valuable.

Back-of-the-room spectators at S.A.M. meeting, 1940s Dai Vernon on left (from l7ze Police Gazette)

H E FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938

GARNET LEE, THE CHINAMAN'S TOY I have always had an eye for beauty and the most beautiful girl I've ever seen in my life was a girl named Toy Lee. Her christened name was Garnet Lee, but she, at one time lived with a Chinaman who named her Toy because she was his toy and Toy Lee sounded Chinese. He used to shower her with gifts, beautiful clothes and other presents.

I met her in Kentucky before I was married. I was living at the Tyler Hotel in Lexington, Kentucky and just fooling around playing the piano on the mezzanine. Suddenly I realized there was a very beautiful girl sitting beside me strumming the ukelele. She started to sing in the most beautiful voice. I didn't know who she was from Adam and as I started to question her she said, "Just keep playing kid." So I kept on playing and was quite tl~rilledto have such a beautiful girl listening and playing with me. After a few songs I asked her where she lived but her reply was, "Never mind about that, just keep playing." Pretty soon, she asked me if 1 had a cigarette but I had just smoked my last one so I said, "I'll go down and get a pack." "Buy me a couple of packs too!" she said aiid added, "Keep the change." as she l~ai-tdedme a $100 bill. I'd never had anything like this happen to me in my life and I said, "What d o you mean 'Keep the change'?" I thought she was crazy! A $100 in those days was like a $1000 today. I didn't take her money but 1 did go down and get her a couple of packages of cigarettes. We played and sang quite a few songs; her last was like one you might hear in an opium den, Willie the Weeper. "Willie the Weeper the Chimney sweeper"; it was a weird kind of a tune in a minor key. I was fascinated at the way this girl, who was only in her early twenties, sang the song. Just as though she lived this sad life herself. Later, through some of the fellows at tlie hotel, I heard she'd been out at the race track aiid won a lot of money, but was mixed u p with a lot of underworld characters aiid had been arrested countless times. 111 fact, a fellow showed me a news clipping where she'd been arrested, not for something she had done, but for the con~panyshe was in. When tlie judge saw her he said, "Any girl of such beauty and wit11 soulful eyes like this

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 could not have done anything wrong. Case dismissed." This happened frequently in courtrooms across the country. She hobnobbed with all kinds of crooks and characters all over the country, but she had a head on her shoulders and managed to stay clear of any trouble. When I told Jeanne that Garnet Lee was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen she said, 'What do you mean, the most beautiful girl you ever saw.. .she was probably a trampy looking prostitute." I said, "Jeanne, this girl was really beautiful." And after that she would often bring it up. Eventually I heard that Garnet was in New York and I wanted Jeanne to see for herself what she looked like. This was nearly ten years later but when I finally managed to get the two of them together, Jeanne just stood there and couldn't say anything. Garnet Lee could have been a Vogue model but she wasn't that t y p e s h e was a fortune hunter. Jeanne later said, "You have good taste, she's not just pretty, she's beautiful!" My wife also told me that when I left them for a few minutes, that Garnet said she should get rid of this "square" and she'd show her how to get in the really big money. She said that Jeanne was too pretty to waste her life with me. Jeanne told me Garnet tried to get her to take a little sniff of something. 'Take a little of this dearie and you'll feel differently about it." I heard later, that she was addicted to heroin and that when she lived with the Chinaman, she smoked opium; but you'd never know it. I used to think I could spot a fiend of this kind but she didn't have any signs of it. That was the last time I saw her. I later went to bawl her out for trying to get my wife to leave me. She was living over on 8th Avenue and as I walked up the stairs of this dingy apartment house I smelled a funny odor. I went up to the second floor and all along the corridor-+ long railroad type apartment-I could see damp sheets hanging over the transoms. All the doors had these damp sheets over them. I just ducked out of there because it didn't seem to be a very healthy place to stay. Somebody later told me that was an opium den, the damp sheets keep the odor in. But there was still a musty odor. Jeanne said, "If you have to associate with people like this to become a magician then there is something wrong!"

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938

SECRETS In the middle 1930s the fellow who ran Powers' Magic Shop, Paul Carlton, supplied the Camel Cigarettes people magical secrets for their big "expos6 promotion". For a time they exposed magical effects in their advertisements. Magicians from around the world were up in arms because they revealed a lot of material about illusions of the day. Sawing a Woman in Half, among others was exposed. The Camel slogan was, "It's Fun to be Fooled but It's More Fun to Know". This caused a lot of dissension among the n~agiciansand much complaining. They were bitter that Paul Carlton, who had been a demonstrator for Clyde Powers, should enter into anything like this. He had all the secrets, naturally, selling magic; and he was a good magician. The Society of American Magicians took it to court. They brought suit against the Camel people. My dear friend Sam Margules was one of the star witnesses, and he always considered that he knew a good bit about legal procedures. Of course, the Camel people had three very noted lawyers, top men, retained for tremendous fees. The R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company could certainly afford it. Right in the middle of the trial Sam was asked, "Is this secref public domain? Is it published in a book?" Specifically, they were suing about Sawing a Woman in Half. I imagine that somebody in connection with Horace Goldin was really the money behind the suit because one of the main things they were objecting to was the expose of Sawing a Woman in Half and the fact that they use two girls in the box. The attorney continued with, "Could anybody walk into a library and read this?" Sam said, "Yes, of course, but-" And the lawyer stepped in and said, "All right, Mr. Margules-that's all." They cut him right off because he had admitted that anyone had access to these books to obtain the information. This was one of the turning points of the trial. The Camel people won the case but the whole concept was dropped as an ad campaign because some of the newspapers might tell about the lawsuit and hurt sales. Books of secrets are much more prevalent today than in the the old days. There is very little reticence among magicians about revealing things. Only among the old timers. Some of the ones who have passed on would probably turn over in their graves to see how the tricks of the trade and the secrets are passed around. They are so very accessible.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 An old timer is very careful. In fact, in the old days, when Okito used to play vaudeville, he had a drape that he used to hang u p in the wings that would absolutely shield his performance from everybody, even the stagehands and the stage manager. He would not let anyone watch from the wings. Nowadays, people will lay down a trick piece of apparatus and the stagehands come over, pick it u p and see exactly how it's constructed. Even Joseph Dunninger, who did some very ordinary card tricks with trick cards had a black cloth which he stretched over his props and the table when he performed. He fastened it with elastic underneath to keep anyone from looking at his props before a show. The whole table with five or six packs of trick cards was covered over. He had a terrific reputation to maintain and it would have belittled him if it was found that he used trick cards that you could buy for a dollar a pack. Sam Horowitz was very careful, even on a cruise ship. When he used to work on deck for the children, he pinned u p a tarpaulin over the porthole in the corridors so that people couldn't stand in the corridor and see him from behind.

A good magician doesn't like to feel that people know the method he's employing. He's doing the audience a disservice to let them know, it breaks the illusion, ruins the entertainment value. Of course some people just want to kltoru. They think magic is a challenge to their intelligence. If they can't discern the fraudulent method, the secret that's employed, they feel they're not as bright as they should be. I think the cleverer the person the more they realize it's just an illusion you're creating. You're trying to create an effect and magic should be looked at in that way.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938

AUSTRALIAN SLANG There was a lot of slang introduced into the American language from gambling. "Ante up", "1'11 bet...", "He's Aces with me", "Lay your cards on the table", "Pass the buck", "Let the chips fall where they may", "It's against the cards", "Put u p or shut up", "He's a joker", "Deal me out", and "Flushed", are just a few of the many card terms which have become part of everyday speech. Some other very interesting slang terms came from far off Australia and are just as clever and entertaining as any other terms now considered American slang. The best known Australian slang term is "storm and strife" for wife. This type of slang relies on its rhyme for the clue of its meaning. Other phrases and terms include: "Mumbly pegs" which are legs, "up the fields of flowing wheat" is the street, "near and far" is a bar, "snickers and sneers" are the ears, and "I suppose" is the nose. This rhyming language was brou-ght to Australia by the convicts, sent over from England, who settled there to start a great country. These men and women hated the English and wanted a language that their overseers couldn't understand and so created this unique rhyming slang. When some Australians came to America, they brought their language with them, all of it. For instance, what does the following sentence mean? "Pipe the simple simons on the twist and twirl by the nearby fire." When you know the code, it's all very simple. "Pipe (look at) the simple simons (the diamonds) on the twist and twirl (girl) by the nearby fire." Over here, the language undergoes another change and terms like "twist and twirl" get shortened to just "twist" for a girl. This Australian slang is very picturesque, it's not like pig-Latin where you've got to know it to understand or use it. Slang has become rather gentrified nowadays and even the President of the United States slips in a phrase now and then. American men of letters have approached slang from many directions. H.L. Mencken, one of America's premiere curmudgeons and word experts, devoted many pages of his classic book, The A~nericnrlLn~rgt~age, to slang, and Damon R ~ n y o elevated n ~ ~ ~ slang to an art form. 1 3 8 ~ l f r e Damon d Runyon was an American short story writer and sports columnist.

....continued on the next page

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 I never knew Damon Runyon personally, but I shot craps with him years ago down ill Miami. He was in the Mexican Revolution and spent some time with Pancho Villa139and was a master of slang in his writings. Runyon's plays, books, and newspaper columns were full of wonderful bits of New Yorkese and Australian slang and entertained an entire country for many years. There was this old fellow named A1 Blake, whom I knew in Hollywood years ago. He used to write poetry, filled with slang, that was great fun to read, but more fun to listen to. The following poem by A1 Blake is about a pimp who used to make his rounds on a bicycle, and one of his ladies of the night: Jerry the Gimp was a half-assed pimp, That I knew in 1905. He had girl, named Buck-toothed Pearl, Who barely kept him alive. She wasn't the toast of the Barbary Coast, But she still earned her bread and her butter; While Jerry sat on his skinny prat, In her room on Pearl and Sutter. A pimp was supposed, when the houses closed, To pick up his twist and twirl; If he had the jack he'd hire a hack, But not little Jerry and Pearl. I'll have you to know he saved his dough, And made this two-mile hike; Though times were tough, he saved enough, And Jerry purchased a bike. He'd meet her there at the foot of the stair, And they'd start out for Pearl and Sutter. He'd hum a song as he pedalled along, And she trotted along in the gutter. But one night in a dump, she trimmed a chump, For one hundred bucks or more; She laughed and cried as she ran outside, And handed Jerry the score. He said, "Old kid, by what you did, You've proven that you are all right. I'll swallow my pride and you can ride,

He was born in Kansas in 1880. His stories contain an assortment of droll, picturesque characters, such as small-time gangsters and Broadway operators. He died in 1946. 139E'ancho Villa was a Mexican revolutionist born circa 1877. He became a legendary hero of peasants and liberals. He was assassinated in 1932.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938 On the handlebars just for tonight."

Dai Vernon and his silhouette stand, 1930s

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4

EFFECTS DEFINED To the average person there is the cliche, "Take a card." Some of my fellow magicians, both amateur and professional, deal cards into endless piles and use endless manipulations; some use simple mathematical principles which can be adapted to card tricks and pretty much reduce magic to its lowest point. What usually happens is that the fellow, after going through this endless counting and subtracting, generally says, "Oh, I'm sorry, I got the wrong card." This happens so often among amateurs that it makes the rest of the populace detest card tricks. The average person thinks there are hundreds and thousands of different card tricks but, truthfully, there are just a few basic effects possible with cards. It's as hard to create a new effect with cards as it is to have a new axiom in Euclidean geometry. For instance, somebody selects a card and a performer tosses the card u p to the ceiling and the card sticks there. Now, this is a very fine effect and has stood the test of time as one of the classics of magic, but what is it doing? It's finding the selected card in an u~lusualway. You might have a selected card and you would cut open a loaf of bread and find it therethis is still the same effect, finding a card in an unusual place. The card might even appear in somebody's pocket, behind a picture on the wall, or in any number of other places to achieve the same effect. There is almost no limit to the unusual ways the card might be found. The effect of making cards pass from one place to another can also have countless variations. You could, for example, hold them in your left hand and have them disappear and take them from your pocket. Although you did not have cards selected, you made visible cards disappear and reappear in a different place. Then there's the effect of transformation. You make a visible card change its complexion; the King of Hearts will change to the Ten of Clubs. There's no difference whether you put the card in a frame to change it into another card, or whether you pass your hand over it, or put it under a handkerchief to have it chal~ge-these are all transformations. Buatier d e Kolta used to do a trick where he would take a Ten of Diamonds, hold it up, walk around and say to his pretty young assistant who was wearing a beautiful lavender dress, "I touch the card to the lavender dress and the spots on the Ten are no longer red they are lavender. Here's a lady in a pretty green dress... ." And he would touch the card to the green dress and the spots on the card would turn green.

H E FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938 He would touch the card to a pink rose petal and the spots would turn pink. Finally he would see a dress with multi-colored designs, upon touching the card to it the spots would turn all the colors of the rainbow! This was a delightful trick; the women used to love it, but still, it was only a transformation in slightly different guise. There is the levitation of a card, where it mysteriously rises from the deck, such as with my clockwork pack. A card can be made to jump out of the pack of cards by sleight of hand, pulled by some invisible agency such as a thread, forced u p by a spring or by the fingers, or sometimes, electrically controlled by impulses. There is a method where you can paint a card with a certain magnetic solution and it rises, but it is still the rising card effect. There are the so-called mind-reading effects, where a person thinks of a card and you find it in some way. There's the effect of diminishingchanging the form of something. You can make a billiard ball shrink down to a small size or make it larger; or a card diminish, or any number of things. To reach into the air and pluck a coin from seeming nothingness is the effect of production. Productions are endless. You can produce a duck out of a box, a dog from a handkerchief, a cannonball from a hat, anything from out of anywhere. All magicians, the great and the not so great, use the effect of production: Houdini, Blackstone, Thurston and Kellar, all of them, everywhere. Just the opposite of producing something from nothing is the effect of having something vanish into thin air. Everybody knows you can cause a half-dollar to apparently dissolve into the air, or a handkerchief by rubbing it between your palms. This is the effect of disappearance. Once Houdini advertised that he would make an elephant vanish at the Hippodrome Theater. This was sensational, but the trick itself wasn't so wonderful if you saw it. Basically Houdini had a huge box on the stage into which the elephant was led. The box was closed and re-opened and the elephant had disappeared. The humorous part of this effect was that at the beginning of the trick two men pushed the box onto the stage and at the end tell men pushed it off! Then there is restoration: you cut a rope or ribbon, or a card in half and then restore it into one piece, or sometimes a turban is used as in tlie well known Indian Turban Trick. Some people lose track of the fact that the effect is tlie same. To an aborigine or other sucli naive person, you might be considered a medicine man if you could restore something that was destroyed. Another effect is the penetration effect; a solid through a solid. Pushing a rod through a solid pane of glass, or making one glass

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 penetrating another, or a sharp blade penetrate a finger or an arm, sawing a woman in half-these are all penetrations. Sawing is not exactly penetration, it's dividing something in half; partly penetrating a solid substance and restoring it again. It's the restoration that makes it mysterious, to penetrate or sever something and have it restored. When you get down to the basic effects, it's like the five basic jokes: there are thousands and thousands of jokes but an analyst can break them all down into about five categories. In magic, it's the same thing. Once you learn the basic tenets of magic, the several effects you must have, then the variations on these simple themes are truly endless. It's the same with everything in life. Magic, particularly, is limited when it comes to effects. I tried, and still try to make the variations different so that it seems like a new effect to the spectator. So they think it's something refreshing and which they haven't seen before, but basically it's the same effect.

Besides the effects a magician may use, the plot of the trick should be well thought out in advance. Every good trick should have a plot-it's like a play with a beginning, a middle, and an end. The so-called classics in magic all have plots: whether it's the Cups and Balls, the Color Changing Handkerchief, the Mutilated Parasol, or a thousand other tricks, the 7ull.y and 7uhnt of the trick is as important as the how.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938

ENTERTAINING THE RICH I entertained Charles M. Schwab on several occasions. He was a tremendously wealthy gentleman and at one time had been president of the Carnegie Steel Company and later U. S. Steel. He had a den just devoted to his decorations and citations. He had great big scrapbooks the size of a newspaper and when you opened these scrapbooks the paper was flat and nice. They looked as if they had never been folded, he had stacks of these books all piled up. But he was a regular guy and that's why I liked him. I was at the dinner where they made Schwab president of the Carnegie Steel Veterans. There were lots of wealthy and influential men there including William E. Corey who was also president of the Carnegie Steel Company and U. S. Steel after Scl~wab.I was waiting to entertain, and was standing outside the dining room listening, at the door, to all the speeches they were having inside. Then they drank to the health of the new president. Schwab got u p and made a speech, and he broke down and cried. "Gentlemen, I have been one of the fortunate ones, a poor boy who started working for Andrew Carnegie. I know what it is to shovel coal, and I know what it is to work in the steel mills. All you men have known me, many of you since I was a poor boy, I've struggled upward and upward. So I really mean it when I say if I had been elected President of the United States it wouldn't mean as much as this does to me because everyone of you in this room knows me, knows my background, knows all about me, and-" and he broke down and cried like a baby. I always thought that the man couldn't be a cold business man, he must love people. He certainly was very nice to me. He used to say, "Vernon, if you can teach me to pull a card from the bottom witl~outgetting caught, I'll pay you $10,000." "Mr. Schwab, I couldn't d o it even if you gave me $50,000! You have to practice. Then I asked, "Why do you want to deal from the bottom?" "We play poker; Judge Albert Gary and Bill Corey and all of us and we have some pretty stiff games. We sometimes bet $3,000 oil a card. We have a lot of fun, but if I could beat them by pulling a card from the bottom of the deck that would really be something! And when it came time to take the money I'd say, 'Judge, I cheated you! I pulled that card from the bottom, but you're not getting your money back!"'

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 Imagine, he was thrilled with the idea! He used to come into the Madison Hotel and say, "Vernon, are you going to teach me to deal that bottom card?" He used to kid about this all the time. He had a standing "friendly" war with Judge Gary, who was an old roustabout. Gary, Indiana was named for him. Strangely, the Judge was married to a madam. I performed at a lot of parties that his wife attended, and she used to sit there with a diamond thing around her neck that looked like a horse collar or a neck brace if you had a broken neck. It had big, pear-shaped diamonds all over it. People used to say, "Look at Mrs. Gary's necklace, isn't that the most vulgar thing, isn't it terrible?" But she actually was a madam, who had her own house. Judge Gary had a syndicated newspaper column giving advice to young Americans: Get up early, rise at four in the morning, don't waste five minutes, have an early breakfast, exercise, never touch liquor and don't smoke. But old Judge Gary certainly didn't follow these rules in any phase of his life. At every party his wife would say, "Now come on Albert, you've got to go home. You're too drunk." Of course he was with intimate friends at these parties, but if the kids ever saw their mentor, Judge Gary, they wouldn't believe it. The hypocrisy of certain phases of life has always disgusted me.

Dai Vernon showing a boy a coin trick, 1940s (from 77re Police Gazette)

21 1

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938

THE LINKING RINGS The Linking Rings was a sort of mania for a time during my early days in New York. Dr. Daley, an amateur magician, and Arthur Lloyd140 both got enthused about the ring trick. Dr. Daley had been trying to get a particular set of rings and A1 Flosso finally located them and told him that it was the only set of rings he had that were of real professional quality; nobody could duplicate them. A week later, Arthur Lloyd, the human card index, went into Flosso's shop and asked for a set of rings. Flosso produced a set of rings which were exact duplicates of the ones he had just sold to Dr. Daley. He sold Lloyd the exact same set saying, "You are a professional performer and I am giving you the only set of rings of its kind. These should last you a lifetime." Lloyd arid Daley were very good friends and one day Doc Daley happened to see Lloyd's rings and asked where he had obtained them. Lloyd said that he had gotten them from Flosso, who had told him they were the only such rings in all of New York. They knew immediately then that they were set-up by Flosso and decided to have some fun with this situation. First Doc Daley went into Flosso's shop and said that he'd been talking to Lloyd and Lloyd had a set of rings which looked just like his, how was that possible? Flosso said, "Doc, listen, you are my family doctor. Do you think I would misrepresent anything to you? These rings may look the same but they are not. Yours are special. If you would weigh and compare them you would notice the difference." Then Arthur went in and said, "Dr. Daley has a set of rings exactly like mine; he said he bought them from you." Flosso said, "Arthur, you're a professional magician, Dr. Daley is an amateur. Who do you think I'd give the really good set to?" Then Arthur and Doc went to Flosso's together. First Doc walks in and then Arthur. Flosso just threw u p his hands and said, "What do you want me to do?" They all had a good laugh over those sets of rings. But I still don't know, to this day, if Arthur and Doc ever mastered them. '*O~lbertArthur Lloyd was born in Massachusetts in 1891 and debuted at age of sixteen. He was a professional vaudeville magician starting in 1910. His billing was both "The Human Card Index" and "The Humorous Card Index".

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE, VOLUME 4 Flosso's place used to be like some of the places in Europe years ago; so dusty you wondered how anybody could find anything. Piles of old and musty stuff and lots of drawers. Flosso would dig under a lot of old silk handkerchiefs and tin tubes and pick out a thumb tip for you. No index system. When a customer asked him for a certain trick, he'd throw cartons aside and dig under some papers but he'd come u p with it. He seemed to know where everything in that mess was. The best part was that everything you bought from Flosso was a "museum" piece. No matter what you picked u p he'd say, "You just picked out my best item, a museum piece, this has never been duplicated." This was his sales talk. Much later Flosso had the whole place renovated and we all lost a magical treasure. My dear friend Dr. Daley and I were laughing about Flosso being able to find anything in his store when Doc said, "I'm going to shock Flosso." "Floss, I want to buy an anvil," he said.

