Friday, August 05, 2005
Thursday, August 04, 2005
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
Magic Odyssey continues -name dropping
Magic odyssey continues, lotsa name-dropping!
I do believe that I met the right people at the right time. In previous articles I mentioned I befriended Walter Gibson, Bob Rheinhart, Jeff McBride, Lance Burton, David Kotkin (Copperfield), George Sands, but one year 1982 was one heck of a year.
That year Tannens decided to carry my top ten effects in their catalog and in their Tannens Topics as well. They also featured my items on the back of Genii magazine and the Summer they did this was my the Summer I first set up at the National conventions in Evansville IBM, Los Angelos, PCAM, and the SAM in Oregon. Pete White P&A silks, Arte Severtsen (Mr. Peabody magic), and myself all traveled together on a shoestring budget, and I was sharing my booth with Arte to save some money.
The LA leg was really cool, as I saw and explored more magic than I ever knew existed. We stopped off at the Owen magic Supreme in California and watched as they built Disectos by the hundreds. On display was the original Thurston Sawing a Lady illusion, a huge box that could probably hold ten assistants, and Blackstone Seniors' original buz-saw illusion.
Then we headed to the convention and set up our booths. As dealers, all of the current and famous performers would head to the dealer rooms and since Tannens was featuring my effects in the magazine that arrived that week, I got a lot of attention. Normally, a magician would have to seek out the precession of stars to even gain an audience with these people, but, everyone stopped at my booth. David Copperfield, Al Goshman, Mark Wilson, the Larsens and others. I was also next to Jack Chanin who had a crowd and was a tough man to upstage .That was all at the booth, then at night all the dealers were invited to the castle where the greats of magic were still alive and some even kicking. I was buddy with Bob Little, and he introduced me to Vernon, Kuddobucks, and Bob Lawton. Vernons advice to me was "Stay out of magic, kid".
One night at the dealers booth I got a fedex delivery of my first manufactured illusion the Arm Box (Slice-off hand). This was one of the effects in the ads, so I had lots of interest.
One of the first to try it out was Mohamed Ali. He had arrived at the convention and loved to buy magic. Unfortunately, his masive hands couldn't fit into the box. He also commented to me that you couldn't do this with a "brotha". Ali was feeling the ravages of his disease but his mind was still sharp. The booth was elevated so I was just above eye level with Ali. I felt like Forrest Gump, traveling obliviously through life touching greatness. I remember listening to Cassius Clay beating Sonny Liston when I was 11. Now, I actually held his huge hands in mine as I showed him how to do a magic trick, facing him and guiding his hands through the motions of a performance.. An audience with the King, lasting 5 minutes and I was touching history.
One of the other interesting people I met was the late Joe berg who had National Magic on Hollywood boulevard. He stopped by the booth and invited me to his shop which was closing that month. He sold me 2 dozen spirit seance hands made of plaster of Paris, a component needed in my arm box. His were over 30 years old and were beautifully made. My box had a subtlety that used the hand and the one from my manufacturer was poorly made, so that worked out and I made a friend as well.
The last convention was in Oregon, and our flight was the first flight allowed over Mount St. Helens after the eruption. The Oregon convention received me with open arms as well. I was lecturing just after Meir Yedid and just before the newcomer Michael Amaar. Michael was doing the bare handed matrix on the rugs in the hallways during that convention.
Oregon had its own group of stars and one of the last people I met was Jerry Andrus who was a very interesting fellow. Magic is a great leveler, once you are lecturing and a dealer, people assume that you have absorbed all of the knowledge of the magic world. So, here I am, fresh out of svengali deck 101, having a beer with Andrus in his room and he is showing me a card move or two asking me if his pinkie center steal was visible. Who could even see the cards in his massive hands, much less the steal.
He also asked what I thought of his new illusion he was working on.Zone Zero. Nothing like a private demo from the creator.
