Oops. was there a link to Monk Watson's video?

Yep,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8eTBSmFA7c

in about 2:17.

Thanks for the link Harry.
I'm planning on hitting the magic shop on Monday to pick up the trick.

Wow - so nice to see Monk perform again. I was lucky enough to stay at Monk's house during one of the get-togethers and I will always treasure that time.

GREAT TIMING!

I just now walked in the door, returning from the 71st Annual Houdini Club of Wisconsin Convention held right on beautiful Lake Michigan, in Manitowoc Wisconsin.

At the convention, I had a couple of great conversations with Dick Mossey, Marshall Brodien and Jim Sommers about "the good old days of Magic Conventions", including Abbott's annual get-together (this year was their 72nd).

Interestingly, Abbott's and the Houdini Club of Wisconsin have two of the longest running annual magic conventions in the United States.

Of course, along with GIANT names in Magic, like Duke Stern, Karrel Fox, Stewart James, Jay Marshall, George Sands, Jerry Andrus, etc. (meeting these magicians, talking and doing magic for each other and getting to know and be friends with magicians is the REAL reason for going to Magic Conventions), guess what?....Monk Watson's name came up, specifically I mentioned to Marshall Brodien remembering seeing Monk do this trick and loving it!!! He taught it to me.

Rope magic is almost always PERFECT for audiences anywhere, and this is a GREAT rope trick when performed matter-of-factly, kind of as a throw-away, like Monk did.

If I had to pick a word to describe how Monk told me he did it, that word would be nonchalantly.

Harry Murphy, your patter sounds wonderful, and it sounds like this is a "Signature Piece" for you.........looks like you have a lot of time invested in this trick and that it's become "Yours".....that's excellent because we all have to have a degree of "Emotional attachment" to a trick we perform if we want to really sell it to our audiences, and it sounds to me like you have this one down pat.

Rope with 4 ends is a keeper!

Francis Tarbary does a rope with 4 ends

The versions noted above appear to be the Tu Tu Won rope trick which has been around forever. I believe UF Grant had a routine as did several others. I have several of the older setups here at the house. Rope thru neck is another routine that was performed with the ropes. They have been manufactured using the sewing technique or using small plastic rings.

Yes, U.F. Grant sold the trick back in the 1970's. That is the version I orginally purchased. It was called the 1-2-1 Rope Trick. It was very popular at the time, I never understood why. Gene Gordon wrote a separate instruction manuscript "The Magicians Nightmare" on the trick and did not supply the rope.

YouTube links above are now dead

Years ago, probably in the 1980s, there was a magician that for several years would do the 4 end rope trick between acts in the morning talent show.

He had the most clever and funny patter for that trick. Each year when he did it, I tried to remember it, but never could.

If anyone here went to the Abbott convention during those years, you may remember seeing him do the trick.

- zeebo

"The Four Ended Rope" is published in "It's Easier Then You Think Volume 3" buried in the book by Jeffery Buckingham.

Just ran across this version, which I have only seen a number of magicians perform. Guess I should have read the book a little more closely.

When I was writing the script for my "PUZZLING ENVIRONMENT" program in 1970, I was talking with Neil Foster, and he suggested the 1-2-1 ROPE. It was the perfect bit to open that lecture program with. --Ha! another 'Charlie Miller"!

I liked it so much that I wrote a few different lines for it, and, have used it ever since.

The EFFECT (i.e.: WHAT the spectators SEE!) is VISUAL and VERSATILE. The PROP is VISIBLE, ANGLE PROOF, RECOGNIZABLE, needs only a 5 SECOND SET UP, is SPOT ADAPTABLE, PACKS SMALL & LIGHT --and the EFFECT PLAYS BIG. plus, it "works" in the hands (no table needed). IT MEETS ALL NINE OF MY CRITERIA!!! (Well, it is not a CLOSER!)

OH! IT'S ALSO CHEAP! I think I paid one dollar for the secret (and the prop!) in 1969! Now, it's listed for $12! Like Bob Carver's "Professor's Nightmare", it has been "passed around", and others (Aldo, for example) have used the concept in routines.

