Headline prediction.
Here's publicity for you. Predict a newspaper headline weeks before publication. Predict an event that is to take place in the future. Can also be used on T.V. No locked boxes and no elaborate chests. This is a simple, straightforward method that is sure-fire and 100 per cent. convincing.
Performer visits the local newspaper office, or he may 'phone to inform the editor that he is sending a letter through the mail, addressed to the editor and marked "Prediction." "In this letter," he tells the editor, "is a prediction of an event or a news happening, or a front page headline to appear in the newspaper on such and such a date - the day I am giving a performance in your city." He further instructs the editor to put this letter in a safe place and that the letter is not to be opened until the night of the show - and then on the stage in the presence of the audience.
Imagine how this can be played up in the newspaper in the days preceding your engagement. On the night of the show, the editor comes up on the stage, removes the letter, checks the postmark and states that it is the same letter that he received a week ago and that it has not left his possession. The envelope is opened - by the editor or any spectator. He removes the letter, opens it and reads it and, sure enough it is a true prediction of a news event, published for the first time in that day's newspaper.
There are no confederates, no apparatus, no sleight-of-hand. Performer never touches the original letter at any time after it is mailed to the editor, either before the show or during the show. This is something that every magician should have. It's the greatest yet. The Ballyhoo Prediction is a sensational prediction effect that can be found in the repertoire of all famous magicians from Kalanag to Copperfield.
It is probably the best prediction effect of the present day, because remember: You really don't touch the letter from the day you put it in the mailbox, either before or during the show!
1st edition 1958, PDF 8 pages.
word count: 1407 which is equivalent to 5 standard pages of text