Table Of ContentBLACKSTONE’S
MODERN CARD TRICKS
AND
SECRETS OF MAGIC
Biblioteca Fundación Juan March (Madrid)
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BLACKSTONE’S
Modern Card Tricks
AND
Secrets of Magic
By H ARRY BLACKSTONE
Garden C ity Publishing Co., Inc.
GARDEN CITY, NEW YORK
Biblioteca Fundación Juan March (Madrid)
COPYRIGHT, 1941
BY GARDEN CITY PUBLISHING CO., INC.
COPYRIGHT, 1932
BY GEORGE SULLY & COMPANY, INC.
COPYRIGHT, 1929
BY GEORGE SULLY & COMPANY, INC.
CL
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Biblioteca Fundación Juan March (Madrid)
PREFACE
The present popularity of magic may be attributed to a new and
wholesome trend; that of a general interest in smaller tricks
suited to close range presentation. Subtlety as much as skill is the
order of the day, and those persons interested in magic are there
fore enabled to begin without the long and arduous practice of
difficult sleights that were once considered necessary.
Card tricks offer the logical starting point, as they are suited
to the impromptu performer, and are also demonstrated by more
experienced magicians. Time spent on card tricks automatically
benefits the student, and places him in a more advanced category.
Hence, the first half of this volume is devoted to “Modern Card
Tricks,” and their presentation.
The reader is advised to study the introduction to “Modern
Card Tricks” to familiarize himself with the fundamentals. He
will then be ready to try the tricks themselves, and in connection
with some, he will find reference to the section on card tricks that
appears in “Secrets of Magic,” the second portion of this volume.
In “Secrets of Magic,” the card tricks described are a direct
follow-up to those in “Modern Card Tricks,” as they deal with
sleight-of-hand methods that will be useful to any one who has
accustomed himself to presenting such tricks as require very little
skill.
The subsequent sections of “Secrets of Magic” are designed to
lead, step by step, into the larger fields of general magic, from
pocket tricks through magic with apparatus, up to the stage illu
sions which are seen in the more elaborate magic shows. A special
section has been added covering mental mysteries and spirit
effects, which are always popular; while the volume concludes
with a chapter on how to present magic.
Biblioteca Fundación Juan March (Madrid)
vi PREFACE
It should be mentioned that the tricks described in “Modern
Card Tricks” have been adapted from tested methods used by
capable performers. They all have been selected because of their
practicability. Though both quality and quantity are present,
emphasis has been placed on the former.
As for the tricks in “Secrets of Magic,” many of them are per
formed with apparatus which may be purchased from magic
dealers, thus rendering it unnecessary to have the appliances
specially constructed. Such items are worth-while; otherwise they
would not be on sale, and by first learning the secrets of these
tricks, the reader can form an opinion before acquiring the
apparatus.
There is a difference between merely knowing how a trick is
done and knowing how to do it. This volume undertakes to
elucidate both by explaining proper presentation, as well as actual
method. Many magicians will find its pages profitable in that
they reveal many effective phases of certain tricks which have too
often been disregarded or overlooked.
H arry Blackstone
Biblioteca Fundación Juan March (Madrid)
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
F or more than a quarter o£ a century the name of Blackstone has
been associated with Magic, until, to the American public, the
terms have become practically synonymous. For the people of
America, more than thirty million of them, have seen Blackstone
and his Magic throughout those years. In New York he has
played return engagements on Broadway, and his coast to coast
tours have taken him to every sizable town in the United States
and Canada, an uninterrupted record which truly defines him as
the greatest of American magicians.
Born in Chicago in 1885, the future magician was thirteen
years old when he witnessed a performance by Harry Kellar,
then America’s leading magician, at McVicker’s Theatre. That
experience determined Blackstone’s career. His one ambition
was to become a magician, with a show as great as Kellar’s.
The style in magic was changing, and when Blackstone in his
early twenties was ready for the stage, the trend had shifted from
the full evening show to vaudeville. Nevertheless, it was still his
desire to present a large and spectacular performance of magic.
So he combined the best of large illusions, with his many sleight-
of-hand tricks in which he is so skilled and in this way was able
to keep within the time allotted to a regular vaudeville turn.
Billed as Harry Bouton and Company, the act became an imme
diate success and was headlined over the largest vaudeville
circuits.
By 1914 Blackstone was more than ready to embark with a full
evening show. He adopted the name of Blackstone—the family
name of one of his grandparents—and made his debut with a
road-show of two hours’ duration, requiring more than a dozen
assistants and tons of apparatus. It was with this performance,
vii
Biblioteca Fundación Juan March (Madrid)
viii BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
interspersed with his own deft specialties in sleight-of-hand, that
he appeared in the Mason Theatre in Los Angeles during his first
season.
After the first act of Blackstone’s Los Angeles performance, a
visitor came backstage to see him. He was none other than Harry
Kellar, whose wizardry had so inspired Blackstone sixteen years
before. Retired and living in Los Angeles, Kellar had come to
see Blackstone’s performance, and on this occasion it was the old
master who acclaimed the new. So pleased had Kellar been with
the first act, that he could not wait until the finish of the show
to congratulate Blackstone. The two were friends from that meet
ing, and Kellar not only predicted that Blackstone would eventu
ally become the greatest of modern magicians, but privately
resolved to furnish him a legacy which would be a fitting tribute.
In the years that followed, Blackstone did many things in
magic. He initiated a type of performance peculiarly his own, the
hour show, combining the speed and precision of the shorter
vaudeville turn with the large spectacle of the road show. This
not only enabled him to play many theatres where a combination
of motion pictures and stage shows was the policy; it gave Black
stone the added opportunity of replacing older methods with
new. Thus, in each circuit of the country he presents a different
performance, appealing to those who have witnessed his work
before.
