The Gay Deceiver - How the times have changed

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mr_goat
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The Gay Deceiver - How the times have changed

Postby mr_goat » October 13th, 2015, 12:25 pm

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Jonathan Townsend
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Re: The Gay Deceiver - How the times have changed

Postby Jonathan Townsend » October 13th, 2015, 3:31 pm

Mundus vult decipi -per Caleb Carr's story Killing Time

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Re: The Gay Deceiver - How the times have changed

Postby Kent Gunn » October 13th, 2015, 6:04 pm

Jon,

The Gay Deceiver was a character in a Heinlein novel, I read as a kid. The character was a vehicle that could travel through time. I realize a car as a character doesn't make any sense. It does explain the lego thingy in the blog though.

Kent - Read too much Sci-Fi as a brat - Gunn


Dame-Ian,

I cannot believe at least one of us hasn't made a reprehensible joke by now.

KG

P.S. https://www.nla.gov.au/the-eloquent-pag ... ntertainer

Is a link, to whom, I believe is the true "Gay Deceiver".

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Re: The Gay Deceiver - How the times have changed

Postby I.M. Magician » October 13th, 2015, 7:25 pm

Back in the day, the word 'gay' meant 'happy' and was used in movie titles such as "The Gay Divorcee" so it's not surprising that they used the word to name a magic set.

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Re: The Gay Deceiver - How the times have changed

Postby Leo Garet » October 14th, 2015, 10:19 am

I.M. Magician wrote:Back in the day, the word 'gay' meant 'happy' and was used in movie titles such as "The Gay Divorcee" so it's not surprising that they used the word to name a magic set.

Still does but has, of course, been sidelined in common usage. Do The Platters still sing “happy and gay like a clown,” I wonder?

As I recall, Clifford Davies, magician, journalist and judge on TV talent show, “New Faces,” billed himself as the Gay Deceiver. Back in the 1950s, this was. Others too, no doubt.

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Re: The Gay Deceiver - How the times have changed

Postby Jonathan Townsend » October 14th, 2015, 12:22 pm

? the magic kit looks cute. some detail work in those props. It was the vague language that prompted me to wonder if it was intentional innuendo.

The "gay" thing ... it's just another brand - market. It was meaningful in a social way back when artists were posing as fashionably gay ... think 1950s to 1970 before RuPaul, Boy George.

So who's gonna grab for that market opportunity and brand? "Gay Deceiver" Get the whole rainbow to work with rather than pick between pink and purple. Gotta fix up the title on mismade as now it's all "trans". Come on you know you want to get out those scarves and timbles...

Takes out can of "Secret" and wonders if that joke would play in public "strong enough for ..."
Last edited by Jonathan Townsend on October 14th, 2015, 1:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Mundus vult decipi -per Caleb Carr's story Killing Time

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Bill Marquardt
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Re: The Gay Deceiver - How the times have changed

Postby Bill Marquardt » October 14th, 2015, 12:57 pm

I suppose it should be noted that in the mid-1900s the word "gay" was also used to denote promiscuity in either gender. An example of this in literature is in Ralph Ellison's novel, Invisible Man. In that book he refers to the female "gay nurses" who had sex with male patients. Using the modern interpretation of the word, a reader will get the wrong meaning. If you have read an above references and encountered the description of the gay deceiver as a man who uses deceit to seduce women, then the prior definition makes sense. Into the 1960s the term "gay" became linked exclusively to its current meaning.

You don't often hear anyone singing "Now we don our gay apparel" these days.

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Richard Kaufman
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Re: The Gay Deceiver - How the times have changed

Postby Richard Kaufman » October 14th, 2015, 1:53 pm

For any collector who happens to care, these sets were apparently made by the same company who made the David Nixon magic sets, and included the same type of props made of paper, cardboard, and lots of colored glitter.
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Re: The Gay Deceiver - How the times have changed

Postby mr_goat » October 14th, 2015, 4:51 pm

Jonathan Townsend wrote:? the magic kit looks cute. some detail work in those props. It was the vague language that prompted me to wonder if it was intentional innuendo.

The "gay" thing ... it's just another brand - market. It was meaningful in a social way back when artists were posing as fashionably gay ... think 1950s to 1970 before RuPaul, Boy George.

So who's gonna grab for that market opportunity and brand? "Gay Deceiver" Get the whole rainbow to work with rather than pick between pink and purple. Gotta fix up the title on mismade as now it's all "trans". Come on you know you want to get out those scarves and timbles...

Takes out can of "Secret" and wonders if that joke would play in public "strong enough for ..."


What? Pretend to be a flamboyant homosexual as a character? No one would stoop so low in this day and age!
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Richard Kaufman
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Re: The Gay Deceiver - How the times have changed

Postby Richard Kaufman » October 14th, 2015, 10:15 pm

Yeah, you really would think no one would stoop that low.
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Re: The Gay Deceiver - How the times have changed

Postby Leo Garet » October 15th, 2015, 9:57 am

Richard Kaufman wrote:For any collector who happens to care, these sets were apparently made by the same company who made the David Nixon magic sets, and included the same type of props made of paper, cardboard, and lots of colored glitter.

I have no recollection of The Gay Deceiver set, but I did have a deluxe David Nixon effort. The box was black cardboard, shaped to look like the close-up cases we all know and love.

There was, unsurprisingly, some bits and bobs made of cardboard, but also a couple of metal tubes and several sturdy plastic knicknacks. I’ve still got half the magic wand somewhere; how it got broken, I don’t recall, but it was extremely well made. I was probably testing it and didn't know my own strength.

Not too much glitter, either. All told I recall it as being fairly decent. Although I was only about two years old at the time… more or less.

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Richard Kaufman
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Re: The Gay Deceiver - How the times have changed

Postby Richard Kaufman » October 15th, 2015, 3:12 pm

I was referring to the older David Nixon sets: pre plastic.
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Re: The Gay Deceiver - How the times have changed

Postby Leo Garet » October 16th, 2015, 9:10 am

Richard Kaufman wrote:I was referring to the older David Nixon sets: pre plastic.

I guessed that, Mister K. I did say that my Nixon set was the deluxe version. Looks as if it really was deluxe! There were others around at the time, but what they were like, I can’t say; I never saw them.

Having said that, I have a vague sort of memory of having seen an advertisement in a mail order catalogue among a thousand other Christmas gifts. It had a colourful lid with a picture of David Nixon on it. Or maybe I’m just totally mis-remembering.

For Ancient Britons with long memories, the catalogue was Grattan’s.


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