"OK, Doc. What size?" replied Al. As far as my own set of Linking Rings is concerned, I originally started with five rings that I had made of pure steel tubing, called Shelby tubing, which cost me $58. The tubing came in sixteen foot lengths and I had them cut, shaped, and welded to my specifications. Most rings are welded together with a small plug placed at the joint of the two ends of the tube. The trouble with this method of welding is that the plug stops the beautiful tone of the ring; my rings were perfectly hollow all the way around and gave a clear, bell-like, tone whenever they struck each other during my act. I found a place where they made parts for dirigibles to do the actual welding and got the Shelby tubing I required at another specialty company. My rings were rather large, sixteen inches in diameter, and the music I selected to accompany this routine was chosen particularly for the way it and the tone of the rings blended into an harmonic whole.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART TWO 1917-1938

MY BROTHER NAPIER DIES In my way, I had always lived a life of ease. When I was a boy I had a host of friends, was involved in athletics, did magic as a hobby, knew a lot about entertaining, played duets on the piano wit11 friends. My brother Napier was a different type; he was quiet, he used to stay home and read. When he got older he was extremely jealous. I didn't know it, but my mother told me later-not of me particularly, but of the fact that I had led such an exciting life and he hadn't. In 1937, my mother and Napier came down to New York. He had been working as an advertising salesman with the Ottazoa Everliilg lounzal, but it had merged with another newspaper and had laid off some hands. They said that they were only keeping the people who were married and had children to support. My brother, not being married, was one of the people laid off. Napier worked for the Jot~rrlnlfor about eleven years and he was very bitter about their treatment of him. Mother felt a trip to New York would be just the thing to take his mind off his troubles. She was right-to a point. We had a great time; saw the sights, went to the beach. Then, all of a sudden, Napier caught pneumonia. In only a few days he was gone. His death was a great shock to my mother who was well into her seventies at this time. Napier's death troubled her right up until her own passing many years later.

PART THREE

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE VOLUME 4

MY HARLEQUIN ACT My most romantic and lyrical magic routine had to be my Harlequin act. The original idea for this unique act was partly mine and partly that of Garrick Spencer. I was doing the Cups and Balls quite often, and Spencer said that this trick was far too confusing for night club patrons. They were more concerned with drinking and talking than watching a magician work. He asked me if I could simplify the routine down to one ball and one cup so the easily distracted audience could better follow the trick. I had previously seen a couple of tricks with a single ball and a cone and thought this could be elaborated into something more picturesque. I made a paper cone and started to fool around with some moves; I soon developed a complete routine. Garrick suggested I make this a basis for a whole act and we thought about what would fit in with a cone and a ball-a harlequin! It's very theatrical, has a background, a character, and it fits with music. That was the birth of the thing, the rest was all enthusiasm and hard work. I thought I could live as a harlequin in a dual existence; appear on stage in a night club, change clothes, come back to the stage and ask the audience, "What did you think of that fella's act?" Working as Harlequin, I didn't have to talk; I could work to good music and the routine would tl~enhave universal appeal. I could perform in any country without the problem of translating my patter. Spencer was a great music lover; 11e used to sing in the Yale choir. For my music, we selected Tchaikovsky's Sleepirlg B e a t ~ t y ,and a couple of French pieces which conveyed the same lyric quality. Garrick Spencer bought my costume. A friend of his named Felix Meyer arranged the music and A1 Donahue supplied the six violins and the men to play them. With my new act and a lot of optimism, we were able to book it into the posh Rainbow Room in Rockefeller Center. I practiced the act with a record of Sleepi~igBeauty using the dramatic entrance and the finale music from this famous ballet. I put together a routine with a cone, a ball, a piece of rope, and a trick with salt that fit the music perfectly. The act had a definite flow; the opening strains of the music began and I came out wearing a cape. The music continued and I threw the cape open, the music then went into this beautiful waltz and into the different movements finally ending at the last trickle of salt coming out of my hand.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART THREE 1939-1990s To make the routine more fluid, I took a couple of lessons from the famed dancer Jose Limon. He didn't teach me to dance my routine, but rather to move to the music with a more graceful approach. He gave me some wonderful hints by pretending to be me in my normal style of presentation. "Ordinarily, if you're doing an act, and you are in one spot and have to pick u p a box, you walk over and pick it up. But as Harlequin you just hop, there's no time lost, it's part of the whole movement of the piece.. .. You reach u p again, wit11 style; you throw the rope out, the left hand goes on the hip and the left leg.. .." I absorbed his explanations very rapidly during those two lessons but my entl~usiasmreally peaked when Jose Limon asked me to show him my whole routine, then he duplicated it using the most beautiful, free flowing moves I had ever seen. He went through a pantomime of these tricks wit11 ease, the things he did just sparkled; he, of course, did no magic, it was his color and style-years and years of training. He was perfection. Needless to say, the Harlequin was a great success at the Rainbow Room in Rockefeller Center and the routine went like this: The grand opening music began as I walked out, I threw open my cape, each side of which was colored, so there was a great big splash of green to the right and red to the left. My wife came fro111 behind and took the cape as I moved forward, starting to take my gloves off one at a time. I threw the two gloves into the air and they changed into a fluttering white dove, with colored ribbons hanging from its feet. The dove was supposed to settle on my shoulder, but sometimes it would fly to the band leader's baton which used to amuse the audience greatly. After my first real trick, the Gloves to Dove Change, I produced a long piece of red curtain cord. I did the Three-In-One Rope Trick; three parts of cord restored to one piece again for the finish. When I restored the curtain cord I would run my l ~ a n du p the cord, stroke it like a magic wand and a white billiard ball would appear. I used a large two and a quarter inch ball at that time and took out my handkerchief, shook it, and put it over my hand, then produced a tall leather cone. I squeezed the cone and placed it over the ball which lay on the silk. I then pulled the silk from my hand and threw the cone into the air, the ball had vanished! I would reproduce the ball from the handkercl~iefby running my hand up along it in the same manner as the red curtain cord. I would then wrap the ball into the handkerchief. The ball would very mysteriously penetrate through the cloth. This was followed by a few ball through the body moves. The11 I did a whole routine wit11 the ball and the cone, where the ball changed colors several times and finally changed to a ball wit11 stars on it. Originally, I was like an alcl~emist,starting wit11 a lead ball and

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE VOLUME 4 changing it to wood, then silver, copper, and gold. This was very poetic but it was difficult for the audience to tell the difference between the colors, so I ended up using only red and green. The last I produced was a black ball, with hieroglyphics on it of the moons and planets. I would look at it as if I didn't know it was supposed to represent the universe and cover it with the cone. When I lifted u p the cone there was a salt shaker. I tossed the cone away, opened the salt shaker and poured the salt into my left hand. I blew on my hand and the salt would vanish! I drew, from out of my pocket, a little tray with stars on it, raised my right hand over the tray and, to a sweet section of The Sleeping Beauty Ballet, salt began pouring from my supposedly empty hand onto the tray. As this trick and the music ended, the score changed to the bell-like French tune I would use for the Linking Rings. At all times, during this routine, the moves Josk Limon taught me were used with great success. From the rings, I flowed into the Japanese Butterflies routine and from there to my close, the variation of the Snow Storm in China, using punched out butterflies.

I used to take a piece of tissue paper, tear it in half and fashion two butterflies. They would hover in the air, I would fan them and chase them around the stage. There was a glass of water on the table; gradually one of them would settle on the side of the glass and topple into the water, apparently drowned. I would pick up the other butterfly from the table, put the two of them in the water and stir them around. Then I would take them out on a chop stick, squeeze the water out and fan my hand as thousands of little dry butterflies flew out to the sound of appropriate music. The music I chose for this trick was lively when the butterflies were flying around the room and then got very sad as the one butterfly drowned. There was a pause in the music at that point and then it turned lively again as they all revived and flew anew. Originally, I had planned to work this in a white costume and make the butterflies in all the colors of the rainbow. The Japanese Butterflies, however, weren't terribly practical, air drafts made the trick too unpredictable to perform. When I ran into the draft problem I went up to the Bronx Zoo and did a bit of research with live moths. I thought of using real ones in the act, but figured they would all fly u p to the lights and would be useless to me in the routine. Occasionally I would put in a little thing with bells; three sleigh bells one time and a jumping jack another time. The act was always changing, always evolving, but it was always set to beautiful music. A critic with the Nezi~Yorker Magazirle said of my Harlequin act: "Never have I been carried into the land of fantasy, or as fascinated as with Harlequin at the

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART THREE 1939-1990s Rainbow Room." The Harlequin act was moved from the Rainbow Room downstairs to Radio City Music Hall for a short period and I had to make several changes so that people could see everything. I practiced wit11 a metronome set at 32 and a phonograph record. When we got to the theater the conductor played it at almost double that tempo. Mark Levy, who booked me, said, "Don't pay any attention to him. If he doesn't want to rehearse at your speed, go out and do the act anyway. He'll play it right." So I went out and began my show but I couldn't keep up with the music at all. I was completely thrown off. Doing magic to music is a rhythmical thing. I was a nervous wreck. This was in Radio City, a tremendous house which looked like a mile and a half-you couldn't even see the people. My poor little wife had to run to get to center stage. I finished with the music but I had to cut and change things around. Mark Levy said, "Do you think you can do it and be entirely oblivious of the music?" "I can try, but it will be very difficult, I'm used to following the music," I said. But Mark told me, "He'll run ahead with his music and you'll only be three-quarters through your act. Watch what's going to happen. You'll still be working and he'll have to pick up to extend the thing. It will make him look very bad. If he's going to be nasty like that, you do the same thing to him." So, at the next show I performed very languidly and slowly. And just as Mark said, the conductor finished and I was half way through the ball trick. He looked up and tapped and the orchestra picked up in the middle again. The next show he played like a little lamb. In other rooms, in other cities, over the few years that I did this act, there were some problems, again, usually with the music. Many of the rooms couldn't supply live bands and I had to use records. Other times, the band leader couldn't keep time to the precise tempo of the music as it related to the act. Every movement, I felt, had to be timed perfectly to a particular note or phrase of the music and some of the bands just couldn't perform to the strict demands the routine required. The Magical Harlequin became my most famous routine and years after I stopped doing it, because of these problems, people came u p to me and said how much they loved it.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE VOLUME 4

DOVES STEAL THE SHOW AT THE RAINBOW ROOM A rather funny thing. happened once when I was doing the Gloves Into Dove. I had substituted the dove for the gloves and tossed the dove into the air. The dove went like a baseball. I thought it must be dead, as it landed in a woman's lap. I figured, well, there goes the act, I was scared stiff, I really thought the poor little dove had died. Then I heard a tremendous laugh and applause, the little dove had landed in a lady's lap and laid an egg. It must have been just ready to lay the egg when I threw it, and laid the egg in her lap. I don't think anybody ever did a better trick than that! Leonard Lyons, I think it was, wrote it u p in his column.

The doves would sometimes get in a precarious position during a show. Sometimes they would fly u p to the beautiful glass chandeliers (remember this was a very fashionable dining room) and hang their rear ends over somebody's soup. People would look up apprehensively with good reason. It certainly was what you could call a hazard. Once, one of the little doves flew straight out the window. The window was open about six inches and it just flew out. My wife was a great lover of pets, and so am I. We were both so upset about this poor little dove, flying around sixty-six stories up in New York. There were all kinds of pigeons around there and they were pretty tough. We thought of this poor, little, tame, dove being out there with all these ruffians. We were really heartbroken. Finally we went home to Brooklyn and went to bed. About four hours later we heard a little noise. My wife asked, "What's that?" and it kept up, a little pecking sound, pecking on the window. I opened the window and there was that little dove on the window sill! At least twelve miles from the Rainbow Room. We lived all the way over in Brooklyn, across the East River. This was no homing pigeon just a little white Java dove! As I said, Jeanne was very fond of animals. She once suggested I use baby ducks to produce out of my Cups and Balls as they are much cuter than baby chickens. Very cute animals; it's tragic that these little ducks have to grow. In fact one grew so large that my wife had to give it to her aunt. Sometime later, Jeanne was having dinner with her relatives and they were having roast duck for dinner. Jeanne said, "This is delicious! I haven't eaten duck for a long time."

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART THREE 1939-1990s And the relative said, "That's the little duck you gave us!" Jeanne became deathly sick, sicker then she'd ever been in her life. She never dreamed it was our duck.

Dai Vernon, "The Magical Harlequin", Rainbow Room, 1939

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE VOLUME 4

COMPEER, THE MONKEY And then there was "Compeer", the monkey. My wife called him Compeer because she said he looked so much like some of the Society of American Magicians members. That term is the one they use when they refer to one another. I went to a pet store and watched these two small monkeys, who were with their mother, to see which was smarter. I finally decided which monkey I wanted, and the owner of the shop got him for me and put him into a parrot cage. We wrapped the cage in heavy brown paper and then burlap around the paper. I had Jeanne take the monkey home to Brooklyn.. .by the subway. No sooner had she gotten on the subway than the monkey began to yell and scream. The conductor ejected my wife and my monkey from the train and, of course, once off the train the monkey quieted down. She got on another subway train and it all started in again. This continued all the way to Brooklyn. She finally made it home and we were soon training him to perform. I had a beautiful trick worked out with this monkey which was performed like this: I would be doing the ball and cone routine and at the proper moment, I would produce a bigger ball which the cone could not cover. I would then remove my hat and put it over the ball. The ball would then change into a real coconut. Then Jeanne came out and joined me. I put my cape over my arm, and we started to walk off stage. I was throwing the coconut in the air; at the third toss, the coconut went u p and out of sight. When it came back down, approximately six feet from the ground, it opened like a firework and out came Compeer all dressed in a harlequin outfit like me.

I had taught the monkey how to bow and I thought this was the greatest finish for this reason: I would walk off as people were applauding and return for a curtain call but leave the monkey off stage. Then the monkey would walk out and he'd bow; then I would pull him off and go back and he'd come out. This would go on and on, with the monkey trying to take all the credit for the act. Then Jeanne would come out and pull the monkey away, giving him a little spanking. This would have been sensational. But I couldn't train him; he was a sex maniac, he would play with himself and no matter what I'd do, including putting him in tin underwear, nothing worked. When he heard the music and saw the lights and all the people, he turned into a sex maniac. We had the damnedest

H E FOOLED HOUDINI: PART THREE 1939-1990s time with that monkey. I only used him about six times before I had to give up all thoughts of performing that trick properly. Our little monkey wound up on a big Pennsylvania estate, but not before escaping from us and running up and over several telephone poles and along the wires. It took several police cars filled with officers to finally corner him and get him back into his carrying bag. Such was the short, exciting life of a magician's assistant named Compeer.

1941 (see page 234)

Sam Horowitz, 1944

224

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE VOLUME 4

HOW I BECAME "THE PROFESSOR" My lawyer friend, Garrick Spencer, gave me the title "The Professor". I told him I didn't like it, but he kept calling me by that name and it just stuck. He was a very funny man and used to make me laugh with his observations on me, magic, and the rest of the brotherhood.

I was once at a meeting of The Society of American Magicians and was over in a corner of the room. There were about nine or ten fellows there and I was spouting off about some trick, showing them how to do a certain move or something, and they were in rapt attention. Then Spencer, who was closely watching me, pipes up: "You know, Professor, you've got something here that should be very valuable. I don't know how you could commercialize it, but there must be some way to do it. YOLLcould, you know. It almost reminds me of Christ with His disciples, the way these people worship you. Come to think of it, you are somewhat Christ-like." "You could open up a magic emporium here, have a couple of nice fellows run it, yoti wouldn't run it yourself, you'd be the head. You could build u p a situation here in New York and have people coming from France and Germany just to see you. You wouldn't get out there behind a counter and demonstrate, this would be way beneath your dignity. But if you occasionally did come into the store, people would say, 'I was in Vernon's shop, and he, himself, actually did a trick for me!' "This could get very powerful. You wouldn't do things like the other people, you could build it up and make something very important. I know you won't do it, but these things are possible. Everybody seems to know you and respect you in magic. This is not easy to come by. The fact is that when I tell magicians that I know you, they are awed."

I told him, "Well, Spence, that's because I've been at it so long." I attribute whatever reputation I have in the magic community not to the fact that I had so much talent, or anything like that, but to the fact that I had travelled so extensively in the United States and other countries. And whenever I met anyone, amateur or professional, I always gave freely to them. I tried to help them as much as I could. I had 110 axe to grind, couldn't or wouldn't sell them anything, and tried to help them in

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART THREE 1939-1990s any way I could. Sometimes, I would help them too much and when I'd go away they were in a dither. They would say, "He showed me so many things I couldn't absorb them all. I wish he would just show me one or two things." Anyway, I was generous about giving informati011 away. These fellows I've known during my long and fruitful life have all been very good to me. Some have offered me money for the things I've taught them, but I wouldn't take it. "No," I would say, "if you want to learn it I'll show it to you, but it's not for sale." Of course, later on, I did become a little commercial, and gave some lessons for money, but that was years later-when I already had my reputation. I didn't make my reputation by selling magic but from giving...from talking and discussing. I had something to give them. They were seeking something, and I had that something they were seeking. And I'm called "The Professor" because of my age, my venerable age. I think a lot of people, when they get older, are called professor. It's like calling a man "Doctor" who's not a doctor. But, you know, Ganson paid me a great compliment in one of my books when he described my personality by saying, "He's like an older Mr. Chips.. .." I liked that.

The Inner Circle: Arthur Finley, S. Leo Horowitz, Cardini (standing), A1 Baker, Doc Daley (standing),Charlie Miller and Dai Vernon, circa 1935

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE VOLUME 4

FU MANCHU As far as the most artistic magic show I've ever seen goes, I would have to say it had to be David Bamberg,141Fu Manchu. He did a beautiful show. The proof of this is that he was an idol in South America. Women used to chase him on the streets and try to tear pieces of his clothing-he was like Sinatra in his p r i m e h e was an idol. He was truly a wonder worker, and he did a marvelous show. He was a very nice looking young man and was, in a way, like a fairy prince. Similar, perhaps, to the earlier Prince of Wales, who became for a short time, King Edward V111.142 Bamberg had the whole world at his feet. During his show he changed from one beautiful costume to another; he must have made thirty-five changes during his show. Every time he would step off the stage he would come back in a different, gorgeous Chinese outfit. He not only had fantasy, whimsy, and mystery, he had a great deal of comedy in his act. He had one scene which was set in a magic shop. He played the part of a magic dealer and a clown came in to buy magic. This was a fellow dressed a little like Charlie Chaplin, and Bamberg was behind the counter. He didn't have to be a magician to do this, it was just a funny situation; a fellow coming in wanting to buy all these tricks. Bamberg would demonstrate them and every time he did, all these funny things would happen. During another scene he'd shoot a bear and the bear would fall down dead. He would reach down and cut the bear open and reach in and take out his heart. This was a real looking heart, which he'd massage and look at and pet then put it back into the bear, and the bear would jump up and 141~avidTobias Bamberg was born in Derby, England in 1904 and died in 1974. His stage name, "Fu Manchu", came from the popular Sax Rohmer thriller character. He was the son of "Okito", Tobias "Theo"Bamberg. David Barnberg was a professional illusionist until he retired in 1966. He wrote Los Secretvs tie Fu Mnaclzu: "The Devil Doctor" (1933) and made six feature films in Mexico which were released between 1943 and 1949. In the first three, El Espectro de la Novia (1943), La Mujer Sin Cabeza (1944), and El As Negro (1944) he performed some magic. 1 4 2 ~ i nEdward g VIII, son of George V, was King of England from January 20,1936 until December 11 of the same year when he abdicated in order to marry Mrs. Wallis Warfield Simpson, an American divorde. He served as governor general of the %hama Islands; and was given, upon abdication, the title of Duke of Windsor.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART THREE 1939-1990s walk off stage. This intrigued people, because they were all sorry for the bear, and a moment later with Fu Manchu's magic power, the bear would be healed and run off.

David Barnberg, "Fu Manchu", circa 1935

The illusion, the feeling, and the plot were good; he had lots of amusing things that other magicians didn't have. One of the things he had was true excitement. For example: right in the middle of his performance, there would be an argument taking place between an old, whiskered man and a young, pretty blonde in an audience box which was several levels above the stage. Fu Manchu would try to continue his performance, but the argument would divert the attention of the audience from the stage to the couple high above. Fu Manchu would look u p and they'd stop for a minute, and he would continue with the trick he was doing. Then the argument would start up again, and finally the girl would reach over and pull this fellow's whiskers, and he'd hit her an

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE VOLUME 4 awful slap on the side of the face and knock her right out of the chair. Everybody in the audience would let out a gasp when this happened and as the fight continued, this old guy would throw the blonde out of the box and down onto the stage. The folks in the audience would scream and then Fu Manchu would go over and lift t l ~ ebloride and show that she was only a rubber dummy. Screams of fear would immediately change to screams of laughter. He had tricked them, and it wasn't even magic. Everything Fu Manchu did was well done. None of his illusions were conventional; when he sawed a woman in half, he did it without putting the girl in a box. He did it in the open with a buzz saw. It took several trucks to transport his seven tons of baggage when he toured; South America was his favorite performing route. He made and lost several fortunes in his lifetime and I remember him at his peak, when he lifted magic and illusion to new and remarkable heights. Fu Manchu's father was also a famous magician. He went by the name of Okito and I knew him quite well. Oluto was very nice to me and often called me his second son. He had several sons but I was also named David, like Fu Manchu's real name, and I guess Okito liked that name very much. He and I used to exchange little tricks and he'd help me perfect my style. I would try to show him anything he didn't know about. He was also a fine craftsman and was able to make some very beautiful things out of wood, including a great many props for his son to use in his act. One time, in South America, David showed me a Chinese table that he and his father had made, all inlaid with a beautiful top on it. He lifted up a little trap door in the back and had me look inside. It was finished inside as beautifully as it was on the outside. David then told me a little story: "I made this table. Father helped me and showed me how to decorate it, and I did some of the inlay work. When I got it all finished and showed the table to my father, he looked at it and told me he was proud of me and I was a good craftsman. But then he lifted u p the back and he looked inside. There was rough wood in there. He said, 'What about the inside? I told him that nobody ever sees the inside, it's out of sight. And my father said, 'David, you'll never feel happy working on this table if you have a feeling that it's unfinished like that on the inside. It's like having dirty underwear on, you won't feel clean, you won't feel well. Finish the inside. This is important."' "My dad was like that. So I finished the inside very carefully."

