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.

 

Holding Even More Good Bicycle Cards

Elsewhere, we have written about the United States Playing Card Company's promotional campaign for Bicycle cards, often employing the catch phrase "When You Play with Bicycle, You Hold Good Cards."  The campaign proved a boon for vaudeville-era magicians seeking free or subsidized promotion for their acts, and more indirectly, to modern-day collectors of these pasteboards.  Well, our good friend Jay Hunter, inspired by this historical effort, assembled this stunning array of such cards, representing a broad assembly of Bicycle card backs.

And, another buddy, Lee Asher, offered his considerable knowledge to identify the backs designs. According to Lee, they are as follows:

ROW 1 (Left to Right) - Lotus Back, Racer Back, Cyclist No. 2 Back

ROW 2 (Left to Right) - All Wheel Back, Acorn Back, Cupid Back

ROW 3 (Left to Right) - Sprocket No. 2 Back, Wheel No. 2 Back, New Fan Back.

Additionally, Lee advises, several of the backs are uncommon specimens, in particular the Cyclist No. 2 and the Sprocket No. 2.

Of course, the fronts are equally engaging, if not as colorful, depicting advertisements from nine different magicians, none of which have yet been covered here at Propelled Pasteboards.  You can see the faces below.  While the individual performers may be worthy of further comment (by way of example, I have assembled several other pieces and some information about De Jeu, Max Terhune and Professor Lindhorst), several of these are little-known performers about whom no information may exist other than that depicted on these fine collectibles.

However, these images are worthy of further examination.   The assemblage tells us a little more about the Bicycle promotional campaign, not only by the backs depicted, but also the ad copy on the faces.  Most of them bear some variation of the "hold good cards" theme.  Yet take a look at the detailed description on the Harry Kane card, which is very different than that usually encountered on these pieces.  Moreover, the Bicycle promotional text runs vertically along the side of the Hiestand card, while the normal positioning of this text is usually horizontally along the top of the card.  Finally, the Max Terhune card features a more specific endorsement relating to his use of Steamboat and Bicycle cards, along with the standard text.  Each of these differences are likely clues to the date the cards were printed, and may provide further insights.

Many thanks to Jay for sharing this wonderful assortment with us.

And before leaving the world of Bicycle throwing cards, here's an image of the 1905 Annual Report of the Commissioner of Patents in which USPCC first registered the "hold good cards" slogan, along with some others: