Biographies & History in Magic & Conjuring: page 1

The trials, tricks and travels of Carl Hertz the famous American illusionist.

A highly readable and informative autobiography that takes Carl Hertz around the globe. Hertz was born as Leib Morgenstein in San Francisco, the son of Russian and Polish immigrants. He started with showbusiness in Northern California at a young age and had initially little success. Nevertheless, Carl Hertz went on to create a distinguished international career as a stage illusionist and debunker of fraudulent mediums and other scammers.

CHAPTER I
My boyhood - Fascination which conjuring has for me - I am discharged...

A heart-to-heart interview with Rachel Colombini conducted by Cameron Francis. Her beginnings in England, the move to the USA, how she and Aldo met, her difficult moment with open heart surgery, the recovery and more. She then shares a trick never before released and, why not, sing a song!

This ebook draws on the contemporary and other accounts to examine the persona Houdini created, having been born one Ehrich Weiss in Hungary prior to immigrating to America as a young child. It recaptures the era of variety and some of the acts that were rivalling Houdini. It explores in detail Houdini's clash with Carl Mysto in Salford in 1904, which had Houdini taking the unprecedented step of exposing his rival's coffin escape on stage. It also tells the story of Jack Wilson, a blacksmith, who claimed to have beaten Houdini at his own game following his challenges to Houdini in Blackburn and Bolton...

This ebook examines some of Houdini's escapades in Lancashire, England and explodes some of the myths that the world famous escapologist built up around himself. It draws on contemporary newspaper accounts and sources. Amongst other stories it relates closely the controversy surrounding Houdini's appearance at the Palace Theatre, Blackburn, England in October 1902 when he faced one of his severest challenges from William Hope Hodgson, who was to go on to be a writer of fantasy literature before his death in the First World War. Houdini, a master of showmanship and publicity, was able to exploit the ordeal...

The ebook tells the stories of 'Dr' Walford Bodie and 'Sir' Alexander Cannon both flamboyant magical characters of the last century. Walford Bodie was a magician-showman known to Houdini who sent him the actual electric chair from "Sing Sing" prison. Cannon was also an eccentric character suspected by MI5 of being a spy in World War II!

The cover features caricatures of Bodie and Cannon specially designed by magic graphic artist Donald Monk.

1st edition 2005, 1st digital edition 2013, 77 pages, 29 illustrations.

Bob Gill has succeeded in producing a practical guide to the literature of magic for performers, students and librarians. This was, and still is, the only bibliography of performing magic in the English language to contain fully annotated entries evaluating the literature. It includes many rare and difficult to find publications, excluding material only of doubtful merit. It lists and describes over 1000 books and pamphlets on conjuring published up to 1975. Each book listed contains a description of contents and an assessment of value to performers, as well as bibliographical details.

The...

An account of faro gambling and cheating in New York City.

The newspaper that ran this article is not known. The time frame of the article is somewhere in the vicinity of 1890.

PDF 3 pages.

A Warlock's Wandering is one magician's memories of his journey along the eternal path of wonder. It is my sincere hope that within its pages you may find something of value in presentation, thought, adaptation, and dressing. Between the lines are little gems of wisdom and knowledge gleaned from the many performers met over the last sixty seven years.

1st edition 2015, 57 pages.

Bert Pratt was a bookworm, somebody who worked his way through libraries and book stores to find the odd appearance of magic in non-magic books. He wrote a series of articles which were published in the Midget Magician, a journal that saw a print run of only 50. It is therefore safe to assume you have never read these articles.

It includes excerpts from books and magazines now practically unobtainable. Bert Pratt, writing as Ptinos, delved deeply into the old book marts of London, into libraries, into magazine files, to find magic and magical references. The resulting reading is charming,...

The only biography of the master magician and spy instructor John Mulholland including his work for the CIA.

"John Mulholland is surely one of the most fascinating personalities in magic history. For his work to advance conjuring as a recognized art, he deserves tremendous respect, and no serious student of magic will want to skip this book." - Michael Claxton, Magic Magazine, Feb 2009.

"I can even imagine him up in heaven huddling with Christopher, Houdini, Blackstone and Thurston as they discuss your biography. Their applause is loud enough to be heard on planet Earth." - Maurine Brooks Christopher

"I am an avid reader of books, all...

This is the audio-book version of The MagiCIAn: John Mulholland's Secret CIA Life. Listening time over 9 hours. The author, Ben Robinsion, reads the entire book. Additionally he also reads ten letters to and from Mulholland previously unpublished and not part of the book or ebook. Here is the first half of the first chapter:

"John Mulholland is surely one of the most fascinating personalities in magic history. For his work to advance conjuring as a recognized art, he deserves tremendous respect, and no serious student of magic will want to skip this book." - Michael Claxton, Magic Magazine, Feb 2009.

"I can even imagine...

Ben Robinson is a popular scholar showman. He has entertained at such opposite extremes as 21 shows in one week at Hollywood's Magic Castle, and at the Base Camp of Mt. Everest (17,800 ft.). Hartford Courant drama critic Malcolm Johnson wrote of his first one-man show Out Of Order: "Ben Robinson's performance of silent, surreal illusions is MUST SEE entertainment."

