Sanders The Great » Vintage Magic

Great LeVante Handbill

Sanders The Great — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 21:44:59 +0000

This weeks magical collectors tip is a handbill from the estate of John Mulholland.

It dates from 1939 and lists, amongst others, Jean Hugard and The Great LeVante & Co. Also listed is one Li Ching Soo: presumably yet another Chung Ling Soo impersonator.

It’s an interesting bit of magical ephemera for sale at a reasonable price.

STGADS

Auction, Vintage Magic

Mechanical Aids Help The Stage Illusionist

Sanders The Great — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 08:27:51 +0000

The September 1930 issue of Modern Mechanix reveals how stage illusionist make use of modern mechanical miracles to perform their act asking:

“Have you ever marveled at the cleverness exhibited by jugglers and other stage performers? They’re clever, true enough—but mechanical aids help them put across their mystifying tricks.

A CLEVER magician produces a girl from thin air; a skillful juggler balances precariously on the rear leg of a chair; a wonder marksman shatters a ball on top of a girl’s head. It is all very wonderful, very mysterious, seemingly impossible. The furrowed brows of a legion of spectators voice the question: “How do they do it?””

The article continues, revealing the secrets behind a “modern” mindreading act:

“Mental telepathy, for which the public has had quite a flair in the past few years, employs many artifices. One of the simplest of these acts requires the medium to be securely blindfolded, a committee from the audience seeing to this part of the program. Nevertheless, she calls out the name and describes minutely any small object which her partner may receive on his tour through the audience. The effect, of course, depends upon the assistant concealed in the wings. He is equipped with a powerful field glass or telescope with which he views, through a slit in the curtain, the various items held up by the performer. The information is then relayed to the medium by means of a headphone set, with wires running under the stage covering, and the act goes along quite merrily.”

The full article can be viewed on the ever entertaining Modern Mechanix website.

STGADS

Vintage Magic

Jonathan Dark: Flea Circus Impresario

Sanders The Great — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 10:24:39 +0000

The Salem News has an interview with local flea circus impresario and magician Jonathan Dark. They ask him the following:

How many fleas do you have?
“There are three fleas in the circus, but I also have 1,833 understudies. I have an old-fashioned cane with a screw top that has dry ice inside. I keep them in that cane in case I use the understudies.”

What kind of tricks do they do?
“The stars of the show are Barnaby and Victor. They do a mini-chariot race that’s sort of an homage to the chariot race in ‘Ben Hur.’ There’s also Madame Fifi, who does a high-wire act. I ordered her direct from Paris. She came off a poodle there. At the end of the show, the whole troupe pushes a small carousel around.”

Isn’t it hard for the audience to see?
“You can’t really get a bead on the flea itself, but when he climbs that rope ladder you can see the ladder shaking; and when he hits the diving board, the board does a bounce; and when he hits the water, there’s a splash. Fleas can’t swim, so it’s my job to get him out of there as quickly as possible.”

Read the full article here.

STGADS

Flea Circus

Walt Noon’s Fabulous Flea Circus

Sanders The Great — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 12:48:27 +0000

Whenever the topic of flea circuses comes up, Walt Noon’s name is not far behind. He is the undisputed master of this lost art. He has built tonnes of them, and what he doesn’t know probably isn’t worth knowing.

When you see flea circuses for sale they are often described as “Walt Noon style” or “Built using a Walt Noon design”, but where do these designs come from and how can you build your own? Well just head over to Walt’s website and order yourself a copy of his complete flea circus package. The package comes in three parts: a DVD, a CD and a manual providing you with enough information to build your own “humbug” flea circus.

The Manual, called “The Mystery In Unveiled! – Walt Noon’s How To Make A Flea Circus”, begins with an introduction explaining what you can expect to find on the CD and DVD along with a bit of history about flea circuses and the levels of research Walt undertook to learn about this lost art. It’s actually a companion to the DVD providing drawings and additional notes on the construction of each of the main “events” of the circus as well as listing several U.S. suppliers that can help you acquire the parts required to build the gimmicks.

The CD is a pretty eclectic selection of flea related information. It includes music that you can use when performing your circus, along with images and high resolution scans of backgrounds all of which can be used in construction.

The DVD though is what we’re all waiting for. It begins with some real turn of the century footage of a real flea circus, followed by the step-by-step instructions covering how to build your own, ending with some footage of flea training and a television appearance. The step-by-step instructions are extremely detailed covering such topics as: choosing a suitable suitcase, construction of the flea parade, cannon, pool, high-dive, high wire, trapeze and a few additional ideas at the end. The methods at times are quite ingenious, with some great results (my favourite being the cannon), and although a few power tools are required I would say that the skills required are not particularly high. I believe anyone with enough time and patience could construct one. As Walt points out in the commentary the intention of the guide is not to follow it religiously but to be inspired and take ideas to make your own unique circus.