Enough about conventions. Back home in New York, I used to go to Tannens to show off my latest stuff and they let me in the back rooms to checkout my inventory shelf. That back room was always wild with select buyers and dealers showing up and hanging out. I remember one on one with Frank Garcia, Bob Elliot, & Daryl. Some conversations would be one sided as Elliot showed me some unbelievable card move and would amend his performance by saying, "of course you know this move, or that move", and would proceed to show me how to do the thing. I was clueless but didn't let on.
George Schindler booked me as one of his performer lecturers at his Pennsylvania magic conventions. The great thing about that was meeting the stars headlining at the hotels.
While sitting at the "performers" table in the back-room of one hotel, Red Buttons was opposite me alongside of Schindler. I don't know what compelled me to do it, but I feigned a cough and produced a mouth coil at the table, which made Buttons wince and Schindler want to belt me in the mouth. I was a jerk, star struck, and would do anything to get attention.
Sometimes it worked. I remember Jeff Stuart and I at a public show Wagner Auditorium in Brooklyn hosted by Schindler. The NY times came in and everyone else was busy with crowds so I grabbed Stuart and we did some demos at the table for the press. We were the only ones featured with a picture in the Times.
NBC news was there as well, and was shooting footage in the dealer room which had a batch of generic demos going on. I jumped over the table and started doing a fancy dancing cane in the center of the dealer room. Al Cohen and the other guys were laughing, but my cane routine opened the evening national news for NBC that night. The news crew never stayed to see the show with the stage performers Jeff McBride Schindler and Rocco.
Enough name dropping. More next time.
Magic Ian
Aka Ian Sutz
I do believe that I met the right people at the right time. In previous articles I mentioned I befriended Walter Gibson, Bob Rheinhart, Jeff McBride, Lance Burton, David Kotkin (Copperfield), George Sands, but one year 1982 was one heck of a year.
That year Tannens decided to carry my top ten effects in their catalog and in their Tannens Topics as well. They also featured my items on the back of Genii magazine and the Summer they did this was my the Summer I first set up at the National conventions in Evansville IBM, Los Angelos, PCAM, and the SAM in Oregon. Pete White P&A silks, Arte Severtsen (Mr. Peabody magic), and myself all traveled together on a shoestring budget, and I was sharing my booth with Arte to save some money.
The LA leg was really cool, as I saw and explored more magic than I ever knew existed. We stopped off at the Owen magic Supreme in California and watched as they built Disectos by the hundreds. On display was the original Thurston Sawing a Lady illusion, a huge box that could probably hold ten assistants, and Blackstone Seniors' original buz-saw illusion.
Then we headed to the convention and set up our booths. As dealers, all of the current and famous performers would head to the dealer rooms and since Tannens was featuring my effects in the magazine that arrived that week, I got a lot of attention. Normally, a magician would have to seek out the precession of stars to even gain an audience with these people, but, everyone stopped at my booth. David Copperfield, Al Goshman, Mark Wilson, the Larsens and others. I was also next to Jack Chanin who had a crowd and was a tough man to upstage .That was all at the booth, then at night all the dealers were invited to the castle where the greats of magic were still alive and some even kicking. I was buddy with Bob Little, and he introduced me to Vernon, Kuddobucks, and Bob Lawton. Vernons advice to me was "Stay out of magic, kid".
One night at the dealers booth I got a fedex delivery of my first manufactured illusion the Arm Box (Slice-off hand). This was one of the effects in the ads, so I had lots of interest.
One of the first to try it out was Mohamed Ali. He had arrived at the convention and loved to buy magic. Unfortunately, his masive hands couldn't fit into the box. He also commented to me that you couldn't do this with a "brotha". Ali was feeling the ravages of his disease but his mind was still sharp. The booth was elevated so I was just above eye level with Ali. I felt like Forrest Gump, traveling obliviously through life touching greatness. I remember listening to Cassius Clay beating Sonny Liston when I was 11. Now, I actually held his huge hands in mine as I showed him how to do a magic trick, facing him and guiding his hands through the motions of a performance.. An audience with the King, lasting 5 minutes and I was touching history.
