Saturday, May 31, 2008

Looking Back

"The Sphinx"
Volume XLV
Number Three
May, 1946

From the Article "Cartooning and Magic"
By William Tefft Schwarz





Illustrations are also by W.T. Schwarz.

Monday, May 5, 2008

Max Andrews on The Future of Magic

Max Andrews was the editor of "The Magic Magazine" published in England. he wrote these words:
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Recent travels to Holland, Switzerland and various English cities have given me added proof that the newer generation of magicians is dead keen to make our art more lively and keep it in line with the modern outlook. Everywhere I have been, I have seen evidence of the move to give old tricks a new angle and to introduce "the latest".

Why not? nothing has done so much to keep magic a subsidiary entertainment than a lack of enterprise, which leads to audiences saying (if only to themselves) "the usual tricks, you know". Yet it is astonishing, how the most "usual" things can be given a new appeal; either by way of presentation or by adroit twists that lift a show on to a new plane.

That is one of the things we try to keep in mind in connection with MAGIC MAGAZINE. Not all brand new tricks surpass the old ones; and it is a fact that many of the standard ones are still superb. ALthough, for example, the secret of the Chinese Rings has been given away, even in the cheap-price stores, only an experienced performer can do the trick with finesse. Further the performer who presents this and other famous magical feats with polish or in a freshened form, still completely confounds the people who have only a superficial knowledge of the modus operandi.

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(Emphasis as per original)

These words reflect the recent trends in magic, but the words were written in 1952 (September, 1952 Vol. 1 No. 6).
According to MagicPedia: The Magic Magazine was published from 1952 to 1956 and had 54 issues.