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART THREE 1939-1990s

THE MIND-READING BOX I did a trick I called the Mind-Reading Box a few times at the Casino de Paris. Later, I performed it when I worked at the Madison Hotel for nearly a year. Kate Smith was singing there at the time. She worked there for a long, long time. All kinds of well known New York people used to have apartments at the Madison, like Robert Benchley, the humorist, and the Gimble family of department store fame. I was doing close-up magic and the audience found the MindReading Box very interesting. It was11't a trick I invented, i t was more like a novelty; I had sin~plybought it in a magic store.

I had someone select a card and think of it. Then I gave them a little round, red box. Then they'd pull a length of tape out of a slit and the box would say, "You took the Ace of Diamonds." The method was silly! I used to force an Ace of Diamonds on the spectator and that was the trick! One day a wealthy lady said to me after seeing the show, "Mr. Vernon, would you sell one of your tricks?" I thought that perhaps she had a little boy who did magic, but I told her no. Still she persisted, "I'd love to do one trick. I want a trick to do at bridge parties."

I told her that I could teach her a trick, she didn't have to buy it. Then I proceeded to show her a simple card trick, but she said, "011no, I want the little box you have that reads minds, or sometl~ing." "I could teach you to do that trick, but I'm sorry, I can't part wit11 the box. They are no longer sold." "If I gave you enough money for it, you'd sell it wouldn't you." "No," I told her, "I wouldn't sell it for even $100." "If I gave you $150, would you sell it?" she asked. She was a very wealthy woman, and I thought, "Holy smokes, I've got to figure out a way to show this woman how she could do this." So I said that I would teach her. Later I went up to her room and she said, "Now sliow me, show me."

I told her to first secretly put the Ace of Diamonds 011 the bottom of the deck. Then have a person cut the cards and turn the bottom half to right angles and drop it on top of the other half.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE VOLUME 4 "Now why do you do all that?" she questioned. "Because the spectator must get the Ace of Diamonds." "But I don't understand what you mean. I want to do it the way you did." "Take my word," I told her, "this will be just as effective for the people you show it to. The way I do it would be very difficult to teach you." "Why, I can already do it." And she took the cards and fani~edthem and said, "Take a card, any card." "No, there's more to it than that," I tried to explain to her. She repeated,IITake a card." So I took one and she said, "Now, what do I do, just pull the tape?" And as she pulled the tape, the box said, "You took the Ace of Diamonds." "Is that your card?" she asked. "No, of course not! You've got to make me take the Ace of Diamonds." "What?" she said. "You've got to make ..." "Why, I thought it read your mind!"

"No, it doesn't read your mind-it's tricks."

a trick. All these things I d o are

"Do you mean to tell me it always says 'You took the Ace of Diamonds?' Why it's not worth anything!" "You seemed to like it," I reminded her. "That was when I thought it read your mind," she was quite disappointed. "I thought how wonderful it would be at the bridge table, let this woman take a card, let that one take a card ..."

"I wouldn't pay $150 for it myself," I said. "Oh, I'm awfully sorry, Mr. Vernon. May I pay you something for your time?" "No," I told her, "You don't owe me anything." But I was quite amused by the fact that she thought she could buy a box that actually read your mind for only $150!

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART THREE 1939-1990s

O N THE SAME BILL WITH CHARLIE CHAPLIN One of the thrills of my life was performing on the same stage with Charlie Chaplin. Elsa the famous social matron, booked me for a private fund raising party. It was lield in New York City in Rockefeller Center's famous Rainbow Room. I was to follow Chaplin. In show business they say it's a bad spot to follow the star, but this was a rather different matter entirely. C11arlie Chaplin, at this time in his career, didn't really perform, or need to for that matter-he did his funny little walk and gave a little speech at this party for the underprivileged. After Chaplin gave his speech and told a few stories, I went on and did some tricks. During dinner I was sitting next to Boris Karloff; I did a few tricks and all Karloff could say was, "Amazing, absolutely amazing."

143~lsaMaxwell was a dumpy, talkative American newspaper columnist, television star, and party-giver. She became the ambassador to Luxembourg and was the inspiration of the Broadway musical, Call Me Madam, starring Ethel Mern~an.She was born in 1883 and died in 1963.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE VOLUME 4

DANTE I didn't know Dante"@very well. I saw his show and met his son in New York. I had a big argument with Cardini about Dante because Cardini told me Dante was the greatest magician he had ever seen. I told him Fu Manchu was the greatest I'd ever seen. So when Dante opened on Broadway, I went with Cardini to see him. Right in the middle of the show he stepped into a hole or a trapdoor in the stage; in other words, his leg disappeared. This, of course, was not something he could help but later on he also dropped some billiard balls. Several other mini-disasters happened during his performance so the show that Dante did that night was pretty bad. I looked at Cardini and without saying a word conveyed to him, "So this is your Dante, the man who is the best." That was the only time I ever saw Dante work. He was a good showman, but had a very bad night that night, but I still don't think he was one quarter as good as Fu Manchu.. .not even an eighth as good. I'm not very enthusiastic about Dante but others claim he was wonderful.

ante was the stage name of August Harry Jansen who was born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1883. He came to the United States at age six and witnessed a performance of Alexander Herrmann. He debuted in 1900 and did his first professional world tour in 1911. He was hired in 1922 by Howard Thurston and toured with a large Thurston unit from 1923 to 1932, when he went out on his own. He was featured as himself in the film Racketbusters (1938) and the Laurel & Hardy film, A-Haunting We Will Go (1942).

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART THREE 1939-1990s

SAM HOROWITZ BECOMES ME! Dash Hardeen, Houdini's brother, once saw me perform my Dr. Chung act-the one in which I wore the beautiful Chinese mask Jeanne made for me. I opened by coming through the center curtains and producing cards in the palms of my clasped hands to Chinese music. This is known as the Interlocked Production of Playing Cards today. Hardeen fell in love with the act. And he told me that this was the kind of act he could sell, but I had to put one illusion in it like a girl production or something. He then set up a date for me to audition for some agents he knew. It was the next day that I accepted one of the few real jobs I ever had in my life: working on the Eastside Parkway. But this put me in a quandary as I was to be at the Majestic Theatre in Jersey City doing the Chinese act and on the Eastside Parkway job in New York at the same time. I didn't know what to do. I had to fill this engagement for I didn't want to disappoint Hardeen who had gone to a lot of trouble; and I had to be 011 the job at the Eastside Parkway. So I got the brilliant idea that I would teach S a n ~Horowitz how to do the act. He loved to do magic and already knew most of the tricks. I would then rush over to the theater from New York and be in the dressing room by the time Hardeen got there. I'd still be in make-up and he'd see me and think I did the show. The Ten Card Production From Interlocked Hands, invented by Cliff Green, was the only part of the act that Horowitz would have any difficulty with. He was a good sleight of hand performer and could pick u p anything very quickly, unfortunately he had never practiced this particular trick. We got together Saturday and Sunday and talked over the act. I told Sam, "You go to Jersey City, wear my mask and my gown and tell them you are Dr. Chung. That way we will hold down two jobs, the one in the theater and the job working on the Eastside Parkway."

I had all the music written and there was to be a music rehearsal at eleven o'clock. "You take it to the orchestra leader, talk over the music with him and tell him what you want," I instructed Sam.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE VOLUME 4 "I'm too nervous, Vernon, I've never done that before." "All right," I told him, "I'll solve this for you, 1/11 call u p Roy B e n ~ o n ~ ~ ask h n dhim to go with you." So Roy Benson went over to Jersey City with Sam Horowitz as his "manager" to tell the orchestra how to rehearse. Roy did a real professional job with the musicians. "No, a little faster, a little softer here, louder, build it u p at the finish now, give him a G chord, he bows here." He was very good for Sam and gave him great confidence.

I told Sam that I got off the job at 6 p.m. I'd change, get on the ferry to Jersey City and be over to watch the end of his last performance. The matinee day came along and Sam was walking u p and down, perspiring. Roy told him, "Don't get nervous, Sam. When your music plays, just walk out and do your act. You're behind a mask, if you forget what you are doing, stop and hold your fingers up like a Chinaman. You can wait a full fifteen to twenty seconds while you collect your wits. They don't know what you're doing, so just relax and take your time." The time got nearer for Sam to go on and he said, "I feel weak in the knees, I can hardly stand up." Roy asked Sam, the teetotaler, "Would you like a cocktail?" And surprisingly Sam said that he would! Roy ran across the alley and got a couple of cocktails and said, "Drink this Sam, it will brace you up." Sam took one cocktail and felt better, then he took a second one. "Listen Sam, in case you get out there and break down or you forget the whole act or your mind goes blank, waddle off stage. I will instantly put the robe and mask on and go out. I won't have any trouble. I don't know the act, but 1/11fill out the time, I guarantee." Sam had great confidence in Roy who was born to the theater. This and Roy's guarantee seemed to pick Sam up, 11e was a changed man. Sam went on and he did what Roy said. He stopped and nothing happened and then he went ahead. The act lasted eighteen minutes and it was only supposed to go eleven! In~aginehow much stalling Sam did, but it went over wit11 the audience. The manager said, "Great act, but too long, you did nearly twenty minutes. Cut some of those tricks out." There were several shows for the day, and for the second show he did just the reverse. He went right through in ten minutes. ' ' ' ~ 0Benson ~ was boil1 in 1915 and passed away in 1978. His real name was E. F. E. McQuade. He was a full time professional, and invented and made famous the "Long Pour" Salt Trick.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART THREE 1939-1990s "You were all right, but you worked too jerky," Roy said. I had a rickety table made of three pieces of bamboo with a little tray. If you hit the tray it would skid off. After the second matinee show the manager came u p and said to get it out of the way. Roy said, "Don't touch this table! This is an authentic Chinese piece, it comes from the Fourth Dynasty, from generation to generation; you must be very careful with this table." The manager immediately apologized. This showed how Roy was the perfect person to go with Sam, as he knew instinctively how to handle people. Later that evening, Cardini, Hardeen with the Lowers agent, and a couple other important agents that could make or break you in show business came to the performance. Hardeen, being Houdini's brother, was able to bring them over to Jersey to watch this "sensational" Chinese act. At the time I didn't realize we were deceiving Hardeen. I just didn't want to let him down. He wanted to manage this act, and had three of the biggest agents in New York over to watch. So that evening, as I was standing in the wings, I was watching Sam do the last part of my act and I thought he did me justice. Then I saw Hardeen sitting downstairs in the orchestra, so I imn~ediatelywent down the alley and u p to the dressing room. I took my jacket off, undid my tie, rumpled my hair a little and waited for Sam. I knew right after the act Hardeen would run back to tell me how I was. Sam did the act, took his bow, and came to the dressing room. He gave me the gown and as I slipped it on, he hung the mask up. I sat at the dressing table in front of the mirror and heard the inevitable knock on the door from Hardeen. "Come in, Theo," I said very nonchalantly, as if I just finished the act. Sam was sitting there, coolly smoking a cigarette. Hardeen looked at him and said, "What's he doing here?" "You know Sam," I told him. "Yes, I know him, but you shouldn't have people here on your opening night," and chased him out. "What's the idea of having these amateurs hanging around? Keep them out of here, Vernon. These people throw you off. Now, Roy Benson, he's all right, he's a real trouper, he should be here, but what do you need with that Horowitz?" I wanted to tell him that that amateur had just finished being me! Then Hardeen bawled the hell out of me for what I was doing in the act. He said, "This act doesn't have the same feeling as when I saw you before. There is something about the way you walked, the way you acted, it just simply wasn't you. You walked on from the side-where was that

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE VOLUME 4 beautiful entrance, what the hell's the matter with you? I told the agents about this fantastic entrance and you didn't do it. Furthermore, you didn't do the salt trick the way you did it before. I am not even going to talk to the agents now. I am very disappointed. We were going to build an act for you, but you let me down. You were nervous, you weren't yourself." We fooled Hardeen completely. It was really not a very good thing to do, but I was on a spot The next day I met Hardeen in New York and somebody must have told him for he said, "Vernon, look at me--was that you last night?" "That was Dr. Chung, Dash." "Listen, I heard a rumor around that it wasn't you." "But, Dash, you were there talking to me." "There's something going on." He was convinced. This went on for months and later someone finally told him it was Sam Horowitz. He remembered that Horowitz had been there that night; but since I wouldn't admit to the switch, he still wasn't sure. Dash never knew to his dying day whether that was Horowitz or me!

I-IE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART THREE 1939-1990s

FROM BLUEPRINTS TO BROKEN ARMS My father thought I should be an engineer so I studied to be an engineer. Years later when I was a professional magician, I was at Sam Margules' apartment and met the main contractor for the then-underconstruction Eastside Parkway. He was looking for people who could read blueprints and was willing to pay them $37.50 to $50 per day. He told me that it was an easy job, from 7:30a.m. until 3:00 p.m. and all I had to do was walk around and look busy. I thought this was great. I could take this job, earn some great money, and still be able to perform my magic at night. I went home and told Jeanne about this offer and her comments were simple and to the point, "You have never worked a day in your life. It's time you did some honest work." We were living on the Eastside, on 34th Street, and my new job was just a few minutes walk away. Being on the job at 7:30 in the morning didn't appeal to me as I was used to staying up late at night. I was on that job for two weeks when I was told not to do any physical work. If someone asked me for a tool, I was told to direct them to the tool shed. If I saw any workman being lazy on the job I was to go over to him and scare him back to work, but not to do anything myself. And at all times, I was to carry those blueprints! One day in January of 1942 I saw a young fellow struggling to carry a pail over a wooden plank and up a steel girder. I went over and took the pail to help him. It turned out to be a pail of mercury which was extremely heavy. I wasn't expecting this weight as I started walking over the plank and stepped down hard on it. It broke and I fell six stories below into the East River.

I remember the mercury spilling and making little bubbles as I was falling and then I hit my head. I didn't know I was in the East River. I heard them shout, "Man overboard!" and then a rope was thrown to me while someone yelled, "Grab on to that!" I couldn't raise either arm and thought I must be dreaming, I got on my back, I am a good swimmer, and put my head in a noose and they started to haul me in. My head went under and I got my lungs filled with this filthy East River water and I passed out. The next thing I knew I was in a big room with a lot of men looking at

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE VOLUME 4 me. They handed me a glass and said, "Drink this." It was whiskey, warm and nice. They cut through my coat, undershirt and everything; and bones were sticking out of my arms. To show you how little I knew about how badly I was hurt, Dr. Daley came in with my wife and I told him that I had to give a performance on Friday and did he think I could make it? He said, "You won't be able to play any dates for a long time."

Dai Vernon in hospital bed (having been there over one month), January3, 1942

I had broken both my arms, cracked six ribs, and cut my head badly. I was a mess. I really didn't know how bad my injuries were until I heard them talking about cutting off one of my arms because gangrene might set in. An intern came in and asked me to sign a paper giving them permission to amputate my arm, but I wouldn't sign. Lucky I didn't, as it all turned out fine. I was in the hospital for over six months. At the time I thought, "I guess 1'11 have to turn to mental magic as I'll never be able to do sleight of hand again."

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART THREE 1939-1990s

CITIZENSHIP During all those many years living in the United States and traveling throughout the country cutting silhouettes and doing magic, I still retained my British citizenship. This was from 1915 well into the late 1930s. The only reason I didn't take out citizenship papers in this country was because of Fu Manchu. He had traveled extensively all over the world and toured in South America for years. He told me, "Don't relinquish your British citizenship." Jud Cole, who was a very funny comic magician, used to say about Fu Manchu, "Here's a Jewish boy, born in Holland, educated in England, living in South America, doing a Chinese Act in Spanish." In those days Britain was mistress of the seas, and having a British passport meant you could go to foreign ports and pass right through. With this advice and no real reason to renounce my Canadian/British citizenship, I kept a status quo condition about it for over twenty years. When my oldest son Ted wanted to go to the Naval Academy at Annapolis, I remembered back to my early life in Canada and to Hugh Hughson, whose millionaire father wanted to send him to the Royal Military College. Hugh's father was an American citizen and had the devil of a time trying to get his son into the RMC. He tried to pull strings and offered to pay the government $50,000 if they would accept his son but was turned down because he was an American and not a British citizen. I rushed out and immediately started the citizenship procedure.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE VOLUME 4

SHADE All my life I have tried to d o moves with cards that don't look like moves. In other words, even to those in the know, what I am actually doing is truly not discernible. Magicians call the distraction used to deceive people misdirection, but a gambler calls it shade. Shade is funny word. Faucett Ross, who had a rich sense of humor, got a letter once from Lewis Ganson. Lewis had never been closely associated with gambling, but he was intrigued with stories about gamblers. I told him that gamblers used the term "shade". You can instantly tell if a fellow uses it in the right context or not. A gambler will say when you show him a move, "What shade d o you use with it?" In other words, most of this work is done under what you might call a cover. When I went on Dutch television Ganson wrote a letter to Ross and to prove how "with it" he was, how enlightened he was, he wrote, "Vernon's shading was delightful and his execution was faultless ...." When Cl~arlieMiller heard Ross read that letter, "Vernon's shading was delightful ..." Charlie fell right out of his chair with laughter. The word would never be used that way. These gamblers were very down to earth, never used flowery language. "Delightful shading" is hysterical. Ganson was just trying to show-off that he had some knowledge. Shade is, of course, a very picturesque word too, because it means you do it in the shadow. There are all kinds of shade. In the old days, when gamblers used to play cards on trains, they used to walk up and down the train and say that they were looking for a fourth for bridge. After a few minutes of bridge one of the sharpers would say something about the train rocking so badly that bridge is impossible to play.. .so how about a game of poker instead. A poor victim is suddenly playing poker when l ~ came e to play bridge. At this point, the gamblers usually bring in a cold deck, where the cards are already set in a certain rotation. When the cards are dealt some remarkably wonderful hands will come out and any card player would bet his shirt. They don't run these cards up or stack them because that is a very difficult operation. It is far beyond the capabilities of most of these so called card sharps. They do it the easy way by switching in an entirely new deck of cards. Now it's all very well to say, "switch in a new pack of cards", but how d o you do it? I found out one way they switched cards when I was a

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART THREE 1939-1990s young boy and used to play around the railroad tracks. Every once in a while, I would find whole packs of cards that must have been thrown out of train windows by gamblers. And I saw this very often in certain sections of the countryside. I conimeiited one time to somebody about it and was told that this is how a cooler was brought into the game. I knew what a cooler was, a cold deck. How they would work the switch was really simple. The gamblers would pre-pick seats on the train where the window could be easily lifted so as to accomplish the switch without too much difficulty. After they found their victim, the gamblers would begin the game of bridge/poker. One of tlie gamblers would be smoking a big cigar with an ever lengthening ash on it. As the poker game was being set up, the cigar ash would be made to fall onto the cards. The other gamblers would complain and pick u p the deck and tlie as11 and supposedly toss the ash out the window. At this point, the victim was distracted and the ash, along with a perfectly good pack of cards, was tossed out the window. The cold deck was replaced on the table witliout notice. In this instance, the cigar and its ash was the point of misdirection or the shade. Another kind of shade involved a glass of water or other drink tliat was a little too wet and left a ring of moisture on the little wooden table. The distraction of the glass and cleaning up the moisture gave just enough time to switch or bring in a cold deck. A third shade was used with a dropped poker chip which was spied on the floor. "Is that your chip?" one of the gan-tblers would ask the victini. As the victim looked down, the cards were switched and another pack of normal cards flew out the window. The shade is a vital part of magic, too. Take the second deal. A good second deal needs shade. That's what a magician doesn't know. He thinks that under close scrutiny and looking right down at the pack, that an expert can deal the second card and nobody can tell. This is physically impossible. The eye is the fastest of all the senses. Even if you do the move with a "Bee" card, which has an all over back design witliout a margin or border and you can deal rapidly, a keen eye can tell that there's something taking place. The spectator might not be able to detect exactly what or accuse a mail of cheating, but he iiistinctively knows that there is something taking place. Usually the second deal is not used the way magicians think it is. It is used very sparingly and only at certain times. Now for instance, in blackjack, a lot of people think tliat the dealer will deal a second deliberately to bust the hand. This is rarely the case because the dealer knows that if he deals a second there is too much of a chance of the player noticing, or thinking he notices the move and causing problems. The gambler doesn't take any chances and will deal a second only when the

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE VOLUME 4 hand or the game is of such importance that a move must be made. This has been my experience with gamblers and, so far, this has proven true.

Drawing done by Dai Vernon in the South Pacific while touring with the U S 0 during World War I1

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART THREE 1939-1990s

WITH THE U S 0 IN WORLD WAR I1 During World War I1 I volunteered to do my magic act for the boys in the service. The US0 booked me into various hospitals and other places to entertain some of our wounded soldiers and sailors. I was then sent to the Philippine Islands for a time and performed at many camps and hospitals in Manila, Luzon, Leyte, Mindoro, and other locations. Part of my act was performed as Dai Yen or Dr. Chung, my Chinese magician characters, complete with Jeanne's wonderfully crafted face mask. In the middle of my routine I would say, "Now, boys, if we can get a little Chinese atmosphere ...I'll show you an Oriental masterpiece." I quickly changed into my Chinese costume, put on my mask, and performed the Linking Rings. I would then go from bed to bed with this costume on and I would pass the rings out to the boys, some of whom were pretty badly hurt. They got a great kick out of my act and were some of my best audiences ever. We would also play from trucks out in little open-air theaters and try to bring them a little bit of home right in the middle of the jungle. My mask held u p pretty well in the tropics, but not my shoes. I would put a pair of shoes under my bed at night and in the morning I would pick them u p and they would have fungus and fuzz over them. My shoes looked like they'd contracted some kind of tropical disease because leather just seemed to attract fungus over there. The boys called it jungle rot and it sure lived up to its name. Jeanne's mask, however, weathered the trip to the Philippines very well and only deteriorated, after much use, twenty-five years later.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE VOLUME 4

DAN CUMMINGS One Sunday, Francis Carlyle, Sam Margules and I were over at Dr. Daley's place. We used to get together as a rule every Sunday afternoon and evening and have dinner together; but this time Dr. Daley said, "I must go see Julien Proskauer. He's pretty much of a politician, but he wants to talk some magic and, after all, he's worked very hard for the S. A. M. I owe it to him to go and see him." This, it turns out, was one of the saddest days of Doc's life because he missed out on this oddly disturbing episode. It's is hard to believe, in fact, I don't like to tell it, because part of it sounds ridiculous. Francis, Sam and I were sitting in Barney's, a little restaurant around the corner from Dr. Daley who lived on 40th Street and Park Avenue. We were all in a jovial mood sitting in this restaurant having our steak dinners when a fellow, who looked very much like Charles Laughton, walked over to the table. "Do you mind if I join you gentlemen for a little while?" he asked. There were three of us at a square table and there was a fourth place, so we motioned for him to sit down. "I've been appraising and sizing you fellows u p and can't figure out this set-up. This isn't a normal trio here." He looked at me and continued, "You're the brain." Then he looked at Carlyle and said, "You're the mouth piece, and you are, without a doubt, the bouncer," he said, addressing Sam, who was pretty rugged. "But I can't figure the bunch of you out. You're not confidence men, you're not cheaters." He used the term clieaters which is a word only used by a certain clique. Normal people may say gangsters, but not cheaters. That's a word essentially used by certain gamblers. Cheaters covers a lot of territory; con men, maybe gangsters or crooked card players. So by using this word, I knew that he himself was involved in something of this kind. He continued on, "You're not normal working men." He was really puzzled. So he looked at Carlyle and said, "You're the mouthpiece. You're a pretty smart fellow. I overheard some of your remarks about politics. Let me ask you a question, d o you know anything about confidence games or confidence men?"

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART THREE 1939-1990s Carlyle said, "Yeah, I think so." "I thought you would. Who is the smartest confidence man in the United States? The smartest that the United States ever had? And don't tell me 'Yellow Kid' Weil."l46 Carlyle thought for a moment before he answered, "Franklin D. Roosevelt." With that, our mysterious guest exclaimed, "I want to shake your hand. You're a very discerning, bright young man. Roosevelt is the greatest confidence man in the world. It's lucky the man didn't need money. But he conned the life out of people. If he'd been in a racket, he could have been a multi-millionaire. He was a smooth-tongued con man. But let's get back to what you fellows do."

Francis Carlyle, Dai Vernon and Frisby Sanders, 1945 146"~ellowK i d Weil was a master con man who swindled the public out of over $8,000,000 between 1910 and 1948. He established a reputation for connivery that has never been equaled.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE VOLUME 4

I felt like saying, "Why don't you mind your own business," but at this point I was greatly amused by the whole thing. He asked Carlyle anotl~erquestion and Carlyle pulled out his wallet to show his driving license. Carlyle had a gimmick card in his wallet which he used for a trick and the fellow said, "You're a card player!" He looked at me and said, "You're all card players!"

I reached in my pocket and took out a pack of cards and I put them out on the table in front of him and said, "I know you d o something with cards." And he placed the nails of his thumbs on opposite ends of the deck to square the cards, and I said, "Now I'm certain. You dealt the bank." "You're too damn smart," he answered. "I know you've dealt the bank," I persisted. That's a faro term, "You've dealt the bank." Only one type person had a reason for squaring the deck the way he did. Nobody would do that but a man who had dealt faro because the bottom cards must be perfectly square. If you push them in any other way the roundness of your finger keeps them from being perfectly squared. If you see a man d o that, you can rest assured he's dealt the bank, because no man would ever d o that unless he'd been a faro dealer. The first far0 dealer I ever met asked if I could put u p a perfect split. I found out that's what they say when they meet someone and want to discuss cards. It means, "Can you split the deck twenty-six and twentysix and do a perfect interlacing shuffle card for card?" The exact words and phraseology are, "Can you put u p a perfect split?" That's an introductory sentence like "Can you play in any key?" If you didn't make the right reply they'd think that you were evidently an impostor; that you didn't know what you were talking about. So I said, "You tipped your mitt. Can you put u p a perfect split?" "What do you know about the bank? What do you mean I tipped it? Are you with the FBI? Is that what you do?" He was getting riled now. "That's the most ridiculous thing I ever heard. Look, I just came back from a US0 tour," and started to remove proof from my pocket. I feigned indigi~ationso I could get the inside track on this fellow. "Put that stuff back in your pocket, I don't even want to look at it. These sleuths, these FBI characters, have got the finest credentials in the world. That doesn't prove anything to me." Then he looked at me in a sinister way and said, "If I thought you were the law and would try something, I would pull out a knife and run

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART THREE 1939-1990s it right in your stomach and rip you up the center, light up a cigarette and walk out of here smiling." "Well, I'm certainly no sleuth," I told him. "Then why do you say that I dealt the bank?" "You tipped," I answered. He looked at Sam Margules and asked, "Did I tip anything to you?" Sam said, "I don't know what this is all about." Then he said to Carlyle, "You're a pretty smart fellow, did I tip anything."

"I don't know what the Professor is talking about," Carlyle told him. "Well, he tipped to me. He dealt the bank," I said. "Okay, you're right, I dealt the bank. But," he said, "I tipped to you because you work for the government. You have access to the files. You're the brain." "Listen, you're taking the wrong attitude. I'm sorry I antagonized you, but I wanted to let you know I'm a member of the fraternity," I explained calmly. "You're too smart," he kept on, "I don't like you. Wait a minute, who made the best furniture that was ever made in this country?"

Of course I said Frank Tobey. "God damn!" he said. "How could you get this information except from the files. What kind of a man was Frank Tobey?" So I described this old friend of my wife's, "A very tall, handsome looking man, wore a big diamond ring." He was absolutely mystified and asked, "Who makes the best machines? The best hold-outs?" "Sullivan, the old man in San Francisco; but he's been dead now for many a year." "God damn it! Who ran a poker game in Miami, and went over to Cuba?"

"A fellow named Slim Caldwell." "Don't tell me you haven't access to the files. This is all in the files of the FBI," he accused me. After this he wouldn't ask me any more questions, but he said, "I'm going to show you something. Look." He showed me he had the Ace of Hearts on the bottom of the pack and he shuffled the cards and dealt. I

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE VOLUME 4 was sitting across from him and when he dealt to me this card just came off the bottom. I didn't think he was going to deal a bottom so I said, "Would you mind doing that again?" "Certainly, I'll do it again. He put it on the bottom and dealt the cards around again, and he dealt it to me. He did this three or four times. It was the most beautiful thing I ever saw. "You're certainly an expert, you must have played a lot of cards in your life," I complimented him. "I gave it up," he said. "I haven't played cards in sixteen years; I haven't touched a card. This is the first time in sixteen years. I used to beat all these cheating parasites around the country. All I did was look for cheaters. I can beat anybody in the world." "May I ask your name? I'd like to know just to see if I've ever heard it." "My name is Dan Cummings." At least that was the name he was using at this time. "You won't find me in the files of the FBI, not under that name anyway, that's why you don't know my name. I'm too smart, and I don't like you." Then he did a steal of three cards over and over again. He did it about seven times, and Carlyle said, "Vernon, this is the first time I've seen you absolutely perplexed." I asked him if he would mind doing that once more and he did. I could not see him palm those three cards. It was absolutely beautiful to watch.

"You're looking at original work, young man, original work," he told me. We'd sat so long talking to this guy in Barney's that it was after ten o'clock and they started to pull down the shades. They closed sharp at ten on Sunday nights. We went in there about five forty-five and sat all this time talking at the table. Dan Cummings was telling fascinating stories, all kinds of them. I didn't follow too closely as I didn't know whether to believe or disbelieve. "I used to gamble. I made fortunes and gave away fortunes. But I'm in a real game now. I make my money $250,000, $300,000 at a time," he bragged. "It might surprise you boys to know that I put Frank Hague, the mayor of Jersey, in office personally. I received $250,000 for that little job. There's no money in gambling allymore. If you win $60,000 in a town, I don't care if it's as big as Akron, Ohio, the district attorney, the town paper, everybody in town will hear of it. They'll run you out of town even

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART THREE 1939-1990s if you win it honestly. You'll be labeled a thief, a robber. You can't steal $300,000; but you put somebody in office and it's all hushed up. I play politics; that's my racket. The greatest game there is today." "How do you do it?" Carlyle asked. "My boy, just as you are fooling around with these cards, there are tricks, more tricks in politics than are ever thought of in the arsenal of a gambler. There are tricks of all kinds, you fix things." And so he got involved talking about politics, which I didn't know anything about and still don't. But Carlyle said, "It makes sense, it makes sense to me. You know your politics." The whole time we were sitting there the other customers were quite interested because we were all laughing and everyone was watching us. So Dan said, "Give them all a drink. Any kind of a drink they want. Champagne, open u p a couple of bottles of champagne." And they did, and they gave him a bill for $120. When he got up from the table he grabbed our checks and paid them, too. Barney's wanted to close u p and Dan asked, "Can't we sit here for a little while longer?" The waiter answered, "I'm sorry, we've got to close, but you fellows could sit here for a little longer." He pulled all the shades down and got to washing the glasses and cleaning the kitchen. We sat there for about another three quarters of an hour after the restaurant was closed and still talked. Then the busboy came over to wipe off the table and clean the glasses. Dan gave him a $20 bill. When the waiter came back to ask us to leave, Dan gave him another $20 bill to go with the one he gave him when he first cleaned the table. Then he asked, "Listen, you fellows, would you like to come over to the Maryland Bar?" He was talking to Carlyle and Sam, not me. He took a dislike to me because he thought I was the law. But Sam, who was not interested in the specifics of magic and only enjoyed producing magic shows, decided to go home. So that left the three of us, waiting to get a cab in front of Barney's Steak House. In those days, during the war, cab drivers were making money hand over fist and wouldn't pick u p anybody but a drunken soldier or a wealthy person who would norn~allyover-tip. Otherwise, if they were hailed, they just said they were off duty. It was very hard to get a cab. However, right as we came out, a cab pulled up, but the driver told us, "I'm going to turn in my ticket." And Dan Cummings said to him, "Wl~atan arm! Have you ever been

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE VOLUME 4 in the ring? Boy, what a physique! You must have been a fighter one time." "No, no, I never fought," the cabbie told him. "But I bet you wanted to fight," Dan kept on. "I've thought about it, why?" "Because, my boy, you could probably beat Dempsey. What a build; look at the shoulders on this man," he said as he started getting in the cab. And while he talked, the driver's whole attitude changed. "The old con, the old con," Dan said under his breath to us. "Works every time." And that's how we got to the Maryland Bar that night. Once seated at the bar, Dan ordered drinks for everybody. Now this wasn't a big bar, I'd say there were twenty people. Carlyle ordered a double because he was drinking pretty heavily at the time. And to pay for the round, Dan threw a $20 bill on the bar. When the bartender came back with the change, Dan pushed it back across the bar and said, "You know me by now, Earl." The bartender thanked him and kept the change. About six times he bought rounds of drinks, every time with a $20 bill and always told the bartender to keep the change. The drinks were only $3 or so and every time he told the bartender to keep the change. During the evening he gave a soldier and his girl $100 and he gave the fellow at the piano a $100 bill, twice-$200! "Are you drunk Dan? Are you O.K.?" Carlyle finally asked him. "Chicken feed," Dan answered. "Do you know how much money I get when I put someone in office? This is nothing, this is small change to me." We couldn't believe all the money he gave away. He gave the taxi driver who drove us to the Maryland Bar $20 and, of course, told him to keep the change. The fare was probably only $1.25! But, eventually, he ran out of cash. At one point he ordered another round and one for a soldier. When the drinks came the bartender waited to be paid. At that point Dan realized he didn't have anymore money so he told the bartender to put it on the cuff. I could see the bartender was disappointed because Dan wasn't going to give him a big tip this time. When it came time for the next round the bartender told him, "Dan, you know I can't give you the stuff unless you pay."

I thought, "What a parasite! Every time Dan bought drinks he gave the bartender the change fro111 a $20 bill. I wasn't drii-tking, only Francis

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART THREE 1939-1990s and Dan were drinking, that's all, just the two of them. The bill was $1.50, and he left the change every time from a $20 bill. Dan must have given him over $300 in tips and all the bartender could say was, 'Well 1 set you up there a minute ago for nothing. You know, I don't own the place'."

"I want drinks for a11 of us." Dan ordered. But the bartender was firm, "Dan, I can't. You know I can't do it, the drinks are counted." "All right," he said, and he walked out. I thought he had gone for good. This man was crazy! Carlyle and I were still sitting at the bar and I said, "Did you ever see anything like this in your life? The most phenomenal thing I ever saw. People wouldn't believe it. Here's a man who gives away hundreds of dollars. Now he's broke." But in a little while, Dan came back with a roll of bills, around $200. I know, because he spent it, too. He just threw the money away and went broke again! Then he turned to me and said, "Have you any money?" I knew I had exactly $9 in my wallet, four ones and a five. I took out my pocketbook and said, "I only have about $4 here." He was like lightning; he immediately reached in and pulled the money out and saw the $5 bill, "What's that?" "Oh," I said, "That's a $5 bill. Do you want.. ." "Put your money in your pocket. You spring like the law." and as he said that he looked at me in the most contemptible way. I'll never forget his exact words, "You spring like the law." Meaning that I was acting like the police. Then he asked if Carlyle had any money; and Carlyle took $10 out of his pocket and threw it right down on the bar. "This fellow's a sport. You're the law and I don't like you," Dan proclaimed. "Mr. Cummings," I said, "I made the wrong remarks to you and I'm sorry I offended you. But I can only say your card handling is brilliant. I can't conceive how you can deal a bottom with the cards flat on your hand without the cards spreading. " He turned to me and repeated, "I don't like you. You're the law, but I'll tell you something. It takes the touch of a billiard player, the touch of a billiard player." And with that he left the bar for good.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE VOLUME 4 Carlyle told me that Dan said for him to come to the bar the next night and he'd be glad he'd lent him that $10. Carlyle went back to the bar the next night, but the bartender thought Dan Cummings had left town. Months later, Carlyle ran into a fellow who'd met this same Dan Cummings out at the racetrack, and said Cummings had won $8,000. This fellow told Carlyle he had never spent such a hectic night in his life. In that one night they spent $8,000. Cummings didn't spend the money he gave it away! We found out later that he was married to a French girl who lived in a hotel on New York's Eastside. When we asked her where he was, she said that she had no idea. Dan was liable to show up anywhere, anytime.

"He shows up," she said, "throws money at me, buys me a mink coat or a roadster car and then l~e'sgone for six months. He's in politics, but I don't know what he does." This incredible man gave money away like a drunken sailor. I'd have loved to meet him again to see how he did those moves. Old Dad Stevens and Dan Cummings were the two finest card cheats I ever saw in my life. These fellows had both made a lot of money, Cummings got out of the business and into politics and Stevens was retired.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART THREE 1939-1990s

MILBOURNE CHRISTOPHER AND THE CUBAN LOTTERY During the days before Fidel Castro, Cuba used to have a national lottery with cash prizes often running into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Milbourne C h r i ~ t o p h e rand ' ~ ~ I were in Cuba for a convention of magicians and he had made a prediction about the lottery. He placed a piece of paper with the zoinning number on it into a locked box which was placed into the front window of one of Havana's leading banks. I was approached by the owner of the Tropicana, one of Havana's leading resort hotels, who asked me if Christopher had made the right prediction of the lottery numbers. My assurance to him that Christopher was a magician and not a person blessed with true psychic abilities did not lessen his concern. "If he's got the right number, it will cost me $300,000. I am one of the backers. Give me the low-down." I said, "I'll give you my word. He knows no more about the winning number than you or I do. This is a trick." This fellow was still not convinced, "It's in the window of the bank and they say he's got the winning number in there!" To cut a long story short, Milbourne Cl~ristopherwent through with the trick. The day for the revealing of his predicted number came and all the notables of the city, the Mayor, the Chief of Police and his staff, and many of Havana's leading politicians and citizens gathered in front of the bank for the opening of the locked box. And, in front of this prestigious and very cautious crowd, Christopher performed a masterful bit of substitution and produced a folded piece of paper upon which was written the perfect match to the winning lottery number. It was a very clever trick, but to do it under these circumstances took a lot of gall, nerve, and unflinching audacity on Milbourne's part.

1 4 7 ~ i l b o u r nChristopher e presented the first television network magic special, The Festival of Magic, a 90-minute show for NBC-TV in 1957. He was born in 1917 and died in 1984. He became a professional in 1933 and was a prominent exposer of occult fraud.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE VOLUME 4

ANNEMANN'S BULLET CATCH One of the most spectacular effects in magic is The Bullet Trick,

catclzing a bullet between the teeth. Ted Annemann did this trick and had a near-fatal experience with it at a performance in Glen Falls, New York in the early 1930s. When it came to the time of the exhibition, Annemann was standing in tiront of a brick wall and a stack of hay bails. He had already handed his rifle over to one of the local policemen of the town. But ...the police wouldn't allow Annemann to handle the bullet! Normally, at the right moment in this trick, he would exchange the real bullet for a fake one that disintegrated as it left the barrel of the rifle. Not this time. They loaded the real bullet into the gun and Annemann knew he was about to be shot and probably killed. He slowly walked up to the brick wall and stood, for a few seconds, with his back against it. This was true in more ways than one! Then he said, "Just a minute," and walked up to the man holding the rifle and whispered in his ear, "You have a real bullet in that gun, if you hit me it will be murder. So you better miss." Then Annernann walked back to the wall, maybe for the last time. In the bravest tone he could muster, he said, "When I count three fire." Annemann slowly counted to three and the fellow fired. He said he could feel the bullet whizz by his ear and strike the hay bales stacked against the wall behind him. Then he pretended to catch the bullet in his teeth and spit it out onto a plate.. .to great applause and great relief. This took a lot of nerve on Annemannls part; the man with the rifle might have thought he was just kidding about it being a real bullet.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART THREE 1939-1990s

ANNEMANN'S SUICIDE Ted Annemann was one of the first mentalists to gain recognition and popularity. He and Joseph Dunninger were the two leading mental acts of their day. I would never class Annemann as a great performer, perhaps an innovator in certain cases, but not a great performer. He never worked too much, but he did a great deal of writing. I think that's why he committed suicide; he was built u p far beyond his capabilities. He had appeared at the Palmer House in Chicago, and had special literature printed telling everyone he was a big star. The first show was such a let down, it just couldn't compete with all the build-up he had given it. Annemann had a nice little drawing room act but it wasn't at all suited for the large room at the Palmer House. It simply didn't register. He only did one or two shows and then they cancelled him. He was overbilled and he wasn't that strong a performer. In fact, this was the first big engagement he had ever had. He felt awful about this and started to drink. Then he got a booking at New York's prestigious Town Hall. He got so nervous about his performance at the Town Hall that he couldn't think straight. As the date of his performance drew closer, he just couldn't face it and committed suicide.14s

148~ditor'sNote: More infor~~~ation on Annemann's suicide can be found in Morlstev Midwny by William Gresham. Who, ironically, on learning he had incurable cmcer also committed suicide.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE VOLUME 4

ROY BENSON Roy Benson was a real trouper. He was practically born in a theater. Roy's mother was Dora Ford, one of the Ford Sisters, a class singing act in vaudeville. There were two major sister acts back then; the Ford Sisters and the Dolly Sisters.149Both acts possessed great beauty, both of face and form and of talent. There was another famous sister act back at the turn of the century, the Cherry Sisters, but they were in a league by themselves. The Cherry Sisters had the worst act ever seen 011 a vaudeville stage. They couldn't sing, they couldn't dance, but were a huge success just for those reasons. They were just a farce, but they played because they were so bad; sort of the Tiny Tim of their day. They were billed as "America's Worst Act" and had to perform their dramatic sketches behind a net to protect them when the audience threw vegetables and eggs. Roy's father was a dancer in vaudeville, but dropped out of his life after Roy's mother divorced him and married Mr. Schirmer of Schirmer's Music. Roy was pan~peredby his mother and new stepfather and had everything he wanted. He inherited his talent from his parents and picked u p a lot from Mr. Schirmer, too. Roy became one of the finest performers I ever knew. Besides being an excellent magician, Roy Benson was a fine pianist and played at Earl car roll'^'^ with Benny Goodman's group. Roy was best known for his work with a billiard ball. During the 1960s, he had a comedy magic act, but always finished with the multiplying billiard balls. Roy's act was really screwball. He would come out and fall to the floor, eat bananas and throw confetti into the air. His line of patter included some words about having gone to a psychiatrist to find out what was the matter with him and using the tag line, "I was sick then, but I'm fine now.. .I'm fine now.. . ." So there he is, lying 011 the floor, tossing confetti all around the stage, producing a lead pipe from a silk l~andkerchief,and then he brings out the billiard ball and immediately 1 4 9 ~ o l l ySisters, Jenny and Rosie, were identical twins born in 1892. They were considered the Gabors of their era as they were known for their many marriages to wealthy men. They began their singing and dancing act in 1909 at Keith's Union Square Theatre. In 1945, a movie entitled The Dolly Sisters was made of their life. Jenny committed suicide in 1941, and Rosie died in 1970. 1 5 0 ~ a rCarroll l wasan American theatrical producer and nightclub owner. He died in 1948.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART THREE 1939-1990s changes into a polished and expert magician. He had a comedy routine, but when he came to the billiard balls he ceased. He changed his complete character and became an artist doing a specialty number. He combined the two in a different way.