One of the other interesting people I met was the late Joe berg who had National Magic on Hollywood boulevard. He stopped by the booth and invited me to his shop which was closing that month. He sold me 2 dozen spirit seance hands made of plaster of Paris, a component needed in my arm box. His were over 30 years old and were beautifully made. My box had a subtlety that used the hand and the one from my manufacturer was poorly made, so that worked out and I made a friend as well.
The last convention was in Oregon, and our flight was the first flight allowed over Mount St. Helens after the eruption. The Oregon convention received me with open arms as well. I was lecturing just after Meir Yedid and just before the newcomer Michael Amaar. Michael was doing the bare handed matrix on the rugs in the hallways during that convention.
Oregon had its own group of stars and one of the last people I met was Jerry Andrus who was a very interesting fellow. Magic is a great leveler, once you are lecturing and a dealer, people assume that you have absorbed all of the knowledge of the magic world. So, here I am, fresh out of svengali deck 101, having a beer with Andrus in his room and he is showing me a card move or two asking me if his pinkie center steal was visible. Who could even see the cards in his massive hands, much less the steal.
He also asked what I thought of his new illusion he was working on.Zone Zero. Nothing like a private demo from the creator.
Enough about conventions. Back home in New York, I used to go to Tannens to show off my latest stuff and they let me in the back rooms to checkout my inventory shelf. That back room was always wild with select buyers and dealers showing up and hanging out. I remember one on one with Frank Garcia, Bob Elliot, & Daryl. Some conversations would be one sided as Elliot showed me some unbelievable card move and would amend his performance by saying, "of course you know this move, or that move", and would proceed to show me how to do the thing. I was clueless but didn't let on.
George Schindler booked me as one of his performer lecturers at his Pennsylvania magic conventions. The great thing about that was meeting the stars headlining at the hotels.
While sitting at the "performers" table in the back-room of one hotel, Red Buttons was opposite me alongside of Schindler. I don't know what compelled me to do it, but I feigned a cough and produced a mouth coil at the table, which made Buttons wince and Schindler want to belt me in the mouth. I was a jerk, star struck, and would do anything to get attention.
Sometimes it worked. I remember Jeff Stuart and I at a public show Wagner Auditorium in Brooklyn hosted by Schindler. The NY times came in and everyone else was busy with crowds so I grabbed Stuart and we did some demos at the table for the press. We were the only ones featured with a picture in the Times.
NBC news was there as well, and was shooting footage in the dealer room which had a batch of generic demos going on. I jumped over the table and started doing a fancy dancing cane in the center of the dealer room. Al Cohen and the other guys were laughing, but my cane routine opened the evening national news for NBC that night. The news crew never stayed to see the show with the stage performers Jeff McBride Schindler and Rocco.
Enough name dropping. More next time.
Magic Ian
Aka Ian Sutz
Odyssey 2- the magic manufacturer
Oddysey 2- the magic manufacturer
The magical mystery tour continues. One day, while playing with
some dental dam, my 5 year old daughter found a busted needle
thru balloon, and said daddy, put the quarter through this. She
saw it as a piece of rubber, I saw the possibility of creating a
more dimensional way to do the Dam trick. Coin balloon-acy was
born, although the "dam" technique could be used on the latex,
blowing up the balloon required a technique that had never been
tried. But, I worked it out and I showcased it at a Bob Little
convention in Hatboro, Pa.. Bob was farely liberal in letting me
in to his booth. I told him I had this new effect, and would
share the cash, if he let me demo it. I showed the effect and
sold about 30 pieces. I stood up on his table, and kept showing
it and showing it. Of course, I caught the eye of Ed Mishel who
just happened to do the reviews for Genii magazine. He took me
aside, and told me he was giving my little effect 4 stars. He
also told me he would call it Coin-Balloon-acy. Who was I to
argue with this legend; Mishel became a mentor after that, more
on him later. Even before Genii hit the stands, I sold thousands
to suppliers, and then Genii magazine had the glowing review.