During the twenties Blackstone invented and presented such
spectacular illusions as the “Vanishing Horse,” the “Vanishing
Automobile,” and the “Vanishing Camel,” which were followed
by his famous “Cannon Illusion,” wherein, at each performance,
he was tied to the mouth of a huge cannon and fired into noth
ingness, only to reappear as the man who had fired the cannon
itself!
Space does not permit the cataloging of the many other magical
effects which he has produced, but no matter how large his
show becomes, Blackstone never omits the small, deft tricks be
fore the curtain, which mark him as the all-around magician who
can mystify at the closest range as well as upon the full stage.
Biblioteca Fundación Juan March (Madrid)
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE ix
Chief among his smaller specialties is the “Flying Bird Cage”
mystery. In this surprise a bird cage and the canary occupying
it disappear instantly from Blackstone’s finger-tips. He imme
diately repeats the trick with another cage while members of the
audience are holding the cage along with him, only to find that
it is gone from their very hands!
Unlike many magicians who have traveled in foreign lands,
Blackstone has remained constantly in America, for the simple
reason that the public here want him. Through the thirties he
continued his nation-wide tours spending only the brief summer
months at his home in Michigan, not for vacations alone, but to
construct new illusions for each coming season. Having his own
work-shop and trained crew, Blackstone has for years been
equipped to produce the best in magic.
Then, with another decade almost past, came the legacy from
Harry Kellar.
During his professional career Kellar had presented one illusion
which outshone all others: “The Dream of Princess Karnac,”
which brought into actuality the fables of the East. This was the
levitation of a girl who floated in mid-air away from all scenery
while Kellar passed a solid hoop about her. When Kellar retired
and turned over his show to a successor, the levitation went with
it. But Kellar, though he had spent thousands of dollars upon the
illusion, had not regarded it as perfected.
In retirement, Kellar began work upon a new levitation, and
concentrated all of his magical knowledge upon that one theme.
Before his death, he finally perfected it and willed the illusion to
Blackstone. After many delays, the masterpiece finally reached its
intended recipient, and Blackstone publicly presented this abso
lute in magic.
From that day he has performed the Karnac levitation in every
show and always will. One must witness Kellar’s greatest crea
tion, as demonstrated by Blackstone, to realize how the art of the
modern magician can render the impossible real. Shown on a
fully lighted stage under conditions that no one ever before dared
the Dream of Princess Karnac” is more than Kellar’s tribute
to Blackstone. It is the ultimate in mystery.
Biblioteca Fundación Juan March (Madrid)
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
X
Perhaps Kellar foresaw that this new inspiration would press
Blackstone on to further achievements in magic. Certain it is that
Blackstone today will accept no limitations in the field that he has
so ably represented. To start his new quarter-century, Blackstone
has cracked the greatest riddle of the Orient, the “Indian Rope
Trick.” Many have talked about it, and some magicians have
attempted to produce it, but always with limitations, until Black
stone at last presented it in accordance with the descriptions of
those few who have claimed that they actually saw it.
In full light a rope rises from a basket and hangs suspended
in air, the top of the rope quite visible. To the accompaniment
of Oriental music, a boy climbs the rope, and hangs from it in
view. Blackstone fires a pistol shot; there is a puif of smoke, and
the boy is gone. Only the rope remains, still suspended, until—
and this is a real Blackstonian touch—the white-haired wizard
fires another shot, whereupon the rope, itself, drops to the stage.
Such are the high-lights of the Blackstone show today. The
show fills two baggage cars and requires a company of thirty
people, to say nothing of the “Vanishing Horse” and the multi
tudes of rabbits that accompany this extravaganza. Though
Blackstone’s adventures have been many, he measures them in
terms of his performances, which in turn may be subdivided
into tricks and methods.
It is Blackstone’s firm belief, as warranted by experience, that
the art of the magician depends upon personal ability, as much
as method. Therefore, it has been his policy to initiate others into
the craft, that they, through knowledge of tricks such as those
explained in this volume, may test their own ability in the art of
magic and be qualified to seek success in the fascinating field of
modern magic.
W alter B. Gibson
Biblioteca Fundación Juan March (Madrid)
C O N T E N T S
Book One: M odern Card Tricks
Introduction...........................................................................................................
CHAPTER
I. Preliminary Sleigh ts.....................................................................
i. False Shuffles—2. Dovetail False Shuffles—3. Com
plete Pack Control—4. Overhand False Shuffle (to
control Bottom Card)—5. Overhand False Shuffle (to
control Top Card)—6. Top and Bottom Shuffle—7.
Overhand Shuffle with Complete Pack—8. False Cuts
—9. Simple False Cut (with Three Heaps)—10. An
other False Cut (with Four Heaps)—11. Special False
Cut (with Five Heaps)—12. Shuffle Cut—13. False
Cut Shift—14. The Revolving Pass—15. The Palm—
16. The Glide—17. The False Count
II. Card Locations....................................................................................
1. The Divided Pack—2. The New Pack—3. Easy Lo
cations—4. The Master Card Location—5. The Slide
Out—6. The Push Through—7. The Push Back—8. A
Neat Location—9. The Fan Location—10. A Card De
tection—11. The Pick-up Heaps—12. Surpasso—13.
An Easy Force—14. The Joker Force—15. The Force
Location—16. Behind the Back—17. The Glimpse
III. Card Discoveries....................................................................................
1. The Knock Out—2. Card from Pocket—3. Any
Number—4. A Reversed Card—5. One Reversed Card
—6. Three Reversed Cards—7. Out of the Hat—8.
Blackstone’s Cut Trick—9. Card in Cigar Box—10.
Card Elimination
IV. Spelling Tricks....................................................................................
1. Simplicity Speller—2. Spread-Out Speller—3. Four
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