Walt is an engaging presenter and his style makes you feel like a friend watching him at work in his workshop and his enthusiasm for the topic leaps of the screen. I really enjoyed this rather unusual collection and suggest you get a copy if you are in anyway interested in this lost art.

Finally the best description of the Flea Circus package comes from Walt himself from an email he sent me:

“The Flea Circus package has been a huge, consuming labor of love for me. So, you’ll find hundreds of meg of material collected and generated over the last 10 years on the CD and DVD. It’s as much a collection of everything entertaining with fleas and projects as it is a step by step to help you build a circus. I hope you enjoy it very much! Thanks! (The fleas thank you as well.)”

Walt Noon can be contacted via his website www.noonco.com

STGADS

Flea Circus, Video

Whispering Imps

Sanders The Great — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 09:35:44 +0000

Now Sanders The Great is quite partial to a good whispering imp and Rhett Bryson has accumulated quite a collection of vintage magic posters showing them.

Rhett reveals: “The image of the magician getting the “secrets” from these underworld demi-devils apparently started with Harry Kellar (on his 1894 poster)” and goes on to say “Leon Hermann (nephew of Alexander) who overlapped the career of Kellar seems to be the first who copied the whispering imps. Not only did the Great Hermann include them, he used more imps!”

The collection is quite exhaustive with posters ranging from Kellar to Derren Brown, Herrmann the Great to Banachek. He even includes scans from badges and sheets of music.

It’s a great resource for scholars of the magical arts, I just wish he would organise them a little better: they are presented as one great long list that takes some scrolling through. Despite this, head over and take a look at this interesting facet of magical history.

STGADS

Banachek, Derren Brown, Vintage Magic

Cigar Box Flea Circus

Sanders The Great — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 16:07:28 +0000

Sven Svenson is possibly the youngest flea tamer in the World. He has been building flea circus’ with his father since 2000, and now you can buy a handmade traditional ‘humbug’ flea circus from his website.

Flea circus’ became popular in the 1600’s where ringleaders would tour them around pubs and fairgrounds. Falling out of favour this century the art of the flea circus has all but died out, and it’s great to see Sven rekindling the art.

STGADS

Flea Circus

Popsy

Sanders The Great — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 10:29:19 +0000

A Simply Made But Very Lifelike Dummy for the Amateur Ventriloquist

This is a great article from the June 1938 edition of Popular Science courtesy of Modern Mechanix. It begins by stating:

POPSY is an intriguing ventriloquist’s dummy you can construct from inexpensive materials without any special skill or shop equipment. His name comes from Popular Science Monthly, for which he was specially designed. He wags his jaw realistically and, if you want to take a little extra trouble, he can be made to wink, wiggle an ear, smoke, spit, or even blush!

Teaching him to talk takes a little practice, of course, but it’s not nearly so hard as commonly believed, and once you learn the trick, you will be able to entertain and astonish your friends.

Read the full article here.

STGADS

Vintage Magic

Mysterious Mahendra

Sanders The Great — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 11:53:02 +0000

This poster dates from the turn of the century and advertises a performance by Mysterious Mahendra – Master of the Human Mind and the Grand Theatre, Bemidji Minnesota.I can find no other references to Mysterious Mahendra, and would love to hear from anyone who can shed any light on the subject.

STGADS

Posters

The New Card Change Improvement

Sanders The Great — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 10:08:50 +0000

This advertisement dates from 1908 and includes three tricks by Will Goldston: “The New Card Change Improvement”, “The Hypnotised Cards” and “The Devo Torn Card” where “A selected card is torn … and at command from performer same is restored. Back of card is freely shown, before and after trick is performed. No elastic or black velvet used.”

STGADS

Posters, Will Goldston

Gamagic Card Frame

Sanders The Great — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 20:24:21 +0000

This advert was published in 1908 and describes the “Gamagic” Card Frame. It was designed by my hero Will Goldston whilst working in the magic department of Gamages (the great house for everything magical). I love the recommendation from Chung Ling Soo:
My Dear Goldston,
The “Gamagic” Card Frame you worked for me to-day is indeed very well thought out, and should sell well. Make me up a duplicate.Sincerely,
(Signed) Chung Ling Soo

And notice “No Sand or Spring Blind Used”.

STGADS

Chung Ling Soo, Posters, Will Goldston