"Sealed Mysteries of Pocket - Magic by Jean Hugard" was an interesting down load.
Every item in the booklet has been a long-standing friend of mine. The routine as given is a nice, trouble free one, and a (just about) sleight free one.
However, I don't believe that the booklet was written in the 1930's. I think it probably was written in the 1950's by Julien J. Proskauer as a "tribute" to his teacher, Jean Hugard. It may also have been written with the idea that funds derived from the sale of the booklet would go to Jean Hugard to "help him out". As I remember it, Jean Hugard was blind and not too well off toward the end of his life. The booklet was probably never really put on the market because there may have been some "property" rights in dispute about the tricks contained in the routine.
If Jean Hugard had had an idea in the 1930's that routining of tricks was something that was really needed by the amatuer magicians, he would have concentrated on writing routines such as the one in this booklet. He would not have published one booklet and then dropped the subject. His Hugard's Magic Monthly Magazine is full of nice tricks, but I don't recall that it had a lot of routining with different objects in it. I think that Mr. Proskauer did not remember his association and talks with Jean Hugard too well when he wrote "For years, Jean Hugard and the undersigned (one of his humble pupils) have discussed the necessity of putting before the amateurs a complete routined magical act." As I remember it, Jean Hugard was a super teacher of magic tricks and he would not have talked for years... he would have done it!
The piano card trick is a fine old effect, pretty much public domain at the time this booklet was written.
The rope from the card case was an item from a Milbourne Christopher booklet, not credited to Christopher.
The rope cutting routine is the Panama Rope Trick by Ted Collins, not credited to Collins.
The Chefalo knot at the end of the routine was the invention of a European street performer named Chefalo. It was not credited.
I don't think that the Cords of Phantasia was invented by Jean Hugard. But there is no mention of where this marvelous trick came from. I don't think the use of a cigar rather than a chopstick or a magic wand is an improvement to this trick.
Jean Hugard would certainly have mentioned where the tricks in his routine came from if he had actually written the booklet.
I am quite sure that Christopher and Collins would have raised some hell if the booklet was placed on sale as written.
Having said all that, I still like every item in the routine and I am going to do it as written to see if Mr. Proskauer had a good idea or not.
