I am pretty sure that Cardini published two articles about magic for _Popular Mechanics_. I was able to track down one of them--the December 1935 issue of _Popular Mechanics_ where on page 882 we find the article "Amusing Magic" by Richard Cardini.

In that article Cardini explains a sponge ball trick, a cord release trick, a cigarette trick, and the jumping rubber band trick.

I'm pretty sure that I saw another issue of _Popular Mechanics_ where Cardini actually explained card manipulation moves, complete with photographs. But I can't remember the month/year of that issue of _Popular Mechanics_. I iwould guess that the two _Popular Mechanics_ articles are discussed in John Fisher's biography of Cardini, but I'm away from home and can't check the copy in my library. Can anyone provide the month and year for that issue? Also, can anyone provide info on the Sunday newspaper where Cardini published some exposures of magic (see the quote below).

Thanks!

BTW, at the "Timeline of Exposures" page of Magicpedia
http://www.geniimagazine.com/magicpedia/......es#1930s
we read:
-----quote-----
1936 The SAM Parent Assembly bring charges of exposing via the five and dime stores in the form of 'cut-out' illusions. The Chicago Assembly No. 3 express their findings of not guilty, but in retaliation encloses similar charges against the following members of the New York Assembly: Proskauer, for Spook-Crook series and Seagram's booklet, Goldston, for newspaper exposures, and Cardini, for photographic exposures in the Sunday newspapers, and in "Popular Mechanics Magazine
-----unquote-----

I doubt seriously that the exposures by Cardini and Goldston damaged any lay person's appreciation of the Art of Magic. In fact, as Henry Hay wrote on page 20 of _The Amateur Magician's Handbook_: "Incidentally, when the methods of a Cardini or a Nate Leipzig are explained, they seem more like magic than the tricks themselves. The sleight of hand performer is the only performer who can never be made ridiculous, and may even grown in stature, by exposure."

Thanks for any help!

----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez

Follow-up to my previous message about Cardini and exposure of magic.

The explanation of Cardini's card manipulation moves was not in _Popular Mechanics_ but in the _Chicago Sunday Tribune_:
http://archive.lib.msu.edu/DMC/tribune/t......5004.jpg
That must be the Sunday newspaper that the "Timeline of Exposures" referred to. I'm getting a little slower in my senior years.

----- Sonny

Anatole...I was so pleased to see you quote one of my favorite lines from the seminal book of my magical youth...Henry hay on exposing sleight of hand methods. Brilliant back then...still brilliant!

Regards-
J.Neal

J.Neal,
I've always regarded _The Amateur Magician's Handbook_ as the book that changed me from "a person who does tricks" into a bonafide magician/entertainer. I wrote to Mussey back in the 70's and told him that his comment in the last paragraph of the main text at the end of the book has been fulfilled many times over. He wrote (page 377 of the Fourth edition):
-----quote-----
If I hear of someone's studying this _Amateur Magician's Hsndbook_ and then climbing out of the amateur class by getting paid for a show, I shall be satisfied.
-----end quote-----

I told him something that is obvious in hindsight: He succeeded beyond his wildest dreams! The late Mike Rogers told me that he owed a lot of his success as a magician to Hay's books. I'm sure there are many others who feel the same way.

I keep thinking that someone should plan a "Henry Hay Memorial Parade" for _Linking Ring_ and have said often that if a call for contributions were announced in _Linking Ring_ that the response from the greats and near greats of the international magic community would be phenomenal. I would expect such a Parade would focus on "hand magic." Add a separate essay expanding on the philosophy and ideas in the chapter in AMH called "The Magic State of Mind," and we'd have a Parade for the Ages.

An alternative to a Memorial Parade in _Linking Ring_ might be a "Festschrift"--what my on-line dictionary calls "a volume of writings by different authors presented as a tribute or memorial especially to a scholar." The only problem might be choosing from a wealth of responses the ones to be published!

On second thought--why not do both a Parade and a Festschrift?!

Maybe one of these days.

----- Sonny
(Actually, a Festschrift might be appropriate since Mussey lived in Germany for a great part of his life and translated _Learn Magic_ into German. As I mentioned before on the Café, he also had a hand in translating Ottokar Fischer's _Wunderbuch der Zauberkunst_ as _Illustrated Magic_, another great book from my early days in magic!)
email: sonny.parmenides@yahoo.com

Henry Hay's LEARN MAGIC was my bible.

I've always regarded the "AMATEUR MAGICIAN'S HANDBOOK" as the "poor man's TARBELL"!!!

The AMH belongs on every magician's bookshelf.

I've always regarded _The Amateur Magician's Handbook_ as the "smart beginner's best introduction to magic." I say that especially because where I grew up (Norfolk, VA) _The Amateur Magician's Handbook_ was in the public library but Tarbell was not.

I remember reading the AMH cover to cover many times and even using my two fingers to type out on my old Underwood the entirety of the Glossary section just because in those days there weren't photocopiers. I remember at a Blackstone Ring meeting that Earl Edwards asked the teenagers in the club to explain the difference between a "fake" and a "gimmick." I was the only one who could explain the distinction, thanks to both the AMH and Joseph Leeming's _Fun with Magic_.

At the very first Blackstone Ring meeting where I performed, I got up and performed an original routine about an IBM convention where I performed a bunch of flourishes and an original selected card trick. But in my patter, IBM stood for "Interplanetary Brotherhood of Magicians." At the end of the routine I did a trick with an origami puppet based on the Salt Cellar paperfold where the puppet (in my patter, a magician from another planet since it had four eyes) spit out a folded duplicate of a chosen card. After my performance Bob McAllister took the time to show me a better handling of the sl*p f*rc*. Earl had missed my performance and when he came back into the room, he said he wanted to see me perform sometime (since I had attended two previous meetings as an observer only). Bob told him that I did perform that night and that I did a very good job. Needless to say, that compliment made my day!

Meeting Henry Hay in Germany one summer made my year, especially when he complimented me on my card handling and said that I did a pressure fan better than he did! Of course, I learned it right out of his book! Surprisingly, there were no photos or illustrations of the pressure fan in the book to help the reader, but somehow I managed to learn it well.

I had also read a lot about Cardini in the books I got from various libraries and wished I had gotten to see him perform. Back in the 1980's I found the "NBC Festival of Magic" at the Museum of Broadcasting in NYC and finally got to see his performance. I think I wore out the videotape rewinding it so I could write down the details of the effects in his act.

And of course when I saw Channing Pollock's photo on the wall of The Magic Shop autographed to Earl, I was anxious to see Pollock perform somehow. Fortunately, a local TV station showed one of his European films--"The Red Sheik"--where he did flawless card manipulations.

I think it was Bruce Elliot who wrote in one of his magic books that he envied beginners in magic because of the wealth of wonder that they were about to discover. Or maybe it was Orson Welles who said that--in the introduction he wrote for one of Elliot's books. In any case, I knew what he meant. My first years as a student of magic were filled with awe of the art that I had decided to study!

BTW, the Bruce Elliot books were another incredible find for me since they were in the collection of the Bookmobile in Norfolk. The routines in his books were for the most part drawn from the pages of _The Phoenix_, so the quality of the tricks and routines was outstanding and of professional quality!

----- Sonny