Elsewhere here in the Café there is a video on Anverdi. Truly a genius on electronic magic. I think another electronic genius WAY ahead of his time was Del Ray. It's a pity that none of his magic will ever be produced as he did not want any of his effects duplicated, or so I am told. I know another magician, who has also since passed was willed his effects but I don't think those were ever sold as well. I saw Del Ray a few times and after seeing him the first time I was hooked on electronic magic. Sadly, there is very little footage of him performing. Truly sad.

Ron

There are numerous videos of Del. A great one comes with the book about his life. A number of things on Youtube.

I have the book and those are good. I’ve seen some of the utube ones but he did a whole lot more that has been lost.

He was of his time. His creations were his to share, delegate, or let fade into memory. His choices. Electronics have gone a ways since he was building his tricks. Be inspired and make something that looks magical today.

I had the pleasure of spending an afternoon with Del and some other magicians when he joined a group of us for lunch the day after his appearance at the World Magic Summit around 1994. We gathered at the home of magic collector Ken Trombly. Del asked some of us to bring in his close-up act--table and all--so that he could perform the act for Ken's family. As you know, Del was very adept at sleight-of-hand and could really dazzle people with tricks using just an ordinary deck. Del performed one card trick that was not part of his usual close-up act and amazed most of the magicians there. I recognized it, though, as a trick from Joseph Leeming's _Fun with Magic_, which may have been one of the books that Del learned from when he was a boy in the Ohio orphanage. You can find it on page 48 of the Leeming book--the trick called "Naming a Freely Chosen Card." I imagine Del might have also fooled Harry Blackstone with that trick during one of the card magic sessions that he and Harry liked to engage in when they were on the road.

----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez

Del was an amazing individual and truly was ahead of his time! I was very fortunate to have known him, we were both from Pittsburgh, his house in Brookline, Pa was literally 20 minutes from mine. I performed on the same bill as him in the mid 1980's here in Pittsburgh and we remained friends ever since, talking on the phone throughout the years.

Del was equally adept with sleight of hand as he was with electronics, a true inspiration and a self made man. After our performance together many years ago he was nice enough to perform several of his close up miracles backstage ( dice ladder, bird and Suicide Sam the fireman ) for me and my father who was with me that evening. Del had the reputation as a stand-off individual and find what I am saying hard to believe but I assure you all of the above is true. Del Ray is the main reason I got into electronic magic.

I did not know there was a video of Anverdi performing listed here on the Café, please paste or send to my pm, I would like to see it. As my username indicates I am a huge Anverdi collector and admirer of his effects.

Chuck Caputo

Revisiting this thread...
What did Del and Anverdi think of each other's respective electronic effects? I would imagine that Del's effects pre-dated Anverdi's.
I was fortunate to see both of them live on numerous occasions.

----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez

I actually talked to Del about this. Del explained to me that Anverdi used to follow him ( Del) around at conventions keenly watching him perform, it was shortly afterwards Anverdi came out with his key box. This makes sense because Del Ray used the locked box which held his electronic bird, this box was a key box effect as he offered spectators free choices of a several keys to try on the lock, if successful they keep the bird.i believe Del started performing this as early as the 50's which was well before Anverdi came out with electronic magic. Del also told me he was not impressed with Anverdi's use of a strip of tape used to hold the door on his transmitter closed.

Anverdi was indeed a genius, I love both his electronic and plastic magic ( trays, bottles, etc ). Being perfectly honest Del's electronic magic effects precede Anverdi's by at least a decade.

Is the key box effect you referred to a refined variation of Annemann's "Seven Keys to Baldpate?"

----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez