The photo above is a very famous publicity photo of George McDonald Birch and his wife Mabel Sperry.
I'd seen the photo many times over the years. Mabel is sitting upon a stack of 'Next of Boxes' that were used in his act to find a borrowed object.
One day a few years ago I was visiting with Bill King, the magic collector from Hagerstown MD. Imagine my surprise as I walked through the various rooms of his collection and came face to face with the iconic boxes!!! Below is a photograph of those boxes. I imagine they have found a new home since I visited because Mr. King passed away not long ago.
The fonts look different. I guess they were redone or he had several made.
ReplyDeleteI noticed that too. My guess is they were repainted over time. He retired in the 1960s, so those boxes would have seen a LOT of shows and thus a lot of wear and tear.
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