Philip OBrien explores the world of magic through magic

apparatus catalogues from the early to mid-twentieth century

F
OUR CARDS ARE HELD IN
your hand: they are all threes.
Now, by simply breathing on
them, they change to all Aces. Ten, to the
astonishment of your audience, you breathe
on them again and all the spots disappear,
leaving the four cards all blank.
Catalogue descriptions such as this,
accompanied by Art Deco-style drawings,
beguiled several generations of Australians
in the rst half of the twentieth century. In
fact, hundreds of similar entries appeared in
Australian magic apparatus catalogues, of
which a small collection of 11 is held by the
National Library of Australia.
Magicor, more accurately, conjuringis
still as popular as ever but retail catalogues are
now mostly available online. Yet the earlier
catalogues, with their quaint illustrations
and mannered descriptions of magic tricks,
appealed to the imagination in a way
that a contemporary website or YouTube
demonstration can never match.
Te Librarys holdings of these Australian
catalogues highlight some of the ways in
which we entertained ourselves in the years
before television. At a time when people had
more leisure time, magic acts were a signicant
part of Australian variety entertainment, and
parlour tricks, performed at home, became
popular. Parties were an opportunity to sing,
to play the piano, or to perform conjuring
tricks. Learn to entertain be a magician
At a gathering, a few magic tricks will be the
life of the party, promised the catalogues.
Magic apparatus catalogues and
merchandise, derivative of those in Britain and
the United States of America, were printed by
Australian magic suppliers and retailers that
tricks
Be the life of the party,
learn a few
magic
above left
Magic apparatus from the
collection of the author
above right
Catalogue of Green Frog
Conjuring Tricks
Newtown
height 23.0 cm
Australian Collection
the national library magazine :: june 2010 :: 25
above
Advertisement from
Catalogue of Green Frog
Conjuring Tricks
Newtown
height 23.0 cm
Australian Collection
below left
Weirdos Magic and Novelty
Shop
Weirdos Superior Magic,
Catalogue No. 2 1943?
height 22.0 cm
Australian Collection
below right
Bernards Magic Shop
Bernards Quality Magic 1930s
height 25.0 cm
Australian Collection
had emerged in the late nineteenth
century, especially in Sydney and
Melbourne. Tese magic shops
catered to professional performers
as much as to amateur magicians
and hobbyists, and led to a demand
for conjuring apparatus, for which
there was once a cottage industry
thatlike the four aceshas long
since vanished.
In browsing the Librarys magic
catalogues, I found that the same
core of a hundred or so tricks
kept recurring, albeit with minor
variations. Tis reects not only a
smaller range of eects than today
but also a level of cooperation
between retailers in a small
market. Some of the most popular
tricks included the Vanishing Cigarette, the
Multiplying Billiard Balls, the Egg Bag,
the Sliding Die Box and the Find the Lady
card trick.
Te catalogue illustrations evoke an interwar
era of tail coats and brilliantined hair,
cigarettes and elegant gestures. Most of the
magic relied on gimmicks and the tricks were
strongly marketed as such. Tere was little
requirement for sleight of hand.
Nor was there much acknowledgement of
the provenance of the magic tricks. While
many eects, such as the Cups and Balls
routine, had existed for thousands of years,
other eects were much more recent. For
example, three of the most popular card tricks
sold by retailersthe Two Card Monte, Pick
It Out and the Phantom Cardshad been
invented by the American magician, Teodore
DeLand, in the early twentieth century, but he
received no acknowledgment in the catalogues
and, one assumes, no royalties.
Most of the catalogues in the collection are
linked to former magic shops
in Sydney and Melbourne.
Weirdos Magic and Novelty
Shop in Sydneys Piccadilly
Arcade was one of the
best known to many baby
boomers like myself who
fancied themselves as
budding magicians.
Tere are also
interesting connections
within the small
circle of retailers
and manufacturers.
Magic historian Brian McCullaghs book
Sydneys Magic Heritage (1994) is especially
useful in explaining these connections. Several
of the catalogues from the 1930s bear the
imprimatur of J Albert Briggs, Manufacturer
of Conjuring Tricks & Illusions, Alexandria,
New South Wales. McCullagh writes that
Briggs magic apparatus and catalogues
were used by other retailers, some of whom
now seem unlikely purveyors of magic. For
example, elsewhere in the collection, we nd
Briggs catalogues rebranded, with identical
contents, as Magical Catalogue, Austin
Cycle Works Magic Dept of Enmore Road,
Newtown, and as Mick Simmons Magical
Catalogue for the one-time Sydney sporting
goods store.
