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Monday, February 6, 2012

McDonald Birch Magic History Photo


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.

2 comments:

  1. The fonts look different. I guess they were redone or he had several made.

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  2. I 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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