This was a newfound success for me and I needed a follow up.
I emptied my brain and came up with some pretty off the wall
magical effects. Not only because I was clever, but, because my
mom got stuck with merchandise and we had to unload it somewhere.
The approach to creativity had to do with supply, demand, and
onhand. No one needs to make a better mouse trap unless you have
a mouse problem. My problem was, my Mom. Mom would buy at
industrial auctions, fabric, bric-a-brac, army surplus, head shop
supplies, and entire stores full of absolutely nothing anyone
would want. So, I made the junk into tricks.
It was the late 70's. Alongside of the magic, we had a variety
store. Fabric, art supplies, even a head shop. Then there were
the closeouts. Creative juices flowed.
I had bought a box of 500 special spring clips from our art
supplier, Fuji art from Japan. Kind of like bull dog clips, but
with a different construction. After careful study of this I
found that match strikers would insert into or rather around this
clip, I added a pin and placed a match into it. I pulled the
match out and with a loud snap, the match lit up. There was NO
gimmick like this anywhere. Sure there were match pulls from
Italy, and homemade deals but this gimmick worked 100 times in a
row without a miss. I called it dependelite and introduced it at
the New jersey magicale.
Maybe the climate of magic was different back then, but I showed
the effect and within a few minutes had an unprecedented line of
buyers in front of my booth. This item was so cool (or hot) that
I ran out of strikers, pins matches and packages, and the
magicians payed me the $2 for just the clip and instructions. I
sold all 500 in about 2 hours.
I contacted all the major distributors and unlike any other
business in the world, I went from concept to delivery in less
than a week. Each dealer took several gross each, and re-ordered
monthly for several years. . Of course, the fact that lance
Burton used 6 of them live on the tonight show gave the item a
little strength in the stores. Even Copperfield used them on one
of his specials. I still sell them today.
Another great effect that stemmed from the "overstocks", was an
item I marketed as Universal Utility Clip. Mom had some vinyl
coin purses, thousands of them. After a quick study of the
mechanism, the purse had a sping clip which held objects in place
at any angle. I cut off the purse pouch, and added some pins at
the hinges, and took them to the Tannens jubilee, held about 30
minutes from our shop. I didn't have a booth, but, good old Bob
Little did, so I dropped off a little display that held 12 pieces
at his booth. As each display would sell out, I refilled it. I
sold all 50 dozen displays within the one convention. It was the
single best seller that Bob had on display. Once again, I called
up the suppliers and they all wanted some. My biggest problem was
getting more. I had a close-out, limited supply, and it tooks
weeks to track down a good source for them. The lesson was, don't
create an item if you can't get more.
Other four star effects would follow. We had 5000 ugly ties and I
made an effect called Blendo Tie. I had several cases of pepsi
salt shakers (from a head shop "bong" maker.) That item was my
best seller for years, called Pepsilkola. Discarded keys from our
closeout key making business became Disc-Go Dime.
When I ran out of closeouts, I would travel to the Javetts
merchandise show in NY and try to find odd items that could be
used in magic. One time, I met Steve Dushek, and Bob Little at
the show. It seems that some of their creative items stemmed from
going to the merchandise shows as well. We almost had a contest
to see who could come up with the most effects from the show.
None of us ever duplicated anything, but there was a lot of new
effects that year. Other "inventors" went to the shows as well.
Petrick and Mia, Tony Spina, even Jeff Stuart. I remember Jeff
and I had the same item at the Tannens camp where we lectured. I
had "can wrappers", fake cola can wrappers that people would wrap
around their beer cans. My effect was to make passe passe cans,
and vanishing cans in a wad of paper. Jeff's effect was more
clever, he actually developed the vanishing can with a spring
inside and created the crushing can effect. I kicked myself for
not thinking of that one, cause I had the labels.
