The Tall Tales of Eddie "Tex" McGuire

When researching magicians, it's always hard to know what to believe, But the subject of this post - Eddie "Tex" McGuire -- is in a league of his own when it comes to tall tales.


Here's what I can assemble from a number of magic publications:
He was born in or around 1891, and by 1910, persuaded his father to use money that had been saved for college to study magic, eventually performing under the names The Great Gilland, Don Cortex and Tex McGuire. His favorite trick consisted of driving a Cadillac, with seven passengers, on stage and making the car and its occupants disappear. By age 19, he began traveling with a show headed by Mrs. Tom Thumb. He served in WWI, wounded and subject to gas attacks. In the 1920s, he returned to Europe. And here's where the legends begin.

According to various sources -- principally McGuire -- he created a "mathematical system" whichpermitted him to "break the bank" at Monte Carlo on three occasions. While that's an exciting thing to say, it's more interesting once one knows what it means. According to Wikipedia:

The expression "breaking the bank" is used when a gambler wins more money than the reserve held at that particular table in the casino. At the start of each day, every table was funded with a cash reserve of 100,000 francs – known as "the bank". If this reserve was insufficient to pay the winnings, play at that table was suspended while extra funds were brought out from the casino's vaults.



The list of bank breakers -- though admittedly incomplete, does not include McGuire's name. Another myth swirling around McGuire was whether he (like so many others) was the author of The Phantom of the Card Table. That McGuire might be Erdnase is further undermined by a second rumor associating him with Walter Scott, an individual who is claimed by some to be that elusive writer.

Fuel was poured on the tall tale fire by the release of a five dollar book about McGuire authored by Edward S. Cannon and produced by Lee Jacobs in 1953. The ad copy consisted of a series of provocative questions about McGuire, including whether he broke the bank, was actually Erdnase, was the subject of superlative quotes by Houdini and Thurston, and was a star of the Roy Rogers Rodeo. The ad copy concludes that "Tex McGuire was all of these and much, much more." So maybe it wasn't the most accurate historical portrait....

One of McGuire's most important contributions to magic occurred, in a sense, posthumously. Beginning in 1922, he entered into a long, detailed correspondence with the famed T. Nelson Downs. The two men wrote a series of letter that were meticulously cataloged over several years, exchanging trick ideas, moves, handlings and stories. In 1971, John Braun compiled these ideas into a special Linking Ring parade which is quite interesting.


I originally picked up this oversized, two-color, single-sided business card because I knew of McGuire as Max Malini's manager (and I have a copy of what seemed to be McGuire's manager card). After researching this subject, though, I no longer know what to believe.