Did Benson do his billiard balls on the Sullivan show?

Jim

God, I hope so. I too am anxious to see the billiard routine performed by the master. All we have of him is the short segment of him doing the Chinese Sticks and Salt Pour on youtube which I love. Would like to see more of him.

No idea who it was, or what show it was, but I remember as a kid seeing someone on tv doing billiard balls. I was very intrigued seeing the balls seemingly pass through the body at waist level from hand to hand. This had to be in the 1960's.

Hi Guys:

I just have a moment before I step out to attend a concert (Donald Fagen, Michael McDonald, & Boz Scaggs), so I will be brief.

Yes, Benson did the billiards on Sullivan and I will try very hard to get them to put it on a future DVD.

I must go...
Levent
http://www.LeventMagic.com
http://www.MagicQandA.com

GREAT NEWS!

Jim

Idea:

Wouldn't it be great to have a Magic Café iPhone app?
I'm no developer in apps, but it would be nice.
Just popped in my head seeing Levent posting and taking the time to enter the Café. It would be much easier, right? hehe

We'll keep our fingers crossed for you Levent! Hope they release it soon!

Later,

Antonio

How many of you have ever seen Viggo Jahn performing ? I would buy Sullivan's DVD even if Viggo was the only act on it.

Did Cardini ever do sullivan? I found an HD youtube of his act from stars of magic in 1957. It's very clear, but it is so frustrating that he doesn't do the billiard balls. Great act of course.

Jim

Bojanbarisic:

I saw Viggo Jahn work at the Tannen's Jubilee convention in upstate New York about 30 years ago. I remember in the act he had a piece of white paper with a picture of black gloves on it. He torn up the paper and changed them into a pair of real black gloves, which he then wore on his hands. Also I remember he had a black cane with a big white knob on it. He removed the knob and did a multiplying thimble routine with the white knobs, whilst wearing black gloves.

JamesInLA:

Cardini did not do the Sullivan show. It's a shame that there is no video of him doing the whole ball routine. If there was a film of it I wouldn't of had to spend months trying to re-create it! Here's something else to consider, there is also no film of Cardini doing his entire card fanning routine! Yikes!

Best regards,
Levent
http://www.LeventMagic.com
http://www.MagicQandA.com

Levent,
You mean the Starts of Magic performance did not respresent Cardini's full card routine that he normally did?!

Re: above, that is a great way to motivate a thimble routine!

Jim

According to the International Movie Datbase at
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0689639/
Channing Pollock made three appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show/Toast of the Town:
"The Ed Sullivan Show" ... (3 episodes, 1954-1960)
... aka "Toast of the Town" - USA (original title)
- Episode #13.40 (1960) TV episode .... Magician
- Episode #13.13 (1959) TV episode .... Himself - Magician
- Episode #7.26 (1954) TV episode .... Himself

Does anyone know which one of the three above appearances is the one on Youtube. I would guess it would be the 1954 appearance.

Levent, it would be great if you could preview the three appearances listed above for the SOFA folks and recommend the best one for preservation on a DVD. I would hope they would NOT choose the one with a "slight mistake" at the end of the act.

And if anyone has connections with other variety shows--like Hollywood Palace and International Showtime--it would be great if the producers of those shows (or whoever currently holds the rights) would put together a DVD collection of magic performances. Channing Pollock's twin sawing is already available on a Hollywood Palace tape, but he also did his manipulation/dove act on that show, also. Silvan also appeared on the Hollywood Palace.

Silvan appeared on Hollywood Palace on 4 January 1964 (Season 1, Episode 1). That would be a great clip to preserve on DVD, since it is apparently the first episode and has Bing Crosby, Bob Newhart, Mickey Rooney...

Also at the IMDB at
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1308443/fullcredits#cast
is a 1961 episode of International Showtime called "The World's Greatest Magicians." It does not list the performers, but I clipped the review in the October 1961 issue of GENII and the performers are: Jack Olton from France(with zombie; the first time I saw the trick performed--and of course it fooled me); Cristes & Co from Spain with the vanishing radio, guillotine, pickpocket routine; Kalanag from Germany with his levitation and the disembodied princess; Samson from Italy ; Paul Aarland with aerial fishing; Carlo Tornedo with doves, card manipulation, and the doll house illusion.

Jackie Gleason also devoted one complete appearance of his TV show to magic. I don't remember much about that show except that Milbourne Christopher performed Asrah, and though I had read about Asrah, that was the first time I saw it performed.

----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez

What a great amount of research, we appreciate it! I never know Channing Pollock performed illusions, as it was reported that he did most of his performing in Europe with his dove act. Great new information for me to note.

I doubt that there will be more then one showing of any of the performers, if at all they do any more videos. I emailed them for more information on the next offering, and I guess they do not read english, as they said yes you can buy it here, and gave me the site address of the same current DVD available. So much for this place knowing what they are doing. It is not good when companies are run by brainless people.

