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You Asked For It: Rare T.V. Magic Acts Volume Three Performances |
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ARTHUR BUCKLEY Miser's Dream You'll start out thinking Buckley's a schoolteacher in tails with his Dale Carnegie-polite patter (with the possible exception of his line about materializing "money from my ancestors"). But as the act goes on, the author of Principles and Deceptions and other magic texts presents his Miser's Dream with charming dry humor, superb visual sleights, and an ever-building routine that brings him more loot in more distinct ways than almost any performer on record. Flash instant productions in front, back palms to the side, double-handed appearances, all leading to the final cane production and the nonchalant final move of streaming the coins into his top hat as he bows. The whole act looks like real magic. |
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HARRY BLACKSTONE SR. Buzz Saw This segment will be a revelation to those who've never seen Blackstone Sr. or his Buzz Saw. He might have had to wear glasses to get in position for the flash appearance, but the oldster shows macho assurance as he performs one of the most visual and visceral of all illusions. Watch his manly manner with his assistant and all the convincers: the way she collapses in a trance, the cut wood, the fussing with her costume. If there seems to be a bit too much fumbling, this could be just Blackstone making us wonder if an accident has really occurred when that girl lets out a truly spine-tingling chill, followed by the ominous screech of the saw. Notice how Blackstone seems to try to revive the girl by shaking her arm, then appears to not notice she hasn't responded. Great drama and strong, emotional illusion work. |
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PETER GODFREY Cargo Net Vanish With a pantsuit-clad assistant and peppy music, Peter Godfrey pulls off a convincing Cargo Net routine. He lets the audience know they're going to witness a disintegration, then makes one seem to happen. The low-key Godfrey doesn't run away from the net. He waits behind as it falls, then slowly walks out from underneath so the audience can see him through the netting. A little touch like this makes it seem that the girl has really changed to nothingness, rather than just being camouflaged by a black curtain. |
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BOB HASKELL Card Cheating A flash of a palm begins this sequence of card-sharking exposes. Haskell exposes the markings of a Deland Dollar Deck, though it's unclear how many cheats would actually use one in actual play. He shows shiners made from a tobacco pipe and a shiny pistol. With a tilted display board, to apparently better show the studio audience the cards, Haskell does a very slow-motion bottom deal, a four Sixes-to-Jacks effect, and a poker deal. Not incredible technique, but a good glimpse of typical card magic in the 1950s. |
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DANTE Backstage with a Magician The ever-mellow Dante intones, "Sim sala bim" and performs this backward piece with his favorite assistant, Moi-Yo Miller. We hear his asides to his team as the cameras apparently see the secret of the illusion, only to be surprised in the end. The camera almost misses the climax, however, when a male assistant in Asian garb emerges into the obscurity of semi-darkness, and the moment is only partially saved by a last-second close-up showing that the figure is not Moi-Yo. Dante's winking sign-off is a little wooden, too, but we can imagine how charming this performer must have been in his prime years before this clip. |
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KIRK KIRKHAM Stretching a Woman After a warm-up of stretching a rope, Kirkham delivers, without a hint of irony, what must rank among the weirdest illusion introductions of all time: "Through the years, magicians have tortured their assistants with various devices. Tonight we have what we call the pleasant torturing machine." Nonetheless, Kirkham presents this effect with strong style and humor, with many bits of business such as almost letting the assistant's head fall and having the appendages glide together at the end. |
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JIM CONLEY Living Head on Swords After purchasing tickets from illusionist Jim Conley's carnival ticket booth and a two-cent glass of pink lemonade, Art Baker leads the viewer inside the sideshow tent to see "Miss Hedda Severed." The television camera's limitations don't adequately convey the deceptiveness of the mirrors, but the act helps us imagine what kind of presentation might have accompanied this style of illusion in bygone sideshows. Conley does his best to make the routine amusing, ending with a silly finish of changing the woman's head to a head of lettuce. |
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KIRK KIRKHAM Sword Basket Art Baker wanders through a warehouse of Thurston illusions to introduce Kirkham's version of the Basket with a prop that looks the size of a Volkswagen. It's a presentation full of many touches we don't see today: plunging the sword repeatedly through various spots in the basket instead of inserting a number of swords through predetermined flaps, and actually demonstrating that the sword cuts (a little detail many modern illusionists leave out). The sword bobs up and down on its own when Kirkham sticks it into the top. At the conclusion, a small Hindu-garbed boy emerges and totes the basket offstage on his head. |
