On Aug 7, 2019, Tortuga wrote:
According to David Solomon, who was a student of Marlo, Ed's almost maniacal drive to create was driven by his desire to claim credit. Marlo knew that fellow magicians would take a routine and come up with multiple ways to achieve the effect, so he frequently set out to document as many as he could think of so that he could corner the market so-to-speak. Solomon stated as much in an interview.

On Aug 7, 2019, Mike Powers wrote:
I think I'd characterize Marlo's motives a bit differently. Ed was motivated to detail all the methods he came up with leading to his preferred method because he "feared" that others would come up with one or more of those methods as an alternative to what he considered the best of the methods. In other words he dreaded the idea that someone would look at his preferred method and then digress to one that he felt was inferior.

It's true that he was very competitive. But also that he was generally fair minded (with some exceptions). I recall Marlo finding that someone had published something that he had thought of but not published. His reaction was, and I quote, "Shame on me." He was living by his own ethics regarding the published work viz. the first published version gets the credit. Pretty fair.

Another story: I had shown my trick "The Impossible Travelers" at the Marlo table. I was really gratified to have received a spontaneous round of applause from my heroes at the table (Simon A, Dave S, Steve D et al). The next day Marlo called me and told me that he had some ideas on my concept. I though "uh oh, am I going to lose credit for this idea..." Marlo invited me to come to Chicago (about 90 minutes away for me) and have lunch with him. He had shot photos and written up his ideas. I was floored when he said that he didn't care if he was credited or not! He certainly wanted me to put my name on the manuscript I was writing up and just mention that he had had some ideas on it. Totally fair if not underplaying his contribution. I ended up using "The Impossible Travelers" Powers/Marlo because the name Marlo had cache for sales. But the write-up made it clear that the idea was mine and that Marlo had come up with some variations and thoughts.

Mike

On Aug 8, 2019, countrymaven wrote:
Excellent article. However, one reason Marlo may never get the credit he deserves for his original inventions is that
he does not seem to have many professionally illustrated, and written books. They are not for the meek of heart to wade through.