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BarryJH New user 3 Posts |
Kanter's Magic Shop Catalog No.9 has an interesting sucker trick called Continuous Loop Trick. It's No. 121 in that old 50s catalog. It's advertised as "...the sucker trick of all sucker tricks!"
Here is a short description quoted from the catalog---> A loop or band of felt is shown and coiled up slowly as illustrated. (Can't show illustration in catalog so please imagine a band like a wide rubber band simply looped in a tight spiral. Or if you are lucky and have this vintage catalog, take a look at page 43. I'm sure the trick is in other versions of the catalog, too.) Continuing with description ---> All can see the "center" and keep their eyes on it at all times. Anyone may poke his finger or place a pencil in the center where he thinks the pencil will catch and hold loop when it is pulled out straight - but performer can make spectator win or lose. It is repeated again and again and you always win - as you control the outcome in a secret way that can not be discovered. Later in the description the supplied loop is described as "special", so....??? As a boy magician who was awed by and purchased many secrets locally from a great magic shop in St. Petersburg, Florida in the 50s, I begged and the the shop owner gave me a Kanter's Catalog which was a mail order source of wonderful effects and a dreamland of wonderful illustrations of effects spanning a wide range of $. I almost bought this trick many times, but never pulled the $1.00 trigger for now unknown, unremembered reasons. Probably was a stretch on my allowance! Any clues anyone? Is this a current effect still sourced somewhere? Thanks, Barry H. |
Dick Oslund Inner circle 8357 Posts |
I vaguely remember seeing an ad for the trick that you mention. When you provided the Kanter Catalog Number, I checked my box of old catalogs, and found, Mitchell Kanter's catalog #9! Back then, I was much younger, and, at first, I thought: "Australian Belt" or "On The Barrel Head". Then, after reading the catalog again, and, more closely, I realized that I was wrong! The "Belt" is just that. The belt depends on ENDS!
I remember exposing the fact that the "Belt Game" is/was a SCAM, on TV in Norfolk VA, while I was in the Navy in the early '50s. (There had been an "epidemic" of "short con grifters" working the busses from the Navy Base to downtown Norfolk. Young sailors were being made "marks", losing their payday money, trying to beat the grifter I didn't tip the actual method. (It is a good trick, like "Fast & Loose".) I just demonstrated that winning was not possible! Within a few days, the grifters quit. I was a teen ager in the '40s, and, had learned that catalog descriptions were sometimes, a bit exaggerated! I never bought one, either.
SNEAKY, UNDERHANDED, DEVIOUS,& SURREPTITIOUS ITINERANT MOUNTEBANK
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GlennLawrence Veteran user Randolph NJ 319 Posts |
Hey Barry, that magic shop in St Pete, would it happen to have been Martinelz Magic Mart? I lived in the area around the time it closed and I know it had been around a long time so I was just curious....
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BarryJH New user 3 Posts |
Yup, Martinelz Magic Mart. Martin Elze was owner and resident god of magic. Next door to Martin's was an Asian import shop called Sone's, I think, which also sold some small cheapish tricks such as plastic bill tube and plastic cups and balls, etc. But, Martin's shop was a wonderland as it had perched on high shelves and under glass counters true best quality professional stage, parlor, and close-up magic. I remember beautiful versions of die boxes, a big head guillotine, Attaboy, and so much more colorful glorious stuff that filled the wide eyes of young me. The little shop was stuffed with effects! Wish I had photos.
I still have many things that were bought there after saving my allowance. I had a wooden chest full of most of my tricks from Martin's, but left it with friends when I went on active duty in Navy. Their small children found it and lost or wrecked much that it contained. And finally the parents moved it to the "safety" of a breezeway storage area that developed a roof leak which dripped onto it and penetrated to damage more. Great sorrow when I recovered my chest! Good memories survived though! |
Bill Hegbli Eternal Order Fort Wayne, Indiana 22797 Posts |
Kanter's was a leader in the magic market, I did not know that until many years later. The published a lot of the famous booklets sought after today by those looking for something "new", from the magic masters of days gone by. They also made or had made a lot of magic from around the world. I was coming into magic as Kanter's was seeing it final days. I was looking for a certain booklet on the Torn and Restored Magazine cover, and the late great Jay Marshall was kind enough to make me a copy as he was a huge collector of books. Sad how everything gets lost in time, even the professional effects.
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