My Best Trick
Two famous magicians of the past
write about the best trick they ever
performed.
This short article by
Horace Goldin, which
appeared in
Kellar wrote this letter to a friend telling
Goldston's The
of the time he was completely broke and Magician's Annual for
how he managed to give a magic show 1907-08, tells how
and fill his pockets with money, Golding changed the
performing, by the way, what he face of Magic.
considers his best trick.
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My Best Trick--Goldin
My Best Trick
Harry Kellar
As told in a letter to Arthur Gans in 1918.
Dear Arthur:
Many years ago in South Bend,
Indiana, the sheriff came on
stage and attached everything I
had in the world to pay my
creditors and left me nothing but
the clothes I wore.
I knew for the first time what it
was to be stranded in a strange
town. But, being young and
hopeful, I did not give up. I
walked out of South Bend in a
snow storm and followed the
railroad track to a station called
Salem Crossing. There I boarded a freight train and the conductor
kindly allowed me to ride into Chicago.
Once in the city I proceeded directly to the Chicago and Northwestern
Railroad Station and got on a passenger train bound for Milwaukee.
My intention was to work the conductor for a free ride but that
individual was obdurate and put me off at Rose Dale, one of Chicago's
burying grounds. But I had no intention of laying my magical
aspirations in the ground just then.
I just settled down for a walk to Waukeegan, and after many weary
hours' tramp through the snow, arrived safely, but weary and foot sore
at my destination. I immediately called on the proprietor of Phoenix
Hall and after a pleasant chat with him, flattered by praising his
brilliant fancy that had led him to pitch on the name Phoenix for a
place that had been built over the ashes of another hall.
The proprietor became very gracious and purred softly like a cat when
I proposed to hire the hall for the next two nights. The old fellow did
not forget to mention that his rule was to have the rent strictly in
advance. I was once more complimentary and it was finally agreed
that the question of rent should stand over until eight o'clock on the
evening of the first performance.
Being young and sanguine in those days, I felt sure that by that time
there would be enough money in the box office to pay the rent. Then I
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My Best Trick--Goldin
ordered a lot of flaming handbills announcing the show, but upon
returning to the printing office for the handbills a bill for $10 was
handed to me with the reminder that I must pay in advance. I frankly
told the printer I hadn't a cent in the world but had good prospects.
The Waukeeganer was a bit incredulous but as I was able to talk the
hind leg off a mule, I soon convinced him that the printing was useless
to him and that he stood a fair chance to get his money if he allowed
me to use it to advertise the show. So I gained my point and the
handbills, and started to stick them up all over the town. No one
seemed to suspect that I was agent, proprietor and artist all rolled in
one.
There was at the hotel a very persevering lightningrod salesman who
was selling shares in a new company that had been started for the
purpose of manufacturing a copper-pointed lightningrod. Shares were
nominally $50 each and he found quite a number of subscribers. The
most enthusiastic of them all being the landlord of the hotel. The
salesman offered me four shares in his concern for my first night
receipts, saying the shares would soon be above par and that there
would be a goodly profit in the investment. I said I didn't care to sell
out for stock in his company, although I had no doubt it would be a
good investment, but if he would give me two shares and $60 in cash,
he could have the first night receipts. To these terms the lightningrod
man consented.
I sold the two shares to the landlord for $50 in cash which sum,
together with the $60 before received, made me feel that I v+as the
richest man in the world. I certainly was one of the happiest. I
immediately called on the printer and paid his bill with all the dignity
of a millionaire. The hall rent was also paid for two nights in advance.
Up to this time it had not occurred to me how I was going to give the
entertainment, my time having been taken up in arranging the business
matters. Now that everything looked bright, I prepared for the
performance. Procured some tin disks from a tinsmith for the Aerial
Treasury, a pack of cards for card tricks, two fin cups for the Coffee
Trick, fixed up an empty champagne bottle for the guinea pig and
bottle trick, procured a sma]] kitten as no guinea pig was to be had. In
this way I managed to provide quite an interesting entertainment.
