The Genii Forum

Can anybody give me some information on this periodical? All I know is that it was put out in the mid-60s. In one of Minch's books on Elmsley, a Milt Kort trick is said to have appeared in this magazine.

What was the main focus?
What's a complete file?
Who published it?
Why don't we hear more about it?

Thanks,

Cameron Roat

Psycho-Gizmo was published by Teral Garrett of

Albany, Kentucky. I never saw one but used to get

his list of old magic epherma from 1957 to 1963.

Every so often I would get an envelope with a few

sheets in it. I have from page 47 to 292. If you

are a collector you would die at the prices,$1.00

for 8 x 10 pictures, $10.00 for Thurston Posters.

But about Psyco-gizmo in that period of time he

put out 36.They were 2 pages mimographed, mostly

mentalism. He bound the first 24 issues and sold

them for $5.00, the rest were loose, they should

be some around, I never seen them on any list for

sale. I have a two page flyer on this and it

reads like Burling Hull , who by the way was one

of the contributors. Lots of luck finding a set...

......Mike

I know it occasionally shows up on e-bay. I have at least 2 volumes, maybe 3. Working from memory only, I think the majority of the contents ran along the lines of mental magic. Not pure mentalism, not straight magic. I've not found anything in it that I wanted to put into my routines yet.

Thanks for the information, guys.

According to the authoritative Alfredson-Daily "Bibliography of Conjuring Periodicals in English: 1791-1983", a complete file of PSYCHO-GIZMO consists of 48 issues. It was a monthly issued by Terral Garrett in Kentucky. The undated first issue appeared in September 1951, the final issue in June 1965 (obviously it was not always a "monthly"!). They describe complete files as "common", meaning they know of more than 75 such files. We sold a complete file on eBay about a year ago, but I don't recall what we got for it...

At one point the entire file was available in four (thin) comb-bound volumes, from Micky Hades. I don't know if it's still in stock, but in that format it is not at all rare.

Thanks for the information, Mr. Hatch. I've always thought that the Alfredson-Daily manuscript would be a good book to own, as I'm very interested in old and rare magic magazines.

Thanks also to Mr. Maven. I will try to contact Mr. Hades and see if he knows where the bound files can be purchased.

EDIT: After a bit of searching, I've found the bound versions available on the Hades Publications website for $9.00 each.

http://www.trickster.com/catalog/p-booklist.html

Thanks again,

Cameron