Ralph W. Hull

(Deavertown, Ohio: 5th July 1883 - 20th May 1943)

Inspired at age 6 seeing neighbor and amateur, Col. Gray, do a coin trick. Debut at age 20 at school show. Pro cardman for 6 years until 1911. Then as pottery factory executive in family business in Crooksville, Ohio.

Prolific inventor of trick card deck and card effects, including Mental Discernment (by 1932), Color Discernment (by 1932), Cards of Chance (by 1932), Elusive Joker (by 1932), Name-O-Card (1932), N.R.A. Deck (1933), Cosmic Ray Cards (1933), Nudist Deck = Mental Photography Deck (1934), Mirage Deck (1934), Photographic Card (by 1935), Nu-Idea Deck (1935), Jim Jam Cards (by 1936), Delirium Tremens (by 1936), Tuned Deck (by 1938), and Coo Coo Cards (by 1940). Also invented Goofy Dice (by 1940).

Wrote Eye-Openers (1932, 20pp), More Eye-Openers (1933, 28pp), Fifteen Minutes with a Rope [late 1930s; 2nd ed by Snyder, 1942), Modernism in Pasteboard (1934, with Nelson Hahne), Smart Magic (1935, with Nelson Hahne), etc. See Trevor H. Hall, The Testament of Ralph W. Hull.