Around thirty years or more ago, I had a young family and my wife asked me if I would do a magic show for my daughter's party. I had been out of magic for some time and had sold all my props. I decided to make a visit to Davenports - the wonderful emporium of magic that I had been visiting since I was eleven years old.
I had a list of some of the old effects that I used to perform and the list will certainly date me. So I blush when I refer to some of the items but no matter. A young man with a heavy Scots accent was behind the counter and in front of it were a number of obviously regular habitués of Davenports. You know who I mean and probably Bobby Bernard was there amongst them.
When there was a suitable break in the conversation I asked the man behind the counter if he had a Ghost Tube for sale. "Nooooo," he replied and the gang in front of the counter laughed. I plucked up courage and asked if he might possibly have a set of Chinese Sticks. And back came the answer, "Nooooooo." The assembled mob laughed even louder. Finally, and quite meekly, I asked if it was possible that he might have a Mirror Box.
The reply, as I anticipated, was the same as before and the man behind the counter had the crowd in front of it in near hysterics. I left the shop feeling quite miserable.
I went home and made myself a set of Chinese Sticks and a lovely Mirror Box and even put a little music box movement inside it and as I just couldn't make a Ghost Tube I took a return trip to Davenports and asked the same amusing gentleman if he was sure if he did not have a Ghost Tube somewhere in the shop. "Well, I do have a Snowman Ghost Tube and you can have that if you want." I parted with 15 shillings or so and just as I was about to leave the shop the man from Scotland said he was sorry that he had been teasing me on my previous visit and he shook my hand. That was Patrick Page.
Many years later when I had become quite involved in magic I became friendly with Patrick Page and he did me many favours and kindnesses. When Pabular magazine was first released I saw that Patrick Page was contributing a regular column to the magazine. For the first time I discovered that there was little about any aspect of magic that Patrick Page did not know. I read every column over the eight years that the magazine lasted and enjoyed them all. I think I learnt more from those columns than anything else that I had read anywhere else.
Patrick Page wrote with authority on every aspect of magic and his knowledge of our wonderful art seemed to be without limit. He knew it all but was never a know-all. Some years ago I had the opportunity to purchase the rights to Pabular magazine and one of my main intentions was to put all of the Patrick Page articles in one long book. It would have had to have been a long book because Patrick wrote nearly one hundred of his great articles. As soon as my deal with the previous owner of Pabular was concluded I gave Patrick Page a call and asked if he minded if I published all of his words from Pabular. I asked him how much he would like as a fee and his kind reply was just one word, "Nothing."
I never got around to putting the book out on paper but recently I was able to collaborate with Lybrary.com so that it could be released as a digital eBook. Here are all of the Page boy Speaks articles from Pabular magazine. You are in for a treat and I just wish that the talented Patrick Page could still be around to receive a print-out of the entire eBook. He passed away recently but his contribution to magic will never be forgotten. I will never forget him either.
