The Genii Forum

Andy Galloway

In the film clips of John Ramsay the one with the elderly gentleman performing the trick with the little boy is not John Ramsay and he never visited the Magic Castle as he died several years before it opened, but would have loved it.

Andy Galloway

I met Amac at the 1960 Blackpool Convention by John Ramsay who knew him since the 1920s. He had a table in the dealer`s hall and remember buying his version of the Three Card Trick based on the film The Third Man and still have it. Like Allen I found him to have a quiet personality and believe his n...

Andy Galloway

In the description of the Jonson vanish there seems to be some movement of the right hand fingers as they apparently place the coin in the left, whereas in the Ramsay vanish the right fingers do not move. The coin is held lightly between the tips of the forefinger and thumb so that the closing of th...

Andy Galloway

I don`t have a copy of `Mr Smith`s Guide To Sleight Of Hand ` at the moment and cannot compare Jonson`s move with the Ramsay Vanish, but the film in the video was made in 1939 and John had been using it for some years before that. Incidentally this book was the one which began Alex Elmsley`s interes...

Andy Galloway

I also remember seeing the BBC television show with Dai Vernon, Slydini and Cy Endfield which could have been in 1958 as both Vernon and Slydini were in Britain that year giving lectures. John Ramsay and I went to Edinburgh to see them which was an unforgettable experience for me.

Andy Galloway

Jonathan, I can only refer you to the descriptions of the vanish in The Ramsay Legend and The Ramsay Classics, also the demonstration in the DVD The Magic Of John Ramsay. The coin should be held lightly between the thumb and forefinger so that it pivots easily when the other hand closes apparently t...

Andy Galloway

I don`t know if Stanley Kubrick had a personal interest in magic, but Frank Berry the Canadian actor, comedian and magician played one of the bomber crew in the opening scenes of Doctor Strangelove and is seen manipulating a deck of cards. Michael Bailey a former president of The Magic Circle made a...

Andy Galloway

Richard,
I had never heard of this before, but interesting to know from Quentin that Pat Conway also used it and possibly it is an old idea.

Andy Galloway

Jonathan,
When I saw the photograph I asked John about the method and he said he used the standard thread hook up with a heavy key on the other end of the thread which was the motive power and went in the waistband of his trousers then down a trouser leg, but never saw it performed.

Andy Galloway

In his Okito box routine John Ramsay used a tin which had contained a common brand of ointment and had a domed lid which added an extra effect. He felt that a lot of people would have one similar at home and not suspect it of being anything else.

Andy Galloway

I used this force in my Bluff Colour Changing Pack described in Diverting Card Magic published in 1980, but I feel sure that I read years before in a book or magazine and cannot remember which one. Have also employed it effectively in a few other tricks since then.

Andy Galloway

E. Brian McCarthy wrote a booklet called Chameleon Cups & Balls which was published by The Magic Wand Office in 1942.

Andy Galloway

The vanish Jonathan mentions was described in the Ramsay Classics in the Cups & Balls Routine and Okito Box Routine, also the Pivot Vanish in the Cylinder & Coins in the same book. This vanish was performed and explained in the DVD The Magic Of John Ramsay which I made for International Magi...

Andy Galloway

Or one of the American companies like Fox Movietone, Paramount or March Of Time. Maybe John Fisher would know.

Andy Galloway

Richard it was exciting to not only see Leipzig do the trick, but to also hear him talk to John Mulholland who was at a British Ring convention I attended in the 1960s. I have often wondered who else was on that newsreel which may still exist in an archive somewhere.

Andy Galloway

In the early 2000s I was at several Magic Circle Heritage Days and at one John Fisher showed an extract from a newsreel taken at an early American convention where Nate Leipzig performed his Cigars From Purse routine for John Mulholland. It could have been the one at Detroit in 1932.

Andy Galloway

In chapter one of the Collected Works Of Alex Elmsley Volume One, Alex gives excellent advice on the performance of close-up magic which is worth studying.

Andy Galloway

H Jim,
Thank you for you for the kind remarks about the books and DVD, much appreciated.
Regards, Andy.

Andy Galloway

Hi Richard, John said that the French Drop was well known to the layman and when you apparently took the coin in the left hand it was not there, so by taking it he was thrown off balance which gave you misdirection for the actual move. If you are more comfortable using the left hand for the vanish, ...

Andy Galloway

John Ramsay`s handling of the French Drop might be of interest. He would display an old British half-crown in his right hand with the tail side facing the spectators and draw their attention to the date asking if they had ever seen one before. He would then bring his left hand over and actually take...

Andy Galloway

The cups measured two and a quarter inches high, two and three eights across the base and two and one eight across the top. They were painted aluminium or silver to simulate metal. I believe it was Stanley Collins who reprimanded John for using cardboard cups not knowing the reason why he had to. I ...

Andy Galloway

That is correct Richard, he originally used metal cups, but they were lost when his close up case was stolen on a bus trip and could not be replaced. However, when he noticed that small ice cream cups were approximately the same size and shape he used them from then on.

