Hi I need contac you by email. My email or PM, but I haven`t your email . Could you send me a PM

Thanks

Martin - Bazar de Magia

Bill Hegbli wrote: "Come, movie making is not real life. The DIRECTOR wanted to show the SCENE as a Nite Club setting. He could not shoot the back of the feature performer, so he put them in the background."

I'm not sure that this clip would really qualify as a movie--certainly not in the sense of a documentary like "European Nights" was. The whole point of a movie--as opposed to newsreel footage--is to present the subject matter in the most flattering light. Norm Nielsen did parts of his act in the Al Pacino movie "Bobby Deerfield" and as I recall the director respected the placing of cameras to show the magic to best effect. I just wonder what rationale the director of the clip in question had for putting spectators behind the magician, unless the point was to create the impression that the act can be done surrounded and still be mystifying, which would be misrepresention. The movie director who was in charge of the Channing Pollock clip in "European Nights" did an outstanding job showing that scene as a Nite Club setting without resorting to putting spectators behind him.

I would guess, too, that all of us who do a manipulation act are very careful to explain to whoever booked us that no one should be seated behind or on the immediate sides. If I arrive at a performing locale and find that the audience's sight angles aren't acceptable, I modify my program to suit the limitations I'm presented with. Of course, with a rigidly structured act like Channing Pollock's, there isn't as much flexibility.

In the thesis on Channing Pollock that Malcolm Farrer-Brown submitted as part of his admissions requirement to The Magic Circle, there is listing for a performance on April 15, 1956 at the Savoy Hotel "for the House of Commons Annual Dinner attended by The Duke of Edinburgh." I wonder if this clip might be from that performance. It looks like it might be a performance after a dinner or banquet in a fancy hotel like the Savoy. If it is indeed a clip from an after-dinner performance, it is understandable that the seating would be more informal than would be the case at a night club like the Pigalle from "European Nights."

The 1956 clip is interesting as a novelty. Fortunately there are many other clips of Channing Pollock that are much better than this one to preserve the legacy of one of the truly great practitioners of our art.

----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez
N.B. The Malcolm Farrer-Brown thesis I refer to above is available from Nielsen Magic.

Sonny, I said that this is a film as the whole stage setting does not make any sense. There are people, supposedly under some sort of pavilion, some dresses as people in 1956, other dressed like they are off the street and stopped by for some reason. Some causally dressed and some formally dressed. Some standing and peeking, and others as if they are sitting at in a fancy restaurant. Some leaning on the furniture, and the little boy bored to death yawning and falling asleep. I you note there is no sky, but only a black area where the sky should be.

It is still on film, and that was my point, it is a movie and everyone got off thinking it was a real "normal" performance. Who knows why the setting was as it is. Only the film maker. Maybe they all signed a confidentially agreement and sworn to secrecy. Maybe Channing wanted to be in the film more then worrying about if someone seen something. Maybe Channing had no control, and he had already performed his act hundreds or thousands of time without changing a thing.

It is just everyone started making comments about the audience being able to see the back of Channing's hand. Why didn't anyone ask him before his death, maybe he would have given an explanation, but I don't see the need for speculation now.

I did note that when Fred Kaps performed with the orchestra behind him, he had a board extending in 'L' fashion to prevent the musicians from seeing the table setup from the rear. Also if I remember correctly, he left out his dollar bill fan finale in each hand. But an observent musician could note something going on if he cared to observe it.