Crimmins John Joseph - Encyclopedia of Card Tricks

ENCYCLOPEDIA

OF

CARD TRICKS

ENCYCLOPEDIA

OF

CARD TRICKS

Revised and Edited by

JEAN HUGARD

Associate Editor: JOHN J. CRIMMINS, Jr.

Illustrations by NELSON HAHNE

DOVER PUBLICATIONS, INC.

NEW YORK

This Dover edition, first published in 1974, is an unabridged and corrected republication of the work originally published by Max Holden in New York in 1937.

International Standard Book Number

ISBN-13: 978-0-486-21252-4

ISBN-10: 0-486-21252-1

Manufactured in the United States by Courier Corporation

21252127 2014

www.doverpublications.com

INTRODUCTION

By Theo. Annemann

C LOSE to a year ago, there made its appearance upon the horizon of magicdom a book. But what a book! Not for many a moon had the production of a tome related to magic stirred the hearts and emotions of those addicted to the reading, collecting, and performance of things magical, especially tricks with cards.

The book, aptly named an Encyclopedia contained between its covers nearly every practical card trick produced, invented and improved by magical students for forty years or more. The combined value of its contents, were the tricks to be computed at their original marketed price, was well over one thousand dollars. And were one to sit well back and mull over the countless hours of study, concentration, and brain-wrecking periods of mind fixation necessary to produce the contents, it would stagger the best of imaginations.

The material included in the volume was compiled by Doctor Wilhelm Von Deusen in collaboration with Mr. Glenn G. Gravatt, the latter a devout follower of magic for many years and an erstwhile contributor to magical journals. The magic fraternity knows little or nothing concerning Doctor Von Deusen who must have spent years in gathering this huge collection of secrets which embraced the original ideas and inventions of the worlds best card men.

As originally produced the book was mimeographed on large pages, the over-all size of the volume making it quite bulky for the average bookcase. These are not the qualifications generally expected and desired in a work of this character. However, despite its format, the book was an immediate success because of its contents which made the work one of the most valuable to appear in years. The original price was Ten Dollars at which figure Mr. Gravatt reports that over eight hundred copies were sold, completely exhausting his one and only edition.

The demand for a second edition became so insistent that Mr. Max Holden undertook the monumental job. In the belief that such valuable material warranted the best possible treatment he has produced herein a beautifully printed and bound book of a size and makeup to be respected on any shelf. Together with its secrets it now stands alone as undoubtedly the greatest and most complete Encyclopedia of Card Tricks ever conceived.

Produced at a cost of over two thousand dollars, the original work has been entirely rewritten by Mr. Jean Hugard, whose many magical publications are but scant evidence of his mastery in all phases and departments of magical knowledge.

Mr. Hugard tested every trick herein before placing it on paper. Where, as was the case quite often, the original work deleted, (through translation, no doubt) or skipped over important details necessary for correct performance, Mr. Hugard discovered these missing points, and corrected the faults.

At half the price of the Gravatt publication, this book contains even more tricks! Improvements, variations, and other effects of a nature that need little mechanical ability have been added. Intricate sleight-of-hand tricks and those requiring much practice have been left out of this boon to card trick lovers. There is a mystery for every condition, place or time. The owner and reader of what is within these covers need never be at a moments loss for a trick.

But Mr. Holden has gone still further in his zeal to promote good will and avoid any possible criticism on the part of those who originated the tricks incorporated in this revised edition.

Before starting on the task of putting the book into printed form, Mr. Holden approached all known originators of the effects herein, and secured written permission from each for the inclusion of the tricks. Days were spent in the checking of books, magazines, and writing to authorities on magic in order to trace the ownership of certain effects.

For magic is a strange and inconsistent profession when it comes to inventing a new trick. New principles are few and very far between. One man invents a trick. He thinks of and puts into practice an effect which is different than any before, and uses it with great success and acclaim. But that trick, to which he has a just claim, may depend entirely upon principles conceived years ago by as many as four or five different people! A magician who steals the effect of another always falls back on the excuse that the principle is an old one and available to everyone, notwithstanding that the individual from whom the effect has been appropriated conceived an entirely new and novel application of that old principle. The argument, to date, has been endless, and so many inventors add a new twist or kink to a trick and pass it on to another who does the same, that it is understandable why a trick can reach a state of near perfection and have so many who claim it as their own. And each one claims it because of his particular addition in the form of a move, twist or manner of presentation, despite the fact that he had a nucleus upon which to work, and regardless of the fact that several more constructive ideas have been added by others.

So, within the present volume, Mr. Holden has given credit by name to those who brought the effects described into the limelight through twists and fancies of their own, and marketed them to the profession. Thanks for such permission are due Percy Abbott, Howard Albright, Al Baker, Frank Chapman, Charles Eastman, U. F. Grant, Leslie Guest, Ralph W. Hull, Geo. Johnson, Charles T. Jordan, Frank Lane, William W. Larsen, Loyd of California, Charles W. Nyquist, J. F. Orrin, Ralph W. Read, John Scarne, Floyd G. Thayer, Dai Vernon, Herman Weber and M. F. Zens. Special thanks are due Harry Leat too, for the publication within of a complete work, The Nikola Card System, now out of print, and for which many have paid almost half the cost of this entire volume.

Program after program may be built from the contents of this encyclopedia, and it is doubtful if the day will come when the tricks herein will not be useful. It is hardly probable that this generation of magicians and card trick fans will again see the like of the revised Encyclopedia of Card Tricks.

New York City

June, 1937

Contents

The Slick Card

One Way Back Design

The Short Card

TWIN SOULS

Al Baker

This effective trick can be done with any pack of cards. Begin by having the deck shuffled by a spectator. In taking it back sight the bottom card, make an overhand shuffle, bringing it to the top and note also the bottom card at the end of the shuffle. Go to a lady and say you will make a prediction foretelling exactly what she is about to do. Write on a slip of paper, The gentleman will get the ................ of ................ filling in with the name of the top card of the deck. Fold the slip and put it on the table under a glass or some other object. Hand the pack to the lady and ask her to think of a number, then when your back is turned, to deal that number of cards face down on the table, turn the top card of those dealt, note what it is, replace the packet on the pack and make one complete cut burying the chosen card in the middle. Turn away while the lady does this.