Walter Blaney's Ladder Levitation

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Joe Mckay
Posts: 2026
Joined: April 13th, 2008, 6:56 am
Favorite Magician: Lubor Fiedler
Location: Durham, England

Walter Blaney's Ladder Levitation

Postby Joe Mckay » May 2nd, 2018, 4:47 pm

There is a parlor game I heard about once. Where you admit to the most humiliating fact about you. And the person who humiliates them self the most is the winner. In one game I heard about - the winner was a professor of English who had never read Hamlet.

I have a funny story about my convoluted relationship with the Out Of This World card trick that I will share some day. But for now I will admit to this one.

I only just found out what the gooseneck hoop pass is.

I had heard about it in the past. But never really gotten round to looking it up. But in the past few weeks - I have become interested in the history surrounding illusions. And the other day I decided I should find out more about the gooseneck hoop pass. I knew it would be mentioned in Hiding The Elephant (by Jim Steinmeyer) at some point. But I hadn't gotten to that bit yet.

So I did some googling around. And I found a comic book devoted to the history of magic which has a very clear explanation:

http://theappendix.net/images/issues/1/2/large-levitation_Page_10.jpg

Wow - now that is a clever idea. So - I thought I would order the comic book as well. In doing so I found a review of it by Steve Bryant:

http://littleegyptmagic.com/magic_may2009.html

In the review he makes a passing reference to the Blaney hoop. You have to place the cursor on the cover art to find that reference.

The Blaney hoop? That sounded like something cool and something else I should probably already be aware of.

Magic n00b that I am.

Well - luckily for me - there are some really cool youtube films about the amazing work of Walter Blaney discussing his amazing levitation.

First of all - here is David Copperfield performing the trick:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBi1kQo0Au0

A levitation where no gooseneck hoop pass is needed!

Here is Walter talking about his friendship with Copperfield:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v41pXf2j55E

You can find a film discussing the levitation here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6u0mI8s0tk

Here is a film covering the day David Copperfield honored Walter Blaney's contributions to magic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnqaSSZB-D4

And here is a clip in which Walter discusses the expense and effort involved in getting his Zaney Blaney Miracle Hoop manufactured:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZnTGAtkcUQ

In the clip above - there is a comment from Johnny Thompson that intrigued me. He said that Blaney's work with the hoop was the best in magic. And the last time he was impressed with a hoop pass was with the work of Richiardi Jr.

What is nice about Richiardi Jr.'s hoop pass is that he breaks up the slightly awkward and unnatural hoop pass into two (apparently) separate actions. That way he gives the impression there are two separate hoop passes. Rather than one slightly strange looking one:

https://youtu.be/SABOxRvYojY?t=57m17s

On his DVD - Jonathan Pendragon gives a shout-out to this idea as well. He said it was a wonderful contribution from Richardi Jr. that he was worried would be forgotten or not recorded.

The above clips are just wonderful. It is very moving watching Walter Blaney talk about his incredible creation.

As I move from white belt to yellow belt in illusions - please let me know if there is anything else I can read to do with Walter's legendary trick?

Brad Henderson
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Location: austin, tx

Re: Walter Blaney's Ladder Levitation

Postby Brad Henderson » May 2nd, 2018, 5:13 pm

find one of the hoops and ask to see it in action. It’s mechanics are almost more magical than the levitations it is designed to accompany.

Jonathan Townsend
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Location: Westchester, NY
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Re: Walter Blaney's Ladder Levitation

Postby Jonathan Townsend » May 2nd, 2018, 8:47 pm

??? Go say hi to the guy! That's a fine illusion he designed. He sells em if you want one. http://www.walterblaney.com/illusions/bio.html

While you're at it you might like to say hello to Gene Anderson and Richard Gustafson too. They invented some time-tested clever items.
Mundus vult decipi -per Caleb Carr's story Killing Time

Joe Mckay
Posts: 2026
Joined: April 13th, 2008, 6:56 am
Favorite Magician: Lubor Fiedler
Location: Durham, England

Re: Walter Blaney's Ladder Levitation

Postby Joe Mckay » May 5th, 2018, 3:03 am

There is a lovely article about the illusion here.

http://www.ladderlevitation.com/magicol.html

http://magicol.magicana.com/feedback-from-no-181-2/

The article mentions that Johnny Carson was one of the first to be taught the secret to this illusion.

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erdnasephile
Posts: 4770
Joined: January 17th, 2008, 12:00 pm

Re: Walter Blaney's Ladder Levitation

Postby erdnasephile » May 5th, 2018, 9:47 am

I first saw this when Copperfield did it on TV--had no clue whatsoever. Perfect medley of personality, music, and a killer effect. Felt great to be baffled so badly.

One of the worst magic days of my life was getting excited to watch a cruise ship magician perform this great illusion. Then he completely exposed it through sloppy handling. That's another moment of wonder I'm never getting back...

Joe Mckay
Posts: 2026
Joined: April 13th, 2008, 6:56 am
Favorite Magician: Lubor Fiedler
Location: Durham, England

Re: Walter Blaney's Ladder Levitation

Postby Joe Mckay » May 18th, 2018, 7:01 pm

I just stumbled across a gimmicked hoop that allows you to pass the hoop over a levitating lady. Without having to resort to the gooseneck double pass move.

Check out The Hoop of Mercedese by Arthur Mosher. It is on page 68 of the June, 1909 issue of The Sphinx (Vol. 8 No. 4).

This achieves the same effect as the famous Walter Blaney hoop. But I don't know how the Blaney hoop works. So I cannot compare the two methods.


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