Louis Tannen Magic Catalog 10

This will be my second post about Magic this season, and it's related in more than one way.

I picked up this Louis Tannen Magic Catalog Number 10 at the same magician's estate sale where I found the Room for Doubt Magic trick. It dates from 1973.

Room for Doubt

I've always associated magic with Halloween.  Maybe it's because Houdini died on Halloween. Or maybe it's just that commonality of the "lifting of the spiritual veil" when anything can happen.

I went to the estate sale of a magician this past year.  I've loved magic since I was a kid, not that I ever executed a magic trick particularly well.  I've told the tale of how a childhood friend and I attempted to have a magic show only to have no one show up.  But I've nonetheless had a fascination with magic that continues to current day, particularly vintage magic. I found some fun items at the sale, and one of them was this magic trick which employs some visuals that certainly fit in with Halloween.

"Room for Doubt" is a twist on a similar premise to the game Clue.  In the trick, a spectator participates in solving a murder through the selection of hidden murder weapons and room cards.  Actions are dictated from an audio cassette tape. The trick was created by Tony Spina. His name probably isn't known to many people, but it's known to many magicians.  David Copperfield spent hours in his magic shop as a child. He was friends with Siegfried and Roy and even taught Orson Welles a trick or two. And he invented the trick where a person is cut into thirds and the middle section is removed and shown to the audience.  He also eventually bought the company where he bought his first magic trick: Louis Tannen, Inc.

Magik Revisited

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a magician.  I asked for, and received, the Presto Magic kits with standard illusions and tricks such as the Multiplying Spots, Penetrating Vision, the Endless Water Vase, the Bullet trick and the Ball and Vase trick.  I learned to do the tricks, and learned others pouring over the included Adams' 101 Magic Tricks booklet and other magic books I bought from the Scholastic flyer, but they were all simple and most people knew how they worked.  I could never afford the professional magic tricks sold in dedicated magic shops.  I continued to pick up magic sets at sales over the years, but of course, I never became a magician.

This summer, my family vacationed in the Smoky Mountains in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.  As a surprise, my wife booked a visit to Evanswood Magic Mansion.  I had seen a Youtube video by Jacob the Carpetbagger doing a tour of The Magic Mansion and had mentioned to her it would be cool to see in person. The day before we left, my wife presented me with the tickets (well, at least an email with digital tickets).

The night of the tour, we pulled up to the house silouetted in darkness.  Well, actually, the tour started at 7:00 p.m. and it was still light out, but "silouetted in darkness" sounds better.  Below is a photo I took when we left.

Magic Memories

Yesterday's blog about Christmas memories reminded me of something that happened this past year. Something magical, you might say.

Way back in 2012, I posted about some magic sets I'd found at sales over the years. One of the sets was one I'd picked up even earlier, probably in the early 2000's: the Remco Sneaky Pete's Professional Magic Show.

Magic as a Hobby

This "Magic as a Hobby" booklet dates from the 1950's and was sold at the surprisingly high price for the times of $1.  It contains some classics like the old "remove your thumb" trick that my brother used to pull on me (freaked me out) and "Dead Man's Finger", a trick I first saw "Ralph Malph" use to try to scare Marcia the Waitress on "Happy Days" and one which I attempted to employ in the days after (never scared anyone). There are also some cool Ripley-esque illustrations, some illusions, and a few tricks I didn't know.

The Great Voodini

I've written before about my fascination with magic sets. I found this Transogram Voodini set at an estate sale last week.  It was mixed in with a Marshall Brodien magic set.  It dates from 1959.

Tricked!

When I was a kid, I thought magicians were real.  I thought they were really performing feats of magic and that fascinated me.  My brother was also an amateur magician (I fell completely for his old "stretching the thumb" trick.  Always freaked me out.), so that added to the appeal -- I wanted to be a magician when I grew up.  My sister bought me my first magic set for Christmas when I was about 10.  It was a Pressman Magic Show bought at Toy Chest and looked a lot like this: