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The Magic Cafe Forum Index » » A turn of the page » » Potter's Bar Index to Magic (0 Likes) Printer Friendly Version

Anatole
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Back in the 60's John Braun had a column in _Linking Ring_ called "Of Legerdemaine and Things Psychic" which included an index of magic called "Potter's Bar." Later I think "Potter's Bar" may have become a column with its own separate status. The index was a valuable resource for anyone studying any aspect of the Art of Magic--whether it was for historical research or to find "something old" that could be tweaked into "something new--and amazing!"

Was "Potter's Bar" ever collected I to book form? I have a memory of finding it when I was doing some research at The Library of Congress.

Here's a link to a sample screen grab from a back issue of _Linking Ring_ that lists the "Floating Cane" sub-section of the "Tricks with Canes" section of "Potter's Bar":
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=......&theater

As I mentioned in the post linked to above, "Potter's Bar" was sort of the print precursor to askAlexander.

----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez
----- Sonny Narvaez
hugmagic
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Yes, It was printed in several three ring binders by Mickey Hades. It has long been out of print.
It was a monumental effort to collect all the categories and entries. A great source of information without the use of computers.
A couple of friends of mine and I talked about updating the index in the 1980's but it never happened. There is so much more printed material out there no. And we are not even talking about videos.
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DGillam
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The material in Potter's Bar is all 50 or more years old. Nothing was added after the mid 1960's, so it is truly only historical information today. I understand that Chris Wasshuber currently owns the publication rights to Potter's Bar and had once planned to make it available on his website, Library.com.
Kevin Connolly
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It's been a long time, but I used to own the Potter Index. I remember buying 15 or so of these 3 ring binders from Hades back in the day. It was monumental work for one person, sans a computer.

As I remember it, Potter died somewhere along the line during it's publication. It may have reached the letter "O".

As I said above, it's been a long time ago.
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Anatole
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I think Potter's Index would still be a valuable resource today, even if it hasn't been updated since the mid=1960's. Although the patter of the routines published prior to the 60's may be dated, much of the material itself would be valuable and the patter/presentation could be updated for today's audiences. It would take some digging, research and imagination to separate the wheat from the chaff, but "there's gold in them thar dated texts!" In addition to updating patter/presentation, you might have to also tweak some ideas for decorating apparatus.

----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez
----- Sonny Narvaez
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