Roy Benson, 1940

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE VOLUME 4

O N BEING NATURAL Doc Elliott once told me there were two words which would sum u p the whole secret to magic: be rznfural. I used to think about this a great deal. In many ways this was similar to Robert-Houdin saying, "A good magician is an actor playing the part of a magician." Now I'm quite sure that what Robert-Houdin meant is that you must be an actor in every way when performing. In other words when you are doing a sleight you must be an actor about it, never just do a sleight for the sleight's sake; you must act. When you are doing something that you are not supposed to be doing, you must act as if you're not doing it. If you are palming a card, you must act as if you're not palming a card. You must not use gestures which would destroy the continuity. You must move naturally, talk naturally, act naturally. Of course, if you are doing your routine with an accent, whether Mexican, German, French, or any other language, then you must accommodate this, too, into a natural approach. So Doc Elliott said, "It's very simple, just be nattrral." That really appealed to me. There is only one small problem; it's not easy to be natural! It takes lots and lots of practice and concentration. In fact, this is the hardest thing in magic to overcome, because people are inherently honest and have certain inhibitions. For instance, when you touch something hot, you instinctively draw away very quickly. To touch something hot and rlof draw away quickly is unnatural. You've got to steel yourself to act normal and natural even when conditions are against such actions. In the old books, some of them say you must have "unflinching audacity." I remember so well when I was ten or twelve years old and knew I would be able to master the various feats of magic, like palming and the rest, but I doubted that I'd ever have that feeling of unflinching audacity. But I eventually learned that that's what you must have, you must be absolutely oblivious to the fact that you're doing a certain thing at the time. You must forget that you're doing it and be bold and audacious about it. Even if you feel you can't do a certain trick, you've got to approach it in the same way, not be guilty when you come to it. Just go through it even if you do it badly, but do it, and get it over with. It's just like a boy who comes in and lies to his father and hems and haws and puts his head down. If he comes in to his dad and says, "I'm sorry, I broke the window," and doesn't flinch and acts natural in this unnatural situation,

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART THREE 1939-1990s then the punishment tends to be less severe than if he acts differently. It's the same in magic as it is in life.

Dai Vernon entertaining during World War 11, February 21,1944

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE VOLUME 4

CRUISING In the mid 1940s I got into luxury cruising. I won't say by accident, but more because the idea appealed to me. I'd heard of performing on cruises from a great many of my friends. The first person that I knew to take a cruise and perform was Arthur Lloyd. He performed in vaudeville and was very good. His act consisted of producing any card called for from his pockets. Not only playing cards but calling cards, football tickets, club membership cards, any kind of card! He went out on a cruise and did magic for some of the passengers just for fun. The captain, or one of the owners of the ship line saw him and said, "This would be a great idea! Why don't we hire you to take a trip and do magic for the whole cruise. The passengers seem to enjoy it very much." They gave him the title Cruise Director and he began taking cruises on the Holland American line. He made the people happy by entertaining with magic and he told them things to see when they went ashore. He became quite popular on the Holland American line. Then he told Glenn Pope151 and another magician, Howard Brooks,lS2 about it and they started taking cruises. I knew all these fellows very well and they used to tell me about the cruises. They all took those short cruises down to Bermuda and Nassau and they'd only be out three, four days or a week.

I always had an idea in the back of my head that sometime, when I wanted a vacation, I'd take a cruise because they paid you, as well as giving you free passage, free accommodations, meals, everything. Five or six years later my dear friend, Francis Carlyle, took a cruise to South America. W11en he returned he told me that they were having auditions for people to perform 01.1 cruises. "It's pretty stiff competition," he said, "they get as many as fifty or sixty singers down there and pick only one. They would all like to have this job, sing a few songs, maybe once a week oil the ship's show, and get a trip to South America. They're ' " ~ l e n Pope was born in Texas in 1910 and learned by assisting Fasola, Thurston and Charlton. In 1926 he became a nightclub and stage magician touring the world in the 1930s and 1940s. He did the Vanishing Birdcage as his opener, and the Smoking Clay Pipes. ' l S 2 ~ o w a r dBrooks was a professional con~cdymagician who invented the Brassiere Trick in late 1930s.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART THREE 1939-1990s having auditions for magicians, too, but you won't have to audition if you'd like to go. I'm sure that Lou Lang, the booker, will book you and if he won't, I'll certainly speak to him." Francis thought that I wouldn't want to go down and do an audition.

I went down to see Lou Lang and Lou had already heard about me from Lou Tannen.153 He said, "Well, generally, we want to see what the person does but in your case I'll take Carlyle's word and I've heard that you do a good job. " I went on a cruise and did them for five years! I would be gone for thirty-eight days, and then come home for a week or so, and go right back out on another ship. I practically lived on the ships of the Moore McCormack Line for five years.

I seldom did any table or close-up magic. Occasionally, when the people were in the card room playing bridge, I might do a few tricks, but that's all. These were all regular stand-up shows, sometimes only one a week. The regular show on the ship, of course, always had an orchestra that would play for the dancing after. They generally had four acts: a male singer, a female singer, a magician and a dance team. Generally the dance team would close but after a while I closed the show. I used to do three quarters of an hour while some of the others would only do twenty minutes. This was never more than twice a week so it was a very easy and a very pleasant life. If there was a family on the cruise, a family with a little boy or a little girl, I might do a trick for them in the corridor or dining room. I would do tricks that you might d o around your own home when you felt like it. You didn't have to perform at all, except on the show. That was the only time you were obligated. We would stop at Trinidad, the Virgin Islands, Rio de Janerio, Montevideo, and Buenos Aires. In Buenos Aires we stopped for three days. We had all our expenses paid at the hotel and we also played a night club in Buenos Aires, a very fashionable night club. We were billed as "Famous American Acts" and we would be paid by the club. Then we would go to Sao Paulo. We would take the train, a little narrow gauge railroad, which went over to Sao Paulo. A beautiful city; it was marvelous the way they built this city in central Brazil. No access to the place, only this little narrow gauge railroad over the mountain. It's like Paris or like Brussels, beautiful marble, all kinds of statuary, a beautiful city. At the time I was down there they said it was the fastest 153~ouis T. "Lou" Tannen was born in New York City, New York in 1909 and started doing magic in 1918. H e toured the United States in his teens and opened his first magic shop in 1929. He ran Tannen's Magic Shop in NYC fro1111938 to 1974.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE VOLUME 4 growing city anywhere in the Western Hemisphere. These cruise ships were all subsidized by the government. They were all mail-carrying ships. I would be on one ship, Francis Carlyle on another, and John Booth154 perhaps performing on a third. The islands, especially Trinidad, had all kinds of nationalities; you would think you were in Ceylon. People came from all corners of the globe. They had English, Scottish, Irish, Indians, Negroes; all types including the famous Calypso singers. Quite a picturesque port. The natives would follow you around if you did magic there. I used to pick u p stones, throw them into my hand, and change them into a small coin. I used to have thirty or forty native boys following me around and I would tell them, just for amusement, that I could only change a certain shape or kind of stone into a coin. It was really amazing to see those little fellows scuffling around, looking for that certain type of stone. They used to think I was really magic. It was a great mistake to do this because when I would want to do something else, go on a sight-seeing tour or bicycling, I would literally be mobbed by these kids. When I left they'd wait the whole thirty-eight days for the next time I'd come. The ship would dock and when I got off I was greeted by a real reception committee which I was not too happy to see. Occasionally I would do some other kind of tricks for the natives. Once I used a trick originally do11e by Alexander Herrmann. A woman was in the street selling rolls. They were very cheap and I bought three. I took the first of them, broke it open, and took out a coin. Broke the others and took out more coins. The woman bundled u p the remaining rolls and hugged them, as much as to say, "Nobody's going to get anymore of these." I thought, "This is cruel. The poor woman actually thought there was money in these rolls which she herself had baked." They are a very primitive people, and magic has an absolute lure and fascination for them, something which civilized people find hard to comprehend. Without any trouble, I could have had a following. I can see how easily cults can be started. These poor people are in many ways just like little children.

154

Rev Dr. John William Nicholls Booth was born in Meadville, Pennsylvania in 1912 and learned magic froin W.J. Armstrong ("Armah") when he was fourteen. He was a promillent society, nightclub, and hotel performer from 1934 to 1940. Became an ordained Unitarian minister in 1942, until he retired in 1975. He has written nine books on magic: Slyer Mngicnl Mirncl~~s, Forgirtg Alrenri ill Mngic, Mnrr~elsof M!ystery, Tile joltrt Boot11 Clnssics, Ps!ycl~icPnrntioxes, Woirders ojMngic, Drnrrzntic Mngic and Crentiz~eWorld of Coi~jtlring.He has also written books on religion, travel, and genealogy under the name John Nicholls Booth.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART THREE 1939-1990s

A COUPLE OF FUNNY MOMENTS One of the favorite tricks of magicians is to have a card selected from the pack then suddenly toss the pack to the ceiling, leaving the selected card impaled there while the rest of the pack showers down to the floor. During my days on the cruise ships, I had planned to do this trick on a cruise to South America, but the ceiling of the ballroom had a lot of cross pieces and sections and it was hard to find a smooth surface to throw the pack u p against. Finally, I discovered one little space where I could throw the pack of cards; if I hit this space, the trick would be effective and all the people in the audience could see the card stuck up there. The show was going quite well and everybody was in good spirits. With great 6lan I tossed the deck of cards up towards the ceiling and, to my utter amazement, the whole deck disappeared! I stood there with a more amazed look on my face than any of the spectators in my audience; the whole pack absolutely disappeared in mid-air. What l ~ a dactually happened was that I had missed my original target spot on the ceiling and had tossed the cards directly into one of the air vents of the ship. It was a horn-like affair about four inches in diameter and I had hit it perfectly with the deck of cards. I stood there dumbfounded for a few seconds and then told my shocked audience, with as much matter-offactness as I could muster at the moment, "If someone will go to the upper deck, I am sure they will find all the cards face down, with the exception of the selected card, which will be face up." I don't think anyone actually took me u p on this little bit of bravado, but it was the highlight of my act and I received a loud round of applause for this spectacular trick. Then there was the trick with the clockwork deck. I used a special deck of cards that was made in Germany which had a hidden clockwork mechanism inside. When I called for the selected card, the mecl~anism would cause one to three cards to rise from the pack. I 11ad done the trick two or three times 011 different voyages and didn't plan to use it this particular night, when somebody made a request for the trick. I asked one member of the audience whether I should put the deck of cards on the floor, the piano, or have somebody hold tl~em.He said to put them on the grand piano.

I placed the cards there on end, in their case and asked this person

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE VOLUME 4 who selected the card to tell the card to rise from the pack. The man said, "Six of Spades rise." I looked over at the cards but nothing had happened. I told this person to call to his card again, but to speak louder. Again, nothing happened. Suddenly, to my consternation, I realized that I hadn't wound up the pack, the motor was dead. For a moment I didn't know what to do so I said, "Excuse me for just a second, I forgot something." I went out into the corridor of the ship where I had my little case of magic paraphernalia, picked out the key to the deck, which was on a rather large chain so I wouldn't lose it, and walked back out onto the ballroom floor, dangling the key. I took hold of the key and told my audience, "I have to wind up the pack." Now, this was a perfectly honest statement but it got a tremendous laugh from the audience. Winding u p the pack, I know, sounded ridiculous, but I actually did it. I pulled u p the last card, thus gaining access to the keyhole, put the key in, which made a loud sound-you could hear the ratchet--click, click, click. I wound it up, put the cards back in the case, and again told the person to order his card to rise. "Six of Spades rise." And the card came up beautifully. After my act had ended, a lady came u p to me and said, "Mr. Vernon,

I have seen you do that trick before. Please, in the future, never leave out that delightful little bit of comedy where you wind u p the deck, that was the funniest part of the whole trick."

Dai Vernon, 1945

H E FOOLED HOUDINI: PART THREE 1939-1990s

THE OLD VAUDEVILLE FORMULA In vaudeville, every act, whether it was a musical or magical act, had a formula. The idea was to open with something to attract attention, so the audience could size you up, decide whether they liked you or not, then in the middle, you could get along doing mediocre things as long as you had already pleased theni. For the finisli of the routine, you had to work u p to a climax aiid hit them with sonietliing really strong. This was a good act. 111other words, an act couldn't start off strongly, then peter out, and get weaker and weaker. It was this old vaudeville foriiiula whicli worked for me so well during my days 011 tlie stage, at private parties, and oil tlie cruise ships. I used about sixty tricks as a base for these shows and switched theni around to suit my various audiences; older people, young people, doctors, scientists, lawyers, the whole spectrum of types aiid professioiis. I'd look over the guest or passenger lists and match the people to the tricks and pick ail appropriate opening trick and a strong closing trick and d r o p in just about anything in between. That way, 110 two performances were exactly alike and I didn't get bored. A fellow once told me tlie l~ardestthing in tlie world is a finish for a magic act. The reason is, as a rule, at tlie end of your last trick, you're left at center stage aiid if you haven't got a curtain that can come down and end your act, you've got this long distance to walk off and, sometimes, the applause doesn't last long enough for you to make it without a dead spot. Most good acts have figured out this problem by simply ending their routine four or five feet from t l ~ ewings and then it's just a step or two offstage. I took tliis little problem about making a proper stage exit and figured out a fool-proof solution. With the help of Judson Cole, I worked out a closing bit using the American flag that was great. I finislied the last trick holding a flag. Cole gave me some special patter about tlie flag that went something like this; "It's a well known fact in tlie theatrical profession that whenever a performer waves the American flag he always receives thunderous applause." I would then give tlie flag the tiniest suggestion of a wave, aiid got a little applause right there. "Not always.. .but sometimes." Then I'd get more applause because the audience realized they hadn't applauded the flag loud or long enough. Tlien, 110 matter how much they applauded,

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE VOLUME 4 I would wave it and say, "Perhaps I'm in the wrong country?" That did it. The audience would break out with wild and thunderous applause and I would walk offstage, waving the flag. The tricks I did on the cruise ships were most of the ones I performed on land except for one thing; on the cruises it's not a good idea to use livestock. The ducks, bunnies, and chickens I used in my act were not very useful at sea. The rolling motioi~sof the ship make normally docile or even trained animals react strangely and reduce their effectiveness to almost zero. I found all this out the hard way and kept my little menagerie on dry land while I was sailing the Caribbean and entertaining my ocean going audiences. When it comes down to doing a show, for instance on a ship, you have to find the appropriate tricks to do that have visibility, that have appeal, that are entertaining, and that call be done under such adverse circumstances. The size of the room, the rolling of the ship, a seasick audiei~ce,all have a great deal to do with your selection; it's surprising how few tricks there really are. Of the literally thousands of tricks described in the literature of magic, I would say there are only about two hundred which can be performed satisfactorily on board a ship.

Dai Vernon and E. Leslie Briant, Buenos Aires ,October 26,1948

267

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART THREE 1939-1990s

OLD CARDS ...NEW CARDS I like old cards. I consider this a bad habit of mine but, unless you do break new cards in, they'll squirt out of your hands when you try to shuffle them. Dr. Daley used to think the same about new cards; you have to shuffle them and break them in or they won't deal well. I've known people like Garrick Spencer and Jimmy Drilling, who bought two new packs of cards every day (they would give their old cards to maids, doormen, bell hops, or any number of others); they bought them as some people buy a daily paper or cigarettes. They had to have clean cards, it was like a fetish. Some cardmen are like that. Their cards take on a little character all their own. Dr. Daley told me one time, "I'll bet if you, Cliff Green, and Cardini all fooled around with a pack of cards and then laid them down on a table, I could tell you who fooled around with which pack." I know some fellas who work wit11 a pack of cards for only a few minutes and they're ruined. The cards are worthless after they get through with them. Others work wit11 a pack and they'll still be in good order. Nate Leipzig was very particular. If he saw someone work with a deck of cards the wrong way, he would never let the fellow shuffle a deck of cards for him. If he was showing something to someone, he always had an extra deck of clean cards safely sitting in his pocket. Other magicians never lend their cards to anyone, and some people lend their cards to everybody. That's when tl~ingscan go wrong, because no two people handle cards the same way. Some people have a deilfil gnp, or they bend them a certain way and ruin them for anyone else to use. It's like a cabinet maker; he has a special tool, a hammer, and it has a special feel for him. It is the same with a magician and cards; the cards are the tools of the magician and each deck and each pair of hands is different from any other. There is something about the ii~gredientsthat go into the cards. People don't realize how complicated it is to make good playing cards. Good cards stay flat. Good cards are opaque, you can't see through them. Good cards stand u p to wear, they're not just cardboard. Good cards are smooth and the companies that make them are very careful to protect the methods whereby they manufacture these cards. Some of the exclusive private clubs, such as the Harvard Club, The New York Athletic Club, and other clubs and casinos, such as those in Las Vegas and Atlantic City use special club stock cards (which are made with very good stock).

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE VOLUME 4 But it is the "Bee" back (the checkered-back cards) which are the best cards for general use. T11e Hoyle Company makes good cards but the "Bee" cards made by the United States Playii~gCard Company are the best. The only reason magicians don't use this pack all the time is because it has no border. Some of the cards I use include the Bicycle back and the Tally Ho back. Then there's the Aristocrat, which was made by the American Bank Note Company, the same people who make most of the world's money. The Aristocrat deck was engraved by the same master engravers who designed currency and were supposed to be the most perfect design, the most perfect end to end. The fact is, there is no such thing as a card that is perfect end for end. I used to have a standing $20 bet that I could find an imperfection in the design of any card. I also had a standing bet at the time (when my eyes were good) that if any four cards from a deck were laid out and I studied them and then looked at a fifth card, I could pick that one out of the five, or even out of the whole pack. For instance, we have a Three of Clubs and we mix it wit11 four other cards. First, of course, I would have looked very carefully at the Three of Clubs and studied its back for the most minute of imperfections, either in the grain or in the printing. I would check it and double check it and when the card was mixed into a group of other cards, I would be able to find it. I had very good eyes. No two cards have the same imperfections. It's almost like a person's fingerprints; check a card carefully and you can find its secrets. The reason you can't use this technique to win at poker or in doing magic is the simple fact that no one, including me in my best days, can memorize all fifty-two cards in a pack. I would be hesitant to estimate the size of the card making industry in this country as compared to other industries. Of course, it isn't as big as our largest companies, but I would be willing to bet that there is a deck of cards in almost every home in America, even homes without a car or telepl~one.Many homes have more than one pack of cards sitting in the bottom of a dresser or in a desk drawer. There are poker decks, bridge decks, rummy decks, solitaire decks, canasta decks, old decks, unopened decks, and decks wit11 more than a few cards missing. There are even plastic decks, altl~oughthese are usually found in casinos, not in a normal person's l~ome.Magicians don't use them because they have a tendency to slide; there's no cling to them so they're not good for magic. There are a lot of tricks that can be done with them, but they're really not good for doing sleight of hand magic. I always use the wide poker size cards. One reason is that the narrow bridge cards annoy me; annoy my artistic eye. If I have one talent it's an artistic tendency, and the narrow card isn't artistic, it's out of proportion. It's what they call the "artist's mean", such as a commercial 8 by 10

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART THREE 1939-1990s photograph. Things always conform to that proportion, whether it's enlarged or reduced. Things that don't conform to that proportion are not so pleasing to the eye. People don't realize it, but where a card is made has a lot to do wit11 its physical properties. Cards made in England bend more easily longitudinally than d o cards made in America. The English cards are very soft, partly d u e to their being a bit narrower than American cards and vice versa; American cards are stiffer because of their slightly extra width. The average person doesn't know how complicated a card is. Because of my being in t l ~ esilhouette business, I have made a study of all sorts of papers including playing card stock. A lot of people don't know that paper has a grain and many papers are made wit11 various ingredients and plies; playing cards are made in three plies or layers. If you strike a match and light the corner of a card and let it curl open, it will generally break into its different laminatio~~s. The middle of a playing card is a thicker "filling" and on each side there is a thin layer, making it a three ply process. The face a n d back is the slick coating. Under a microscope, some packs of cards exhibit a tendency for the edges to wear with a concavity. The filling is softer than the outside so they wear with a definite concave appearance. Other cards have a strong central filling and the outside is not of as good a quality, and they wear with a roundness to the edges. The Englisl~cards have a tendency to be of the second type, they wear with round edges, and are much easier to buff sllufle or to Fcrro slztrffle. People think when they go into a store and buy a Bicycle deck with a red back, that if they go into another store, even in anotl~ertown, and buy another pack of Bicycle cards with a red back, they're getting exactly the same design and are getting a n identical product. There's the greatest variance in the world between these two decks of cards. It all depends 011 what run and in what mill they were made. The paper varies greatly, too; one might get exactly the same stock, same weight, same everything, but each run is different. You'll get a deck of Bicycle cards sometimes that buckle a n d warp, and just won't lay flat. They're no good, not only the pack but the whole carton, the wl~olerun. So people who are fastidious about these things, go into a drug store and buy a pack of cards from a carton and open them u p and shuffle them and see if they feel right. If so, they then buy several more packs or the entire carton to insure the proper cards for their needs. Jimmy Drilling used to write to the factory and ask them where they sent their good runs of cards and they would write back and tell him, as well as they could, to what parts of the country the good cards were sent. And Jimmy would actually travel to some of these places around the country and buy the cards the company said were the best ones they made. It sounds funny,

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE VOLUME 4 but to Jimmy and to others just like him, it was the only way to guarantee quality in the cards they used in magic or gambling. As Leonardo da Vinci used to say, and I am quite fond of quoting, "Details make for perfection. Perfection is no detail."

