The "Knot Unexpected" as it was sold/marketed back in the 70s and 80s (like the one I have) had the words "As performed on TV by Doug Henning" on the packaging. Still have mine, and haven't used it in years. Knot Unexpected does use 2 spectators to hold the ends of the rope (when you know the method, you'll understand why) and neither spectator is a stooge.

Steve

On one of his television specials Doug did the Paul Curry Effect. But when touring, for reasons of practicality he switched to the Knot Unexpected Version.
Dennis Loomis

Is the Paul Curry version in print?

It is in his book World`s Beyond (page 359) and there you can see that Henning performed an early version of it and right after his book was published Rink from Holland marketed his version which does not require 2 assistants but spectator can`t come near it or handle it without discovering its secret.

I always thought the effect was done with the reels, and then the Pavel version had confused me.
I had been intrigued early on by the Henning effect and thought it could be used for a rope thru body effect.
If someone has some video links of performances for the methods discussed, I would kike to see them.

I have Pavel's "junior walking knot", "Knot Unexpected", and Ian's "Loops". The Pavel trick is a stroke of genius (but expensive), Knot Unexpected is nice but a bit clumsy for me to do, and Ian's (very cheap to make) "Loops" is easily the most impressive and simplest to perform. I love the way Ian thinks out of the box.