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!

Rip Van Winkle

I learned a lot about the most random things when I started researching this Thayer ad. I learned that Edwin Brush was a magician and entertainer and got his start of the first circuit of chautauquas. I had never heard that word until today, so if you are as clueless as I was, here is the wikipedia article on them. Essentially they were traveling tents bringing education and entertainment to communities. You can view a program from one of his performances here- and if you love old Americana ephemera, you should definitely check out that site!

Also, if you have money to burn, Brush's original trunk and some costuming & other items are on auction via live auctioneers. In the description they mention the illusion in this advertisement:

sections of a cabinet and two matching Asian robes/costumes for an exchange illusion (possibly Brush's Rip Van Winkle illusion)

The starting bid is at $1,300.00.

Thayer Envelope & Ordering Form

Not much to research here, but I thought readers might enjoy this Thayer envelope, and I was excited to find the blank ordering form inside:

Card Secrets No. 9 Mental Telepathy

Another from the series I posted last month. This isn't as much illusion as it is "attempt to screw with someone's head for fun & profit." Of course you would have to get really great at flipping the cards swiftly or else they would probably catch on when you paused at the one they were supposed to remember!I love the part about making the target disgusted with themselves by flipping through the cards too quickly and then acting like they are the ones who are not normal because they didn't pick a card yet.

Mystery Items

I found a few things today in one of the cigar boxes, and I have no clue what they are. Since everything else in the boxes are related to magic in some way, it would be odd that these weren't part of a trick or brain teaser. Anyhow, here are two photos, and if you can help me figure out what these are or do, I would be very grateful!

Alexander's Original Luminous Ouiji Divining Board

Here is an ad that manages to do it's job a century later- I wanted one of these tremendously on first read! I would even settle for a photograph of one!

I couldn't find anyone selling or even mentioning the board anywhere, so I went to an Ouija Board expert. I emailed the awesome Gene, who runs the Museum of Talking Boards to see if he could pinpoint which board Alexander was selling. I was really surprised at what Gene was able to find- and now I know why you don't see many any of these boards anywhere:

Alexander’s Original Luminous Ouiji Divining Board was made by magician Claude Alexander Conlin (Alexander--the Man Who Knows) and sold exclusively through his Los Angeles publishing house during the 1920s. It wasn’t available through stores and that is why it is so rare and seldom seen today. What made this item special was the planchette, which was in the shape and image of Alexander’s head. It worked as a writing planchette if you inserted the pencil as the third leg and wrote on a sheet of paper, or as a regular message indicator if you replaced the pencil with the matching leg and used the supplied letter and number board.

The letter and number board was fairly unremarkable except for the glowing luminous spot in the center. The luminous spot was supposed to aid spirit communication and make the “conditions” right. What this spot was made of I can only guess but I suspect that it was radium which was used at the time to make paint glow in the dark. If this was true then it added a whole new meaning to dangerous Ouija sessions.

So if anyone has a planchette in the shape of Alexander's head, you have something special. If you have a board that glows in the center, you might need to see your doctor.

Here is the second section of the advertisement- which hilariously appears just below the top portion, only the entire thing is too long to fit in my scanner, so I had to split it into two parts:

Thank you again, Gene for being so quick with this information!