The SS Adams Vanishing Half Dollar & their other classics

[I.M. Magician]

I am currently going through my SS Adams products and am rediscovering some of their really great tricks such as The Vanishing Half Dollar. The one I have was released in the 50's and comes with a small glass which works perfectly. It's a perfect trick!

Others which I really like are the Magical Block and better yet, the Nickel to Penny to Dime, Hindu Cones, Penny Smasher, and Money Maker just to name a few. They are classics of magic and are as strong today as they were when first released. Easy to perform and great magic.

Their products are among the first magic tricks I ever had and probably for you as well.

Do you have SS Adams favorites? Which ones? Do you still use any of their products?

How about their really bad effects such as Fantastic Coin? The concept is good but so poorly made that it couldn't fool a soul.

How about Mystic Smoke? Did you ever get it to really work properly?

So what is your take on any and all SS Adams products? A walk down memory lane...

[Richard Kaufman]

Mystic Smoke works perfectly well if you pinch and separate your first finger and thumb very quickly. Rubbing will do nothing.

[I.M. Magician]

I have a tube sitting here which was probably made in the 60's. I will have to try it out.

I forgot to mention Color Vision and the Finger Chopper. Two excellent Adams releases!

Then there is the Magic Coin Box and Jiffy Coin Trick which are essentially the same trick using different props to achieve it.

The Deland Deck is my favorite deck of all time. I know that Deland released it first but I think it's safe to say that anyone who is reading this thread has one released by SS Adams with the exception of Richard and maybe another lucky soul or two. If you have an original, please sell it to me. I would love to own it!

[Doug Thornton]

I sure hope you have the great book "Life of the Party" :

http://www.kirkdemarais.com/printbook.htm


http://www.kirkdemarais.com/printpackaging.htm

[I.M. Magician]

Indeed I do and what a great book it is! In fact, tomorrow's weather around here is supposed to be horrible so I am planning to take out that book and some Tenyo and have a ball.

This week, I began practicing some old SS Adams classics and I intend to do them for anyone willing to watch in the next several weeks. With all of the magic in existance, I seem to enjoy performing Adams and Tenyo more than just about any others.

[Brad Henderson]

if anyone has a squirting swan I would love to buy one!

[Bill Duncan]

The Adams Ball and Vase is excellent for close up workers. Mike Skinner and Mike Gallo both published routines that are excellent.

[I.M. Magician]

Adams actually had two different plastic models of the Ball and Vase. They had the English version which came in blue, red, and yellow and was packaged in a small box and another model which was red and had a heavier black ball. These were included in some of their magic sets and sold individually in stretch paks. I have seen these in white and green in bags with header cards as well.

The English model was made by Thomas Toys in Newark, NJ.

Then there was the terrific Egg Vase. A larger version of the classic using a plastic egg.

[Tom Frame]

Back in 1973, the Adam's Finger Chopper is the first magic prop that I bought, at the tender age of 13. A couple of years later, I decided that I was "too cool" to use it and sold it for a buck at some magic club auction. I still hate myself for that impulsive, narcissistic decision.

I purchased my second magic the prop the same year. It is a robust, metal Nickle to Dimes set, that I still use, in the participant's hands. Did Adam's release it as well?

[Richard Kaufman]

My first tricks, at age 5, were from S.S. Adams. A pity what's happened to the company.

[I.M. Magician]

Adams sold Nickels to Dimes but they didn't invent it. I believe the credit goes to Carl Brema.

The one Adams sold in a stretch pak was a silver metal and not brass which I find interesting.
Before that, they sold it in a small box but I don't remember if that one was brass or the same silver metal. I would have to take a look.

I have been performing the Nickels to Dimes for many years. It's a great trick!

[Tom Frame]

I.M.:

Mine is brass, and it sports a lovely patina gained through decades of use.

Thanks for letting me know that I didn't purchase it from Adams.

[Richard Kaufman]

"Nickles to Dimes" was invented by Walter Gibson. The first model, made by Brema, had a small knob/handle on top of the cap.

