Harry Stork, The Man With the Devil in his Fingers

This piece, more of an ad card than a throwout, is an extremely rare piece representing the remarkable, albeit short, magic career of Henry Stork, known on the stage as Harry Stork.  The card, showing a tuxedo-clad Stork holding a small devil, is in noticeably poor condition, having suffered from significant scrapbook damage.  However, the piece is so very unusual, and the subject equally interesting, that I'm proud to have this in my collection.

Stork was born in Rochester, New York in 1864.  He was, by all accounts, a gifted manipulator and magic inventor, building a regional reputation based upon unique stage routines.  His original inventions included an "incomparable flag trick," an invisible two-handed pass with cards and a marketed "Flying Aces" effect, the latter being marketed for more than a decade after Stork's death.    By 1881, he headed to Detroit, where he opened his own magic emporium.  His dealership was frequented by such great luminaries as Alexander Herrmann and Harry Kellar, who often sought his help developing new illusions.  

He travelled the country as a vaudeville performer, and was, according to John Northern Hilliard, "a prince of good fellows."  He befriended many of magic's leading performers, including T. Nelson Downs, Harry Houdini and Howard Thurston.  Most notably, in 1902, he became an advisor to Kellar, traveling with the master magician for several seasons.   Kellar described Stork as the most valuable assistant with whom he had ever worked.  Stork later returned to Rochester and left magic for other business pursuits.   Tragically, Stork contracted spinal meningitis, succumbing to the disease in 1907 at age 43.    

Ovette and the Art of Reinvention

Joseph Ovette (1885-1946), an Italian immigrant from Naples, was first inspired by seeing a performance by Alexander Hermann, and purchased his first trick from Otto Maurer.  He began his career as a medicine show performer with the famed Kickapoo Medicine Show, eventually becoming a fixture of vaudeville.  Billed as "The Great Ovette" in his stage show, he also offered Asian-themed show under the name Lung Chang Yuen and performed mentalism as Mar-Jah.  Ovette wrote approximately 16 books on magic, several of which are seen below.

First showcased on our scrapbook damage page, Ovette's "Magic Wand" card remains one of the most inappropriate I've encountered. The cover of his book, Advanced Magic, seen below, demonstrates a similar sensibility. In 1927, Ovette was credited as the originator of the "Ovette Master Move," also known as the "Kelly Bottom Placement,"  a card sleight used to secretly place a chosen card on the bottom of the deck.

Some of Ovette's books were poorly-produced typescript jobs with awful diagrams.  And, at times, he was accused of failing to adequately credit original inventors.  But these issues should not necessarily dissuade practitioners from the contents.  After his death, the Conjurer's Magazine observed:

Joe Ovette not only invented hundreds of tricks and illusions but he performed his inventions as well, and successfully. Not all of Ovette's effects were original in their entirety. But he did have a keen sense for doping out new angles for old tricks and his imagination was limitless. Many of his best effects were "rebuilt" tricks which, because of the expert Ovette touch, turned out to be more effective and entertaining than the originals.

That was written by an author identifying himself as "Hokus Pokus Jr.," whose actually identity is a mystery to this writer, but who reported being a good friend of Ovette's.

A 1948 ad in Billboard shows the sad demise of his magic repertoire:

Charles Howard Sheck, the Rise of the S.A.M. and the Broken Wand Tradition

This handsome pasteboard, obtained in early 2017 from Ray Goulet, showcases Charles Howard Sheck,  a seemingly obscure performer, whose obscurity seemed, at first, something of a mystery....

Turn-of-the-20th Century magical periodicals, which provide fairly comprehensive documentation of the lives of conjurers of that period, offer only a few scraps about Sheck.  He received a few brief mentions in Mahatma, an early magicians' magazine printed by New York's legendary Martinka magic shop.  Beginning in 1899, we find Sheck in New York City "playing lyceum dates," dubbed "a clever little professor [offering] the latest sleights with cards and coins" and "busy with local work in Brooklyn."  Curiously, in the grand tradition of magicians making hay out of fooling a leading performer, he is referred to as "the man who mystified Kellar," without further explanation, and commanding ten encores in Saratoga with his "flag trick."

Almost as interesting as the information I found about Sheck was what I didn't find.  Despite exhaustive searching, I discovered little about the nature of the effects he performed, any promotional material or even a single photo.   He published no books or articles.  Aside from the throwing card pictured here, I can find no graphic material relating to this magician.   The date and place of his birth remain a mystery.

While this kind of obscurity makes sense for one of our men of mystery (like Stincel), the trajectory of his career would seem to destined Sheck for substantial influence in the world of magic.   He was among the "prominent regulars" at Martinka's magic shop, where, according to John Mulholland, he found himself among renowned company, including Alexander Herrmann, Imro Fox, Carl Hertz, Harry Kellar, William Robinson, Adrian Plate, de Lion, Zancig, Nate Leipzig, Dr. Ellison,
Frank Werner, John W. Sargent, Dr. Mortimer, Elmer P. Ransom, Bob Ankle, Frank Ducrot and Henry Hatton.  Beginning in the late 1880s, this group (including Sheck) began assembling on Saturday nights, guests of the Martinka brothers in the shop's locked back room.

The so-called "Saturday Night Club" proved to be the precursor to the Society of American Magicians, which became formalized in 1902.  Sheck was among 24 magicians sworn in as the group's founding members, along with some of the most prominent magicians in history.  According to chapter reports, Sheck was an active member, frequently appearing a meetings "with his bag of tricks," and, at one meeting, playing the bagpipes.    At another 1902 meeting, he offered "an envelope test" and a "slate test."

Then, in July 1906, on an evening when Harry Houdini was elected Vice President of the fledgling SAM, "The death of Charles Howard Sheck, of Brooklyn, N.Y., was reported."   No other details are provided.  Hence, Sheck's relative obscurity arose as a result of his death early in the history of the S.A.M. (and presumably at a young age).

His passing was not officially commemorated by the organization until three years later, at an annual dinner in 1909 (at which Harry Kellar was the featured speaker) and a list of departed members was read. At the banquet, a half dozen names of departed magicians, including Sheck, was read aloud. As each name was read, a plate was turned over and a white carnation laid upon it.

The description of this improvised ceremony made me wonder: why didn't they simply perform the traditional "broken wand" ceremony?  The answer is simple: no one had yet devised the tradition.  There would be no mention of a broken wand ceremony in the magic literature -- or even use of the term broken wand in connection with a magician's passing, for several decades.  

The earliest mention I could locate of a broken wand consists of a 1919 article about Baltimore's Demon's Club, noting that a panel painting commemorating the deaths of two members included an image of a broken wand.  According to Ken Silverman's authoritative Houdini biography, a member of the SAM placed a broken wand on Houdini's coffin, an act specifically devised to commemorate Houdini's death in 1926, but the source of this information is unclear and I could not locate any contemporary accounts.  In 1933, a piece describing the funeral of Heller (another founding member of the SAM), noted that "across his breast was placed a floral design representing a broken wand, the tribute of A. W. Fronenthal, a warm personal friend."  And the first mention I could find of an actual broken wand ceremony is found in the Linking Ring in 1936, which described the commemoration of the passing of Howard Thurston, in the following article:

It would appear, then, that Thurston's was the first broken wand ceremony, which have since become standardized and commonplace in the magic community.  

By the 1940s, magazines began to run obituaries of magicians under the heading "Broken Wands," a practice that has continued ever since.  

Thurston – Some Throw-Out Card Trivia

It is amazing how many magicians used a throw-out card, or playing card, or a “Good Luck” card to advertise themselves. Without a doubt, the king of throw-out cards was Howard Thurston. From the time early in his career when he started to throw them out to his audience, until he had to stop performing, he literally sent thousands upon thousands sailing out into the theatres in which he played.  

 

From Adventures in Magic by Henry Ridgely Evans, (1927).



As one can imagine, Howard Thurston has been covered on this blog many, many times. Co-contributor Gary Frank wrote a fine post on Thurston and included many examples of his cards. I thought I would offer up, on this post, some interesting items of trivia that I have found on Thurston related to his throw-out cards, and his card scaling.

One early reference I have found concerning Thurston’s card throwing was found in the Black and White Budget for January 12, 1901 shortly after he had arrived in England. Like Harry Houdini and T. Nelson Downs, Thurston’s career first took off when he went to London. The following is a small sampling from that article.

Thurston’s inclusion of card throwing appears to have been inspired by having seen Alexander Herrmann while a young man. Thurston scaled cards from the start of his career when he billed himself “The World’s Premier Card Manipulator”. On one of his earliest throw-out cards from the beginning of his days as a performer, he had a card produced with an image of him about to throw a card. While I don’t have this particular card in my collection, Harry Houdini had this one shown below in a scrapbook.  This scrapbook now resides, and is through the courtesy of the Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin.

Courtesy of Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin.

We can get a general idea of the time frame of Thurston’s cards by seeing how he aged on the card over the years. This is not a hard and fast rule, as he would use older cards for long periods to keep himself looking youthful. He was rather vain about his appearance, even to the point of having face lifts.

For me, extra special Thurston cards are those where the audience member who received the card would often write the date of getting the card and sometimes the theatre as well. By searching old newspapers, I was able to find the location and even an ad for Thurston’s  performance  for the throw-out card below.

Acquired at the Crown Theatre in Chicago on January 9, 1913.

Another bit of trivia that I had heard for years, was that Thurston could throw a playing card over an 8 story building. The late John Booth mentioned this in his monthly column in The Linking Ring back in 1999. I was able to nail down the source of this story some years back, when I acquired a vintage newspaper page with the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not cartoon that first stated this fact. It ran in newspapers all over the country on December 23, 1930.

In Hugard’s Magic Monthly, Fred Braue wrote; “What is entertainment? Thurston would throw good-luck cards into the audience for perhaps two minutes – and they loved it!” In the same magazine, but a different issue, the magazine’s namesake Jean Hugard wrote the following; “Thurston would throw these to those at the back of the theatre or in the galleries. These cards were much heavier than ordinary playing cards and were therefore easier to throw to a distance. On one occasion, however, Thurston had the misfortune to have one of these cards strike a spectator in the eye and had to face a suit for damages”. Further research indicates the  member of the audience was awarded $500.00 in damages. So scaling cards out into the audience was not without its perils. (I would like to thank co-contributor Judge Brown for reminding me about this incident.)

There is no doubt that the overwhelming quantities of “Good Luck” throw-out cards that Thurston scaled out to his appreciative audiences was a great marketing tool in terms of advertising. He wanted to make those audiences remember him, and to keep them coming back for repeat performances of “The Wonder Show of the Universe”.

Dana Walden – On Pins and Raisins

About a year ago, Judge Brown had a post entitled “Holding Even More Good Bicycle Cards”. Included in the post was an assortment of Bicycle cards of nine different magicians. This post is about one of them, Dana Walden. The two examples in my collection have slightly different wording on the face of the cards in reference to holding Bicycle Playing Cards.

The reverse of these two cards show a couple of early Bicycle backs. The card on the left is the Wheel No. 2 back first released in 1907. The card on the right is a Sprocket No. 2 which came out in 1905.

According to an interview Lorenzo Dana Walden gave to The Sphinx in May of 1915, he said that he was born on October 16, 1885 in Syracuse, New York. Walden was able to do something that many of us that are interested in magic wish we could have done. He got to witness a performance by Alexander Herrmann, “Herrmann the Great”, when young Walden was seven years old. He was so impressed, that he decided that becoming a magician was in his future.

The Sphinx for September, 1906

When the Lyceum and Chautauqua magician Edward Maro passed away in 1908, Walden stated, “I filled the remainder of his season at Alkahest (Lyceum), Georgia”. A bio I found on Maro however, claims Eugene Laurant took Maro’s place on the circuit.  Further research leads me to believe it was two different entertainment bureaus in which these two magicians acted as replacements. Walden however, did go on from there to become a well-known and admired magician himself on the Lyceum and Chautauqua circuits.

Walden was mentioned in the magic magazines of his time for many years. In February, 1910, Walden wrote that “he has cut his show from a dozen trunks to two only, and is giving a better show”…”and greater satisfaction to his Lyceum audiences than ever before”. In 1922, T.W. McGrath writing in The Sphinx stated, “We never tire of Dana Walden, and his act is an inspiration, and no one we have ever seen has as much real magic at his finger ends as our Walden on the stage”.

From The Sphinx for August, 1915

Walden also marketed some of his magic effects, including a version of Houdini’s Needle Trick, in which a number of sewing needles, together with some thread is swallowed and then, the needles are pulled from one’s mouth strung on the thread. Walden called his trick, “Supper of Pins”.

Ad in The Sphinx for March 15, 1920.

One really interesting story about Walden is that for a period of time from between 1916 and 1918, he gave up magic in order to buy a ranch in California to grow grapes… to be made into raisins! By July of 1918 however, the ranch was sold, and The Sphinx reported that Walden and his wife “will return to the stage”. Dana Walden went on to live until sometime in the 1930’s. I have not been able to find his exact date of death.

“Herrmann the Great” inspired a lot of magicians in the early part of the twentieth century, and many went on to uphold his standards when it came to pleasing their audiences. It sounds like Dana Walden was one of those magicians. Here is a final comment from The Lyceumite and Talent magazine from 1912.

 

Throwing Cards To The Audience By John Mulholland

[Reprinted from The Sphinx Vol. XXXV Number Three, page 77]

     Howard Thurston became interested in magic because of having seen Alexander Herrmann’s show and it is quite natural that he should have been impressed with Herrmann’s feat of scaling’ cards, for Herrmann made it so impressive that today those who saw him are apt of all his magic first to recall his throwing cards up to the gallery. Herrmann was, perhaps, the first magician to scale cards out to the audience. At any rate, he was the first to make that a feature of his show. 

Whether or not Thurston practiced this feat because of his admiration for Herrmann, it is true that no one since Herrmann is associated in the minds of the people as much with throwing the cards, and it was always a feature of Thurston’s show. It is particularly interesting that Howard Thurston and Alexander Herrmann did not perform the feat in the same way. They both used cards of much heavier stock than the ordinary playing card. This gave the cards added weight, which permitted them to be thrown much further than the standard playing cards could be thrown. 

     Howard Thurston gripped one end of the card between his first and second fingers and threw it by a snap of his wrist. Herrmann gripped the card about a half inch from the end and midway between the sides, with the tip of his second finger and the ball of his thumb. The first finger held the corner of the card, so as to give it an added spin when it was thrown. The actual throwing, that is the little snapping’ flick of the wrist, Herrmann did in the same way as Thurston. Besides the 

interest the audience had in seeing the cards thrown accurately and far, the cards were prized as souvenirs, as both Herrmann and Thurston always had their portraits on their cards. 

In India in one of the first conversations which I had with Mohammed Bakhsh, the cleverest of the East Indian conjurers, he tried to impress on me that he was familiar with Occidental magic, and a friend of Occidental magicians. As proof of this he offered me a cracked and grimy card which he carried in his wallet. He showed it to me as confidently as a schoolboy shows his first diploma. 

      It was an advertising card of Howard Thurston; one of similar thousands which Thurston had thrown to the audiences on his tour of India twenty-five years before. It was interesting to find that the name of Thurston spelled magic in the land where magic is supposed to be in the very air, quite as much as for forty years it has meant magic to millions of Americans.

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Beyond Compars

Scaling Card for Carl Compars Herrmann

Carl Compars Herrmann (1816–1887) was the older brother (by 27 years!) of Alexander Herrmann, and one of fifteen children of Samuel Herrmann, a physician and amateur magician.  By the age of 30, Compars was widely recognized as Europe's premier stage conjurer.

To get there, however, he pulled a few fast ones.

Asking Alexander about Alexander - Part I: The Challenge

Who is this all-knowing powerhouse?   The image here, inspired by an iconic stone lithograph from the vaudeville-era mentalist Claude "Alexander" Conlin, is taken from the Ask Alexander site one of several fascinating services offered by the Conjuring Arts Research Center.  Ask Alexander is an elegant, proprietary search engine for a vast, and ever-growing collection of digitized magic periodicals, books and other publications. And, in this post, we're going to put Ask Alexander to the test ,,,

Harry Houdini

Harry Houdini (Erik Weisz and later Ehrich Weis) born March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926) was a Hungarian-American illusionist, stunt performer, and noted for his sensational escape acts. So much has been written about Houdini’s life from articles to books. The life he lived and the secrets he took with him over ninety years ago are still being researched and found today. There still seems to be an endless source of material around the world.

Over the past handful of years alone, anything from scrapbooks, posters, and letters seem to appear, and it doesn’t seem there will be any end in sight. The name Houdini will continue to live on as a goal setter. Whether it was his method of publicity, his public recognition, or just good timing; the name Harry Houdini has been the bar to reach for in magic.

Harry scaled playing cards with accuracy and he could cut a card in mid-air with a pair of scissors. Thanks to Jay Hunter for solving one part of the Houdini throw out card mystery. Jay found the following in "The Sphinx" for June, 1936. Included in John Mulholland's "Editor's Page", he included the following from Harry's brother, Theo Hardeen.  "...Hardeen wrote the following interesting letter to me: 'The very beautiful story about the card throwing of Herrmann and Thurston in the May issue interested me very much. However I think that it is a little incomplete in not mentioning the name of Houdini. In 1894, when Houdini and I were performing as the Houdini Brothers, Houdini threw out steamboat cards with his picture on the front. These were the regular cards, no thicker. Then when Houdini joined the Welsh Brothers tent show, after his marriage, and worked the act under the name of Harry and Bessie Houdini, Jim Bard of the famous Bard Brothers (Jim and Eddy) taught him how to do a back somersault. After that Houdini would scale out the cards and the last card, he would throw out, turn a back somersault and catch as it returned to the ring." 
        If it wasn't for one particular publication by someone who has surpassed Houdini in his prowess of handling cards, we wouldn't be able to enjoy the image below what appears to be the Houdini throw out card. Here is an image of the front of the card published in the 1977 book by Ricky Jay titled, Cards as Weapons. I want to make an open request, please. If you own this throw out card, it would really be nice to know what is on the back. What is the actual size and would you be so kind as to allow us to post a perfect image? One wonders, what happened to all of these cards? 

             To honor the man whose name continues to be brought up almost daily around the world, here is another image in the form of advertisement that nearly coincides with our site.

This 7.62cm x 11.43cm card was used to promote soap.

            It should be mentioned, the facts on the back of the card are not all correct (well, they got his name right). Possibly those were the facts they received at the time of the publication. This is one cards advertising Orocrema Almond Soap that was created in the early 1920’s. Each card measured three inches by four and a half inches (7.62cm x 11.43cm).

Loosely translated the card reads:

“A single film has been enough to make this fantastic artist universally known. Son of a wealthy merchant was born in Chicago, in 1887, where he studied the career of an engineer. Since childhood, he has always shown an engaging and decadent character that led him to the realization of his daring plans. He built an armored armor that was the main reason for his only film titled "Houdini and the human tank" that gave him popularity. He is of a nervous temperament, and his numerous prowess has made the stairway of the facade of a "skyscraper" with the sun helping his feet and hands. He is currently retired from cinematography.”
              Houdini's skills were somewhat legendary, as discussed on the sites Wild About Harry and The Great Harry Houdini. According to many sources, he would scale steamboat cards with his autograph on the face. Images of such cards can been seen on Pinterest and here on this site Propelled Pasteboards.