I met and conversed with all of the "gimmick guy"s back then, it
was a contest to see who would find the next "wunderbar".
Next time... The convention circuit
The magical mystery tour continues. One day, while playing with
some dental dam, my 5 year old daughter found a busted needle
thru balloon, and said daddy, put the quarter through this. She
saw it as a piece of rubber, I saw the possibility of creating a
more dimensional way to do the Dam trick. Coin balloon-acy was
born, although the "dam" technique could be used on the latex,
blowing up the balloon required a technique that had never been
tried. But, I worked it out and I showcased it at a Bob Little
convention in Hatboro, Pa.. Bob was farely liberal in letting me
in to his booth. I told him I had this new effect, and would
share the cash, if he let me demo it. I showed the effect and
sold about 30 pieces. I stood up on his table, and kept showing
it and showing it. Of course, I caught the eye of Ed Mishel who
just happened to do the reviews for Genii magazine. He took me
aside, and told me he was giving my little effect 4 stars. He
also told me he would call it Coin-Balloon-acy. Who was I to
argue with this legend; Mishel became a mentor after that, more
on him later. Even before Genii hit the stands, I sold thousands
to suppliers, and then Genii magazine had the glowing review.
This was a newfound success for me and I needed a follow up.
I emptied my brain and came up with some pretty off the wall
magical effects. Not only because I was clever, but, because my
mom got stuck with merchandise and we had to unload it somewhere.
The approach to creativity had to do with supply, demand, and
onhand. No one needs to make a better mouse trap unless you have
a mouse problem. My problem was, my Mom. Mom would buy at
industrial auctions, fabric, bric-a-brac, army surplus, head shop
supplies, and entire stores full of absolutely nothing anyone
would want. So, I made the junk into tricks.
It was the late 70's. Alongside of the magic, we had a variety
store. Fabric, art supplies, even a head shop. Then there were
the closeouts. Creative juices flowed.
I had bought a box of 500 special spring clips from our art
supplier, Fuji art from Japan. Kind of like bull dog clips, but
with a different construction. After careful study of this I
found that match strikers would insert into or rather around this
clip, I added a pin and placed a match into it. I pulled the
match out and with a loud snap, the match lit up. There was NO
gimmick like this anywhere. Sure there were match pulls from
Italy, and homemade deals but this gimmick worked 100 times in a
row without a miss. I called it dependelite and introduced it at
the New jersey magicale.
Maybe the climate of magic was different back then, but I showed
the effect and within a few minutes had an unprecedented line of
buyers in front of my booth. This item was so cool (or hot) that
I ran out of strikers, pins matches and packages, and the
magicians payed me the $2 for just the clip and instructions. I
sold all 500 in about 2 hours.
I contacted all the major distributors and unlike any other
business in the world, I went from concept to delivery in less
than a week. Each dealer took several gross each, and re-ordered
monthly for several years. . Of course, the fact that lance
Burton used 6 of them live on the tonight show gave the item a
little strength in the stores. Even Copperfield used them on one
of his specials. I still sell them today.
Another great effect that stemmed from the "overstocks", was an
item I marketed as Universal Utility Clip. Mom had some vinyl
coin purses, thousands of them. After a quick study of the
mechanism, the purse had a sping clip which held objects in place
at any angle. I cut off the purse pouch, and added some pins at
the hinges, and took them to the Tannens jubilee, held about 30
minutes from our shop. I didn't have a booth, but, good old Bob
Little did, so I dropped off a little display that held 12 pieces
at his booth. As each display would sell out, I refilled it. I
sold all 50 dozen displays within the one convention. It was the
single best seller that Bob had on display. Once again, I called
up the suppliers and they all wanted some. My biggest problem was
getting more. I had a close-out, limited supply, and it tooks
weeks to track down a good source for them. The lesson was, don't
create an item if you can't get more.