Dai Vernon, George Jason, Emil Jarrow, John Mulholland, A1 Flosso, and Roy Benson at Jarrow's birthday party, May 16,1948

I-E FOOLED HOUDINI: PART THREE 1939-1990s

AUTHORITY I've dabbled in every kind of magic and have done all kinds of tricks except the illusions. I've been backstage on many occasions with many of my magician friends, and they presumed I knew all the ins and outs. I confess I haven't always known what they were doing with some of these illusions. There is as much of an art in handling certain apparatus as there is in smaller tricks, but I have found that anyone with a talent in sleight of hand, who understands the principles of concealment, misdirection, and timing, always makes a much better illusionist than does a fellow who just thinks that all he has to do is put showmanship into it. When it comes to making a secret move, or opening a panel, or adjusting a catch, the sleight of hand illusionist will instinctively know how to do it under cover of a natural move or gesture and the effect will be so much better heightened by this special talent. It gives the entire act the authority it needs to succeed with the audience. Judson Cole's favorite word was, "authority". Many years ago Cole said to me, "On the stage some people have authority and others don't. Some magicians walk out onto the stage and you know immediately they've got authority. They have a certain something that captures the audience, captures their imagination." I remember, when I was a kid, seeing certain acts in vaudeville. The moment they walked out, I instinctively knew they weren't going to be any good. On the other hand, sometimes I would see someone I instantly knew was going to be good; not in magic alone, but in other acts as well. Some acts had a natural authority and some acts had to cultivate it, performing for many audiences over many years.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE VOLUME 4

THE FATHER OF THE MODERN LECTURE SERIES Lectures for magicians are an idea of fairly recent vintage. As near as I have ever been able to trace it, in this country at least, the first person to ever do any kind of a lecture for magicians was Dr. Harlan Tarbell. Doc Tarbell was always interested in creating better magicians. He wrote his Tarbell Course in Magic in the late 1920s and it is in print even today. Every magician should study it, as many of the ideas, methods, and effects came from the finest magical minds of the era. These include Cardini, Paul Fox, and loads of others. He gave a lecture to magicians in Colon, Michigan at Abbott's annual "Magical Get-TogetherU.'55 His talk was on showmanship and presentation, I don't think he showed them how a single trick was done. What he did was show the handling which should be used with different pieces of apparatus; the Rice Bowls and so on. "It's better to turn the bowls over towards the front," he would say, "don't turn them towards the rear. Do it in this way and you'll have a much better act,"-he gave them a few tips. It was a year or so later that George Karger and George Starke,'56 who started the Stars of Magic releases, approached me and said, "There are so many magicians always bothering you to take lessons and you won't give them. It would be a great idea if we could get a gang together and you could give a great big lesson a lecture for several hundred fellows. Show them some tricks and explain them, show them the best way to do it, a kind of talk."

I told him that many times I'd thought of a big class like that, but never went ahead with it. This time we gave it a try. Karger and Starke 155~bbott'sMagic Get-Together is held in Colon, Michigan. It started in 1934 and continues to the present. Percy Abbott and Harry Blackstone founded the Blackstone Magic Company in Colon in 1929 which lasted until 1931. Abbott then opened his own company in 1933 and is still operating. Its annual conclave draws an attendance of around 1,000. 156~eorgeStarke was a city marshal and a judge in New York City from 1951. He took lessons from Sam Horowitz in the late 1930s and edited the Stnrs of Mngic series which ran from 1945 to 1952.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART THREE 1939-1990s had tickets printed and advertised; and believe it or not, the federal government tax man was right there at the door to grab twenty-five percent of the receipts. I think I had something like 300 people there, at $5 each! Everybody in New York and Jersey attended that lecture. Later, George Starke said he wished he hadn't given the federal man the money, as this was a guild not a public show. He could have easily evaded that tax because it wasn't for amusement in the true sense of the word. Anyway I gave the lecture and it was a great success. After that, they had the idea that I could come to New Jersey and d o a lecture, which I did, and I gradually built up a small circuit. Finally, Chick Schoke, who was a magical politician from Chicago, lined up twenty-nine places for me to lecture, first Chicago then Milwaukee, Des Moines and so on; he sent me an itinerary. I gave him twenty-five percent for booking. I said I would rather give it to him than to a government man. I didn't have to give anything to the goveri~mentand I didn't have to chase lectures. He looked after the bookings, the airplane passage, everything! That's when I first came to the coast, in 1947. I gave a lecture at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, and then I went to Seattle, Sail Francisco, then Vancouver. I covered the whole territory, came back in through Chicago, then home to New York-twenty-nine lectures in a little over a month. I gave a lecture practically every day. Since then I've given hundreds and hundreds of lectures; in fact I've always thought it would be interesting to have somebody with me on the tour who would take notes and photographs-tl~en I could come back and give another lecture about the tour. Show them all the pictures of the different magicians in the different clubs, it would be very interesting to the magic world. After I started this lecture circuit, it got to be laughable, everybody began giving lectures. Even fellows that had only been in magic a couple of months. I guess when a magician sees a bad lecture they should blame me, as I'm guilty of being the father of the modern lecture series.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE VOLUME 4

GREAT TRICKS One of the best tricks, and most fun, is to get a little boy who knows that a penny is money. But he also must know that there are more valuable coins. You take a penny, and change it into a nickel. That's all you ever have to do for that little boy. He'll pester you until you can't stand it. When you change a small coin into a bigger one, children will watch this trick endlessly. One of the greatest tricks in magic for appealing to people is the Miser's Dream. It's everybody's dream to be able to pluck money from the air. One of the prettiest is a levitation, not a suspension. A suspension is where the person just remains suspended in mid-air. But to see a person slowly float up into the atmosphere and the magician pass a hoop around them, like Kellar did, is the most magical effect I can imagine. Of course, now we are in the space age and they really can make a person float. But to see this done, it is a very beautiful and magical effect. It's debatable whether a production or a disappearance is more startling. It all depends on the time, the setting and the place. A disappearance can be very striking, when another time a production would be more startling.

A metamorphosis, a change or two objects changing place, whether they're two human beings, two balls or two playing cards can be quite bewildering. My boy, Ted, doesn't do much magic but what he does do, he does superlatively. He told me that he'd discovered that of all the things he did the most startling thing was a transposition. Two cards changing place, this is very hard to do well, as I find there is a slight confusion as to what is where. But he thought it was the best, perhaps double-barrelled, effect. He considered this a very strong effect. I was the first magician to do The Stop Trick. This seems to fall into the category of great tricks. The spectator tells you to stop dealing the cards anytime he likes and, somehow, he stops at the very card he selected. In Hoffmai~n'sbooks, he says, "Force by gaze," (that's the translation). It means force by your demeanor, your expression. In my act I would deal the cards on the table, look at my subject and say, "Now.. .I will deal these cards until you think I have enough on the table; stop me any time you like."

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART THREE 1939-1990s I was phenomenally successful at this; just a keenness of perception in judging a person, knowing the type that would deal way down deep and the type that would stop you on the first couple of cards. Once a fellow actually went down to the second to last card! I found out that when I told people, "This is the trick that fooled Houdini," and then did that trick they were enthused about it. Then, not being able to leave well enough, alone, I wondered if they were enthusiastic about the trick or if they were enthusiastic because this is the trick that fooled Houdini. Each night I would do a different trick and say, "This is the trick that fooled Houdini." I discovered that it wasn't the trick, it was the fact that it was The Trick That Fooled Hotidirli that excited them.

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STARS 3F' Itl

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Ticket from Dai Vernon's first lecture

(upper) Dai Vernon lecturing on "How it's done" in St. Louis, 1947

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE VOLUME 4

SIMPLE IDEAS DRIVE PEOPLE CRAZY To give an example of how a simple idea can make people crazy, I'll tell you a very trite one that was my own idea. When I was a boy in Canada I'd scatter three or four cards face down on the street of the route home from school. I'd tear a small corner off one and put a dirty spot or mark 011 another so I could tell them from their backs. Perhaps the next day, or late that same day, some of the boys and I would be walking by and there would be one or perhaps two of the cards still there. Remember, that to see an occasional card on the railroad tracks or in the street was not unusual in these days. If one of the boys didn't mention the cards, I wouldn't do anything-I was very cagey in those days. But once one of the boys said, "Hey, you're a magician. There's a card, tell me what that card is!" "I'm not a miracle man," I'd tell him, "I can't d o miracles, but wait a minute ..." and I'd pretend to think and I'd name the card. This floored him!

I did it in New York a number of times, too. I'd plant the cards on the street and once one of them fell down into a grating. The shopkeeper happened to be cleaning out the basement as a fellow and I were walking by. We stopped to look through the grating and the man I was with said, "There's a card down there; let me see you name that card." "That's the Nine of Clubs," I answered. "Get that fellow down there to pick it up and show you." The man, who was cleaning, picked it u p and, of course, it was the Nine of Clubs! This is a "miracle"; people want to believe. That's why there are so many believers in spiritualists and mediums. They don't know that the medium has been out in the cemetery and gotten information from the tombstones. Later the spiritualist arranges to meet the son of the man whose tomb he saw and he uses this information. The son is absolutely astounded, he has never seen this man before, but the things 11e says are correct. Some of these characters are so clever that they can hoodwink almost

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART THREE 1939-1990s anyone, make them a believer or get money out of them. In the old days magic was used as a power, there was plenty of that kind of thing going on. They made the gods talk or made them appear in different parts of the town at the same instant. This is pure fraud, of course, but it's also deception, like magic. They would go to any length to deceive. With a magician, it's playing the part of a magician, pretending he has all these powers. As entertainment it's good, but if it's used this other way it makes people believe things that aren't true. Many magicians won't do a mind-reading trick because they don't want to further the belief in mind-reading. Enlightened people should know better. As a rule, the brighter a person is the more they enjoy a good magic trick. They know it's for entertainment. Ignorant people think it's a challenge, an insult to their intelligence and if they can't see how it's done they're terribly annoyed. They think you're trying to show that you're smarter than they are. And the more simple the effect, the more they are fooled.

Dai Vernon and Charlie Miller, 1930s

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"A POCKET TRICK" The first time I ever saw Coe Norton work was at a lecture he gave on magic in New York. He had a fairly large audience of 300 or 400 people and the one trick that has stuck with me the longest, since the early 1950s, was a simple little pocket trick involving an imaginary spool of thread. He introduced the trick this way: "I teach drama, and everybody has some histrionic ability of some kind. Everybody wants to get into the act. I will prove my point. I want two people in the audience, who have never been on a stage in their life, never done any acting, to come u p onto the stage." So, he got a young fellow and a young girl to come up, and he positioned them one on each side of himself. Now he said, "Have either of you ever done any acting?" No, they never had. They were both rather shy and reticent. "Well," he said, "I'm going to make actors out of both of you. Now, you must imagine we're handling a spool of thread. You must imagine we're handling things when we're not handling them at all. Here's a spool of thread. You see it?" They both nodded. "I'm going to ask you to hold one end of the thread." Norton then handed one end of the invisible thread to the girl and continued, "Now, don't drop it.. .hold it a little nearer the end. That's it." The girl held the thread as Norton pulled a little more off the spool and cut it and gave the other end to the young man. Norton did a little business of how they should be careful not to get the thread tangled in his tie, and soon, Norton produced a pencil. He placed it lengthwise on his hand so the point extended over the end of his fingers and the eraser end laid in the palm of his hand. He instructed his helpers to lower the thread while he placed the tip of the pencil over the imaginary thread. "Now, very gently and carefully, lift the thread and see if you can lift the pencil," he instructed them. So they both lifted their end of the thread and the pencil moved upward! The eraser end stayed anchored on his palm. The entire audience laugl~edand applauded. He had the young man and girl lower the pencil and let go of the thread and ended the trick to more applause. Norton made an entire production out of an elementary little trick. He could have done the trick simply, and everybody might have said, "How does he do that? Does he have wax or gum on the eraser of the pencil or on his hand? Perhaps a magnet?" But Norton had a flair for this type of

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART THREE 1939-1990s trick and gave it a twist that made it all the more ei~tertaining.

Dai Vernon, 1953

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HOW TO BE EFFECTIVE I am quite convinced, firmly convinced, that the most effective trick you can do for a person is one that you can make happen in their own hands-when they, themselves, are controlling the action. As an illustration of this: one of the great card tricks presented by Paul Curry is Out of This World, where somebody sorts all the black cards from the red cards without looking at them. The performer appears to take no part in it except to supervise. The spectator handles the cards himself and produces this marvelous result.. .sorting the red from the black. I d o a trick I consider one of my strongest tricks; letting somebody hold a half-dollar or a silver coin in their hand, and removing the coin from their hand. If I did this trick on a table, or put the coin in an envelope and then made it disappear, or put it in a box, or steal it out of wrapped piece of paper-it doesn't have anything like the impact that a trick l ~ a swhere the person, himself, holds the coin and it vanishes right out of his hand. It's fantastic! He'll say, "Do that again,". . . "Do it for my wife,". . . "Show that to my little boy." Because what impresses him is that he doesn't think there is any room for trickery; he's holding it.. .he's lzolding it!. This same idea applies to many tricks. You can take a card face down in your hand and in some way excl~angeit for another card. In other words, the card has been changed for a different card and it's a good trick. But if you do this same trick and, instead of holding the card yourself, you let another person hold the card and say to him, "You won't believe this, but wl~ileyou are holding that card I will cause it to cl~ange ..." and then snap your fingers and 11e turns it over and he finds he's holding the Three of Diamonds instead of the Ace of Clubs.. .this is great! This trick truly astounds him and he'll tell his friends that yozl are a great magician. This is strong magic. Of course, you can't do this in a theater. You can't have everybody holding something, but that's why intimate magic can be so frightening sometimes. Truly amazing to a person.

I have often thought that by letting someone else hold the cards or apparatus, it would enhance t l ~ etrick a thousand-fold. If a man or woman is holding an object and that object changes, grows, diminishes or disappears ...they have no explanation, some power must have done it and therefore it has a tremendous impact on tl~emand the entire audience as well.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART THREE 1939-1990s I like any trick that's mysterious or has some kind of a mysterious effect, otherwise it's not magic. There are a lot of gags and funny things, jokes and so-called hoaxes; these are not mysterious, but if it's something that seems beyond the pale, goes against the laws of nature, then it's

magic.

Dai Vernon in the William Penn Hotel, Pittsburgh, PA, 1945 (upper ) Hersy Basham, Jay Marshall, Charles Slayton, Bob Stull, and Dai Vernon, 1945

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE VOLUME 4

CLASSICS Many people seem to think that I'm terribly fond of the Linking Rings, the Cups and Balls and all the classics. The truth is I'm not particularly fond of them, but they go over well, people like them. I'm a great believer in classics in everything: design, clothing, neckties, everything. Fads come and go but the classics are always good. If you have a well tailored suit it can last for years. The same way with motor cars; good taste, good lines, it can last for years. It's the same with magic, these old classics have stood the test of time, you know that people are going to enjoy them. As I mentioned earlier there are only a few classic card tricks from which all other card tricks derive. There's the Rising Cards, any form of rising cards. There's the traveling cards or Cards Up the Sleeve, where cards pass from one place to another. Then there's the transformation of cards, where the card face changes, or a color changes, or visible change, or whatever transformation it might be. There are the tricks derived from diminishing cards or enlarging cards. Everything is a variation in some way or another of these basic tricks. Arthur Finley claimed that all these good card tricks came from the Middle East originally, and nothing was ever originated in this country. He said that long before America was discovered they were doing these card tricks. Finley used to try to trace these tricks, and he said he thought two or three of the classics originated in France, such as the Four Ace Trick, and, maybe, the Diminishing Cards, but the others came from Turkey or Persia. Even Poker is not native to America. They used to play the game on the waterfront of New Orleans I50 years ago or more, and called it poque. Some guy might have called it p o k y and another says yokey and finally it became poker. But it was originally p-o-q-u-e, poque. But, no matter who invented them, the classics have a beautiful conception. Well rendered, the Linking Rings, the Egg Bag and the Cups and Balls are wonderful; but to take these things and butcher them is far worse than butchering some of these modern tricks. There are hundreds of different renditions just as there are hundreds of conductors of symphonies. Each conductor will take that same classic and render it differently, still adhering to certain basic principles. He never deviates from certain basics that one must adhere to. You can vary, put in all kinds of embellishments, but you must stick to certain basics, just as you must adhere to certain basic rules wl~endoing legerdemain. You can vary them

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART THREE 1939-1990s and put embellishments on them, but you must stick with the basics. Each trick should be like a play; there should be a beginning, a middle, and a climax. In the opening of the trick you are getting the viewer's attention, something interesting must happen right away. After you've laid the foundation of the trick, you gradually control the middle part until you're ready to move the trick to a good climax. Some tricks I've seen don't have this construction. Either it wasn't well planned by the magician attempting it or it wasn't a good trick right from the start. Henry Christ157made a good comment on this. He said, "The trouble with the average fellow who wants to invent a good trick is, he goes about it in the wrong way. Normally he has a good sleight, an undetectable move and he tries to make u p a trick that will suit this sleight; but nine times out of ten, this trick will be weak. You need to think of the effect you want to create, think of the effect, don't think of the method at all. Then, try to create the effect with whatever tools you have. You must decide what effect you want first." You must decide what effect you want first and not work around some sleight you're enamored with at the moment. In a trick, you have to make u p your mind which way you're going to d o it. I still have a weakness of trying to put too much into a trick, and that's a big problem because you can't incorporate all the ways there are to do a trick into only one. You have to decide which is the best way and let it go at tl~at.It's a lesson I'm still trying to master.

1 5 7 ~ e n rT. y Christ was an advertising executive who was born in 1903 and passed away in 1972. He was a very creative amateur card inan who was active in New York's inner circle for many, iuany years.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE VOLUME 4

AN ORIGINAL THOUGHT I always work out several methods for doing a single effect. This is because I, myself, am always changing. I'm in a coi~stantstate of flux. I could never decide which side of my hair to part, whether to write slanting or straight up and down, because all these had an attraction. I had to decide on one, but I never could decide which was the preferable way. I was this way about everything, I could never decide. In a trick, you have to make up your mind how you're going to do it. Charlie Miller helped me a great deal when he made a comment years ago in Wichita. I had told Charlie that I thought he was a very discerning person and I wanted him to sit down and watch the same trick five different ways. Each one of these five ways was entirely different. I asked him to tell me which way was the best. After I did all five, Charlie said that t l ~ efirst one could be discarded and he didn't like the third one either. So I was down to three, then he had me do the three about eight or ten times. At last he said, "Throw that last one out, the other two are better." Now I was down to two. I must have done those two twenty times and Charlie said, "I can't choose between these two." "No two things are alike; there must be one that's better than the other." I said. Cl~arliekept saying he could see absolutely 110 difference, he couldn't choose. Finally, he said, "Whicl~one of those is the most original with you?" I said, "This last one is entirely my own thinking. The other one is a combination of something Leipzig used to d o and my own, it's a composite. The first one is entirely original."

So Charlie said, "Definitely do the one that is original with you. This will always grow and improve because it is your original thought. The other one won't develop since it's not an original thought." Your own tl~oughtwill develop. This is certainly right; anything that you create, nobody can do it better. It's part of your thinking, it belongs to you. I've often thought about that since Charlie said it, he was perfectly right.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART THREE 1939-1990s

ART IN THE CRAFT It's very difficult to put your finger on where art begins and the mundane leaves off because they overlap. It's a very nebulous thing. Personality plays a great part in it. Like when I was a boy, there were a lot of people who didn't think Paderewski was a great pianist. I'm talking about true music lovers, they spoke of him as being too light and so on. But, you see, he had something as he proved in later life, when he became the premier of Poland. He really was a humanitarian. He was a great man. When he sat down to play he looked wonderful with that shock of hair. I'll never forget him, even if he hadn't played, just to see him enter was something. The way he approached the instrument, this was artistry. I remember thinking later, when he devoted his life to Poland, he was not just an ordinary man. Yes, he was a Gypsy who played wonderful music but he was also a true statesman, a great man. Everything a person does in life is important. To be a true artist it takes much more then the audience sees on the stage.

Doc Daley, A1 Baker and Dai Vernon, Peoria, Illinois, 1946

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TRAVELING MAGICIANS When I was a boy, some of the itinerant magicians used to go around to the schoolhouses and put on little shows for the children. These magicians would work out a little deal with the school board and, perhaps, a geography or history class would be cancelled and a little magic show would be held in the school auditorium. Some of these magic shows would cost us seven cents admission, or five cents and a potato! The potato was probably cashed in by the magician for money at one of the local grocers. Every kid could get a potato by swiping one from his mother's pantry or cellar thereby guaranteeing a large audience for the magic show.

I remember one magician who was called "Two-Ten Daniel". The stories about how he got his nickname, which was not true, included that if you counted his fingers and toes he had two times ten digits. In another version that his shows, which were to start at 2:00 p.m. always began around 2:10 p.m. This is the most logical and more than likely the way the name started. I played a few of these school shows myself, but I wasn't a real children's entertainer. Of my brief sojourn into performing for kids, my trip to Ireland has to be my most memorable experience. Faucett Ross and I were in Ireland visiting Faucett's grandfather and ended u p putting on magic shows in various halls and buildings all over the Emerald Isle. On one particular occasion, we drove way out into the country and put on a show in a cow shed, with bare old dirty boards and a little stage made of sawhorses and planks. School children, numbering about 125 and all dressed in their Sunday best, were coming over little stone bridges with their teachers. They must have walked four or five miles just to see our little show. These Irish youngsters had never seen a moving picture in their lives, nor any other entertainment except their own schoolmates reciting, singing, or doing little dances-certainly never a professional show on stage. You can imagine the reaction when they saw a man like Faucett Ross take a shining champagne bucket and pour silver coins, from their hair or their clothes, into it. They were absolutely fascinated, with mouths wide open and eyes sparkling with joy and amazement. In a land where they talk about seeing leprechauns, these children probably thought they were seeing real live,

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART THREE 1939-1990s sophisticated leprechauns at work. Later that night, Faucett Ross and I put on another show for the adults, most of whom were the parents of the childre11 we performed for earlier that day. The kids must have told their parents about us, and a few probably got a good spanking for lying. This time, our show was staged in a quaint Irish pub, complete with a great roaring fire in the stone fireplace. Their normal entertainment was usually a lone fiddler accompanied by another fellow on the harmonica, but, on this night, they got two pretty fair magicians and a heck of a show. In that town we were gods and the people looked at us with awe.

Dai Vernon, 1960s

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THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS One of the greatest gag tricks I remember was one that was pulled by Ken AllenlSs at a magic convention many years ago. In all the old hotel bathrooms they had a little mirrored medicine cabinet above the wash basin where they kept toilet articles. This fellow, Allen, happened to open u p the little cabinet and noticed something like a door at the back of the cabinet. He gave it a little push and the door opened and he looked into the next room. 111 other words, the medicine cabinet from the neighboring room was back-to-back with this cabinet. There was a special door which had happened to come unlatched and was just large enough for a person to crawl through and move from one bathroom to the other. Allen came u p with a great idea and planned a very good trick. He waited for his room to fill with fellow magicians, as they always d o during such col~ventions,excused himself and walked into the bathroom, making sure everyone knew he was in there. Five minutes elapsed and nothing happened. Someone knocked 011 the bathroom door but there was no reply. A couple of fellows went into the bathroom but Allen was gone! They looked out of the window-there was a sheer drop of eleven stories and no possible escape. Everyone in the room looked around for Allen but couldn't find him; they were absolutely flabbergasted. News of Allen's disappearance spread through the entire hotel like wildfire and caused a panic for a time until he reappeared and walked out of the bathroom unharmed. He finally told how he had disappeared from the bathroom by crawling through the medicine cabinet but a lot of people left the convention without hearing his explanation and some of them are probably still wondering how he did it.lS9 One of the magicians in attendance at the coi~vei~tion was Bob Towner.l{a While everyone was still talking about Allen's disappearance, 1 5 ' ~ e nAllen was a professional performer and magic dealer.

15Y~ditor's Note: Another description of this unforgettable stunt can be found in The

Berg Book by Joe Berg, David Avadon and Eric Lewis. l G O ~ o b eHarlen rt "Torchy" Towner; "The Great Rinaldi" and "Harlan" were other names this professional illusionist and fire-eater used. He was an assistant to Virgil in the

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HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART THREE 1939-1990s Towner made a n annoui~cement:"I'm going to show you a much stranger disappearal~ce."H e suddenly fell to the floor and was gone. At least that's what everybody said. Of course, it was a little bit exaggerated, but it was a wonderful illusion. Some of the Hollywood-type clothing of the time had very bright linings. Towner had noticed that the lining of his jacket had a dark red floral design that perfectly matched the design 011 the carpet. Now, all he did was twirl around in the middle of the room, throw his jacket off, turn it inside out, throw it over his head and shoulders, and kind of curl up. It created a n illusion a s if 11e suddenly disappeared or evaporated. Everybody was laughing, they knew what it was; it didn't really fool them, but the idea and the execution was very clever. Coupled with the disappearaizce of Ken Allen, Bob "Torchy" Towner's trick was very effective. These sort of goings on always seem to be happening whenever magicians get together. And magicians never seem to have any regard for the clock when they go to a magic convention. They don't want to miss anything or anybody and spend a lot of their time flowing from room to room talking and performing magic. It isn't u ~ ~ u s uto a lsee a room totally full of magic folk, talking and drinking and watching some other fellow d o a few card tricks or simple illusioi~s.On one occasion the hotel, in desperation, wanted to chase everybody out of a room, so they turned off the main power switch. All the lights went out, but a couple of guys had pocket flashlights. Over in a corner of the room there they were, shining their little lights onto a fellow whose card trick was still in progress.

late 1940s, assistant to John Daniels' spook show in the 1950s and with Mark Wilson's "The Magic Land of Allakazam" television series from 1961 to 1965 as "Evilo", the evil wizard.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE VOLUME 4

THE PASS The first written word of magic I read was in an old encyclopedia we owned. It said that one of the fundamentals of card magic was learning the two-handed pass. In those days it was the basic move to learn when first beginning to do magic, although it has since been superseded by other methods. You have to learn to walk before you run, so I worked very hard learning the pass. Many would-be performers shy away from learning the pass because it is difficult to do secretly. The maneuver consists of cutting the pack without your audience seeing it happen. It is done under cover of the hands and nothing else. I have always appreciated a compliment from a person who had studied and knew something about a subject. However, compliments for the sake of a compliment from people who were uninitiated didn't mean anything-they were empty. But a compliment from a well-versed person is an entirely different thing. When I first came to New York, I was able to fool many of the top people, most of the best professionals of that day. Max Holden owned one of the biggest magic shops in the country and

wrote a column for The Splzi~lxMagazine called "Trooping Around in Magic" which mentioned magicians from all parts of the world. Max paid me one of the greatest of compliments by writing, "Never once does Vernon use the pass." This was a great compliment because I did use the pass, but I used it in such a way that Max never realized I was doing it. Every card magician should be able to make some sort of pass; it is absolutely essential. I remember in the 1960s when Jay Ose,l61 who was the resident magician at the Magic Castle in Hollywood, used to perform for lots of professional magicians. He always performed a great many simple tricks, as far as the modus oyeratrdi is concerned, but he always sold them beautifully and put quite a garnish on them. He always did one or two tricks based on the pass just to show that he was not a slouch. When he knew that someone who was versed in cards was watching and they were only interested in technique, he would always work in something involving a pass. Just like a musician, he would perform something that 16'jay Ose was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1911, taught by Henry Gordien, and was the first host/resident magician at the Magic Castle. He was there when it opened in 1963 until his death in 1%7. He had parts in the films Waterhole #3 (1967) and The Flim

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HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART THREE 1939-1990s other magicians would be both familiar with and understand the difficulties of performing. Working for one or two people, at certain angles, the pass can be absolutely invisible; that is, if everything is functioning well. The reason the pass has been talked about, more than any other move, is because it is very important. In gambling the saying, "Put your faith in Providence, but always cut the cards," is a byword. If people can stack or nu71 up the cards to deal special cards to themselves and the man on their right cuts the cards, all their efforts are shot. A plain simple cut of the cards changes the whole thing. So gamblers have been thinking of ways to circumvent the cut. In every country where they play cards, there has been a lot of effort and thought put in on the pass, not only by magicians but by card cheats as well. When I read S. W. Erdnase's The Experf at f l ~ Card e Tab(e and he said, "The shift has yet to be invented that can be executed by a movement appearing as coincident card table routine; or that can be executed with the hands held stationary and not show that some maneuver has taken place, however cleverly it may be performed." This intrigued me. Anything the human mind can imagine can somehow be accomplished in time. Erdnase's was the first technical book that went into the pass as an exact science. It didn't say the first finger's at the end and the others remain at the side of the deck; it told you which joint you used and whether the deck was held firmly or lightly. In some gambling maneuvers there are forms of the regular classical pass where the movements are not invisible but they are covered by some other movement. My good friend, Bruce Cervon, has a pass which is invisible due to this movement cover. That's where the cleverness in magic comes in; it's what we call n ~ i s d i r e c t i o n . ~ ~ ~

Flam Man (1967). 1 6 2 ~ d i t o r ' sNote: The last paragraph of this chapter is taken from recent conversations with Dai.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE VOLUME 4

ON PERFORMING Lately, when I work, it's generally an impromptu kind of thing. This is mainly because I've never considered myself a good performer and I'm always nervous about a show that I have to do. When I used to perform I never felt I did credit to the material that I chose.

I absolutely love magic as a hobby but have never enjoyed plotting a sl~ow.I know how wrong this is and I preach against it, but I never had the exhibitionist impulse. I would much rather sit by and let someone else get the plaudits. But I would like to feel that I'd helped them. I would like to see something which I had told them bring the results I figured it would. I imagine the normal person likes to get compliments. As a boy, very early in life, at a football game when I'd made the winning goal or a touchdown, the other boys would pick me u p and carry me on their shoulders. I suppose I enjoyed it at the time, but I felt it was an empty thing. I think the person who does the honoring feels it more than the one being honored. I appreciate a compliment more from a person who's really clever or a true critic far more than from an audience of regular people.

Cardini mask made by Jeanne Vernon, 1940

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WHAT'S WRONG WITH MAGIC What's wrong wit11 magic? Magic has been cheapened by a great many people. 1/11tell you one of the things seriously wrong with magic.. Unfortunately, a few times on television, they'll put on a precocious youngster, whom you might call a spoiled brat, a smart aleck little kid whose parents know a smattering of magic and have taught their little darling all about the art. These parents buy what we call self-zoorking tricks and give them to their little boy or girl who practices just enough to master the trick but not the style of a good magician. But the fact that a little kid, not nicely behaved, does this trick on television gives the people in the home audience the impression that anybody with the apparatus could do the magic. People don't look at magic as they would a child prodigy playing the piano; it is very evident that the kid hasn't any histrionic ability, but he or she is able to handle this little piece of apparatus and that's all that matters. That is one of the things that has harmed magic. Another thing: some of these fellows who do magic at the drop of a hat, at the corner drugstore, a cafe, or in the work place. There is a time and a place for magic; a person wouldn't get up in a drugstore and start to sing opera, other people would notice and consider this person kind of a crackpot. It's the same with magic. Some people don't seem to recognize the proper time and place to perform their magic and this is bad. There are so many people who take up magic as a hobby because they think it's easy and if they learn a few tricks they'll be the hit of the office or at parties. This isn't true. These people become obnoxious and wind u p forcing themselves and their paltry knowledge of magic onto a reluctant audience who would rather d o without the experience. This is bad for magic. And it's bad for magic when the wrong type of person takes it up. Unfortunately, with magic, you can do it almost anywhere, with a coin, a card, or a handkerchief. So it's not unusual to hear people say that they hate magic and the people who perform it. This can do the entire field of magic a lot of harm. If a fellow gets up and sings when he has no voice, people will say, "Charlie, shut up." But a fellow can get up and do a trick and they won't stop him; people classify tricks in one big category, anyone who does tricks is the same. They know instantly whether a

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE VOLUME 4 person is musical or if he has any talent, but they don't seem to know when a person does or does not have a talent for magic. They actually think that all the tricks are simple when you know how they're done. They don't realize that the same trick done by an artist would look like something entirely different than when performed by a rank amateur. That hurts magic too. Then there is the over commercializatioi~of magic in every little novelty and toy shop. The secret devices, which in the old days were closely guarded, are now flaunted in the windows of toy shops and this hurts magic a great deal. And what about television? The trouble with TV is that the people who run it know absolutely nothing about magic. They don't know that a certain trick has to be built u p or has to have a certain timing. They don't give it the proper choreography, the proper presentation to make magic special. But the most major mistake these people make is to cut the tricks. To work properly, a trick must be performed as a single piece, with one complete presentation and flow. When a magician performs on television, the director thinks he has to jazz up the show and cuts the action during the tricks; cutting from one camera to another, to a medium shot from a close-up, which completely nullifies the trick. To the home audience, the trick might have been stopped in mid-performance and restarted to show the desired result, such as the rabbit disappearing or the vanishing female assistant. Another problem with cutting between cameras is what might happen if the trick were being shown from the side or back; any gimmick or trap door could be discovered and ruin the entire thing. All these things hurt magic but there is no way to change them as far as I can see.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART THREE 1939-1990s

MY FAMILY Throughout these ramblings I have mentioned my wife Jeanne and my sons, Ted and Derek. Jeanne, aside from making her life masks and helping create the costumes for my Harlequin Act also worked with Bil Baird,163 the famous puppeteer, where her creative and artistic talents were very much appreciated. Jeanne's view of magicians was rather strange. She met all kinds of characters through me like a fellow called "Slip-the-Jit-Harry". He was a fellow that used to go all over the county short-cl~angingpeople. In those days you could really buy something with a quarter and he had a way of switching a nickel for a quarter. So they called him, "Slip-the-Jit-Harry", always slip them a nickel instead of a quarter.la

I met him in Miami and introduced hi111 to Jeanne. He was a nice looking little fellow with a mustache and always used to wear a derby hat. She talked to him for awhile and later said that she tl~ougl~t he was a very interesting fellow and wondered what l ~ did. e When I told her, she was flabbergasted and said, "My goodness, where d o you meet all these people? How could you be involved with such people?" Jeanne put up with countless numbers of them, always hoping, I imagine, that none of it would rub off on her! Jeanne once told a friend of hers, "Magicians are crazy. Yoir krlozo there's something wrong when you're on your honeymoon and you walk into the bathroom and your husband is standing on the commode holding a deck of cards and looking at his l~andsin the mirror." She once wrote a book called 1 Married Mr. Magic and tried to have it published. The publisl~erat first was very interested but, upon reading the book, said it was far too bitter. They wanted something light and fun. I often wonder what happened to that manuscript.

I G 3 ~ iBaird l ruade his mark in entertainment history with children's television shows in the late 1940s and 50s featuring his handmade puppets. His wife, Cora, worked with him and they created, among others, The Rootie Kazootie Show and The Whistling Wizard. He also designed marionettes for the movie musical The Sound of Music and was featured at the New York World's Fair of 1964-65. 1 h 4 ~ d i t o r rNote: s This swindle is completely described in Tlic Vcviroir Clivorriclcs Volume One.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE VOLUME 4 Jeanne saw, perhaps, too much magic and too many magicians, night and day, over the years of our marriage. After our children were grown men, in the early 1960s, Jeanne and I separated. This came about naturally, because t l ~ ebusiness of doing magic keeps you moving all over the world and she wanted to stay at home in New York. Jeanne, years later, finally did move to California where I had settled. In the middle 1970s she came because our son, Ted, had bought a home in Palos Verdes. She came to visit him and finally ended u p living there full time. She passed away in July of 1983. The family home ill Tuckahoe, New York, is occupied by our son "Neepie" who still lives there and my brother Arthur spends winters in the British West Indies and summers at his home in Canada. My life for the last thirty years or so is not covered herein, except for a few items. There is a good reason for this, in 1963 I was invited by The Academy of Magical Arts1" to move to Hollywood and become the resident magician at the Magic Castle.16"his part of my life needs a whole book all by itself! It would include memories of the great magicians I have met there, the wonderful people who have been so nice to me and of course all the celebrities and stars with which I've rubbed elbows. I've never stopped traveling, I've been all over the world living in a first class fashion. In many ways this has been the best part of my life and I am very 165

The Academy of Magical Arts was originally founded by William Larsen, Sr. in April of 1952. In 1963, his two sons were instrumental in forming The Academy of Magical Arts, Inc., a non-profit corporatioll which operates a club house, "The Magic Castle", in Hollywood, California. In 1988,5,500 people were mell~bers,2,500 of which were amateur or professional magicians. The Academy of Magical Arts has given out prestigious awards yearly since 1968. The magician members vote for the best Stage Magician, Parlour, CloseUp, and Lecturer. These four awards are limited in each category to the 100 o r so performers who have performed at the Magic Castle during the previous year. The Magician of the Year award and various Fellowships, including the Masters Fellowship (the highest award), are voted on by the AMA's Board of Directors. Thc Board of Directors for 1990-92 is con~prisedof Bill Larsen (I'resident), Iton Wilson (Vice I'resident), Bruce Cervon (Treasurer), IJcter Pit (Secretary), Billy McConib, John Thompson, Mark Wilson and Dai Vernon (Emeritus). ''%he Magic Castle is operated as a private club by the lion-profit Academy of Magical Arts, Inc., in Hollywood, California. It opened its doors 1963 and is still going strong. It contains a 130 seat theater with full stage which is called the The Palace of Mystery; a fifty-eight seat tiered room, The IJarlour of Prestidigitation; and the twenty-two seat plus standing room, Close-Up Gallery. There are also three informal close-up tables and a privately booked thirteen seat Houdini S6ance Room in which a gourmet meal is served and a s6ance is given twice nightly. The Magic Castle presents at least seven different magicians each week and entertains over 100,000 guests each year. The "William Larsen, Sr. Library" contains over 5000 volun~cs,and is for magicians only.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART THREE 1939-1990s grateful

to Milt167 and Bill Larsen16s f o r having me at their mecca of

magic.

Dai Vernon and Bruce Cervon at Brookledge, the Larsen family home, 1965

1 6 7 ~ i l t o nPage Larsen was born in Pasadena, California in 1932, the younger son of William and Geraldine Larsen. He is an amateur comedy magician and a professional TV comed writer. He co-founded, with brother Bill Larsen, Jr., the Magic Castle in 1963. 16'Williarn Walter ''Bill" Larscn, Jr. was born in Pasadena, California in 1928 and learned by assisting in the family magic act at the age of nine. He is the co-founder with brother Milt, of the Magic Castle. He is a retired TV producer, president of the Academy of Magical Arts, and editor of Geuii magazine from 1957 to the present.

DAI VERNON A UGICAL LIFT VOLUME 4

AFTERWORD Regrets? I'm not a regretful type, unfortunately. It might be better if I was. I don't even regret that I broke both my arms. Well, I would much rather not have broken my arms, but the insurance company gave me fifty percent disability, depends on how you use the word regrets. I take it as a blessing that I wasn't hurt worse, that's the way I try to look at life. I guess I've got a Pollyanna attitude; I don't regret meeting any of the thousands of people I've met, people who I would never have gotten to know if it weren't for magic. Otherwise, I probably would still be in Ottawa, doing what my mother had wanted me to do. I might have been a bank manager or a civil engineer, as my father wanted me to be. I might have been a family doctor in my home town. I am quite sure I would not have been mediocre in anything I took up, I hate things badly done, but I am ever so much happier to have chosen magic rather than a more normal way of life. Looking backwards, and seeing the lives of some of my friends, almost makes me cry. I remember, after eleven years, going back home for the first time, and seeing the twelve foot high fence I used to climb as a boy and discovering that it was at least three feet shorter than I had thought. This made me feel strange. When I would go into some office building and see a fellow I used to know as a boy, and he'd be round shouldered and gray-haired, and he'd be sitting in the same office, at the same desk, it gave me a funny, funny feeling. I feel blessed that I was never satisfied to do something like this. I can't conceive how a man can sit behind one desk for twenty or thirty years; everything in the world changes, people should not stagnate. My father said he would give me an education to be anything I wanted to be, but I never knew whether I wanted to be an engineer or a lawyer, an architect or a doctor. I wanted to be all of these things and none of them. I chose magic, and that has made all the difference. Oh, certainly I would like to relive the wonderful and exciting times I've had, some wonderful flirtations I've had; met some beautiful girls, some wonderful people--certainly anybody would like to relive them. I've had some marvelous times in my life; trips in private airplanes, private yachts, fabulous mansions, and more. But I don't think of the good times of old and compare them with the bad times of the present, or anything like that. I would like to relive some of those good times, but I don't worry about it.

HE FOOLED HOUDINI: PART THREE 1939-1990s I've always tried to live in the present moment and enjoy what was going on and the wonderful people I was spellding my time with. Being content and happy in this very moment of life, now that's the trick.

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE VOLUME 4

INDEX Page numbers in italics denote an entry in a footnote and perhaps also on the same page, bold denotes a photograph or illustration

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Abbott, Percy 273 Abbott's "Magical Get-Together" 273 Abbott, David P. 71 Academy of Magical Arts 297 Ace Tricks for Experts 180 Ackerson, Eddie 145,146 All Backs 186 Allen, Ken 289,290 Allerton, Bert 159,160 Altman, Jeff xv Ambitious Card 131 American Bank Note Company 269 Americaiz Lnilgnage 204 Andrews, E. S. 15 Andrews, Milton Franklin 15 Annapolis 195 Annemann, Theodore 'Ted 103,255,256 Antlers Hotel 194 Any Card Called For 85 Arenholz, William J. "Bill" 99,181 Art of Magic 174 Art Student's League 62 Ashbury College 13,19,37 Atlantic City 43,139 Auto-Electric Railroad 20 Avadon, David xv Baird, Bil296 Baker, A1 83,144,181,193,226,286 Baker, Walter 111 Ballantine, Carl 155 Bamberg, David (Fu Manchu) 227,228, 229,233,240 Bamberg, David Tobias 93 Bamberg, The0 (Okito) 88,93,94,203,227, 229 Bamum, P.T. 135 Basham, Hersy 282 Bean, Orson 152 Belasco, David 156 Benchley, Robert 230 Bennett Theater 22,23,25 Benson, Roy 235,236,257,258,271 Benwne, Alfred 117,118 Bertram, Charles 101

Bey, Mohammed 83 Blackstone, Harry 120,159,160,171,179, 208,273 Blackstone, Jr., Harry .I59 Blake, A1 205 Blaney, Walter "Zaney" 160 Blue StockingClub 141 Blue, Ben 192 Blue, Tom 192 Booth, J. R. 26 Booth, John 263 Bornstein, Mike 99 Boston Allied Bazaar 63 Bouton, Pete 159 Bowers, Bill xv Boys Ozu,r Paper 33 Boys' Life 33 Braue, Fred 182,183 Briant, E. Leslie 267 Brice, Fanny 112 Britannia Park 20 Bronx Zoo 219 Brooks, Consul 142 Brooks, Herbert 85 Brooks, Howard 261 Brown, Edward 170 Buckingham Palace 127 Buffum, Richard xi, xii, xiv, xv Burgess, Clinton 81,82 Burns, Keith xiv Caldwell, Slim 248 Cambridge 13 Camel Cigarettes 69,202 Cameron, Judson J. 162 Canadian Air Force 58 Canadian Department of Agriculture 15, 18 Cardini (Richard Pitchford) 100, 102,104, 110-112 114,161, I%, 226,233,236,268, 273,293 Swan (Walker) 100,102,111 Cards Up the Sleeve 283 Carlton, Paul 69,70,71, 72,202 Carlyle, Francis 177,245,246,247-253,261-

INDEX 263 Carnegie Library 32 Carnegie, Andrew 210 Carney, John xv Carrano, Chick xv Carrington, Hereward 31 Carroll, Earl 257 Carter, Charles 66 Casino d e Paris 112,113,230 "Castle Notes" 184 Castle, Vernon and Irene 6G Castro, Fidel254 Cervon, Bruce xi, xiv, xv, 184,292,297,298 Cervon, Linda xiv Challenge Champion Card Manipulator of the World 80 Chaplin, Charlie 227, 232 Charlton 261 Cllentiizg nt Bridge 162 Cherry Sisters 257 Chinese Handcuff 147 Chips, Mr. 226 Christ, Henry 284 Christopher, Milbourne 74, 254 Ch~irils33 Chung, Dr. 156,234,237,244 Cigarette Production 196 Civitan Club 150 Cody, Colonel Buffalo Bill 151 Cole, Judson 112,114,115,140,266,272 Collins, Jim 132 Color Changing Handkerchief 209 Compeer, the monkey 223,224 Cone Trick 74 Coney Island 42-46,53-56,99,100,185 Coiljlrrer's Mngnzii~e181 Conti, Tom xv Cooke 73 Copperfield, David 5 Corey, William E. 210 Cummings, Dan 249,250,252,253 Cups and Balls 209, 217, 283 Curry, Paul 86,281 Out of This World 86,281 Curse of Scotland 85 Cut and Restored Ribbon 170 da Vinci, Leonardo 271 Dni V e r l ~ oBook i ~ of Mngic 182 Dai Veriioil's Tribute to Nnte Leipzig 182 Daley, Dr. 51, 99, 103, 212, 226, 245, 268, 286 Daniel, Two-Ten 287 Daniels, John 289

Dante (Harry Jansen) 153,233 Davenport's 33 Davenport, Louis 33 Davenport Brothers 146 Davenport, Dallas 146 Davis, Jack 109,110 Davis, Old Snakey 168 de Gago y Zavala, Jose Antenor 93 d e Kolta, Buatier 32,207 de Silhouette, Etienne 19, 100 Dempsey, Jack 105,135 Desfor, Dr. Donald xv Desfor, Irving xv Dew, Danny 99 Devant, David 172 Dickens, Charles 68 Dickie the Dunce 146 Die Box 3,145,146 Diminishing Cards 146, 283 Disneyland 44 Dodgers 13 Dolly Sisters 257 Donahue, A1 217 Donahue, Patrick 53-55 Downs, T. Nelson 22,84, 172,174, 175,176, 177,178,180 King of Koins 23,178 Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan 136, 137 Dreamland Circus Sideshow 42,46 Drilling, Jimmy 268, 270 Ducrot, Frank 67 Duke of Cumberland 85 Dunninger, Joseph 104,106,203,256 Edison, Thomas 128,149 Egg Bag 141,145,283 Elliott's Lnst Legacy 81, 82 Elliott, Dr. James 70, 72, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 85,259 Ellison Collection 33 Ellison, Dr. Saram R. 33, 133 Elmsley, Alex 184 Enquist 53 Erdnase, S. W. 15,38,78,79,87,88, 184 The Expert nt the Cnrd Tnble 15, 38, 78, 183, 292 Ernst, E. M. L. 31 Expert Cord Tecl~i~iylte 182, 183 Falanga, Louis 184 Family Theater 22 Falk, Dr. Henry C. 51 Faro Bank 188-192, 198 Fasola 261 Fay, Anna Eva 20

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE VOLUME 4

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i

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Fay, Frank 105,158 Fay, William 146 Felsman, Arthur & Carl 33 Feltman's 43 Finley, Arthur 4,83,97,105,226,283 Fischer, Ottokar 95 Fish, Mrs. Stuyvesant 27 Flagg, James Montgomery 64 Flip-Flop Blocks 146 Flosso, A1 67,21227l Follies Bergere 177 Foo, Ching Ling 70,72 Forbidden City 156 Ford Sisters 257 Ford, Dora 257 Forttltze 64 Fox, Imro 101 Fox, Paul 193,194,196,273 - Freeman, Steve xv Fu Manchu (David Bamberg) 228,229,233, 240 Fulves, Karl xiv Fzirfherbzner Secrets of Card Magic 182 Gamage's 33 Ganson, Lewis 182,226,241 Gary, Judge Albert 210,211 Geir 182 George White's Scandals 99 Gibson, Charles Dana 64/65 Mrs. 64 Girls 64 Gibson, Walter 26,106,159,181 Gimble family 230 Gimble's Department Store 84 Gloves to Dove Change 218 Goldie 46,50 Goldin, Horace 45,98,99,100,116,148, 152,202 Goodman, Benny 257 Gordien, Henry 291 Grand Central Palace 62 Green, Cliff #0,41,234,268 Gresham, William 256 Grey, Lawrence (Larry) 53,54-56,57,109111,140 Grismer, Ray xv Gwynne, Jack 76 Hague, Frank 249 Hardeen, Theo "Dash" 132,134, 234,236, 237 Harlequin act 105,119,217-220,222,296 Hart, William S. 46 Harvard 78

Harvard Club 268

Hartz, Leo 83 Henning, Doug 5 Herrmann, Alexander 74,88,101,233,263 Herrmann, Compars 74 Herrmann, Madame Adelaide 74,101 Herrmann, Samuel 74 Hilliar, William J. 22/26, 172,173 Hilliar's Harzdbook 172 Hilliard, John Northern 22,111,174 Greater Magic 111,174,184 Himber, Richard 177 Hippodrome Theater 134 Hobb, Carlton 156 Hocus Pocus, Ir. 180 Hoffmann, Professor 28,33,34,122,182, 184,275 Hofzinser, Dr. Johann Nepomuk xiii, 95, 96,97,187,195 Holden, Max 35,69,291 Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel 53,274 Holmes, Sherlock 136 Hooker, Dr. Samuel C. 33,75 Rising Card Trick 75 Hornmann, Professor Otto 67 Hornmann's Magic 67 Horowitz, Sam Leo 83, 84,99,224,226, 234-237,273 Horowitz, Vladimir 36 Houdin, Madame Cecile 28,130 Houdini, Harry (Ehrich Weiss) xv, 20,17, 67,70,81,82,106,125,127,130,131,132, 133,134,135-137,139, 178,186,208,234, 236,276 Beatrice (Bess) 127, 131,137,139, 140 King of Cards 82 "Red Magic Page" 131 Hugard, Jean 182,183,185,186,187 Hughson, Hugh 240 Hunt, Paul xiv I Mnrried Mr. Magic 296 brner Secrets of Card Magic 182 Ishmael 6 Ives, Barney 81 James, Henry 25 James, William 25 Jansen, Harry (Dante) 153,233 Japanese Butterflies 219 Jamw, Emil152,153,154,155,271 Jason, George 271 Jennings, Larry xv Karger, George 187,273

INDEX Karloff, Boris 232 Keane, J. Warren 23,24,25,98,171 Keating, Fred 3, 158, 159,160 Keith, B. F. (Benjamin Franklin) 22,105 Keith Theater 104,105 Keith Vaudeville 22,106,134,171 Kellar, Harry 22, 26, 68, 70, 73, 74, 75, 179, 208,275 Kennedy, Allen 166,167 Kensington Walk 53 King Edward VIII 227 King, Frances Rockefeller 104,105-108,131, 150 Kit Kat Klub 162 Knights of St. Kelly 107,108 Krenzel, Ken 184 L' Homme Masque 93,94 La Follette 99 Lady Frances 101 Lang, Lou 262 Langworthy, Red 169 Larsen, Bill 297,298 Larsen, Milt 297, 298 Larsen, Sr., William 297 Leipzig, Nate 23, 25, 41, 72, 102, 103, 104, 268,285 LeRoy, Talma & Bosco 70,101 LeRoy, Jean Henri Servais 101 LIFE 64,187 Life Magaziire 64 Light and Heavy Chest 86 Limon, Jose 218, 219 Lincoln, the International Card Expert 25 Liizkiilg Rilig 180 Linking Rings 212,219,244,283 Lloyd, Arthur 212, 261 Lodge, Sir Oliver 137 Lord Fauntleroy cards 15 Louis Tannen, Inc. xv Louis XIV of France 19,100 Luce, Henry 64 Luna Park 43,44,55,56,182,185 Lyons, Leonard 221 Macy's Department Store 84 Madison Hotel 75,113, 230 Madison Square Garden 52 Magic Castle xv, 122, 188, 291, 297, 298 Mnllntlrrn 34, 80 Malini, Max 88,107, 108,120-122, 123,124127,148,182 Mnliili and His Magic 182 Margules, Sam 45, 99, 100, 131, 141-143, 145-147,148,202,238,245,248

Marshall, Jay 282 Martinka & Company 66 Martinka, Francis J. 33,66, 133 Martinka's Magical Palace 66, 67,69, 133 Maskelyne, John Nevil 73, 74,172 Maskelyne, Nevil 73, 172 Our Magic 172 Maxwell, Elsa 232 McComb, Billy 297 McCord, Louis Jerome (Silent Mora) 13 McGill University 135 McHale's Navy 155 McKissack, Luke xv McLaughlin, Eddie 176 Mrs. Martha 176 Melville, Herman 6 Mencken, H.L. 204 Merman, Ethel 232 Meyer, Felix 217 Meyers, Hal xv Miller, Charlie xi, 84, 122, 166, 168, 169, 183,226,241,278,285 Minch, Stephen 184 Ming 156 Miser's Dream 275 Mix, Tom 52 Moby Dick 6 Morleril Mngiciaiis' Hailtibook, Tile 172 Moore McCormack Line 262 Mora, Silent (Louis McCord) 23 More 11ilier Secrets of C m ? Magic 182 Morgan, J . P. 117 Mortimer, W. Golden 33, 133 Mulholland, John 271 MUM 133 Mutilated I'arasol209 Mysterious Kid 164 Mysto Magic Shop 69 Nathan's 43 Naval Academy at Annapolis 240 Neil, C. Lang 184 Morleriz Co~ij~lvor, Tlre 38 Mrs. 101 Nelson, Earl xv New York Athletic Club 268 New York I'ublic Library 33 Nt.7~York World 131 New York's Four Hundred 27 New Yorkt,r Magn:iirc, 210 Newspaper Tree 152 Neyhart 75 Houlette 75 Nickel & Penny Routine 154

DAI VERNON A MAGICAL LIFE VOLUME 4 Nightingale 88,90 Norton, Coe 279 O'Dell, Dell 101 Okito Coin Box 113 Old Orchard Beach 18,55 Old Orchard House 18 Olde, Judge 150 Operr Court, The 31 Ose,Jay 291 Ottawa Eveni~tgJournal 214 Ottawa Museum 11 Ottawa Public Library 31 Oxford 13 Paderewski, Ignace 36,286 Palace Hotel 116 Palace Theater, London 178 Palace Theater, New York 105,112 Palladium Theatre 127 Palmer House, Chicago 256 Patrice, Mademoiselle 101 Patton, Jim xv Peck, Dr. 120,121 Penn and Teller 5 Pit, Peter 297 Phoenix 52 Pitchford, Richard (Cardini) 100,102,104, 110-112 114,161,1%, 233,236,268,273, 293 Swan (Walker) 100,102,111 Pope, Glenn 261 Popper, Arthur 197 Powell, Frederick Eugene 101 Powers, Clyde 69,70-72/82 118,202 Magic Shop 69,73,75,83,117,202 Price, David 74 Prince of Wales 124,227 Professor, The 105,225,226 Proskauer, Julien J. 181,245 Queen Elizabeth I1 127 Queen Mary 127 Queen Mary Restaurant 156 Queen Victoria 11 R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company 202 Rainbow Room, Rockefeller Center 217, 218,220,221,232 Raymond, Litzka 101 Read, Ralph 33 Reese, Professor Bert 149 Rewlntiorts 183 Rice Bowls 273 Rideau Club 125 Ringling Brothers Circus 51,172 Rising Cards 170,283

Ritz Theater 145 Robert-Houdin, Jean-Eugene 28,33,86,-88, 122,130,182,184,259 Robinson, W. E. 33 Rockefeller 105 Rockefeller Foundation 75 Rogers, Will 105 Roosevelt, Franklin D. 194,246 Eleanor 194 Rose, Billy 112,113 Rosini, Carl 88 Rosini, Paul 88 Ross, Faucett 34,52,84, 99, 166, 169, 177, 180-183,195,241,287,288 Roterberg, August 33 Roterberg's 33 Roth, David xv Royal Military College 39,58,240 Runyon, Damon 204,205 Russell Hotel 40,41 Russell Theater 2273 Sachs, Edwin 38 Sleight of Hard 38,40,184 Sanders, Frisby 246 Sandhurst 39 Sargent, John Singer 62 Sawing a Lemon in Half 152 Sawing a Woman in Half 98,99,141,143, 145,148,152, 186 Scarne, John 198 Schirmer's Music 257 Schoke, Chick 274 Schwab, Charles M. 210 Scientific Anrericarr31 Scot, Reginald 180 Discow y of Wifcltcrn180 Secrets 180 Select Secrets 181 Shakespeare 22,154 Sharpe, S. H. 95 Shaw, Allan 21,27,104 Shaw, George Bernard 158 Sherman, Bob 109 Sherms, Inc. 109 Shock, Mr. 161 Sinatra, Frank 227 Skinner, Michael xv Slayton, Charles 282 Sleeping Beauty Ballet 217,219 Smith, Kate 230 Snow Storm in China 181,219 Society of American Magicians 133, 1% 202,223,225

INDEX Soper, Warren Y. 20,21 Spencer, Garrick 105,106,217,225,268 Spllznx 35,80,180, 291 Spiers, Helen E. 11 Spina, Tony xv Starke, George 273,274 Stnrs of Mngzc 182, 287, 273 Steeplechase Pier 53 Stevens, Dad 163,164,253 Stull, Bob 282 Svengali Deck 69 Talking Tea Kettle 71 Talma 101 Tannen, Louis xv, 262 Tnrbell Col~rse111 M n g ~ c111, 159, 193, 273 Tarbell, Dr. Harlan 111, 114, 273 Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty Ballet 217, 219 Thompson, John 297 Three Card Monte 92 Three-In-One Rope Trick 218 Thurston, Howard 26, 68, 73, 74, 259, 171, 174,208,233,261 Tim, Tiny 257 Tznle 64 Tobey, Frank 197-199,248 Town Hall 256 Towner, Bob "Torchy" 289, 290 Traymore Hotel 104,139 Trewey, Felicien 101 "Trooping Around 111 Magic" 291 T7ueilty Dollnr M a i l i ~ s c r ~ p180 t Union League Club 107 Uizr~znskzilgof Robert Hor~dlil130 Usher, Harry 147 Frances 147 Valadon, Paul 73 Van Hoven, Frank 153,154 Vanishing Canary and Cage 158 Varicolored Water Fountains 186 Veloz and Yolanda 112 Verner, Albert Cole grnilrifntlter 1I Verner, Arthur Froiiirr 11, 61, 297 Verner, Charles Napier Prc~ti~er 11, 12, 58, 214 Verner, David Derek (Neepie/Nepomuk) soil 52, 195, 296, 297 Verner, Edward (Teddy/Ted) Wingfield soiz 30, 138-140, 151, 167, 189, 195, 240, 275,296,297 Verner, Frederick uiicle 61, 138 Verner, Helen E. (Spiers) r~~otiler 13, 18, 28, 29,61,105,138,214,299

Verner, James William David father 11, 13, 15, 16, 18, 19, 27, 28, 36, 39, 40, 42, 57, 61, 87,138,139,238,299 Verner, Jeanne (Hayes) wife 30,52, 94, 99, 100, 104, 109, 111, 119, 138-140, 151, 156, 170, 181, 189, 195, 197, 198, 218, 221, 223, 234,244,293,296,297 Cardini mask 293 Veriloii Citroilicles 184, 296 Villa, Pancho 205 Virginia Judge", "The 105 Virgil 289 Waldorf Astoria Hotel 120 Walsh, Audley 192 Waters, T. A. xv Weber and Fields 154 Weil, "Yellow Kid" 246 Weiss, Ehrich (Harry Houdini) 82 White House 194 White, Frances 105 W a y People Tlliizk Certniiz Tiziilgs nt Certniil Tinies 23,24 Wilson, Mark 289,297 Wilson, Ron xiv, xv, 297 Elizabeth xiv, xv Yankovich, Eddie 163, 164 Yen, Dai 156, 224, 244 Zancig, Julius 88 Zarrow, Herb xii Ziegfeld, Flo 178 Ziegfeld Follies 105, 775

PHOTO CREDITS Dust jacket front cover of regular edition courtesy Bill Bowers and thanks to Earl Nelson for his help Dust jacket back cover of regular edition photo credit Young & Robin, Los Angeles, CA. Frontispiece Portrait courtesy Gert ii Magazine Page xii courtesy Richard Buffum Page 7 courtesy Dai Vernon Page 12 courtesy Dai Vernon Page 17 courtesy Dai Vernon Page 21 courtesy Mike Perovich Page 24 courtesy John Quine Page 30 courtesy Dai Vernon Page 34 courtesy Dai Vernon Page 37 courtesy Ashbury College and "The Fifth Estate" (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) Page 42 courtesy Bruce Cervon Page 55 courtesy Dai Vernon Page 63 courtesy Royal Military College and "The Fifth Estate" (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) Page 68 courtesy Bob Hines Page 80 courtesy James Patton Page 89 photo credit Irving Desfor Page 91 courtesy Dai Vernon Page 94 courtesy Dai Vernon Page 96 courtesy James Patton Page 98 courtesy Mike Perovich Page 102 (upper) courtesy Dai Vernon Page 102 (lower) courtesy Denis Cernava Page 114 (left) courtesy Corrie Crandall Page 114 (right) courtesy Martin Lewis Page 119 courtesy Hal Myers, photo credit Irving Desfor Page 123 courtesy John Quine courtesy Dai Vernon Page 126 Page 127 courtesy James Patton

PHOTO CREDITS Page 133 Page 144 Page 148 Page 153 Page 157 Page 160 Page 162 Page 173 Page 176 Page 186 Page 194 Page 196 Page 199 Page 206 Page 211 Page 222 Page 224 Page 226 Page 228 Page 239 Page 243 Page 246 Page 258 Page 260 Page 265 Page 267 Page 271 Page 276 (upper) Page 276 (lower) Page 278 Page 280 Page 282 (upper) Page 282 (lower) Page 286 Page 288 Page 293 Page 298

courtesy Dai Vernon courtesy Tony Spina courtesy Dai Vernon courtesy Hal Myers, photo credit Irving Desfor courtesy Dai Vernon courtesy Mike Perovich courtesy Dai Vernon courtesy T. A. Waters courtesy James Patton courtesy Dai Vernon courtesy Stephen Minch courtesy Sphi~lxMagazitle courtesy Eliot and Leslie Lipps courtesy Dai Vernon courtesy Bruce Cervon courtesy Hal Myers, photo credit Irving Desfor courtesy Sphiilx Mngaziiw courtesy Dai Vernon courtesy Dai Vernon courtesy Dai Vernon, photo credit Irving Desfor courtesy Dai Vernon courtesy Dai Vernon courtesy Tom Blue, pl~otocredit Irving Desfor courtesy Bill Bowers courtesy Dai Vernon courtesy Splziilx Magazine courtesy Splli~lsMagazine courtesy Don Lawton courtesy Dai Vernon courtesy Dai Vernon courtesy Bill Bowers courtesy Dai Vernon courtesy Splri~lxMasnzi~lr courtesy Dai Vernon courtesy Dai Vernon, photo credit Ross Bertram courtesy Geilii Magaziite courtesy Bruce Cervon