In Magic and the Silent Clowns Ben Robinson conjures with his passion of many years - silent clowns and magic. Focusing on Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and Harpo Marx, Robinson details Buster Keaton's jumping into...

This book won the SAM Special Library Award. It details Martin Gardner's, Jeff Busby's and Bart Whaley's search to uncover the person hiding behind the pseudonym S.W. Erdnase. It lays out in detail the case for Milton Franklin Andrews. It describes the life of Andrews, how he started with magic, and how he transitioned to become a cardshark, including his travels around the word hustling and cheating to make a living.

A detailed analysis of Erdnase's likely sources and inspirations, as well as other information about the book, its reprints, and other pertinent information will help every Erdnase researcher....

This Orson Welles ebook is a case study of an individual that was able to think "out of the box". Each small fact presented leads to the whole of a thinking process that will always provide an unexpected Third Option. The process that is presented here is the kernel of all deception theory. It's why Bart is called the "defining expert" of deception and counterdeception (the detection of deception) by the intelligence communities of many countries.

Not only does it personify the Whaley Deception Theory it presents the genius of Orson Welles through all his creative work, not just Citizen Kane....

This is a new edition of the famous and unique magic dictionary by Bart Whaley. Bart has continued to correct entries in this dictionary until the present. We have converted everything to PDF and added bookmarks for each entry in the dictionary as well as inserted thousands of hyperlinked cross-references to make browsing and using this dictionary as convenient as possible.

There is simply no other such encyclopedia. Some have tried but nobody has achieved what Bart Whaley has. The depth and breadth is mind boggling. Almost 4000 terms are described. This is the absolute must have magic desk...

New updated edition.

This biographical guide lists over 5,500 men and women associated with the art of conjuring from earliest recorded times to the present: performers, inventors, writers, teachers, dealers, manufacturers, publishers, collectors, historians, and showmen of magic. Several are included from the so-called allied arts of magic. Thus it gives those whose deceptions or careers directly influenced magicians, such as pseudo-psychics and card sharps; and those who share many deceptive methods with magicians, such as escapologists, mentalists, and stage pickpockets and hypnotists....

Excerpt from the introduction by Robert Parrish:

A very interesting article about early conjuring, conjurers, books and manuscripts. Includes detailed research on how the term 'hocus pocus' came about.

If you want to break into the TV market you have to listen to this. Anthony Owen is currently the most successful TV magic producer in the UK and has worked on the Derren Brown shows, Monkey Magic, Dirty Tricks, The Real Hustle, and many more. And even if you are not trying to become a TV magic star you will hear a lot of great advice for anybody who wants to make a living with magic.

"I thought CDs were out as a way of learning about magic, but this one by Anthony Owen proves I was wrong. You just have to hear him speak to get the full inspirational effect of his amazing story. This is...

When George Schindler wrote his book Amedeo's Continental Magic he used his tape recorder frequently to capture some of the remarkable Amedeo stories. On this recording George introduces Amedeo and we then hear Amedeo himself talking about his life and times in working for over 65 years in more than 23 countries. In 1972 the New York Society of Magicians named Amedeo as "Magician of the Year." Here is your opportunity to hear him talking about some of his experiences.

Recorded October 20th, 1973. Length 52 min.

This is a celebration of Sorcar's success as a magician. Several authors, reviewers, and commentators write about Sorcar and his performances. This is followed by cartoons by Alias and photos depicting Sorcar in various places.

• Preface
• John Booth - Sorcar: Greatest Illusionist in Indian History
• Arthur Leroy - It Can't Be Done
• Krishan H. Gandhi - Sorcar: The Master Magician
• Gasho Ishikawa - Sorcar In Japan
• Goodliffe - Sorcar: The World's Greatest Magician
• Burns Scandrett - Sorcar in Australia and New Zealand
• Jay and Frances Marshall - He Really is the World's Greatest Magician
• Ronald Murray Shanik - The Great Sorcar:...

Life and adventure on the prairies, mountains, and Pacific coast.

Beyond the Mississippi is a travel log of Albert Richardson from a few years before and after the American Civil War. As the title suggests, he traveled west of the Mississippi through states and territories such as Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, Montana, Wyoming, Iowa, Oregon, California, Nevada, etc. He describes nature, people, politics, and commerce. It includes exciting adventures as well as fairly dry facts such as how many bushels of grain a particular area produces. Overall it is quite readable and the...

The Life and works of Axel Hellstrom. Contents include:

• Hellstrom's history
• Axel Hellstrom's mnemonic system
• other performers
• Hellstrom & Houdini & the S.A.M.

19 pages

Biography of Captain Gilbert S. Aleman's, a.k.a. Al Mann, early part of his life.

You may know Al Mann only as magician and mentalist. He was also a master mariner, a captain in the merchant marines, who spent years on the sea. This is an autobiographical account of his life before he became a mentalist. There is some mention of gambling, John Scarne, and how Al Mann got into magic, which may be of particular interest to magicians.

• Chapter I First Impressions
• Chapter II Rumors of War
• Chapter III The School
• Chapter IV Of Pins and Heroes
• Chapter V Through the Golden Gate
• Chapter VI Passage To...