History of a Stack

[John LeBlanc]

I'm trying to put together the history of a stack using small banks of cards, each card separated by an indifferent card, the stack repeating itself to make up a deck of cards. I suppose most would recognize this as the stack used by Al Koran, but I believe the basis for it goes back to Audley Walsh.

Can anyone help on this?

John LeBlanc

[John Pezzullo]

John,

I don't if the following information is of any assistance. It's from "The Encyclopedia of Magic and Magicians" [1988 / pg 249]:

"The One-O-One Deck is actually based on principles developed by BURLING HULL (for the Svengali Deck) and AUDLEY WALSH (for his Magician's Dream Deck) and use of a very similar deck had been proposed by JEAN HUGARD."

[Linds]

John

T A Waters in the credits for his Trionic Deck (pp 84, 85, Mind, Myth and Magick ) traces the origin of the multi-bank deck back to Edward Bagshaw in 1924. He also includes a tantalising reference to something similar that may have been used by Hofzinser.

There is much more there, including further references, you might like to chase down.

Hope this helps.
Lindsay

[Guest]

John,

According to my notes, Audly Walsh came out with the One-O-One deck in The Magician's Dream (The Jinx, Volume 1-50, p. 298). It was also published in J.G. Thompson, Jr.'s My Best, 1945, p. 119.

Al Koran then popularized it in his Five Star Prediction (Al Koran's Legacy, 1972, p. 19).

In Max Maven's Videomind - Phase Two: Close-up Mentalism (1998), Phil Goldstein when giving the history of his Shape Up says that it goes back to the Svengali Deck, followed-up by Audley Walsh's Magician's Dream Deck, and then by Richard Himber's (???) Five Star Miracle Prediction Deck, known today as the 1-0-1 deck. (I do not have this video tape anymore, so I can not check if my transcription was done correctly.)

Among other tricks using the 1-0-1 deck, there are The Immortal by Gaetan Bloom and Christian Chelman (Capricornian Tales, 1993, p. 77), and Floored by Michael Weber (The New York Magic Symposium, Collection Two, 1983, p. 33).

Also, Al Koran's Five Star Prediction was the inspiration for T.A. Waters' Star-crossed (The Complete Magick, Volume II, p. 112), Robert Siepielski's Card in Wallet (The Complete Magick, Volume II, p. 257), and John Bannon's Five-star Engraved Prediction (Impossibilia: the close-up magic of John Bannon, 1990, p. 139).

Martin
http://www.joyalstack.com/
sharing the Magic!

[John LeBlanc]

Originally posted by Lindsay Carroll:
John

T A Waters in the credits for his Trionic Deck (pp 84, 85, Mind, Myth and Magick ) traces the origin of the multi-bank deck back to Edward Bagshaw in 1924. He also includes a tantalising reference to something similar that may have been used by Hofzinser.

There is much more there, including further references, you might like to chase down.

Hello, Lindsay.

I'll bet it is Waters' reference to Walsh that I remembered. Thanks for the reminder.

When I went back to check, I remembered where I'd left off: the reference was to using banks of cards, but not with indifferent cards between them (Five Star Predicton style.)

Just to make sure, though, I followed Waters' reference to Gene Grant which was to both his Mental Deck and the Ultimate Princess trick, which I found in the lecture notes, "Incredible Mental Secrets" as well as "Greatest Mental Secrets" and the noted "Incredible Mental Secrets" -- though all refer to the banks themselves.

Thanks for adding to the chase; much appreciated!

ADDED: In looking through Grant's lecture notes and the explanation of the trick, Ultimate Princess Routine, I see where he makes reference to Roy Johnson using Bob Cassidy's idea of handing banks of cards to several spectators, and incorporating Grant's very clever Psychorama principle. I looked through Johnson's five books (Roy Johnson Experience through Pure Gold) as well as the two sets of lecture notes I have (Extra Lecture and Feature Three) but didn't see anything like it.

John LeBlanc

[John LeBlanc]

Originally posted by Martin Joyal:
John,

According to my notes, Audly Walsh came out with the One-O-One deck in [b]The Magician's Dream (The Jinx, Volume 1-50, p. 298). It was also published in J.G. Thompson, Jr.'s My Best, 1945, p. 119.

Al Koran then popularized it in his Five Star Prediction (Al Koran's Legacy, 1972, p. 19).

In Max Maven's Videomind - Phase Two: Close-up Mentalism (1998), Phil Goldstein when giving the history of his Shape Up says that it goes back to the Svengali Deck, followed-up by Audley Walsh's Magician's Dream Deck, and then by Richard Himber's (???) Five Star Miracle Prediction Deck, known today as the 1-0-1 deck. (I do not have this video tape anymore, so I can not check if my transcription was done correctly.)

Among other tricks using the 1-0-1 deck, there are The Immortal by Gaetan Bloom and Christian Chelman (Capricornian Tales, 1993, p. 77), and Floored by Michael Weber (The New York Magic Symposium, Collection Two, 1983, p. 33).

Also, Al Koran's Five Star Prediction was the inspiration for T.A. Waters' Star-crossed (The Complete Magick, Volume II, p. 112), Robert Siepielski's Card in Wallet (The Complete Magick, Volume II, p. 257), and John Bannon's Five-star Engraved Prediction (Impossibilia: the close-up magic of John Bannon, 1990, p. 139).[/b]

Martin, my friend, you never cease to amaze. :)

(Your recollection of Max's history lesson is accurate, by the way.)

Your note also served to embarrass me, and this is why: of the list you gave, I pulled from my shelf all of them with the exception of the Weber reference in The New York Magic Symposium Collection Two. I need to begin taking better notes when I read through my books. There's hardly an excuse for me missing that many references.

Thanks to everyone for the responses both here and in email. I love this place. :)

John LeBlanc