Known: Jimmy Wilson invented the "JW grip" around 1946. It's a special way of finger palming a coin, for those who don't know. There is information on the web that it can be found in one of the Horace Bennett books under the title "The J.W. Vanish." There the trail runs cold and no one seems to know which Horace Bennett book contains the reference. If anyone owns a Horace Bennett book can can locate a reference to the "J.W. Vanish" I would appreciate knowing in which book the information was found and anything else you can tell me about it. Thanks!

I know that Mike Gallo knows the source. If he's still on here he could tell you. You could also check with Jerry Mentzer at http://www.magicmethodsonline.com as he's the publisher of all the Horace Bennett books.

Thanks. I heard from Jonathan Townsend that Eric Jones said he thought it was in the book called "Bennett's Fourth Book" so I put in an order for that book from magicmethodsonline.com since I needed to begin my collection of Bennett's works somewhere. The search continues... I'll let you know what I find out.

Posted: Feb 14, 2008 1:47pm
Thanks to Eric Jones and his memory! "Jimmy Wilson's Coin Vanish & Reproduction" is indeed written up in "Bennett's Fourth Book" by Horace Bennett, 1981. Bennett also mentions that this was shown to him by Jimmy Wilson, Jr. around 1950. The grip is described in detail and well illustrated. Thanks to Jerry Mentzer who still has copies of the book for sale and for starting my new collection of the works of Horace Bennett with his fourth book. Also thanks to Jonathan Townsend, who didn't know the answer himself, but knew the right people to ask!

Mission accomplished!

I guess we can all agree that the origin of the JW Grip has been established right?

For those of you wondering what this grip looks like here is David Stone performing it at (1:20-1:30) ..

http://youtube.com/watch?v=yfHaNhBJXe0