Thurston's Card-Raising Trick

Once in a while I read message boards & such where they are debating about giving up magic trick secrets, and how it was always very hush hush. Apparently no one told that to this journalist (probably from the 1920's), who decided to disclose the secret behind one of Thurston's tricks. I wonder if Thurston minded.

Thayer's New Mystical Coin Act (Back Page)

I thought we'd start the beginning of the week by ending last week's scan collection. This wraps up our look into the curious little booklet about a coin act!

I love this illustration on the back....but still no date. You'd think with the trouble they went through publishing this with multiple fonts, decorated page numbers, etc, that they would have thought to include a date. Since I have seen items in the box as "new" as the 1940's, I think I am going to date this around that time. Compared with the items from the 1910-1920's, this paper feels much younger- fresh in a way. I am going to file this last page under mystery item until I get a definitive date.

Thayer's New Mystical Coin Act (Page 6 & 7)

...and we're done with the entire booklet! Tomorrow I have the last page to scan, which is interesting for the artwork & such, but still no date on any of it! Anyone have any guesses?

Thayer's New Mystical Coin Act (Page 4 & 5)

We're already at the center to the booklet, and the more I look at the type and such, I am thinking this is much younger than the first edition I found on ebay. I am going to have to do some digging and see if anyone is still performing a trick like this!

Thayer's New Mystical Coin Act (Page 2 & 3)

This is a huge list of items needed for a coin trick! The words that stuck out to me were "Obedient Coins." Since they were capitalized, I assumed it was the name of a trick, and I was right (once you get through the ads, it is an interesting science experiment):



Obedient Coin
Uploaded by RobertKrampf. - Videos of the latest science discoveries and tech.

Thayer's New Mystical Coin Act (Page 1)

Here we have the first page of the trick. I am wondering is this is younger than the original version I wrote about yesterday, just because of the fonts and style used- it just looks newer than 1918.

I was curious about the "ala Miser's Dream" statement, so I started looking around and found it was still a common trick! Below was my favorite version, via MagicGeek.com:

Thayer's New Mystical Coin Act

This is my 100th scanned item! I know there aren't any balloons coming down from the ceiling, but I was really excited to hit this milestone, and there is still more stuff to be scanned & cataloged!

For the rest of this week I will be focusing on this little book. The cover is made of very heavy textured paper, but the actual booklet only holds a few thin pages, and the entire thing is bound with string. I love the little lion emblem on the wrap-around flap!

I googled this title immediately, but only found this one for sale on ebay. Obviously these are not the same book. I will have to take note and see if I can find any dates in my copy to see if mine is the older or younger version.

A Card Changing Tray?!

Look what I found!This cool little box is about 4x3.5x1 inches. The picture on top is inlaid, and the back of the box has a simple flower motif with some butterflies. I am not a wood expert, but it feels very light and a little fragile.

You can see that it has dual, inset trays that slide out from the right:
When you stick an object (try not to use a real giraffe) in the top tray..............

.......and pinch the left side so that you move the end piece, so it shifts like this (see how there is a notch sticking out at the end?):


The object will magically vanish!You can repeat the process to make the object reappear.

I was hoping there would be some kind of branding on the box somewhere, but so far I have not found anything. There are many card changing trays around, but none with this unique artwork on them- most are plain or too modern.

Found: Newspaper Ladder!

Hope you all had a great weekend! Sorry about the lapse in posts, I had a little technical difficulty with the scanner over the weekend. On the upside, EM reader Joseph was able to find the trick mentioned in last Wednesday's post!

AirbrushMagic.com has instructions on how to make a ladder from a newspaper:


Thanks, Joseph!

This ladder also got me thinking of one of my favorite childhood toys, the Jacob's Ladder (not the electrical one). I had one of these toys when I was around 3 or 4, and I remember looking at it often. Mine was pink on one side and yellow on the other, and I remember that I thought of lemonade when I played with it because of the colors. I guess I enjoyed visual illusions from a young age! Unplggd.com has a video on how to make one out of cassette tapes (you might turn down the sound though- the music is a little annoying):

Insane Audio Cassette Illusion Toy - The best video clips are here

Happy Monday! Regular posts will resume tomorrow :)

Japanese Chameleon Handkerchief Puzzle Box

Patent Pending!

It was interesting to me that someone took the time to meticulously rip and flatten this box for preservation, but did not bother to save the handkerchief that it once housed. I have seen a red small cloth in one of the boxes, but it didn't really look "handkerchief" size.

As for the Japanese Puzzle Co, I am guessing their patent didn't go through. I could not find even a mention of them having ever existed in St. Louis.

Via Google Books, I was able to find a chapter from Hoffman's "More Magic" in which he describes several handkerchief tricks:

.....Glass Trick

I have really hit the mystery pile the weekend! I am sure this packet is from the Mysto Set I wrote about earlier this month. Unfortunately I cannot find a listing of what was included in the set, so figuring out the title of this trick package is a little tough.

I was able to find a lot of glass magic tricks videos via you tube, but the one below reminded me the most of the illustration:

Secret of Girl-Lifting Trick

I found this fun illustration with the newspaper clippings. Hopefully I will find the article it goes with!

Cigars (Cigarette)

What a strange thing to save! I can only assume this is part of a trick in some way. I am filing it under mystery items, because I could not find exactly what kind of trick this facilitates. What I did notice is that the "burnt" end of the cigarette contains red metal foil and slightly appears lit from far away. I also noticed that it does not smell like a cigarette.

There are a ton of cigar and cigarette trick instructions online. The video below was one of my favorites:

Side-Show and Animal Tricks (Carrington and Thurston)

Upon opening the book I immediately spotted the dedication to Thurston. I learned all about him back in May. You will also notice he thanks Thurston again on the introduction. Wanting to learn more about their connection, I was able to find this little story about the pair (and fellow dedicated Harry Kellar) and their meeting and investigation of real psychic phenomena.

Here is a close up of the illustration:

Side-Show and Animal Tricks (Cover)

This is an interesting little book. The cover is actually in a lot better shape than the scan would suggest- I was surprised how washed out it looks, when it is actually a very solid shade of dark blue. I was also suprised when I started looking up information about this book and finding it being sold for $175.00! It is honestly just a few pages with a card stock cover.

The first inner page:The author, Hereward Carrington, was a prolific writer. He published over 100 books on psychic phenomenon, magic acts, and 'alternative health issues'. You can buy reprints of his books around the web- the one I recognized first from the inner flap was The Boys Book of Magic.

We will be looking at this book and at Carrington for most of this week!

The Mysto Box

I wanted to show you the most visually interesting box in the collection. The other two boxes that house the hundreds of clippings are cigar boxes from Chicago, but this one actually has something to do with magic!

According to Magicpedia, the Mysto company, founded by A. C. Gilbert and John Petrie, produced these sets. Ideafinder.com has an interesting article on Gilbert, where I learned:

But Gilbert was also a brilliant student, and soon went on to Yale Medical School. He helped pay his tuition by performing as a magician, and founded a company, Mysto Manufacturing, which sold magic kits for kids. In 1908, he took time out to compete in the IV. Olympiad in London, England, and came home with the gold medal in the pole vault --- thanks in part to a new, spike-less bamboo pole that he was the first Olympian to use.

This man was busy! He also went on to create the Erector sets- the first advertised toy and one of the most popular toys of all time. You can read about the Erector sets via Girders and Gears.

There are hundreds of examples of Mysto sets online. You can view a few (including the one I have) in the online collection of the Eli Whitney museum.

LiveAuctioneers has a ton to look at, and I was even able to find someone selling a complete set with my box lid!I recognize a few of the card trick packets from my collection, but I do not see the rest- especially the little balls & cups.

A Look at a Spirit Trumpet!

You might remember my post about spirit trumpets. I was still curious to see what one looked like, and Gene, owner of the Museum of Talking Boards, was gracious enough to send me some photographs of a real spirit trumpet from his collection!

Here is is all folded up:
I was curious about the size- it looked really large. Gene told me that the trumpet is 29 1/2 inches extended, and 11 inches collapsed!

Mystery Items Found! Part 1

That was so fast! Reader and google extraordinaire Reina was able to pinpoint what both sets of mystery items were! Today we will focus on the little wooden paddles.

You will recall I posted this photograph earlier this week:

And it would appear that their name is exactly what they are- paddles. You can find all sorts of info on paddle tricks. Even about.com has a tutorial. I found various versions of magic paddles on some antique sites, but nothing matching the exact versions I have.

I was kind of frustrated to not be able to find the origin or history of the paddle trick, but someone wrote a book on it should I ever get so desperate to find out.

On the upside, Reina was also able to find this awesome youtube video of someone doing some cool paddle tricks:



I will unveil the other mystery item tomorrow!

Mini Spirit Slates!

I learned about Spirit Slates at the end last month, and I guess it is a good thing I stumbled upon the ad first, or I would have had no clue what I was looking at when I found this:

It is just a little bigger than 4x6. I can see the chalk markings of where someone had once used it. The little secret take-away panel comes out a lot easier than I thought it would.

Between the panels, I found this typed description:

No. 58 The Mysto Spotter Card Trick

I am excited to show you this today- the complete trick packet was there and intact!

So, what we have are 6 cards. They all look like this on the back, with the strange little dog staring you down:If you hold the cards correctly when showing the deck to the audience, they look like this:
You would then shuffle the deck and place them down, and have someone roll a dice- you would promise them that no mater where the ace was, the dice would correctly predict it's position. You could lay the cards out flat, or hold them in your hand.

The trick is that all of the cards, with the exception of the ace, all really look like this:
If you hold the card correctly when you reveal, it will look like the dice found the ace every time!

Here are the full instructions: