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Hugh R. Johnston

Hugh R. Johnston

(USA: 22nd September 1893 - 3rd December 1957)

Pro vaudeville cardman since 1904 or 1905. Nominally co-author (actually entirely written by F.B. Sterling a.ka. M.S. Mahendra) of Modern Card Miracles: A Complete Card-Act with Patter (1919). Trick in Felsman's (Oct 1919).

His daughter B. Jean Johnston writes:

My father, Hugh R. Johnston was a child prodigy, who performed a one man show at the age of eight years old at the Lewis Theater in Chicago according to my Grandmother, Anna J. Johnston. The first photo I have of him performing is as a teen. He and Manuel were the two magicians put up for the famous $5,000 "Challenge" by the Chicago Conjurer's Club in 1919. He also founded the first School of Magic in the U.S. in 1919 in the Baltimore Building in Chicago. By the following month, fully one third of the Chicago Conjurer's Club members had enrolled in his school. He was only 26 at the time. He was also an inventor of magic, including "The Johnston Shuffle."

Everyone wanted to take credit for this timeless magic book. In 1937, eighteen years after it was published, the famous magic historian H. Adrian Smith exposed Julian J. Proskauer's plagiarizing of it in with his almost word for word copy called "How Ja Do That?" in Tops, causing a huge scandal as Proskauer had held offices up to President in many magical societies.

Coauthors: F. B. Sterling

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Hugh R. Johnston
Ten Mystifying Card Tricks by Hugh R. Johnston

Easy to learn, hard to detect. A booklet of routines that use the Si Stebbins stack.

This is an early publication by Hugh Johnston predating his larger Modern Card Miracles by several years. Includes research on its likely publication date by Chris Wasshuber.

  • The Secret
  • Rapid Counting
  • Weighing the Cards
  • To Tell the Center Card of Pack
  • To Locate Any Card Called For
  • To Have the Joker Tell You What Card is Drawn
  • To Tell the Number and Suit Of As Many Cards As Are Drawn
  • To Tell Card That Is Drawn While Blindfolded
  • To Cut the Cards in Three Heaps and Tell Bottom Card of Each Heap
  • Reading the Cards
  • To Have Pack Cut and Name Bottom...
★★★★★ $10
Hugh R. Johnston & F. B. Sterling
Modern Card Miracles by Hugh R. Johnston & F. B. Sterling

A complete card-act with patter.

This ebook describes moves and routines for a stacked deck. The authors are using the Si Stebbins stack, but most of what is taught applies to other stacks, memorized or algorithmic. At the very end a simply two person code is taught.

Dornfield, President of the Chicago Society of Magicians writes in The Sphinx magazine, November 1919 page 209:

"On the same program, Hugh Johnston put over his line of incomprehensible sliders and puzzlers. The way that fellow can make a card or a whole deck do his bidding is nothing short of miraculous. He is at present busily engaged in conducting the only...

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