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IRBY Thumb Tie With a spiffy suit, Irby has come a long way from his jungle costumes, although he's introduced with the not-so-classy nickname "Slippery Leo." Irby's macho way of having his thumbs tied really looks escape-proof, especially with the rough twine-type rope he's using. "Don't worry about the thumb. There's no feeling left now," he tells the volunteers as they pull on the cord. Despite his classy attire, Irby energetically lurches about as he passes his tied hands through a cane, a spectator's neck, and tossed rings. His assistants oddly decline to answer any of his questions, perhaps awed into silence. |
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JIM CONLEY Broom Suspension With French stage décor, Jim Conley returns under the Gallic-sounding stage name "Marcel Dubois." After nonchalantly tossing away his gloves and cape, "Dubois" and his helper insert two brooms into a base (usually, the magician makes at least some attempt to make the brooms appear free-standing). The French maid assistant joyfully slides her arms onto the brooms and is suspended horizontally. What's notable in Conley's routine is that he is one of the only modern magicians to retain Robert-Houdin's original vision of having the broom perched under the assistant's elbow and not the less-mysterious position beneath the underarm. The clip here ends with the maid suspended in mid-air. |
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GEORGE BOSTON Psychic Exposé The glib George Boston (co-author of Inside Magic ) reveals methods of mindreaders. He harmlessly shows how a mirror can supposedly be used to peek at writing (watch how the picture blots out where the stage lights reflect into the camera), but then exposes the thumb writer, the Lippincott ring box, and the candy-box switching device. |
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PHYLLIS KIRKHAM Straitjacket Escape
Dramatic lighting and shadows create wonderful images as Kirk Kirkham's wife Phyllis returns to do a "man's job" of escaping from a straitjacket while hanging upside down. Art Baker casually mentions how terrified he was when bound in a jacket for a quarter-hour "as an experiment." Judging by her strenuous gyrations, Phyllis must have developed great abs. She wriggles like few male escapists have and releases herself swiftly and impressively. But she is still woman enough to fix her hair once she's out. |
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JODAR Temple of Benares The gaily-painted prop looks less than threatening despite its billing as a "Hindu torture chamber." Jodar and his assistant offer the novelty of having the Temple on a rotating platform, but the side view provides a roadmap to where the swords are placed and reduces the illusion's deceptiveness. Best moment: the camera dollies in for a close-up of the swords inside. |
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PETER GODFRY Aga Levitation A floating candle sets the scene for this English magician's levitation. With endless hypnotic gestures, Godfrey floats his assistant off a zebra-skin table. It's a solemn and direct version of this classic, with the usual hoop passes and revived-assistant conclusion. |
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IRBY Maze of Blades Escape This would make a great escape presentation today. Irby returns to his leopard-skin roots with some superb black-and-white imagery as he's bound with ropes inside a constricting array of swords. The assistants, dressed like hooded Klansmen, restrict Irby's arms with a sword and attach his ankles. Then this visual escape gets even better as swords are criss-crossed all around Irby with their points and blades locking him in place, the camera catching Irby's reactions as the blades slide past his face. The resulting image is unforgettably striking. Irby shakes out the sword behind his back, then gingerly shimmies out of his restraints, with a few scratches shown to the audience for good measure. |
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RAJAH RABOID Knife Throwing Live television didn't allow retakes, so here we get to watch as host Art Baker mishandles a piece of tape while blindfolding Raboid and has to hastily cut a new one. The camera angle reveals how the assistant leans to one side to avoid the incoming weaponry but still, it's not easy breaking balloons with a thrown knife while pretending to be blindfolded. Raboid barely rips off the tape and cotton in time as Baker ends the segment. |
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VICTOR AHLHEIM Hypnotized Suspension |
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JACK HALL Underwater Mummy Escape Postal worker and dentally challenged YMCA volunteer swim instructor Jack Hall gets wrapped in cloth and thrown into the pool of the Hollywood Plaza Hotel, with a warning to children not to attempt this stunt, of course. Art Baker tells us that the feat is meant to demonstrate buoyancy, as Hall does for his YMCA classes, with his philosophy that "Mental attitude in the water is more important than actual swimming ability." With a Naval Reserve officer standing by as the escape artist gets wrapped up, Baker asks Hall how he feels; "I'm beginning to feel like a mummy," the brave post office worker sensibly replies. Best moment: bound head and foot in cloth and ropes, Hall does a somersault off the diving board into the hotel pool. As the underwater cameras show, he amazingly frees himself. It's another bare-bones escape that could play today on television. |
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AUBREY Costume Trunk Decades before David Copperfield's influential Attic routine, Aubrey looks around a dusty storeroom, pulls a sheet off a chair, manipulates a ball he finds, then encounters an old trunk. He displays the trays of clothes from the trunk and tosses in a doll, then opens the lid to reveal his lovely assistant Sally in a silk outfit. For a surprise ending, Aubrey holds up a sheet and Sally changes to Art Baker, leading to the funny exchange: "Aubrey!" "Art Baker!" |