"200 Tricks You Can Do" by Howard Thurston. NY: George Sully & Co., (1926).
Howard Thurston (1869 -1936) was a stage magician from Columbus, Ohio who ran away to join the circus in childhood. He eventually became the most famous magician of his time. Thurston's traveling magic show was the biggest one of all; it was so large that it needed eight train cars to transport his road show.
He is still famous for his work with playing cards, billing himself as the King of Cards. According to legend, a Mexican magician appeared at a magic shop owned by Otto Maurer in New York City. The enigmatic magician demonstrated how he could make cards disappear, one by one, at his fingertips. Maurer showed Thurston the move, which he would later feature in his act.
He added the "Rising Cards" trick from Professor Hoffman’s "Modern Magic," the book from which Thurston had learned the rudiments of magic. For this trick, he would walk into the audience and ask several people to choose cards from a deck of cards. The deck was shuffled and placed into a clear glass. Thurston would then call for the chosen cards. One by one the cards would rise up to the top of the deck. When audiences wanted the cards to rise higher, he developed a way of causing the cards to rise directly out of the pack.
Thurston continued to present the traveling magic show following the retirement of his partner, Harry Kellar. He kept up the grind for about thirty years until, on March 30, 1936, he suffered a stroke from a cerebral hemorrhage. He died on April 13 at his Oceanside apartment in Miami Beach, Florida. [Source: Wikipedia]
"200 Tricks You Can Do" by Howard Thurston. NY: George Sully & Co., (1926).
Howard Thurston (1869 -1936) was a stage magician from Columbus, Ohio who ran away to join the circus in childhood. He eventually became the most famous magician of his time. Thurston's traveling magic show was the biggest one of all; it was so large that it needed eight train cars to transport his road show.
He is still famous for his work with playing cards, billing himself as the King of Cards. According to legend, a Mexican magician appeared at a magic shop owned by Otto Maurer in New York City. The enigmatic magician demonstrated how he could make cards disappear, one by one, at his fingertips. Maurer showed Thurston the move, which he would later feature in his act.
He added the "Rising Cards" trick from Professor Hoffman’s "Modern Magic," the book from which Thurston had learned the rudiments of magic. For this trick, he would walk into the audience and ask several people to choose cards from a deck of cards. The deck was shuffled and placed into a clear glass. Thurston would then call for the chosen cards. One by one the cards would rise up to the top of the deck. When audiences wanted the cards to rise higher, he developed a way of causing the cards to rise directly out of the pack.
Thurston continued to present the traveling magic show following the retirement of his partner, Harry Kellar. He kept up the grind for about thirty years until, on March 30, 1936, he suffered a stroke from a cerebral hemorrhage. He died on April 13 at his Oceanside apartment in Miami Beach, Florida. [Source: Wikipedia]