magic
Be the life of the party,
learn a few
tricks
Philip O’Brien explores the world of magic through magic apparatus catalogues from the early to mid-twentieth century
F
our cards are held in
your hand: they are all threes. Now, by simply breathing on them, they change to all Aces. Then, to the astonishment of your audience, you breathe on them again and all the spots disappear, leaving the four cards all blank.
Catalogue descriptions such as this, accompanied by Art Deco-style drawings, beguiled several generations of Australians in the first half of the twentieth century. In fact, hundreds of similar entries appeared in Australian magic apparatus catalogues, of which a small collection of 11 is held by the National Library of Australia. Magic—or, more accurately, conjuring—is still as popular as ever but retail catalogues are now mostly available online. Yet the earlier catalogues, with their quaint illustrations
and mannered descriptions of magic tricks, appealed to the imagination in a way that a contemporary website or YouTube demonstration can never match. The Library’s holdings of these Australian catalogues highlight some of the ways in which we entertained ourselves in the years before television. At a time when people had more leisure time, magic acts were a significant part of Australian variety entertainment, and parlour tricks, performed at home, became popular. Parties were an opportunity to sing, to play the piano, or to perform conjuring tricks. ‘Learn to entertain … be a magician … At a gathering, a few magic tricks will be the life of the party,’ promised the catalogues. Magic apparatus catalogues and merchandise, derivative of those in Britain and the United States of America, were printed by Australian magic suppliers and retailers that
above left Magic apparatus from the collection of the author above right Catalogue of ‘Green Frog’ Conjuring Tricks Newtown height 23.0 cm Australian Collection
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above Advertisement from Catalogue of ‘Green Frog’ Conjuring Tricks Newtown height 23.0 cm Australian Collection below left Weirdo’s Magic and Novelty Shop Weirdo’s Superior Magic, Catalogue No. 2 1943? height 22.0 cm Australian Collection below right Bernard’s Magic Shop Bernard’s Quality Magic 1930s height 25.0 cm Australian Collection
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had emerged in the late nineteenth century, especially in Sydney and Melbourne. These magic shops catered to professional performers as much as to amateur magicians and hobbyists, and led to a demand for conjuring apparatus, for which there was once a cottage industry that—like the four aces—has long since vanished. In browsing the Library’s magic catalogues, I found that the same core of a hundred or so tricks kept recurring, albeit with minor variations. This reflects not only a smaller range of effects than today but also a level of cooperation between retailers in a small market. Some of the most popular tricks included the Vanishing Cigarette, the Multiplying Billiard Balls, the Egg Bag, the Sliding Die Box and the Find the Lady card trick. The catalogue illustrations evoke an interwar era of tail coats and brilliantined hair, cigarettes and elegant gestures. Most of the magic relied on gimmicks and the tricks were strongly marketed as such. There was little requirement for sleight of hand. Nor was there much acknowledgement of the provenance of the magic tricks. While many effects, such as the Cups and Balls routine, had existed for thousands of years, other effects were much more recent. For example, three of the most popular card tricks sold by retailers—the Two Card Monte, Pick It Out and the Phantom Cards—had been invented by the American magician, Theodore DeLand, in the early twentieth century, but he received no acknowledgment in the catalogues and, one assumes, no royalties. Most of the catalogues in the collection are linked to former magic shops in Sydney and Melbourne. ‘Weirdo’s Magic and Novelty Shop’ in Sydney’s Piccadilly Arcade was one of the best known to many baby boomers like myself who fancied themselves as budding magicians. There are also interesting connections within the small circle of retailers and manufacturers.