Austin Cycle Works was a sports store run
by Jim Fleming, a jack-of-all-trades who, later
in the 1930s, replaced Briggs catalogue and
apparatus with his own Green Frog range
of magic tricks. Meanwhile Mick Simmons
principal magic dealer, Cec Cook, left the
store in 1960 to open his own magic shop in
Sydneys Oxford Street.
Some retailers had outlets in several cities.
Will Andrades Better Magic: A Catalogue of
Tricks for All Entertainers in Magic, carries
addresses for shops in Pitt Street, Sydney,
and Swanston Street, Melbourne. Among
the people who made magic apparatus for
Andrades was magician Will Alma, who
would later open a mail order service and,
eventually, a retail outlet in South Melbourne.
His stencil-duplicated catalogue of 1937, with
amateurish illustrations and eccentric text,
belies the quality of his apparatus.
Other Melbourne catalogues featured in
the collection include a late 1930s copy from
Bernards Magic Shop, now
the longest-running
magic shop in
26::
Australia, and an early catalogue from
Aladdins Magic Shop. Magician and
historian of magic Gerald Taylor worked at
Bernards from 1964 to 1966 before leaving
to run Aladdins between 1966 and 1980,
nally returning to Bernards from 1986
to 1992.
Troughout the catalogues, hyperbole and
awkward use of proper nouns are everywhere,
with each catalogue assuring the customer
that its magic is the best. When you think
of MAGIC, think of ME, implores Briggs.
Meanwhile, Weirdos promises that it is
Australias leading magic store. If its magic
weve got it. And Jim Fleming boasts that
Green Frog conjuring tricks are made in
Australias largest magic factory. Will Alma
snarls, We do not intend to sacrice Quality
to compete with cheap-jack Magical Depots.
Of Alma, Taylor recalls: Teres no doubt that
Will Alma was irascible and hard to get along
with, but he produced the best quality magic
in Australia.
Packet card tricks were relatively easy for
dealers to make and were among the most
popular items, Taylor says. But ensuring a
supply of the larger magic apparatusin
turned and painted wood or in metal
presented a continuing challenge. After
Briggs, Fleming and Alma ceased making
apparatus for magic shops, retailers such as
Taylor were forced to nd alternative supplies.
It was dicult to nd people interested in
making props in the garden shed for cash.
In the end, I d get one person to make the
wooden items, another to make the metal
apparatus and a seamstress to make the
silk items. I could have sold three times the
amount they produced. It was a cottage
industry that could not keep up with the
demand
But few magic shops could survivethen
and nowon magic alone. Sales of novelty
items, jokes, gags and masks have always
been important. But the reason so many
magic shops have closed is the high cost of
inner-city rents and overheads. Tats why
the Internet has changed the whole nature
of magic retailing.
As the magic catalogues in the Librarys
collection attest, mail order was always a
popular means of buying magic apparatus,
but now the Internet has made it easier for
customers to see what they are buying. Most of
the tricks are manufactured overseasand by
a small number of supplierswith a far greater
range than was ever available before. Te
more recent tricks are also now sold with the
creators name clearly identied. Increasingly,
tricks are targeted at younger, more street-
smart audiences and thousands of magic
presentations have been posted on YouTube.
Its a long way from the era of genteel tricks as
after-dinner entertainment around the piano.
Explanation of how to perform each trick is
an area that has changed dramatically in magic
retailing. In the days of the catalogues in the
Librarys collection, the brief instructions
accompanying pocket illusions probably
meant that many tricks remained untouched
in bottom drawers. Even though online and
DVD instructions have now made mastering
magic tricks much easier, there are some
magicians who argue that, while this style
of instruction ensures similar performances,
learning from books allows greater
individuality.
Even today, when digital technology is far
more mysterious to many than conjuring,
magic tricks still hold a fascination, even
for the most demanding of audiences. Te
understated style of the older magic catalogues
is long gone but tricks such as the Tree Card
Monte are still as popular as ever. Me? Im still
trying to work out where the four aces went.
PHILIP OBRIEN is a Canberra writer
above left
Alma Magical Company
Alma Magical Co. Catalogue
1937?
South Melbourne
height 33.0 cm
Australian Collection
above right
Anthony Caton Studio
Portrait of Magician Gerald
Taylor, Brisbane, 1857
b&w photograph
25.3 x 20.3 cm
Pictures Collection
nla.pic-vn4729065
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