The Kardells

The back design of the card is Blue Andrew Dougherty Tally Ho Fan Back.

Edward S. Jones and John Louis Domitz billed themselves as “The Kardells” in the early 1900’s. The information on this duo was limited to a few brief mentions in the magic magazines in the early 1900’s. They performed around the state of New York and were active in sending in magic ideas and effects to both The Sphinx and Houdini’s Conjurers’ Monthly Magazine.

         In January of 1905, both Edward and Lew were eighteen years old. They appeared at the Lion Palace in New York City on Thanksgiving eve. They performed a twenty-minute colorful act that included card manipulations, multiplying billiard balls, handkerchiefs, production of flowers, and their finale was a production of an American Flag. This was their first performance on a professional stage and it was a success. They booked two performances at Jerseyland Park in Westfield, New Jersey in August presenting a twenty minute act with handkerchiefs, billiard balls, card effects, and the production of flag staffs.

They appeared at the Miner’s Eighth Avenue Theater on February 12^th and received a good reception from the audience and the management. They titled their finale the “Mystic Hat” and it brought applause from the audience. The effect ended with both of them producing large American Flags on staffs. On March 25, 1906, Lew Kardell returned to the Miner’s Eighth Avenue Theater and added a specialty effect that featured over two hundred and twenty-five colorful silks in a manipulation act. 

Perform your act right at Miner's Theaters, or "Get the Hook"!

Here's a interesting note about the Miner’s Theaters. It was there that the term ''the hook'' first appeared. In the 1890's an amateur night was held every other Friday. If the act wasn’t up to standards or to the audiences (or managements) favor, “Give ‘em the hook” was heard throughout the audience and the act would be grabbed from offstage by a stage manager with a long crook. The act would be dragged off knowing they might find it difficult to appear on that stage again (at least without either a different act or lots of make up).

In September 1906, they performed in Kansas City, Missouri. Following that there was a mention in a magic magazine that they were going to separate for two years. Checking through all search engines, there wasn’t a mention of The Kardells until 1907, when a magic magazine reissued the comment that The Kardells were taking a two-year separation from each other. Check through a few magazines and you will find a few effects they sent into the magic magazines such as their ideas for their “New Flying Coin” effect or their "New Method of Finding a Selected Card with a Knife."

We will leave you a poem The Kardells published in a few magic magazines:

A feat of prestidigitation.
And a little mystification,
Will please the imagination,
And satisfy all creation.
—The "Kardells."