Magic historian Brian McCullagh’s book Sydney’s Magic Heritage (1994) is especially useful in explaining these connections. Several of the catalogues from the 1930s bear the imprimatur of ‘J Albert Briggs, Manufacturer of Conjuring Tricks & Illusions’, Alexandria, New South Wales. McCullagh writes that Briggs’ magic apparatus and catalogues were used by other retailers, some of whom now seem unlikely purveyors of magic. For example, elsewhere in the collection, we find Briggs’ catalogues rebranded, with identical contents, as ‘Magical Catalogue, Austin Cycle Works Magic Dept’ of Enmore Road, Newtown, and as ‘Mick Simmons Magical Catalogue’ for the one-time Sydney sporting goods store. Austin Cycle Works was a sports store run by Jim Fleming, a jack-of-all-trades who, later in the 1930s, replaced Briggs’ catalogue and apparatus with his own ‘Green Frog’ range of magic tricks. Meanwhile Mick Simmons’ principal magic dealer, Cec Cook, left the store in 1960 to open his own magic shop in Sydney’s Oxford Street. Some retailers had outlets in several cities. Will Andrade’s ‘Better Magic: A Catalogue of Tricks for All Entertainers in Magic’, carries addresses for shops in Pitt Street, Sydney, and Swanston Street, Melbourne. Among the people who made magic apparatus for Andrade’s was magician Will Alma, who would later open a mail order service and, eventually, a retail outlet in South Melbourne. His stencil-duplicated catalogue of 1937, with amateurish illustrations and eccentric text, belies the quality of his apparatus. Other Melbourne catalogues featured in the collection include a late 1930s copy from Bernard’s Magic Shop, now the longest-running magic shop in
Australia, and an early catalogue from Aladdin’s Magic Shop. Magician and historian of magic Gerald Taylor worked at Bernard’s from 1964 to 1966 before leaving to run Aladdin’s between 1966 and 1980, finally returning to Bernard’s from 1986 to 1992. Throughout the catalogues, hyperbole and awkward use of proper nouns are everywhere, with each catalogue assuring the customer that its magic is the best. ‘When you think of MAGIC, think of ME’, implores Briggs. Meanwhile, Weirdo’s promises that it is ‘Australia’s leading magic store. If it’s magic— we’ve got it’. And Jim Fleming boasts that ‘“Green Frog” conjuring tricks are made in Australia’s largest magic factory’. Will Alma snarls, ‘We do not intend to sacrifice Quality to compete with “cheap-jack” Magical Depots’. Of Alma, Taylor recalls: ‘There’s no doubt that Will Alma was irascible and hard to get along with, but he produced the best quality magic in Australia’. Packet card tricks were relatively easy for dealers to make and were among the most popular items, Taylor says. But ensuring a supply of the larger magic apparatus—in turned and painted wood or in metal— presented a continuing challenge. After Briggs, Fleming and Alma ceased making apparatus for magic shops, retailers such as Taylor were forced to find alternative supplies. It was difficult to find people interested in making props in the garden shed for cash. In the end, I’d get one person to make the wooden items, another to make the metal apparatus and a seamstress to make the silk items. I could have sold three times the amount they produced. It was a cottage industry that could not keep up with the demand … But few magic shops could survive—then and now—on magic alone. Sales of novelty items, jokes, gags and masks have always been important. But the reason so many magic shops have closed is the high cost of inner-city rents and overheads. That’s why the Internet has changed the whole nature of magic retailing.
As the magic catalogues in the Library’s collection attest, mail order was always a popular means of buying magic apparatus, but now the Internet has made it easier for customers to see what they are buying. Most of
the tricks are manufactured overseas—and by a small number of suppliers—with a far greater range than was ever available before. The more recent tricks are also now sold with the creator’s name clearly identified. Increasingly, tricks are targeted at younger, more streetsmart audiences and thousands of magic presentations have been posted on YouTube. It’s a long way from the era of genteel tricks as after-dinner entertainment around the piano. Explanation of how to perform each trick is an area that has changed dramatically in magic retailing. In the days of the catalogues in the Library’s collection, the brief instructions accompanying pocket illusions probably meant that many tricks remained untouched in bottom drawers. Even though online and DVD instructions have now made mastering magic tricks much easier, there are some magicians who argue that, while this style of instruction ensures similar performances, learning from books allows greater individuality. Even today, when digital technology is far more mysterious to many than conjuring, magic tricks still hold a fascination, even for the most demanding of audiences. The understated style of the older magic catalogues is long gone but tricks such as the Three Card Monte are still as popular as ever. Me? I’m still trying to work out where the four aces went.
above left Alma Magical Company Alma Magical Co. Catalogue 1937? South Melbourne height 33.0 cm Australian Collection above right Anthony Caton Studio Portrait of Magician Gerald Taylor, Brisbane, 1857 b&w photograph 25.3 x 20.3 cm Pictures Collection nla.pic-vn4729065
Philip O’Brien is a Canberra writer
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