Archive for December, 2002

The World’s Greatest Magician Came From Ohio

Striking Pose

Grover G. George, from Zainesville, Ohio, had all that it took to be a great, touring magician. He was poised, polished, and professional and loved to perform. In fact, he was known as the “The Greatest Magician on Earth” in virtually all venues but in the United States.

George told reporters thathe became interested in magic at a very young age when he saw the twin towers of magic: “Keller the Great” and “Howard Thurston” at the old Schultz Opera House.

He was inspired and filled with the desire to practice magic to one day be an associate of the two current leaders in the world of magic.

Three years before Houdini’s death, George escaped from the US to South and Central America to start a new life. He performed in Cuba as ?The Great George’s traveling troupe.”The show wassmall in staff but big on props. He had five members in the troupe and over a 1000 trunks of magic.

His popularity spread to the other island nations in the Caribbean.

The president of Costa Rica invited him to visit his country after his run in Cuba. He accepted the invitation and climbed aboard the train sent for his troupe. The President of the island nation sent the train just for him. He wanted this famous…
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Dean Dill’s “Blizzard”

Dean Performing for Johnny Carson

Dean Dill is a famously inventive magician and one of the real neat guys in magic. He?s famous for his Dean?s Box ? a mini-s?ance ? that has received raves from everyone who has seen it.

So I was very interested when I was browsing the Penguin Magic video archive and saw that his trick Blizzard was one of the many videos they had available. By the way, they?ve done a great job with the production of these videos. Great camera work and very good sound. If you?ve seen the quality of the videos on other sites, you?ll be impressed.

Anyway?.

Here?s the effect. I?ll describe it exactly as it appears.

You ask your volunteer to name any card in the deck. No force, obviously. If they want the two of Spades, fine. If they want the nine of Hearts, it?s okay. You remove the selected cards and its mates. So if they picked the nine of Hearts, you?ll pull out (face down) the nine of Spades, Clubs and Diamonds.

You hand these four face-down cards to your lovely volunteer and ask her to shuffle the four cards to thoroughly mix them up. Again, you emphasize that the cards need to be face down at all time so that you will not be able to cheat and catch a glimpse of the order of the four…
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What Does Canadian Radio Have to Do with Stewart James? – More than I Knew.

The James File

I was attracted by the headline in Canadian Business, “A billion up his sleeve. Magician and radio baron Allan Slaight still has a few surprises to pull out of his hat.”

I knew of a Mr. Allan Slaight as the man behindthe outstandingcompilation of The James File. This is the work to purchase if you have any interest in the genius Stewart James or any aspect of close-up magic. The index alone is over a hundred pages and the volumes total nearly 2000 pages.

I also knew of a Mr. Allan Slaightas the head of Standard Broadcasting in Canada.When I am in Toronto, I usually have 1010 AM on constantly – CFRB. CFRB is a Standard Broadcasting news/talk station. But I never thought the owner of that station and the person who put together the James File wouldbe the same person.

It would make sense that Mr. Slaight, a magician and a Canadian, would have interest the great Canadian magician Stewart James.

Canadian Business writes:

Slaight?s affair with magic began in 1939, at age eight. He saw a conjurer performing at Eaton?s Toyland in Toronto, and hawking magic kits for $1. ?I can?t describe the feeling,? he says. ?It just?wham!?hit me over the head.? Today, Slaight still travels to magic conventions across North America.

I think all of us in love with magic know that indescribable feeling; that “Wham!” smack upside the head moment that changes our lives.

Check out the article at Canadian Business and by all means pick-up …
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