History of Magic Special

I think this is a BBC special on the History of Magic. They actually covered a number of different topics including: Mentalism, Levitation, Close-Up, and Escapology. Below are the videos for the escape part of the special and below that are 3 parts to the Stage Magic portion. The person who put these up on Youtube seems to have missed part 4-6. Regardless, these are great!

Special Highlights: In the Third Part of the Stage Magic Series there is a video of Harry Blackstone Sr, presenting the Buzz Saw. What makes it unique is how young Blackstone was in the clip.
In the Appearance/Vanish section Part 1 near the end you'll see the Fantastic Blooming Orange Bush.













STAGE MAGIC







APPEARANCES AND VANISHES

Houdini Grim Game Ad

Here we have a newspaper ad for Houdini appearing in The Grim Game. The Moore's Rialto at 713 9th St. NW Washington D.C. was showing the movie. This was a 2000 seat movie house built in 1918 and this ad is from 1919, so Houdini's movie was among the first shown at the Rialto. Below is a photo of what the theatre looked like in Houdini's day.

Apparently the theatre didn't do too well and was converted over to a live theatre venue. Imagine that, when most live venues were going to movies, this one house was switching back to live shows. The Rialto was torn down in 1940 sadly.

Many people claim that The Grim Game was Houdini's best movie, though not many folks today have seen it.  Perhaps through the efforts of Houdini Historians like Patrick Culliton and John Cox, we can one day see the movie for ourselves.

Blog comments are welcome and encouraged. Also, if I happen to get some fact wrong historically I do appreciate having someone set me straight on that. I try to get the best information possible, but even I can miss something. If you want to discuss a blog in detail, please email me at  carnegiemagic@aol.com

Rare Raymond Poster For SALE

I received an email the other day from a fellow poster collector. He has several vintage magic posters for sale. But the crown jewel among the list is this beautiful RAYMOND Poster (above). According to the owner,

"Raymond, the 8 sheet "Spookville" (backed on canvas). This is EXTREMELY RARE and one could really have an astonishing piece no one else has, especially if one can actually display it. Purchased directly from Mario Carrandi within days from when he got it directly from Wendel & Lizita. I believe Dave Baldwin and I possess the only two known ones........$4,000.00.

This is available through Gale Molovinsky. He has this and several other posters for sale.  You can reach him at      Gamolo@aol.com