We can only hope and wait to see they have a small market available, and being they are making them on a computer, their cost are already cut to the bone. They should thing even small profits are still profits.

Channing Pollocked toured for a while with the Liberace show. There was an episode of "The Mike Douglas Show" that had Liberace as a cohost. Channing Pollock did not only his classic dove/card act, but also "The Interlocked Card Production." In fact, in the 60's (or possibly late 50's), Kanter's Magic of Philadelphia published a monograph on the Interlocked Card Production that included, I think, three different methods. The one most of us are familiar with was attributed to Channing Pollock. One of the other methods was Cliff Green's interlocked card production, which was published in his book _Professional Card Magic_. Years ago I saw a videoclip (transferred I think from 8mm or 16mm film) of Cliff Green performing his routine, and it had some interesting aspects to it that set it apart from the method used by most magicians today.

Speaking of Kanter's--I wonder who owns the rights to the Kanter stuff like the monograph I mention above.

----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez

Don't hold it as gospel, but I think it may be held by Magic Inc., they did publish I think one of there little booklets.

The late Jay Marshall had all the publications in his collections. He was kind enough to send me a copy of one of them years ago, when I was researching torn and restored magazines. His book collection is now probably divided up all over the world by now.

Now that would be something, if someone would put all those little booklets into one volume. There was a lot of good idea and tricks in those publications.

I do believe Pollock and Nielson use the Ten Kai version of the interlocked card production. It is in his hard bound book.

I thought originally that Pollock and Nielsen learned it from the Chavez course because I included in my routine as well. But, I looked on my Chavez notes and do not see it in it. I guess I liked it so much when I saw Silvan do it on television years ago, that I just included it in my card manipulation act.

It was not in the Chavez course. It was not theirs to teach. Remember this was a time when magic and methods were honored and only were passed to other performers by the originator.

I took the Chavez course to learn many of these secrets that were not published anywhere else at the time.

Speaking of magic specials on television... I'm pretty sure that I remember reading in one of the magic magazines several years ago that Channing Pollock appeared on a Canadian TV series produced by Peter Pit. His assistant for that appearance was neither Naomi nor Jozy. I think his assistant for that TV special was the sister of one of the West Coast magicians who frequented the Magic Castle. As I recall, she did a fabulous job.

Having brought up the Peter Pit TV series... Does anyone know who else appeared on that series besides Channing Pollock? Do you think it would be possible to get a collection of _that_ series released on DVD?

I think Peter Pit also appeared on one of the HBO magic specials. HBO did a series of magic specials that would also be great to see released on DVD.

----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez

Hi Sonny:

Thanks for the research.

I think that the version of the interlock taught in the 1988 book "The Inter-Lock with Cards & Coins" by Earl Ray Wilcox, looks to my eyes to be close to the version that magicians like Nielsen used.

The TV show that Peter Pit hosted might have been called "Watch Closely". In the audience reaction shot you can see a very young Doug Henning applauding. Also the assistant that Channing used was the teenage sister of MAGIC Magazine publisher Stan Allen, I met her once at a convention, she is a very nice lady, and I think her name is Connie.

Best regards,
Levent
http://www.LeventMagic.com
http://www.MagicQandA.com

Yes, the film that we have is not the full card routine. The card routine that Cardini did with the Fanning deck was more extensive, than what was shown on the Festival of Magic telecast.

The problem with using such a large object such as the cane knob is that it makes so many of the best thimble moves impossible to do well. I felt the same way when I saw Tonny Van Dommelen do the Thimble routine with the large dice.

Best regards,
Levent
http://www.LeventMagic.com
http://www.MagicQandA.com

[quote]On 2010-08-28 04:51, Anatole wrote:
Speaking of magic specials on television... I'm pretty sure that I remember reading in one of the magic magazines several years ago that Channing Pollock appeared on a Canadian TV series produced by Peter Pit. His assistant for that appearance was neither Naomi nor Jozy. I think his assistant for that TV special was the sister of one of the West Coast magicians who frequented the Magic Castle. As I recall, she did a fabulous job.

Having brought up the Peter Pit TV series... Does anyone know who else appeared on that series besides Channing Pollock? Do you think it would be possible to get a collection of _that_ series released on DVD?

I think Peter Pit also appeared on one of the HBO magic specials. HBO did a series of magic specials that would also be great to see released on DVD.

----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez

I think you are referring to a 'Magic Week" of five episodes taped at 'The Cave'...a famous nitery in Vancouver. Peter was the co-host for the week for this ongoing variety show. The girl who was assisting Channning might have been Connie Sokulski (sp) who would have been the sister of Stan Allen!

Other performers that week included Glenn Falkenstein and Don Keller...both no longer with us .

JNeal