Andy Galloway

I am still alive, if only just. The fake stack for the Cylinder & Coins was made by a local tinsmith and John made the rest of the props for the trick by himself, also for his cups and balls routine. His secretary Mrs French made the Tasselled Rope Trick and he kept his close up props in a small...

Andy Galloway

It is with great sadness that I have just heard that my close friend of over sixty years Roy Walton has passed away after a short illness. His wife telephoned to say it happened peacefully in the night and my thoughts are with her and family.

Andy Galloway

Cy Endfield was a regular member of the London circle of card and close up magicians which included Alex Elmsley, Jack Avis, Roy Walton, Bobby Bernard, John Derris and Ted Danson in the 1950s and 60`s. After meeting in Davenport`s magic shop they would retire to Gino`s Cafe just off Shaftesbury Aven...

Andy Galloway

In the 1950`s and 60`s I was fortunate to spend some time with Graham Adams and remember him giving a lecture at a Scottish convention in 1960 where he demonstrated several sleights from Erdnase such as second and bottom dealing. He was always very kind and helpful to young magicians. A gentleman in...

Andy Galloway

Thanks Quentin for plugging the book and Bill for your kind remarks about it. The lifts I use the most are Leipzig`s as described in the Leipzig book by Dai Vernon and Vernon`s own from The Stars Of Magic. The reason for turning a card face up is to reveal its identity and should look as effortless ...

Andy Galloway

As a teenager in the 1950`s John Ramsay took me into Davenport`s to meet George and asked him if he would do something for me. George picked up a pack of cards from the counter, gave it a casual shuffle, then threw it into the air where it promptly vanished. Following this, he took a glass tumbler a...

Andy Galloway

Ian, I have seen the photo and it was before I met John. He was 78 when I first met him and just before then he had his case of props stolen on a bus and only managed to replace some of them. I can only assume that the cigar was one of the missing items as I never saw him with it. He told me that wh...

Andy Galloway

I knew John Ramsay from 1955 to his death in 1962 and never saw him with a fake cigar. However, Roy met him several years before me and obviously he did. I can only remember John using imitation lit cigarettes and in a restaurant when he knew a waitress was near, he would apparently in an absent-min...

Andy Galloway

John Ramsay smoked cigarettes, not cigars and he did not use his cash register to ditch coins, but years ago grocer`s shops had large drawers under the counters which held the likes of salt and sugar. John would have one of these partly open so that he could secretly drop coins and even eggs silentl...

Andy Galloway

Bobby Bernard was one of my oldest friends in magic. We first met in the summer of 1956 in John Ramsay`s grocer`s shop in Ayr and later in the year when I attended my first British Ring IBM convention in Brighton with John, he introduced me to Roy Walton, Jack Avis, John Derris, Alex Elmsley, Ted Da...

Andy Galloway

Hi Jonathan,

I feel that the initial feint with the lid is quite adequate. Any more would tend to confuse the effect and interrupt the sequence of vanishes.

Regards, Andy.

Andy Galloway

Jonathan, The coin vanish in the Genii video is explained on pages 97 & 98 in The Ramsay Classics and is essentially the same as the ball vanish on pages 21, 22 & 23 in the book. It was first described in John Ramsay`s Routine For The Cups & Balls by Victor Farelli on pages 65 to 70 and ...

Andy Galloway

Jonathan, I have seen a number of copies of the Farelli booklet and not one of them has Fig. 22a and it could have been an uncorrected proof. I`m not sure which vanish you are refering to in the Genii video, but the Slow Motion Vanish in the August 1936 issue of the Sphinx does not look like anythin...

Andy Galloway

Hi Dave, In Fig. 22 the first coin has just been vanished and is in the right hand finger palm which is why the fingers cannnot separate. In figs. 37 & 38, four coins are in the right hand thumb clip position which now allows the fingers to separate. I hope this is of help. Regards, Andy Galloway.

Andy Galloway

Eric,

Major Lionel H.Branson who wrote several books on conjuring was a pupil of Charles Bertram in 1889 and recalls seeing Betram project a coin from his palm up to three feet in the air to demonstrate how much he practiced. As far as I know, Bertram never used it as a sleight.

Andy.

Andy Galloway

Bill, If you study Step 5 and Figure 4 on page 104 of The Ramsay Classics, the watch winder is apparently held in the right hand when it is in fact in the left. The hands come together and the right thumb moves as if activating the winder while the left thumb actually turns the cog wheel. This actio...

Andy Galloway

Gene,

My copy has Munn & Company at the bottom of the title page followed by Sampson Low,Marston & Co. Ltd 1899. On the copyright page it is Munn & Company 1898. There is no Martinka label.

Andy.

Andy Galloway

Ray visited me several times in the company of Marc Caplan and told us some great stories of swapping magic for music lessons with Dai Vernon. He said the first thing that Dai wanted him to master was the Wand Spin Ball Vanish. Some time later Ray asked the Professor why he gave him such a difficult...

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