I had a compliment the other day. In part, it read "and your own pet secrets are an amazing lot of magical ideas and principles that are simply knockouts. In addition, you seem to have the knack of securing original and unusual stuff from your contributors - this being due to careful selection of material on your part, I am sure. You just don't accept any old thing because somebody else thinks it's good." I liked that. One needs a pepper-upper occasionally and it can't be said that I don't try to make the sheet worth a quarter. This issue completes the second subscription period with thanks to many. I could use more magical effects however. My profession is more or less one of a thought-reader. My hobby is card tricks. Such effects may predominate because of my leaning. It will be made worthwhile to anyone sending me varied material however, as I want to please everyone even though I am aware of the fact that such a thing is impossible. Mistakes insist upon creeping in and the Summer Extra contained a regrettable one. On page 45 appeared A Principle In Disguise by Harry Vosburgh of Sayre, Pennsylvania. This ought to have been Jack Vosburgh instead and all the more so because Jack is the originator of some awfully cute and clever moves and ideas. More will be heard of him and after talking him into letting me use one of his subtle ideas I had to mess up the works in a moment of thoughtlessness. There is nothing more important than having one's name right when it begins to mean something.
Arthur Felsman rang my telephone bell while he and Mrs Felsman stopped to lunch in the metropolis of Waverly. Arthur has the only traveling magic shop in existence and can contact localities where a store of magic is only heard about. I understood him to say they were at Charley's Kitchen and lost a lot of time before I found them at Sally's Pantry ! I wasn't peeved because I fell, but because I was afraid I might miss him.
Why more performers haven't a snappy little routine of tricks for publicity and impromptu purposes is beyond me. It is hard to believe but many of the best professionals can do nothing impromptu and are lost when asked to 'do something'. I think I have remarked before that Harry Blackstone garners 90% of his publicity through being able, at any time, to stand up and entertain for hours (no exaggeration) with simple effects that take on brilliance because of the grandiloquent presentation and proximity of his audience.
John Mulholland will admit (he could, at any rate) that the greater amount of his publicity is based upon personal contacts and the ability to deceive astute reporters and interviewers at close quarters on demand. There is little excuse for this lack of showmanship (it's exactly that) for there are any number of possible routines based on a single principle which can be learned with little effort. I must say here that I fully realize the attitude of more than one professional. When the art of magic changes from a hobby to a profession it palls a great deal in the interest of the conjuror.
After a set routine has been laboriously figured and tested out for stage use, the performer rests and waits acclaim. Such acclaim comes only through the publicity channels of the theatre and is stereotyped as such. The special stories, human interest stories and column squibs are built from contacts. If a reporter meets a magician, he invariably says "Do something". If the magi does not break down he is either labeled a 'trap-door trickster' or an 'unsociable cuss' and one way or the other the performer is the loser, both in a friend and publicity. Learn a routine of five or six tricks. Learn two or three routines if possible (it is).
At the moment I can think of Hugh Johnston's Modern Card Miracles - a complete dissertation on a stacked deck; Burling Hull's Electra routine; George Newmann's manuscript on stripper deck effects; Louis Nikola's system of mnemonics; and last but far from least, Adrian Smith's It's In The Bag brochure, a routine of card effects with a paper sack over your head. Your time won't be wasted by any means.
Using a magical table worker or legerdemaniac as part of the floor show is still considered good business by night spot managers. Dave Allison has been for over ten weeks at the Lexington Hotel in New York and Silver Grill vs. Tap Room patrons is now a continuous affair. The controversy, of course, rages about whether or not the hand is really quicker than the eye. To date the only accepted winner is Dave Allison himself.
Humdrum The Mystic says, "The quickest way to rid yourself of a typical correspondence school magi is to suggest in an offhand manner that he must have lost some of his mail."
Over at the Versailles, the city's latest high class hot-cha spot, Pablo is firmly entrenched in the floor entertainment and the customers never fail to show unbounded enthusiasm. I know Pablo reads The Jinx because he lately started restoring a ribbon by the flash method explained on page 39 of the Summer Extra. Mr Bays of England, the originator, should be thankful the effect is in such capable hands.
Yesterday the mail carried to me a copy of U. F. Grant's new monthly, The Trixter. Eight pages on anything under Grant's name can never be ignored and this regular dish should be well digested. The Town Where You Were Born stands out to me as the cutest among many. You can't lose, and delay in obtaining copies is your own funeral.
Every day is now a happy one for Frank Lane. When the boys around the shop refuse to laugh at an unfunny joke, he can go home, tell it to the new 7 lb. baby boy which Frances has just presented him, and be certain of getting an appreciative reception whether it be good or bad. I suppose that, for a while now, the boys around Boston will have to listen to all the baby jokes Frank can dig up. They shouldn't kick however - he's earned the right to tell them.
Very flattering are the requests at hand to include advertising in The Jinx. If I ever do it will be on inserts as I refuse to cut down on the material in favor of an advertisement. I'm selling usable information - not ads.
One of the funniest frame-ups I ever had the honor (?) of building just came to mind so it shall be put down for any who might like to have a lot of laughs. Get two of the auto bombs that are so popular with surprise-artists and hook one to each of two cars at the party. Now tip off each owner that a bomb is on the other's car and have three or more of those present in on the frame-up. As the time for each to leave gets closer and closer, the stalling of both, in order to witness the confusion of the other, gets funnier and funnier to those in the know. One reader of this paragraph will well remember how perfect was the situation.
Less than a hundred copies of the #1 Jinx are on hand so I have little to kick about. In fact the reception accorded this sheet has been beyond expectations. Not that a healthy circulation wasn't hoped for, but I was conservative enough to assume that it would take from twelve to fifteen months before a decent figure could be reached. It is running well over 850 now and it looks as though it will hit the thousand mark by the end of a year. Most of the first issues go out now as part of complete sets that are being ordered by those who have come late but realize the value that is hiding in the 52 pages to date. I've written the equivalent of over a hundred single spaced 8 ½ x 11 pages, and 64 complete tricks more than balance the three dollars in cost.
I have been taken to task by an anonymous postcard critic (who should have used a different typewriter for once) in regards to the inclusion of a dictionary and book of grammar on the Five Foot Shelf of Magic. It seems that such an inclusion didn't jibe with my own errors of the written word.
Well, I'm sorry. I thrive on the advice of my superiors (as who shouldn't) but did not appreciate the anonymity (?) of the writer. I brook no interference with my aims or beliefs, but realize only too well that my writing could be much smoother at times.
My first desire is to make understandable the tricks I write about. As for errors - well, I can only keep trying to improve.