LAWRENCE YEAGER Magic During Wartime
      This segment recreates First Sergeant Lawrence Yeager's impromptu magic show in the midst of World War II in Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge, armed "only with a moth-eaten piece of silk and a greasy deck of cards." The chattering G.I.s seem oblivious to the sergeant's canned patter and simple tricks, heckling him so loudly that at times they drown him out. He misses the silk through the leg once, but it's not bad for an amateur in the midst of winter warfare. The soldiers razz Yeager throughout the act, especially when he pulls out his cards, which apparently even hardened army men cannot handle. As they continue to harass him as he blames the freezing temperature, the segment devolves from heartwarming story to hilarious enlisted hazing.

MR. T.N.T. Dynamite Stunt
     This daredevil's real name was "Lucky" Walters, and his nickname proves apt as he survives this stunt with his costume intact (though perhaps not his hearing). As the show goes on location to the Mohave Desert (as the helpful map points out), Art Baker cruises to the site with an "Explosives: Dangerous" sign scotch-taped to his car. After Baker watches Mr. T.N.T. set eight sticks of dynamite; the host prudently runs to the hills for cover. The makeshift "coffin" is blown to smithereens, but the daredevil emerges unscathed. As Baker points out, this is "a good way to keep from growing old"!

MR. X. Card Cheating
     Good card work here, and a free lesson in valuable card sleights for the viewer! Art Baker says that Mr. X's lectures helped save G.I.s millions of dollars, but that the onetime gambler had now gone legit as an honest businessman, wearing a mask to protect his identity. The scripture devotee who demonstrated dice fakery in an earlier show returns with his worthy card sleights: a second deal, a peek, a fake center, a bottom deal, a bold one-hand switch. All in all, very good handlings, especially for 1950s television. The segment concludes, of course, with Mr. X dedicating his exposure to the good book.

CHARLES CARRER Grocery Juggling
     Creative camera work strongly enhances this segment. On location at the Santa Monica shoreline, juggler Charles Carrer opens a pair of grocery bags and makes the food defy gravity. When he performs the classic stunt in which balanced eggs fall into several glasses, slow-motion replay lets the viewer better observe the lightning-fast feat (and notice one of the stands left behind).
      Carrer - husband of famed female magician Dell O'Dell - then tosses an orange into the air and impales it on the end of a twenty-foot pole balanced on his chin. For his finale, he attaches a knife to the pole, flings an apple in the air, slices it in two on the blade, and catches the halves as they fall. Throughout, the slow-mo and bird's-eye perspective shots make this variety act work nicely on television.

BELA LUGOSI Girl to Bat
     After a journey above a miniature Transylvania , Art Baker promises that the illusion to follow is "not for the faint-hearted," though the result is less than scary. It's a treat nonetheless to see the famed Dracula actor Bela Lugosi at his spooky best. The dramatic black-and-white photography turns the act into a small-screen film noir as Lugosi transforms his hypnotized and subservient blonde victim into a bat with a Modern Cabinet.
      Using his theatrical skills, the Romanian actor powerfully directs the action and entrances the beautiful woman with mystic words and gestures. The cabinet's sizable enough for a harem, and after all the buildup and wrapping of chains, the bat on a string is a bit of a letdown. Lugosi gets to wryly deliver the tagline, though we see that his fangs are but a senior memory. One wonders if his announced show "Dr. Acula" ever materialized.

PETER GODFREY Cups and Balls
     Once again the show breaks out the Far East décor to evoke an exotic setting. A Caucasian playing an Indian fakir, Peter Godfrey silently performs the Cups and Balls, although he declines to use the traditional shallow cups or moves. It's a passable routine, though the loads suffer from the unblinking eye of the television camera. One nice touch: turning the produced egg into a chick as a lead-in to the peeping trio that follows.

AUBREY Floating Ball
     The same foreign-looking studio set now plays the role of Baghdad , with Aubrey wearing a fez to blend in. He performs the David P. Abbott routine, with the turnaround moves added later by Okito, who had learned the piece from Abbott. If the hoop moves look familiar, that's because Blackstone Sr. used the Abbott routine as the basis of his Floating Light Bulb.
      The busy background helps hide the secret and the offstage assistant seems to be jazzing up the moves so Aubrey can remain motionless more than usually possible in one-man ball routines. Aubrey's routine is succinct and practical, and he moves as gracefully as the silver sphere.

AHMED BEY Water Burial
     Sorry folks, just the opening build-up here, so we'll have to assume this endurance feat was a success. The Egyptian-style fakir snaps into a nifty trance as the helpful doctor on hand not only checks the miracle man's pulse but also helps hoist Bey into his coffin and lock it up. The sealing is quite a process, and as the doc and an assistant race to tighten wing nuts with wrenches, the house organist plays frantically and Art Baker fills time. The coffin is finally submerged in water for the 25-minute length of the show as Baker places a lit candle into a glass box to note the diminishing oxygen supply.

IRBY Water Torture Cell
     Irby returns — this time without any leopard-skin costumes — to recreate Houdini's Water Torture Cell. The apparatus sits on a rugged wood platform and the equipment all looks solid and menacing (if you look closely, you can see the cameraman reflected in the cell's front pane). Irby performs without the usual handcuffs and is plunged into the water with a minimum of buildup.
      The traditional assistants with axes stand by, the stopwatch ticks away superimposed over the scene, and Art Baker plays the concerned narrator counting down the time Irby remains underwater. After ninety seconds, Irby stumbles out from the curtain and almost falls off the platform before smoothing his hair and taking a bow.

AUBREY Asrah
     Back in the Baghdad set, Aubrey's assistant gets into position without a table as the magician conducts a graceful, slow, and gradual rise amidst the smoking urns. Aubrey has a way with convincing gestures and somehow makes the levitation seem more believable than the usual modern hand-waving routine. The vanish of the girl is sweet and simple, making best use of the television medium. And of course Aubrey looks spiffy as always in his double-breasted suit and fez.

HEREWARD CARRINGTON Spirit Trickery
     The laughable opening sequence might not have fooled the faithful "Mrs. Pierce" into believing her husband has returned from beyond. Carrington was a magician and prolific author on psychic matters dating back to the famous Eusapia Palladino and Margery cases. The table raps seem to be coming from elsewhere, but it's basically a treat to see these slightly hokey demonstrations of old-time spiritualists. He exposes table-lifting and the Daylight Séance's fake hand (his sound mysteriously cuts out, too), then a flap slate and trumpet. The elderly writer concludes by warning viewers that if they spend their dough on mediums, "You asked for it!"

GORGEOUS GEORGE Card Effects
     Wrestler "Gorgeous George" welcomes the show into his dressing room, where he makes sure his manicure and hair are tidy. With his giant boutonniere in place, the eccentric showman shares the trivia that four U.S. presidents were wrestlers and eighteen had long hair. He does a few color changes, controls a selected card within the pack (relying on the once-essential pass), performs a top change, and concludes with a card thumbtacked on the wall. In all, not bad for a wrestler!

HARLAN TARBELL Eyeless Vision
     The good doctor, author of The Tarbell Course in Magic, is a bit stiff and his technique of sealing his eyes (using powder puffs and applying some of the tape himself) seems not so thorough, but at least he can speak during the routine, unlike his fellow seer, the muffled Kuda Bux. The detection of objects is pleasant, though the cigarette paraphernalia would be rare today, especially on television. The routine's best elements? Tarbell's gentlemanly manner and the many details he points out.