Stage Illusions

This is an age in which, in order to succeed, one must specialise. One conjuror will specialise in thought-reading tricks, another in silent illusion acts, another in sleight-of-hand tricks, another in the presentation of what I may call “large apparatus” tricks. This book will appeal primarily to illusionists, but I fancy that other magicians will find that it is well worth perusal. I have heard of illusionists who have produced some of their best effects by merely enlarging small sleight-of-hand tricks, and I have no doubt that some sleight-of-hand performers have been equally successful in devising new tricks by merely watching illusionists at work and “reducing” the illusions to drawing-room size.

• Introduction

  PART I. Illusions in which an Assistant appears

• The Mysterious Lady
• An Indian Basket Trick
• An Effective Change
• A Good Levitation
• The Glass-lined Trunk
• The Vanishing Trunk
• The Golden Fly
• The Flower Girl
• The Vanishing Lady
• An Improved Vanishing Lady
• A Furnished Drawing-Room and Lady produced from Nowhere
• An Oriental Dish
• The Rapid Transit
• Phantom Decapitation
• Two Sack Tricks
• Cremation Illusions

  PART II. Miscellaneous Illusions

• Two Tubs
• The Spirit Blackboard
• The Growth of Flowers
• Sham Spiritualism
• The Drum which can't be Beaten
• Novel Mirror Illusion
• The Vanishing Sketch
• Conradi's Coin-Ladder
• The Cauldron of Macbeth
• A Table from a Shawl
• The Vanishing Lamp
• The Latest Spirit Picture
• An Inexhaustible Coffee Pot produced from an Empty Table
• Materializing a Table
• A NUMBER OF BOX ESCAPES EXPLAINED
• The Crystal Chest
• The East to West Mystery
• The Escape of Cinderella
• Original Flying Handkerchiefs Illusion
• The Gambler's Bride Illusion

1st edition 1912, 112 pages; PDF 80 pages.
word count: 16927 which is equivalent to 67 standard pages of text