The Genii Forum

Guys,

Did the first English description of the Hofzinser Spread Cull appear in Hofzinser's Card Conjuring by Ottokar Fischer in 1931?

And where, when and by whom was the Reverse Faro first described?


Many thanks,

Tom

Whaley says that the "Reverse Faro" was "First described in 1915 by S. Victor Innis as an open procedure used by card sharps to secretly prepare the deck."

There is an interesting history of the "Spread Cull" by Mr. Racherbaumer in Marlo's Magazine Vol 5, page 100 (which may have been later re-printed in Facsimile #1).

Thanks Joe. Is my Hofzinser attribution correct?

The book Kartenkunste was first published in German in 1910 (though some of Hofzinser's tricks had been sold for many years prior to that by the German dealer Conradi). Some of Hofzinser's material from the book was translated and appeared in The Sphinx in the early 1920s. I can't recall if the Spread Cull (it wasn't called that) is among those items.

The Racherbaumer piece is written from the point of view of someone who accepts Marlo's assertion that he created the spread cull because Hofzinser couldn't actually have done it as described since the cards at that time were too rough to slide.

This is not true, as I have handled one of the decks which Hofzinser actually used and the cards had very good slip and slide because they had been coated or treated with something, and were not simply plain rough cardboard.

The description which most point to as the "Hofzinser Spread Cull" was in the effect "Synonymous Thoughts" (First Method) which was printed in the The Sphinx for April 1922.

Thanks, Joe. You have an eagle eye!

Richard Kaufman wrote:Thanks, Joe. You have an eagle eye!

No, I just Asked Alexander ;)

Thanks Joe and Alexander!