[P.T.Widdle]

Brass Nickels To Dimes was the first magic trick I ever bought at a magic shop. More correctly, it was sold to me, by "Sammy" at Miami Magic in Florida. I already owned a couple of Adams items, but after visiting a magic shop for the first time, they didn't seem like the real deal to me for some reason. Maybe it was the blister packs. I wonder how I came in possession of them if they didn't come from a magic shop...

[I.M. Magician]

You did what we all did and that was to graduate to the next level. Some just lost interest while others went on.

I feel that I have come full circle and once again enjoy those neat little tricks I got when I first started so long ago. In those days, I had very little money (some change in my pocket) and was thrilled with whatever I could afford to buy. If I had fifty cents and bought a Snapper trick, it made my day and I would play with it and show it to people for the entire week until I went back and bought another trick.

[Richard Kaufman]

You're going to love the routine for "Dynamic Coins" that is going into the Tenyo book from their senior demonstrator, Mr. Shimizu.

[I.M. Magician]

I am sure I will love it and I am looking forward to it as many others are as well.

Quite frankly, I haven't been this excited about receiving a new magic book in a very long time. I expect to dig in to Tenyo-ism with great enthusiasm.

The fact that it's two large volumes and includes color photos etcetera makes it something very special.

[Dustin Stinett]

I still have my Adams Pencil Through Card Frame, Color Vision Cube, and Snapper purchased at the Disneyland Magic Shop in the late 1960s. I got a lot of mileage out of that Snapper even in high school.

[Richard Kaufman]

So many jokes ... particularly if you were a cheer leader!

[I.M. Magician]

And now for the other half of their business, the practical jokes. Perhaps the bigger half for SS Adams.

There's the dribble glass, whoopi cushion, snake can, joy buzzer, shiner, hot pepper gum, disappearing ink, and so much more!

Anyone have any favorites? Any stories to tell?

[Brad Henderson]

I want a squirting swan!!! that seems like the coolest of their joke items.

[P.T.Widdle]

Cheap Laffs is another good book along these lines:

http://www.npr.org/books/titles/1384574 ... velty-item

[I.M. Magician]

That is a good book!

Brad, I remember the Squirting Nickel, Lighter, Camera, Calculator, Ring, Flower and perhaps a few others but not a Squirting Swan. Are you kidding or what?

[Will Jung]

Mystic Smoke works perfectly well if you pinch and separate your first finger and thumb very quickly. Rubbing will do nothing.

I wanted to get Mystic Smoke in the past, but read reviews about the bad smell it produced. Is there such an atrocious stench?

[Brad Henderson]

not kidding. it's a real adams piece. was made of glass. a clear pipe in the form of a swan filled with water. you offer to play a game. The person who can get the water to shoot the furthest from the swans mouth by blowing into the pipe wins.

the performers blows and makes a fair showing, the water arcing out of the swans mouth.

when the volunteer tries the water shoots out the Swan's ass squirting the mark in the face.

http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/a ... lass-party

[Bill Mullins]

when the volunteer tries the water shoots out the Swan's ass squirting the mark in the face.

When guys with poor social skills use magic to get laid, this isn't the trick they use, is it?

[Brad Henderson]

no - we use a different one.

I'm a huge fan of the demoulin fraternal initiation devices and the like. As magic, it's despicable. As a practical joke it's spectacular.

[I.M. Magician]

Mystic Smoke does have a smell but I wouldn't call it atrocious.

[Bill Mullins]

I'm a huge fan of the demoulin fraternal initiation devices and the like. As magic, it's despicable. As a practical joke it's spectacular.

When I was an asst scoutmaster and we'd go on a day hike, the kids would usually bring a canned drink for lunch. It is but a moment's work to poke a hole in the side of the can a half inch below the opening on top. Instant dribble can! The best time was when the kid finally figured out why his shirt was getting wet. He put his mouth on the poked hole and tipped the can up to drink from it -- dumping the rest of the drink out of the normal hole and down his neck.

Ah, good times.

[I.M. Magician]

Wow! Brad wasn't kidding. Adams made a Squirting Swan. I don't have that one and don't remember ever seeing it until now.

That may be a tough one to get because it's made of glass and many of them could have broke at some point.

[Richard Kaufman]

Mystic Smoke smells like Vaseline because it, too, is a petroleum product.