In Memoriam: Thomas Blacke (1966-2019)

 It saddens me to write this post after the sudden and untimely passing of my friend, Tom Blacke, earlier this year.  (Typically, at the time of his tragic demise, he was serving as a volunteer at the FFFF convention in Batavia, NY).   I had long wanted to write this post, as Tom's talent and devotion to magic and passion for collecting and magic history well warranted an entry on this site.  I wish I had gotten to this sooner.



According to one bio available online, Tom, who was born Thomas J. Carrier:

"had a multi-faceted career and life. First and foremost, he was an extraordinary entertainer, including magic, escapes, pickpocketing, mentalism and hypnotism performing around the world. He was featured in numerous periodicals, news and television shows around the country. He was nominated for Lecturer of the Year at the prestigious Magic Castle. The Harvey Award was bestowed upon him by the Invisible Lodge and he held numerous world records, one of which is on permanent display at the Guinness World Record Museum in Niagara Falls, Canada. He was a member of the Magic Circle of London, Magic Castle of California, New England Magic Collector's Association, Society of American Magicians, International Brotherhood of Magicians, International Escape Artists and the elite FFFF (Fechter's Finger-Flicking Frolic). On May 23, 2011, he received his very own Ripley's Believe It Or Not! cartoon for the fastest escape from handcuffs underwater. He was, also, a former member of the Friars Club in New York.

He was a former personality(Tommy J) on local radio and announcer for the former Newport Grand Jai Alai.


Among his other life time achievements, he was an accomplished ten pin bowler, an avid duck pin bowler and member of the National Duckpin Association, as well as, author of several books on magic and non-magic related "

I first met Tom in 2016, when I visited Ray Goulet's museum and shop where he was, as was his habit, donating his time to help that esteemed magic establishment continue operations.   Tom introduced me to Ray, and secured an invitation for me to attend the Yankee Gathering that fall, where I met, among others, co-contributors Tom Ewing and Gary Frank, and we soon concocted the notion of creating this blog.  Thus, in a large sense, Mr. Blacke was responsible for Propelled Pasteboards.  

As seen on one of his promotional cards above, Tom held world records for escape feats.   He was often billed as the "World's Fastest Balloon Artist," a remarkable talent he demonstrated at the NEMCA convention.  

He served as an active member of NEMCA and was an avid magic collector and historian.  In fact, Tom shared with me a piece of artwork from his collection which is quite remarkable: he owned the original draft artwork (seen here) for Ricky Jay's Cards as Weapons poster, something we will be featuring in another post.   He obtained that artwork in a most remarkable way: in a world of eBay, magic auctions and crazed bidding, Tom politely asked the artist for his draft, and the artist obliged.  

On a personal note, Tom was a kind friend whose company I always enjoyed.  He will be missed.

-Judge Brown

Brown and Blacke, circa 2016

Fox Lake Playing Cards

During most of the 20th Century, most magicians were familiar with the promise of this box and its logo.  It could contain any of a variety of treats: a Svengali deck, marked cards, a stripper deck, a forcing pack, etc.   Indeed, at a time when a gaffed bicycle card was nearly (or even entirely) unheard of, Fox Lake produced almost every gimmicked deck available along with a wide range of packet tricks, like the famed Wild Card.

Where did these cards come from?  Here's some history from the Haines House of Cards website:

"Tricky" Ricky Jay

An early throwout card for the wizard
better known as Ricky Jay

Inspired by my recent post about Ricky Jay et al., Tom Ewing took a deep dive into his collection, emerging with this gem from early in the magician's career.   The "Tricky Ricky" scaling card sports the name "Richard Jay Potash", the legal and original name of the master of card scaling who would eventually become world famous under his stage name Ricky Jay.  Based on my knowledge of his career, buttressed by some recent research I conducted on the use of letters and area codes for telephone numbers (more on that in an upcoming series of posts), I would posit that the card dates to the late 1960s.  The image appears to bear some edge tearing -- whether this is simply from age and handling, or evidence of propulsion by the world record-holding Mr. Jay may have to be left to our imagination.   This piece is likely extremely rare and valuable, as similar ephemera (such as early business cards for the performer known as David Copperfield) often attract the interest of collectors.

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.

On Ricky Jay, Matthew Buchinger and the APHA

On this date in 1740, Matthew Buchinger, the extraordinary performer known as “The Greatest German Living” and "The Little Man from Nuremberg" passed away at age 65.  Though only 29 inches tall, and born without hands or feet, Buchinger had a remarkable career as a magician, artist, performer and calligrapher. He is seen here in a self-portrait.

No one has done more to showcase Buchinger's astonishing career than Ricky Jay, who released this souvenir playing card during the run of his one-man show On the Stem.