Does anyone out there know the history of Sam the Bell Hop ?

Bill Malone talks about it on his DVD. I think it was an effect originaly titled "Sam and Moe".

I think this is covered in a thread in the Cards section. The late Frank Everhart is credited with bringing this routine to the magic world, and he almost certainly created much of what the story is today. As I recall, however, Mr. Everhart claimed to have been told the story by an anonymous bar patron.

Try a search in that section.

In the book "The Final Word on Cards" by Rufus Steele there was an entry titled "Sam & Moe" which was essentially this effect. Bill Malone learned the "Sam the Bellhop" story and stack as shown to him by Mike Pappas and Frank Everhart and he immediately added expert shuffles and cuts to it, thereby making it magical. Over the years, Bill refined the routine and it became his signature piece.

I remember being told that several of the shuffles and cuts Bill Malone uses were shown to him by Joel Givens.

I think the routine is actually called "Moe and Sam," and the name of the book is actually The Last Word on Cards.

Thanks Bold ATFUS, I wondered where it came from.

I learned it from a layman, the older brother of a friend while I was in grade school. The guy did an okay false cut too. The false shuffle stuff seems a recent addition.

The trouble with Moe and Sam, Sam the Bellhop, Malone's version, and most others, is that the trick doesn't so much end as stop.
I do several version that have a LOGICAL ending, and don't simply end with a winning hand of poker.
Several of these have been published.

I use a version of Diamond Jack that "Diamond" Jim Tyler published in his excellent lecture notes: "Precious Gems".

This is a very good story - some of it is nonsensical, but hey it uses all 52 cards!

It has a slew of bad puns that go over great, and it's got a sweet sentimental ending that makes the audience go, "Aw".

I've had people who've seen me do it multiple times rave about how much they like the story and enjoy seeing it again and again.

The original version of Diamond Jack (well, and early version if not the first) appeared in The Encyclopedia of Card Tricks by Jean Hugard in 1937.

Jim Tyler credits Eugene Burger, Bill Ingram and Namreh for preceding work that his version is based on.

I had a school teacher show me sam the bellhop in 1955. Did not see it attributed to Frank Everhart until several years later. I would be real interested in it's orgin.

I know that the trick is far from new. The first time I saw it was in Leo's Last Stop (a leap-in, limp-out, off-limits, water-front bar) near Newport, RI when I was a young midshipman in Navy OCS. That was the summer and fall of 1967. The patter was a little different, but so was the world. Pool cues were often used as magic wands in that place.

Maturity is good stuff, if you make it!

Bob
Magic By Sander

John Shirley did a similar routine with jumbo cards called "Diamond Jack". I believe it is still sold by Magic Inc.

I have the original 2 or 3 page manuscript of Sam The Bellhop and the author is Frank Everhart. If interested I could go look for it and see if any info is available.
Rennie

Ed Watkins at Douglas Magicland in Dallas published a version called "Jack the Bartender" in the very early 1960s.

In an issue of the Magic New Zealand newsletter, a Captain Bill James published what he called the "BIMBO" card trick. He said it was based on a trick performed by a magician who visited his military camp in 1941. Although he never mentions "Sam the Bellhop", it seems to be almost identical except the hero is a little boy named Bimbo. I'd be interested if anyone else is familiar with this variation?

Thanks,

Paul

In the bar magic video with bob sheets and eric mead they talk about Frank inventing it.

In SAM, THE BELLHOP (cover + 7 pages with text) you could read, that as a young man Frank Everhart went to California (born Sept., 10, 1921 in Alverton, Penn.; died in July 31, 2004), need a job, and found it in a bar. That work eventually took him to Chicago and the 90's Bar at the La Salle. Previously, while working in an Elston Avenue Bar in Chicago, a southerer had come in and taught him the Sam, The Bellhop routine for a drink. With this as his first trick....


Reinhard

I saw it done by a friend in grade school (1966 or 67) as taught to him by his older brother. It must have been around a while.

I actually picked up a copy of "The Last Word on Cards" from a box in a collection at a local brick and mortar shop. I think he charged me $2.50. It's not a bad book. I believe it's from 1952.

On the back of this little paperback book it says in big letters "THIS IS A FIFTY DOLLAR BOOK." LOL!

And with all of his class and cleverness, the time of death for Frank Everhart was 6:54. You couldn't have written a better ending.

May he rest in eternal peace - a great man gone.