There was a supplement variation with the original instructions. I think Gen Grant first put it out. Bob Cervas had a variation which allowed you to pick up the prop, show the two pieces of rope FAR APART, and still perform the two pieces to one. You couldn't do the Gene Gordon "Magician's Nightmare", or any other phases of the entire routine, though.

Occasionally, I've used it to open the school show--when I needed a QUICK "grabber". Normally, it opens the rope routine.

Billy McComb, (when he was still 'with us') and I, both use(d) the old Bill Williston ""Visible ball penetration through a silk". Billy (me, too)called it the "perfect 30 second bit". I think Billy would agree that the 1-2-1 rope would also qualify for that. I wrote up my ultra simple lines for the 1-2-1 in my book.

Actually, it's a lousy trick, and HARRY, RAINBOW GUY, AND I, HOPE THAT NOBODY ELSE WILL START DOING IT, AS WE WOULD LIKE TO KEEP IT FOR OURSELVES!!!

THAT magician was probably my friend, Mike (Gordon) MILLER. Mike usually MC'd the talent contests--and did a great job! Mike worked at Abbotts for YEARS. He also edited the old "TOPS" magazine. He's now retired, but, usually comes out of retirement to "help" at the annual Get Togethers. For YEARS, Mike was the opening act at the "GTG's". He always "finished" with Abbott's "SPECTACULAR"!

Sometime around 1979, a visiting New York magician, Jack McBride showed the Dublin magicians the Rope With Four Ends. I didn't know it was dealer item and made up three sets, one for me, one for Eric Sharp and the third I gave to Cedric Richardson. Cedric, while English, had lived in the US and had written a regular article in Abbott's Tops magazine, called something like, "Time For A Cup of Tea".

The next time I met Cedric, he'd come up with an excellent script and presentation for the trick about a boy in school who kept getting his math wrong. I've used it ever since. Ian Adair, a good friend of Cedric's also wrote the routine up in his book on Cedric's magic for children, available from Practical Magic. It's about four minutes long and the changes happen over time in keeping with Cedric's story.

In the 1980's I did many shows for the Slazenger family and old Mr Slazenger would come in and watch. While I was performing the above trick he almost got down on the floor to look up from underneath to see what was happening to the rope.

Last night I made a set of 1-2-1 Ropes up, It took about 20 minutes. Next I went through the U.F. Grant instruction, still not impressed, as it is more of throw-a-way then a routine.

Next is tackling Geoffrey Buckingham's routine "Four Ended Rope".

Bill I have the Buckingham book "It's Easier than you think" (1952). I believe he broke the book up into three different volumes. He also must have added material to the various volumes because I cannot find the 4-Ended rope mentioned in the full volume. Is it embeded somewhere and not titled?

I have the Magic Inc. books, 3 volumes, 1st printing 1979.

I never met Geoffrey Buckingham but heard that he had a very dry sense of humour.

One story goes that he was sharing a dressing room with a young magician who was doing a manipulation act. It was getting close to curtain up and Buckingham asked who the young man wasn't getting ready.

"Mr Buckingham," explained the young man, "I'm a bit nervous getting ready with you here, as I don't want you to see where I conceal my loads."

"Well," said Buckingham, "If I want to see from where you get your loads, I'll just go out front and catch your act."

I believe it was in 1975 or 1976, I had wrote a letter to Geoffrey Buckingham, and he was on a lecture tour in the U.S., unknown to me. I was working at a local bank then. The telephone ran, and I answered. The person on the other end, said it was Geoffrey Buckingham. He was at the bus station, and getting ready to board. I was so surprised that he would call me, I was in shock.

He did not lecture here in Fort Wayne, IN, the bus was just going through this city to pick up passengers. I offered to go met with him, but he declined as the bus was leaving shortly.

I thought it was so kind of him to acknowledge me with a telephone call, and carry my information with him from England to America.

Just a little thrill in one of my working days.

I saw his lecture on that tour. He was exceptional.