In one of the tricks a borrowed ring was apparently destroyed. Then
an envelope would be produced addressed to some prominent person
in file audience, and inside this envelope would be found another
envelope ad* dressed to someone else, and so on for 10 or 12 changes,
each envelope, of course, being smaller than the one enclosing it. The
very last envelope contained the borrowed ring, perfectly restored. On
this occasion I had ohrained the names of several prominent persons I
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My Best Trick--Goldin
wrote on the envelopes prepared for the trick. When I asked for
someone to lend me a ring, a very pretty little lady with snappy black
eyes, handed a small band with a solitaire diamond setting. I made a
few remarks about some conjurors using cumbersome apparatus,
whereas I depended entirely on the dexterity of my hand to
accomplish such wonders. Scorning to use apparatus (for the best
reason in the world, having none to use) and calling a small boy on the
stage, gave him what appeared to be the borrowed ring. There was no
scenery, and at the back of the stage there were three windows. Under
the window flowed a stream of water. I told the lad to throw the ring
out of the window into the stream. Then proceeding to the prepared
envelopes the first name was called. A gentleman stood up, opened
the flap and read the name of the man on the next envelope, and so the
envelopes passed to 10 different persons. Of course, when it came to
the last one I intended to say, "There you will find the borrowed ring."
Imagine my surprise and delight when on the last name being called,
the little lady who had so kindly loaned the ring arose. I told her to
open the envelope and she would find her ring within.
There was dead silence for a moment and then I was greeted with
rounds of loud and prolonged applause. The lady belonged to one of
the first families of the town, and it was without prearrangement that
she loaned her ring, and that her name appeared on the last envelope. I
didn't even know who the persons were on my list for the trick. I only
knew they were in the audience as I had requested the doorkeeper to
give me the names of some prominent people in the hall and the lady's
name was among the rest. It was the best trick I ever performed, and it
brought me a crowded house the following night.
I left town with a full purse, a light heart, and was in high spirits at the
favorable turn my fortunes appeared to have taken. Of course, all this
good luck was to be set down to the credit of the young lady with the
black eyes. She was my Genii of the Ring.
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My Best Trick--Goldin
My Best Trick
Horace Goldin
Originally published in Goldston's
The Magician's Annual, 1907-1908.
My best trick without doubt is my invention of
a new method of doing old tricks, thereby
bringing magic into the demand it is to-day.
Eight years ago magic was very much on the
wane, so far as public opinion was concerned,
as I found to my great disappointment when I
tried to obtain my first engagement. Nobody
wanted an unknown magician, although
unknown dancers, acrobats, etc., could find
engagements.
I was told by one manager that even if I were excellent he could not
have me, as the public did not care to be annoyed by being asked to
draw cards and otherwise assist in the conjurer's performance.
I set my brains to work, lying awake night after night, trying to
think of something new and great in the magic line. At last I hit
upon the idea of doing all my tricks, both new and old, in a new
and original manner. My idea was to cause all my tricks to follow
one another in rapid succession, and omit the patter which, so far
back as magicians had been heard of, had been considered most
essential, giving sufficient time to perform the trick, and also as a
method of getting the attention of the audience away from the
movement, which the audience was not supposed to see.
I produced my new act in fear and trembling. It was something so
entirely different from the usual methods, and I had myself hitherto
depended so much on my patter to assist me.
I have been amply repaid for all my worry and anxiety, as it has
given me the opportunity of appearing before nearly all the
crowned heads of Europe, and as often as four times in eight days,
which makes the record for Royal commands in England.
I have felt convinced that my efforts have done some good in the
world, as my new methods revived public interest and generally
brought magical acts in demand as if by magic (and it was truly
Goldin's magic), thereby bringing the salaries up 70 per cent and
although I have invented many new and original tricks since then, I
think my best trick was in tricking the public to like me and my
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My Best Trick--Goldin
tricks, and thereby tricking the managers into paying at least three
times the amount of salary to conjurers ever paid before.
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