This three sheet poster is currently on display at the famed Winchester House in San Jose, California (Yes, that's me).

              As seen above, there was always one item that really would have made a perfect throw out card, but alas, it was only created as a poster.

The Great Raymond

Maurice Raymond Sauders was born on May 30, 1877 in Akron, Ohio. At nine years old, he joined his uncle and traveled with the show. At the age of thirteen, he traveled the Chautauqua, the Kohl, and Castle circuits while still in his teens. During this part of his life, his grandfather took him to Europe. He met Alexander Herrmann. Seeing the master perform changed his life's work. He adopted a part of the consummate performer's title (“The Great”) and placed it with his own middle name.

Now, The Great Raymond would go on and modify his work as a performer keeping in mind all that his idol did. Before his career was complete, he toured parts of the world that had never seen magic before. His stage presence, his performance, the advertising, and the man were everything magic was supposed to be and more on stage.

Leon Herrmann

 

This back was pronted by Mahatma magazine

The blue back, produced by Andrew Dougherty is called a 'Fan Back'

Leon Herrmann (1867 – 1909) carried on the profession of magic after his uncle Alexander Herrmann passed away. He agreed to work with his aunt Adelaide for three seasons. Leon never achieved the fame his uncle earned. In truth, he may have had the close appearance to his uncle, but he couldn’t fill the master’s shoes. While on holiday in Paris, he passed away.

Alexander Herrmann

Alexander Herrmann (1844 – 1896) joined the family in the profession of magic. Under the tutelage of brother Carl, Alexander honed his skills. He arrived in the United States in 1860 and in 1862, Alexander started his avocation of magic as a career.

Carl, Alexander, and Leon Herrmann

From 1862 to his death, Herrmann astounded his audiences with magic and illusion. Along the way, he had assistance with his magic. A young magician joined the troupe by the name of William Ellsworth Robinson. Robinson not only participated in the show, but also stepped in as the master when he was partaking in a favorite pastime, horse racing. The newspapers once mentioned that Herrmann was quite a magician. He was seen at the track at the same time he was performing on stage.

Alexander Herrmann passed away in December 1896. Herrmann's nephew, Leon Herrmann stepped joined the tour, but only lasted three seasons. In January of 1897, Herrmann’s wife Adelaide was said to have mentioned the reason for her husband’s heart attack was because of his ceaseless use of cigarettes.

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William Ellsworth Robinson a/k/a "Chung Ling Soo" and the Deadly Bullet Catch

William Ellsworth Robinson (1861-1918), will be remembered as not only a fine performer and inventor, but someone who kept his audiences and friends mystified. He worked for master magicians Alexander Herrmann and Harry Kellar. Under the guise of Chung Ling Soo, he performed in Europe and even ventured below the equator, receiving rave reviews. He cheated death during the first years he included his version of the bullet catching effect. During one of the first of numerous stage performances in England, he was set to “catch” the bullet, when he saw one of the assistant’s forgot to remove the ramrod after loading the power into the gun. He ran toward the assistant and pushed the musket so it would fire toward the ceiling of the theater. The startled assistant pulled the trigger and the ramrod left the barrel and was impaled in the ceiling.

On March 23, 1918, he wasn’t as fortunate. During the performance at the Wood Green Theatre, what was supposed to be the finale of the show, became the last time theater goers would see Chung Ling Soo perform his magical feats of illusion. When the muskets fired that evening, one of them discharged a live bullet and struck the performer. He collapsed onto the stage floor. He was rushed to the hospital, where he passed away the next day.


Here's a unique piece of Robinson's publicity as Chung Ling Soo:                                                                  

 

If you were lucky enough to be in the audience on a very special day, you might have fortunate enough to catch one of these 4 3/4" diameter (12.065 cm) cards. According to some accounts, Robinson would hurl these cards, modeled on the very china plate that Robinson would use to "catch" the bullet, into the audience like Frisbees. 

 

Robinson always had the perfect publicity.

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