about sid’s blog

And Finally

Wed, 8 Dec 2010 16:52:22 -0500

Joseffy – a great man of mystery who I have known by name since I was a small boy. Somewhere among the many magical correspondents I had back in 1920-21, I received a clipping of an early Joseffy poster. Well designed, it showed a giant question mark being hoisted with a block and tackle. The title was “Permit Me to Raise the Question, Have You Seen Joseffy?”

At an early convention I actually saw tBalsamo, The Living Skullhe great man in action. He presented his famous talking skull “Balsamo”, where the skull rests on a sheet of glass suspended from cords at each corner and held by spectators. Joseffy wander through the audience and the skull raps its jaw in answers to questions, and even turns to face Joseffy whenever he commands it. I saw the act presented on a stage twice and found it a most unusual and well-presented demonstration.

Many years later, during World War II, I received a phone call from Joseffy. He was in town in connection with war work that required his scientific knowledge and experience. Needless to say, I was delighted to hear from him and my wife and I invited him for supper. I phoned Tom Bowyer and he came over. I knew he would be particularly interested as we had seen Joseffy in action and greatly admired his work.

After supper the talk got around to magic and magicians and, while my wife had visited an occasional convention with me, she had never seen Joseffy so I started to explain what a wonderful act he presented aided by Balsamo.

At this point he said, “I’ll be happy to introduce you to him”. He opened the case he brought with him and presented the entire act in my living room for the three of us. Wow! What an experience.

I had been perplexed how he came to phone me. I had met him but certainly was not on his level in any way. When I inquired he said, “You gave me your card when we first met and I admired the style and simplicity, and added to my scrap book. Then, when I was coming to Toronto I knew I had met a Canadian somewhere and jotted down your phone number.”

An amazing man and a great inventive genius as all at the Collectors [Weekend] of a few years ago will agree, when we had the opportunity of examining the mechanical genius of his “Rising Card”. A method which caused someone to say, “He invented the dial telephone years ahead of its time.”

His many inventions also include an expanding umbrella. There is a fine coverage titled “Joseffy and His Magic” by M.S. Mahendra in the August 1945 Linking Ring.

Magical Memories

Mon, 6 Dec 2010 16:02:19 -0500

Werner Dornfield – or Dorny as he was known, worldwide – impressed me as a larger than life fellow when I first met him at the first IBM convention in 1926. A sort of born clown of the world that worked hard and was always willing to help at any magical function.

I still think his book Tricks and Chatter contains a great collection of excellent magic. It was a real event when it first made its appearance and continued to be a popular trickery tome for years. In that book, it was Dorny who suggested that magicians should hold conventions the way fraternal groups have done for years. So, when you attend one or six or seven such conventions each year, you can thank Dorny for being the fellow who planted the seed.

In later years we often worked on the same program. At an early Abbotts Get Together he and I shared the M.C. duties. I did the first half and he did the second. I still have his photo in my collection on which he inscribed, “To My “Companion in Crime” Sid Lorraine.”

For years he was the backstage authority at the Abbotts Get Together. Later, when illness overtook him and his movement confined him to a walker, he was still the kidding Dorny when I visited him in Chicago. He was one of a kind and a great fellow to have known.

More fine friends...

Doc Mahendra and his wife Ann were popular at the early Colon gatherings. Doc did amazing things with a stacked deck and Ann allowed hammer-wielding fellows to smash a concrete block on her stomach, as she laid stretched on an improvised table.

Doc Mahendra Dell O’Dell
They and Dell O’Dell were the first magicians to bring giant trailers to a convention.

The feature of Doc’s was that each morning magicians would line up to sample the wonderful orange crepe suzettes that Doc produced.

Wonderful people – wonderful memories.

Russ Walsh

Fri, 3 Dec 2010 11:46:56 -0500

Russ Walsh – always a gentleman. His vanishing cane, table production and the golf act he did at many early conventions were always highlights.

I first met Russ through an ad in the Sphinx back in the twenties. He advertised a variety of effects that he was disposing, in order to make room for his more popular items. I can’t recall the price but knowing the state of my wealth at that period it couldn’t have been more than six or seven dollars. In return, I received a large package full of great surprises about two dozen straw finger traps that I quickly sold to friends at ten cents each.

Several bundles of stage money, about ten fountain pens – actually they were cast metal models of pens. The end was open, a slide plunger inside that was operated with an exterior stud. The plunger had a metal hook on the end. It was designed after the vanishing handkerchief wand for use with a paper cone.

The pen was ideal for close up work. It was a natural thing to have in your pocket. You first placed a nine inch silk over your first. The pen poked it down, the plunger being operated so the silk caught on the hook and the thumb operated the stud drawing the handkerchief with the pen. It was a clean close-up vanish that, at the time, was a real baffler as the popular handkerchief vanish was either the fingertip or the Bautier Pull. I never saw these pens on the market from that day to this. It was probably an idea of Russ’ that he decided to shelve.

Also, in that bundle, there were about two dozen ring and spring puzzles together with sheets of instructions for many effects with this cheap novelty.

In recent years, Hank Moorehouse, Chuck Leach and others have offered many fine presentations of this puzzle. But Russ introduced his ideas around 1920.

Russ and I found many magical interests in common and some of my happiest sessions were spent in his company. Like the time in the early fifties when I was invited by John Mulholland and Dorothy Wolf to attend an evening with them. Ade and True Duval were there, also Bill and Pauline Magini. It was a wonderful evening of magic and chatter.

I know John’s apartment was somewhere up in the seventies and the wind-up occurred about 3 AM at which point Russ and I walked down to the Roosevelt Hotel, where I was staying. That is somewhere in the neighbourhood of 45th Street. I certainly wouldn’t consider such a stroll at that hour, in New York nowadays.

Russ helped many magicians, in many ways. I know he was responsible for helping Dorny, many times, when times were tough and dates were few and far between.

Peeling away the Hull

Wed, 24 Nov 2010 10:06:53 -0500

His [Burling Hull’s] advertising was always cleverly worded and the effects were always miracles. There are some who say he was capable of a good performance. But I saw him in action on two or three occasions and they were anything but professional. To me, he seemed to violate all the rules he set forth in his work on stagecraft.

I was in New York, following an appearance he had made on CBS TV. All the magicians, Karson, Mulholland, Jarrow, Himber and others all told me the TV show was a disaster and that further shows had been cancelled.

When Burling saw me he asked if I had seen the program. When I explained I was on the train all night coming to New York, he assured me it went very well, everyone was pleased but he thought lighting and camera handling was bad and had decided not to continue the series, until better professional services were available. You just couldn’t change the Hull professional confidence.

I made a deal with him to illustrate some of his advertised material but it always became involved – with me, always on the loosing end. Too bad, because he truly loved magic and I am sure he meant well, but there always seemed to be a streak of larceny lurking in the shadows.

My wife remembers her first meeting with Burling at my home in the very early 30s. He described his act to her, and to see him go through everything in pantomime was a real treat. I always said, without any equipment, he is a superb performer.

Whenever we met he was pleasant and friendly and to his credit, always had the appearance of good health.

I can recall him telling me, back in the late twenties, that when he went to bed, he always applied a coating of cold cream to his face. “It is wonderful for retaining freshness and a smooth skin.” In those days, you looked questionably at any man who did that sort of thing. No doubt about it, he was way ahead of his time.

He still looked remarkably well in his nineties, a great figure in magical history and I am happy that I knew him.