Other four star effects would follow. We had 5000 ugly ties and I
made an effect called Blendo Tie. I had several cases of pepsi
salt shakers (from a head shop "bong" maker.) That item was my
best seller for years, called Pepsilkola. Discarded keys from our
closeout key making business became Disc-Go Dime.
When I ran out of closeouts, I would travel to the Javetts
merchandise show in NY and try to find odd items that could be
used in magic. One time, I met Steve Dushek, and Bob Little at
the show. It seems that some of their creative items stemmed from
going to the merchandise shows as well. We almost had a contest
to see who could come up with the most effects from the show.
None of us ever duplicated anything, but there was a lot of new
effects that year. Other "inventors" went to the shows as well.
Petrick and Mia, Tony Spina, even Jeff Stuart. I remember Jeff
and I had the same item at the Tannens camp where we lectured. I
had "can wrappers", fake cola can wrappers that people would wrap
around their beer cans. My effect was to make passe passe cans,
and vanishing cans in a wad of paper. Jeff's effect was more
clever, he actually developed the vanishing can with a spring
inside and created the crushing can effect. I kicked myself for
not thinking of that one, cause I had the labels.
I met and conversed with all of the "gimmick guy"s back then, it
was a contest to see who would find the next "wunderbar".
Next time... The convention circuit
Magical Odyssey -by Magic Ian
Magical Odyssey- by magic-Ian
We were all fascinated by magic when we were young, my mom gave me a real top hat and cape at age 6, and I went to my school classes producing silks from my sleeve and a stuffed rabbit from the hat.
Now I was 21, and failing at college, so I opened a coffee house which also failed within the year. I turned it into an antique shop and thats where I met Bob Reinhart. Bob came in looking for antique dishes, and always asked if I knew of a juggler named Dubois. He then took some of the dishes and juggled them over my china display. Not too bad for age 80. He never mentioned magic, but more about Bob later.
My interest in magic was rekindled at age 24, when we rented a room to a young magician who inadvertently left his magic bag open allowing me to peak in and see a thumb tip. Well, it was like I was missing a finger all of my life and there it was. My wife bought me a magic kit that year and six weeks later I opened a shop. That shop was all of 20 items in the front of my moms fabric store, but everyone got a demo when they came in. Then Bob Reinhart came by one day. Like an old reclusive wizard who would wait until there were no other magicians in the shop, and he would then start to tell me stories of his entertainment booking agency in New York. He never told me of his magical connection when he shopped at my old antique shop, but now he came out of the closet. He dropped names that I only now could identify, and for some reason he insisted on encouraging me to get some older classic props. He would never buy anything, but knew all. He then invited me to the Poughkeepsie SAM. That was where I met George Sands, and Walter Gibson. Reinhardt was a close friend of all of the old timers, Gibson, Vernon, Marshall, Flosso, Kudobucks, Lawton, Larson and it was found out that he was the agent for many acts in the 20’s. The Poughkeepsie connection was the real start of great magical interest.
Two years later, 1979, I did my first lecture on magic and wrote a booklet “Best Dam Tricks” and Walter Gibson wrote the introduction. I had gone to Gibsons house to seek his advice on writing. He gave me some routines (from an 1919 booklet he wrote), and gave me permission to use whatever I wanted. He then went to his Underwood typewriter, the same one he typed “The Shadow” on. The same one he wrote all of his thousand books or so, and he said he never corrected his text and wrote pages of original text in mere minutes. He typed out a fabulous introduction for my first booklet and he signed it. That signature went right to print.
The shop was a magic magnet for talent, and an 13 year old named Jeff McBride practically lived at the shop. He was a featured act (even then) at the Orange County (NY) fair up until he turned 17. Jeff and I would travel to the larry Weeks conventions in NY, and one time we saw Reinhardt there. I introduced Bob to Jeff, and all of a sudden I was invisible. Reinhardt decide to take us all out after one of the conventions, to a building in NY at 2 A.M.. He had the keys to this “club” as he put it, and we all were in awe of his NY savvy. It was McBride, Myself, Bobby Baxter (great thimble artist), and Reinhardt walking into this huge room which suddenly lit up when a butler came by to light the way. The walls were all mahogany and the chairs were all fine leather. Twelve foot ceiling, and great mahogany doors with gold handles, and we went through ten rooms to a private room at the end. This was the Yale Club in NY.
