This is a great thread with some absolutely fascinating stories. Thank you very much to all who've contributed.




Jim

Here is a story that came up, so I thought I would post it here.
Early in his career, he was rather standoffish, and a bit full of himself. Over time he mellowed, and became less guarded. He began to embrace his status as the coin mentor. Working at Fantasma allowed him to meet many magicians, and he really loved the cameraderie. At the New York Coin Seminars (and at his workshops), he was always so helpful to the attendees. I will tell you one story. David and I did a double lecture tour through Japan. With one group, we met a lovely woman who was fluent in english, and she was going to be our translator for the evening. As David was about to perform, however, the head of the group got up and stated that he would do the translation. I don't think that sat well with David. Once he began performing, the guy who was supposed to translate became so entranced with the performance that he forgot to translate, and David had to stop and wait for him to catch up. Suddenly the "old" David came through, and he made some (shall we say) unflattering comments about the translator, to the point that he had to stop and the woman who was going to translate took over. After the lecture, David felt bad, and didn't think he handled it well. The next day we had to go to Tokyo, and the head of the group gave us two young men as escorts. Well, the trip turned out to be a revenge trip. Instead of one train straight to Tokyo, we got booked on a route that had us change trains twice, which was a real hassle with all of the luggage we had. Once at Tokyo, we were told that we couldn't take a taxi and had to walk with our heavy luggage to the hotel (it didn't matter that we pointed out that the cabs were running and were everywhere). We got to the hotel 5 minutes before our lecture, and had to change in the bathroom and immediately begin performing. We decided that this was all because of David's attitude the night before. Later on we laughed about it, but I think David realized how his behavior affected people.

I knew david in 1966,when he was an ordinary guy.later,i was around when Vernon told him he was the best he'd ever seen.from that moment on he was never the same.he spent his life trying to live up to that critique.it colored his work,personality,attitude.with fellows like cervon and jennings,Vernon did a lot of damage,pitting them against each other to the point where they stopped speaking.it might have been a different ball game if Vernon hadn't flattered david to the point where it messed up his head.

That's a pretty big assumption.

Lol, well, it wasn’t me! Actually, we heard that the guy was pretty embarrassed. And the next day, trip from hell, organized by him. So, not such a big assumption!

I remembered a few more stories about David. When he was working with Ricky Jay, Johnny Carson went backstage after the show to say hi to Ricky. He ran into David, and when he realized it was Roth he stammered, "I have your book!" David was very proud of that.
Another time Steve Martin went backstage to see Ricky, and Ricky introduced him to David. They spent a bit of time together, and Steve gave David his private cell phone number. When Roger Dryer of Fantasma (where David was working as a demonstrator) found out David had Steve Martin's number, he got David to call to ask him for something (forget what that was about, but I think it was Fantasma related) and Steve got really ticked off that David took advantage of that number and called him. Oh well.
When David came back from an overseas lecture tour, he was stopped in Hawaii by customs. David was searched, and they found money just short of 10,000 dollars. Since he didn't declare it, had the amount been over that limit he would have been arrested. David was sure someone tipped off customs that he was coming back through Hawaii with money. He suspected Harvey Rosenthal since they did not get along, and Harvey worked for the FBI. However, he never knew for sure.
Another older New York coin magician didn't like David, especially when David began to date his daughter. The guy was a motorcycle cop, and had his buddies follow David around. He also threatened David to stop dating his daughter, brandishing a gun. Naturally David was pretty scared. He told Sol Stone this story, because Sol was also a psychologist. Sol said to David that he had to realize, that the prevailing emotion was Rage. That didn't comfort David at all, but yrs later he found that statement to be very funny. Coincidentally, I got along well with this guy (long since passed away), and yrs later began to see his ex-wife at my hospital with her dog. She gave me her daughter's number so I could pass it along to David, and they finally re-connected after all those yrs. Not sure if they were still friends when David passed away.

Roth's stuff is for sale on potter and potter...

I just discovered this thread and here's my David Roth story.

In 1970 through 1973 about once a month I would take the train from Stamford Connecticut into New York City to Tannen's magic shop. I was into coin magic and had read Bobo's coin book and was trying to master many of the routines. I had a decent muscle pass and David was 17 years old when I first met him at Tannens and of course we hit it off both being "coin" guys. He and his friend took me to an Orange Julius which I had never experienced and was delighted (my parents were Kansas farm children but had moved us to Maryland just outside Washington DC where I met my future wife at church and took her to her junior prom in 1961 and later in the 1960s my future wife's family moved to Connecticut and I later moved to Connecticut pursuing her).

On the way to the Orange Julius I remember walking along the streets of New York and David seeing some metal dessert cups in a store window and saying something to the effect of "these would be perfect for cups and balls because you could hook your fingers around the base and curl the mouth of the cup and load a palmed ball into it". Always thinking.

One time he introduced me to a black magician named "Presto" who was an incredible coin magician who could run two coins up and down his ten fingers ladder style and had a great bounce back two coin pass.

I remember a couple of times going to the Governor's Caféteria with David.

David did not like gimmicked coins and felt like a magician should be able to do tricks with solid coins that sounded right. He was big into Okito box magic routines.

I got married in June 1972. In the summer of 1972 or maybe 1973, I forget which year, I brought my bride to Tannen's and David invited us to go to the Governor's Caféteria where we ate and had small talk and Derek Dingle and Harry Lorayne were there and David explained that Derek's presentation was kind of dry but he had incredible sleight of hand with meniscule pinky brakes etc and that Harry's pinky breaks were huge but it didn't matter because his animated style was so entertaining that nobody would notice. He asked us if we would like to see them do their stuff and of course we said yes. At the time my wife was a brunette that was extremely pretty with a body better than Miss America and was wearing a mini skirt so I don't think he had any problem getting Derek and Harry to come over and perform for us.

I can't remember what Derek did I just remember it was really good. I can't remember precisely what Harry did either but I believe it was his ambitious card routine which was extremely entertaining.

I was a computer programmer and got a job in Nashville and my wife and I moved there in late 1973 so I lost all contact with David. Many years later when I was president of the Nashville ring 37 I phoned David to see what would be involved in getting him to lecture here in Nashville and he told me his price (which was acceptable) but that someone would have to drive him everywhere as he did not know how to drive! Being a New York City person he just took the subway and cabs everywhere!

Thanks to David, Derek, and Harry for your hospitality.

BTW my now blondish wife Janna and I are celebrating our 50th anniversary year and she still looks really good!

https://youtu.be/VmvN1NfXIUY

See above 2019 video to see Janna (75) and me (76).

Out of all of the losses over the last year or two this one hit me the hardest. I never met him yet his books and videos impacted me so much. And I'll never get that little jazz line out of my head from the ECM made easy tapes. You know the one. A friendly hand leading the way that I'll never get to shake.