OOTW Again!

[Philippe Billot]

I have a big question (sorry for my globish)

Excerpt from My Favorite Card Tricks (1965), page 26, by Harry Lorayne

IMPROMPTU OUT OF THIS WORLD

This idea has already appeared in a few magic magazines. Whenever it has, the writer always admitted that it was not original with him and that he didn't know who had originated it. Well, as is usually the case with good (but simple and really obvious) ideas - there's always the possibility that a few people thought of it - independent of each other.
I can only tell you that I first learned the original (Paul Curry) Out of This World about twenty-one years ago. I started doing this impromptu version of it about twenty years ago - and nobody taught it to me or showed it to me. (Of course, through the years, I've shown it and taught it to others.)

1965 – 21 = 1944

EVERYBODY knows (or should know) that Paul Curry’s Out Of This World was presented in June 1942. You can see the Ad in The Linking Ring, Vol. 22, no. 4, June 1942, inside cover:

“Out Of This World”
PAUL CURRY’S LATEST MIRACLE
With a face down shuffled pack in his posses-
sion, a spectator succeeds in separating the red
and black cards—without looking at the face of
a single card! Any deck used. Recommended by
Experts as one of the most sensational card
effects ever conceived……………….. $1.00

And actually, EVERYBODY says that NU WAY OUT OF THIS WORLD by U.F. GRANT was marketed in 1943, thus confirming that the excellent memory of Harry Lorayne is not a legend, since “OFF BY ONE year” (Thanks Kenton Knepper), he was able to trace the source.

BUT, the most curious thing is that, for the moment, there is no trace (in the documents accessible on the various historical sites) of any publicity for the trick of U.F. GRANT.

SO? Which collector will be able to provide us with proof that U.F. GRANT marketed his impromptu version in 1943?

[Denis Behr]

I tried to locate something like that a few times as well without success... Curry writes in Out of this World - And Beyond the following claim directly from Grant: "Mr. U. F. ('Gen') Grant - surely one of magic's leading creative talents - informs, me that he first conceived the idea behind the following impromptu method shortly after the original version made its appearance. Subsequently, he published it under the title 'Nu Way Out of This World.'"

I guess one would have to search through mail ads from Grant from 1943 onwards, but I don't know where those could be located.

[Bob Farmer]

Grant may have explained it in one of his booklets rather than selling it as a standalone.

[Philippe Billot]

No, it's not in one of his booklets.

It's sure he sold it after leaving Abbott's in 1943. Perhaps it's in one of his letters ou mailing

[Philippe Billot]

May be we can find the trick here :

GRANT'S MAGIC CLUB, edited by U.F. Grant. [23 issues of a mimeographed monthly newsletter, December 1942 to around October 1944, Columbus, Ohio.]

or

GRANT'S BULLETIN, edited by U.F. Grant. [Approximately 78 issues of a printed magazine, issued irregularly on a roughly monthly basis, from vol. 1, number 1 (undated) to vol. 7, number 5 (undated), Columbus, Ohio.

[Bob Farmer]

See:

https://www.lybrary.com/nu-way-out-of-t ... -3146.html

[Philippe Billot]

Yes, it's the original text but there is no source.

[Tarotist]

I learned the UF Grant method by a typed instruction leaflet. It was so long ago that I can't remember who put it out. It had no other tricks in it--just the UF Grant method. It did have certain touches that I have never seen mentioned in other descriptions I have seen of the method. It speeded up the first part of the trick and got little gasps of puzzlement. I can't be sure but I suspect they were Grant's ideas rather than someone else's. Indeed, I have a suspicion that he actually wrote the instructions. In fact they were so good that I am going to keep them for myself.