Rheinhardt persuaded Baxter to do some magic, and he obliged by doing his entire thimble act, producing 10 thimbles as a finale after showing his bare hands. Next, McBride would do his card act with split fans, interlock, and cards from everywhere. What a night. We left at dawn, and Jeff and I took turns driving his van home to upstate NY. ----More next month.
We were all fascinated by magic when we were young, my mom gave me a real top hat and cape at age 6, and I went to my school classes producing silks from my sleeve and a stuffed rabbit from the hat.
Now I was 21, and failing at college, so I opened a coffee house which also failed within the year. I turned it into an antique shop and thats where I met Bob Reinhart. Bob came in looking for antique dishes, and always asked if I knew of a juggler named Dubois. He then took some of the dishes and juggled them over my china display. Not too bad for age 80. He never mentioned magic, but more about Bob later.
My interest in magic was rekindled at age 24, when we rented a room to a young magician who inadvertently left his magic bag open allowing me to peak in and see a thumb tip. Well, it was like I was missing a finger all of my life and there it was. My wife bought me a magic kit that year and six weeks later I opened a shop. That shop was all of 20 items in the front of my moms fabric store, but everyone got a demo when they came in. Then Bob Reinhart came by one day. Like an old reclusive wizard who would wait until there were no other magicians in the shop, and he would then start to tell me stories of his entertainment booking agency in New York. He never told me of his magical connection when he shopped at my old antique shop, but now he came out of the closet. He dropped names that I only now could identify, and for some reason he insisted on encouraging me to get some older classic props. He would never buy anything, but knew all. He then invited me to the Poughkeepsie SAM. That was where I met George Sands, and Walter Gibson. Reinhardt was a close friend of all of the old timers, Gibson, Vernon, Marshall, Flosso, Kudobucks, Lawton, Larson and it was found out that he was the agent for many acts in the 20’s. The Poughkeepsie connection was the real start of great magical interest.
Two years later, 1979, I did my first lecture on magic and wrote a booklet “Best Dam Tricks” and Walter Gibson wrote the introduction. I had gone to Gibsons house to seek his advice on writing. He gave me some routines (from an 1919 booklet he wrote), and gave me permission to use whatever I wanted. He then went to his Underwood typewriter, the same one he typed “The Shadow” on. The same one he wrote all of his thousand books or so, and he said he never corrected his text and wrote pages of original text in mere minutes. He typed out a fabulous introduction for my first booklet and he signed it. That signature went right to print.
The shop was a magic magnet for talent, and an 13 year old named Jeff McBride practically lived at the shop. He was a featured act (even then) at the Orange County (NY) fair up until he turned 17. Jeff and I would travel to the larry Weeks conventions in NY, and one time we saw Reinhardt there. I introduced Bob to Jeff, and all of a sudden I was invisible. Reinhardt decide to take us all out after one of the conventions, to a building in NY at 2 A.M.. He had the keys to this “club” as he put it, and we all were in awe of his NY savvy. It was McBride, Myself, Bobby Baxter (great thimble artist), and Reinhardt walking into this huge room which suddenly lit up when a butler came by to light the way. The walls were all mahogany and the chairs were all fine leather. Twelve foot ceiling, and great mahogany doors with gold handles, and we went through ten rooms to a private room at the end. This was the Yale Club in NY.
Rheinhardt persuaded Baxter to do some magic, and he obliged by doing his entire thimble act, producing 10 thimbles as a finale after showing his bare hands. Next, McBride would do his card act with split fans, interlock, and cards from everywhere. What a night. We left at dawn, and Jeff and I took turns driving his van home to upstate NY. ----More next month.
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