Does anyone here know of any sources where one can learn the Thurston 5 card routine?
Thank you,
Nate.

Jeff McBride's card manipulation series, available on DVD or download. There is no better teacher for this.

Aha. Thank you very much.

You could also go to the book that many magicians--from Marlo to McBride--probably learned it from: the little book _Howard Thurston's Card Tricks_. Marlo also explained the move in his book _Card Fan Productions_ and tells how--even though he was familiar with the move--he was fooled by it when he saw Bill Baird use the move at a performance in a Chicago theater. Do a web search on
+"Howard Thurston" +"Card Tricks" +pdf
and you'll find a copy on-line.

----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez

Maybe not the classic Thurston 5 card vanish but a nice similar idea, Salvano: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9_h0A1hVIY

Yes! Bill Baird didn't just do billiard balls!

Heck Dick other than a couple of us most guys don't even know about the "Magnificent Fraud". God what a smile! And T. Nelson Downs did not only do coins.

Richard

Right Richard! T.Nelson used a FLAG STAFF to close his club act! Faucett Ross told me a lot of stories about Downs.

I never saw Paul Braden (a lot of young guys wont recognize THAT name!)do anything but cards, but, I'm sure he could have!

Do you remember George Johnstone's Silks and Flowers act??? --Or, how about Marvin Levy's "Silk Merchant"?

I think I was born too soon! I gotta get an avatar up, before I get much older!

I know "Braden"...no wait, I'm in my 60's!

Whether the "younger guys" would recognize Paul Braden's name depends on
1) who their mentor was, and
2) whether they read books on the history of magic in addition to books of tricks.

One of the reasons that Earl Edwards and I got along so well was that I had read books like _Panorama of Magic_ and _Illustrated Magic_ with the additional chapters by Barrows Mussey as well as the books that Mussey wrote under his "Henry Hay" pseudonym. The annotated Biography and Bibliography in _The Amateur Magician's Handbook_ was a lot of fun to peruse. Ring 103 had a "Rice Bowl" competition once and I was on one of the teams. The moderator asked: "Who wrote _Fifty Years in the Magic Circle_?" and I immediately responded, "Signor Blitz!" thanks to Hay's book!

A lot depends, too, on whether the public libraries have magic books with a chapter or two that discusses the history of magic--and whether the current authors of magic books include that kind of information in their books.

On a light note:
There is a neighborhood community in Virginia Beach, Virginia called "Magic Hollow" with street names like Blackstone Trail, Cardini Place, DuBois Place, Durbin Place, etc. Ring 103 had held a "Rice Bowl" quiz and one question was "Who wrote _Fifty Years in the Magic Circle_?" As one of the members of one team, I immediately answered (thanks to Hay's book): "Signor Blitz!" Everyone in the room was stunned! Less than a week later I was driving around in Magic Hollow with another member of Ring 103 and guess what street we turned onto:
BLITZ COURT!

----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez