Does anybody know of a magician that took a secret to the grave? Does anyone of magic that has never been disclosed and still remains a secret?

Is that an attempt at an oxymoron?

Yes, lots of good works have been lost to time.

Jonathan,
I did not realize how unclear my post is, until I read your response. I have read a great many of your post and think you command a vast knowledge of magic and magic history. I am very pleased that you have taken the time to respond to this poorly written post.
What I meant to say; My primus would have to be limited to written biographical history of magicians or personal knowledge. Does any one have knowledge of a “famous magician” who did not leave notes or manuscripts detailing their illusions, tricks, techniques, routines or means buy which they preformed their magic.
For instance, from what I have read, Houdini left all or at least most of his secrets to his brother to keep and guard but non the less, the information was left.
Respectfully,
Tom Bartlett

There is a levitation called the Aliun levitation... It was being developed, but there were some problems, so the three magicians who were working on it, abandoned the project. They are alive, but it is believed that no one knows the secret gimmick used to execute the levitation.

So, only three people only the whole planet know what the lev is all about.

Thanks for the post, hopefully one of them will write it down or better figure out a was to effectively to complete it, so it wont be lost like so many great ideas already lost.

It probably hasn't happened in modern times, although it may have happened in ancient times. Even the great Del Ray, whom many magicians think took all of his secrets with him to the grave, was really unable to do so. Why? Because he performed for other magicians.

After Del Ray's death in 2003 (see his brief biography on The Magic Nook web site), magicians who knew him and who saw him perform have been quietly documenting what they saw and what they think they know about his most secret secrets. Like the secrets of Percy Abbott, eventually someone will publish them in a book and they will not be lost.

One of Percy Abbott's grandchildren lives here in Tulsa. Her son is in DeMolay with mine. She and I have talked of Mr. Abbott on several occasions. She has explained that they were never close, saw him only a few times and remembers little, except the stories told by her mother and other family members. She has some home movies of Percy, some showing him doing magic, that her husband will someday try to convert to DVD. 1.
One of the stories she related to me is Mr. Abbott, being born in Australia, was an illegal alien much of his life. This fact was brought to light because of the willful defacing of coins for the use in magic. When the judge found out he had been in the U.S.A. illegally for many, many years, but was an upright and respected business man in his community and throughout the U.S., the Judge ordered Mr. Abbott to return in one year, with the knowledge of the ownership of the currency he was alerting. Mr. Abbott returned, then informed the Judge the coins belonged to the U.S. Government and it was wrong to deface them. With that, the Judge made Mr. Percy Abbott a citizen of the United States of America.

Tenkai left many notebooks in which he had noted his ideas, his variations of tricks he witnessed. Mr.Takada printed half of them. I don't know what happened on the remaining half. Tenkai showed me all of notes to me. There were about 60 notebooks of about 50 pages in average. I published some tricks from the notes with Tenkai's permission in the magazine I published.

Hideo Kato

Spellbinder, Hideo Kato, Thank you both. This is certainly the kink of stuff I was hopping for.

I know what its all about, they have registered a patent for it if you look hard enough

Obviously there are many tricks in the past which secrets are not known, but with things such as the indian rope trick, its hard to distinguish between fact and fiction.

Bonjour!

Quote from Mr. Sharpe in The Sphinx February 1938, about Ramo Samee, indian performer, Circa 1818 :

"The indian juggler lays on the palm of his hand a small quantity of common sand. This he rubs with the fingers of his other hand, and it changes its hue-the colourless grains become yellow; he rubs them again, they are black. This is an extraordinary deception, and not the less so from the wonderful change, and the wonderful simplicity of the means.(...)Although Ramo Samee's version of the indian sands is said to be wonderfully simple, I am unacquainted with any description of the method employed."

Just an example of one of the past lost secret...
Some idea to how get into this effect?

I have some that cross my mind, but...seems too complicated!

Cheers,

Bonjour!

Thanks, lawrens for this piece of history. This is the kind of suff that inspires us to create.

Erdnase.

If there's anyone who knows about secrets that have not been published it would be Mr.Townsend.

Many of Hofzinser's secrets remain unpublished. The ones we have came from one or two people whom he taught part of his material to, and a few props he left behind.

The secret of the Hooker rising cards has never been published. Only John Gaughan and his workers know it. They own the prop. I spoke to John about it at the Collector's Weekend this spring. He said, "Well, there's not just one secret..." and that told me something that I had always figured.

I believe Dr. Hooker was a chemical engineer in Philly. I always wondered how much his scientific background played a role in bringing Miltiades to life.

I saw 2 old guys perform an illusion called Eclipse....This was never released, and I saw the performance 20 years ago at the Abbott's Get-Together....

I saw Eclipse performed at the TAOM in Arlington in 1977. Although the method has not been released, many of us sussed it out rather quickly. One of the reasons we got the method was that there was a prop on stage that was not actually necessary. That tipped us off.

Peter Tappan has two that he has not released -- his miniature floating lady and his floating cube.

One thing I should point out is this: just because you have figured out A method for doing something doesn't mean you have figured out THE method for doing it. People who are professional debunkers often make that mistake. Engineers are the worst about coming up with complex solutions for simple tricks.

A good sleight of hand move combined with a simple gimmick can look like the most complex set of engineered machinery.

Take a look, sometime, at the various solutions for the Chess Playing Automaton of Baron von Kempelen. The secret remained a mystery for more than a century. Various clockwork imitations were made, but none of them worked. Why? They missed the most important part of the original -- a small, live chess master who hid inside the machine.

I don't believe Marvyn Roy has released his "Light Bulb" act.

Tod

If Jim Callihan bites the big one....We'll all lose!