Gibecière Vol. 6 No. 1

Contents Pocket Notes—Stephen Minch 7 Spider in the Flies—Jim Steinmeyer 9 An Investigation into Magic in Japan after the Opening of the Country, Part VII—Mitsunobu Matsuyama 37 The Influence of Ozanam—William Kalush & Stephen Minch 69 Ozanam’s Magic—translated by Lori Pieper 79 Contributors 157

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The 46th Street Theatre, where the first murder occurred on March 22, 1927

The Spider in the Flies • Jarrett’s Flowers, Blackstone’s Villainy and the Broadway Magic Mystery Plays of the 1920s Jim Steinmeyer

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n March 22, 1927, an audience at New York’s 46th Street Theatre—today the Richard Rogers Theatre—found themselves witnessing an unusual crime. That week’s vaudeville show proceeded without incident until the third feature, Chatrand the Great, who was presenting a mindreading act with a masked young assistant named Alexander, “The Boy with the Radio Eyes.” As Alexander sat blindfolded on the stage, Chatrand stepped into the audience, asking for the loan of personal items.

Alexander identified several objects, but when Chatrand reached for an unusual gold locket, there was a scuffle in the audience. New York news­ papers gave accounts the next day: Alexander began to explain, “It is an object with a curious history.” A spectator named John Carrington objected to Chatrand’s performance. He grabbed for the locket. There was an unex­ pected blackout in the auditorium, and then the sound of a single gunshot.

When the lights came up, Carrington was mortally wounded in the aisle.

The police were quickly summoned. They rushed into the theater and cautioned the audience not to leave. Inspector Riley, arriving from the local precinct, admonished the crowd, “This is a murder case. And some­ where in the house there is a criminal. I’m going to get the guilty man if I have to keep everyone here in this theater under lock and key.”

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Th e S p i d e r i n t h e F l i e s that the audience watch the start of Cagliostro’s show, and then the curtain would fall. A minute later, the curtain would rise, and the audience would see the show in progress, with a stage filled with ribbons, flags and appara­ tus—supposedly the result of the magician’s wonderful efforts. Then the play would resume with the climax of the magician’s performance.

Half way through his work on the show, Jarrett found that Harry Houdini had interceded with the producers, insisting that he would give them “gen­ uine” tricks instead of Jarrett’s illusions. Jarrett charismatically held his ground—“Who the hell is this guy Houdini? Did he ever invent anything?

Ask him.” Jarrett’s finished illusions, particularly the Sword Box that utilized his innovative Pedestal, were highly praised. “The Charlatan E ­ xciting,” the

During The Charlatan, Cagliostro, standing in front of the cabinet, directs the guests at the party to plunge swords into Guy Jarrett’s Sword Cabinet 19 • Volume 6 ‹› Number 1

Gintaro and Isabella Mizuhara, c. 1909, in New Zealand

AN INVESTIGATION INTO MAGIC IN JAPAN AFTER THE OPENING OF THE COUNTRY • Part VII: Some Japanese Entertainers of the Westernized Meiji Era Mitsunobu Matsuyama

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ome Japanese jugglers and acrobats of the Meiji Era also became deeply involved in western magical productions. Early in this series, mention was made of Katsunoshin Awata, a Daikagura juggler and equilibrist, whom the Great Herrmann and Harry Kellar frequently featured.1 Two other per­ formers whose appearances in magical productions proved memorable in the history of western magic were M. Gintaro, who performed regu­ larly for Maskelyne and Devant in London at St. George Hall, and F. Kametaro, who worked for Chung Ling Soo.

Gintaro Mizuhara Gintaro Mizuhara was born and grew up in Nagasaki, a city in western Japan that enjoyed a cosmopolitan atmosphere. Gintaro left Nagasaki for England in 1887, when he was only eleven or twelve. He was booked to perform at the Japanese Village, an exhibition in Nightsbridge, London, where Japanese culture, artisans and entertainment were on display. The Japanese Village had quickly become the talk of the city and was in its 39 • Volume 6 ‹› Number 1

Courtesy of the John Salisse collection

M a g i c i n J a pa n a f t e r t h e O p e n i n g o f t h e c o u n t r y

Courtesy of Peter Brunning

Above: Gintaro’s medal from Maskelyne and Devant. Below: The Gintaros’ gravesite, which lies between the two graves in the foreground.

Richmond on Thames, where his wife Isabella had preceded him in 1937.

They left no children. Sadly, the grave is difficult to locate, because its marker and headstone have disappeared, probably due to more than a half century’s neglect.

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From the Imperial Japanese Troupe Album, Harvard Theatre Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard University

M a g i c i n J a pa n a f t e r t h e O p e n i n g o f t h e c o u n t r y

Namigoro Sumidagawa, c. 1867 59 • Volume 6 ‹› Number 1

THE INFLUENCE OF OZANAM William Kalush & Stephen Minch

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n 1694, Jacques Ozanam, a prolific French author, at age fifty-four published what would become one of his most popular works: Récréations mathématiques et physiques, a two-volume tribute to those who used serious tools for leisure and entertainment. It was immediately popular and became a best-seller, requiring several printings in the first year of its issue. During the next 150 years it was printed in various forms, spanning approxi­ mately thirty editions. It wasn’t the first book written in which the serious sciences would be tapped to engage and stimulate the reader in a recreational way, but it was one of the most popular.

The western tradition of mathematics as a secret means for perform­ ing magical feats goes back at least to the eighth century, the court of Charlemagne and the beginning of France. In 1484, Nicolas Chuquet gathered recreational mathemagic in a manuscript, the content of which was published by one of his students, Estienne de la Roche, in 1520, without mention of Chuquet.

Meanwhile, outside France, other Europeans, ranging from Fibonacci in 1202 to Da Vinci at the end of the fifteenth century, were also using such techniques. In 1612, one of the most significant contributions appeared in a rare volume printed in Lyon: Claude Gaspard Bachet de Méziriac’s Problèmes plaisants et délectables, qui se font par les nombres. Bachet’s work became the first published analysis of such material, and included a schol­ arly look at the “Twenty-One Card Trick,” which at the time of Bachet’s study had been in print for less than twenty years (see Galasso’s Gioche di carte bellissimi de regola, in Gibecière, Vol. 2, No. 2, Summer 2007, p. 49).

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M ATHE M ATI C A L A ND

PH Y SI C A L RE C RE A TIONS , which treat of Natural and Artificial Phosphoruses & Perpetual Lamps.

Physical & Chemical Dissertation.

With the Explanation of Tricks from the Gibecière, the Trick of the Cups & other Recreational and Entertaining Tricks.

NEW EDITION, Revised, Corrected and Augmented,

VOLUME FOUR .

PA R I S , At the home of Claude Jombert, Rue S. Jacques, at the corner of the Rue des Mathurins, at the Picture of Our Lady.

M. D C C. X X I I I. With R oyal P rivilege . [translated by Lori Pieper] 81 • Volume 6 ‹› Number 1

O z a n a m ’s M a g i c they are not too large, that the bottom is not too small and that they do not stick together.

2nd. You make the balls of cork, of the size of a filbert, then you burn them in a candle, and when they are red, you roll them in your hands to make them quite round.

Plate 2, To perform the Cups well, you must practice palming, for it Fig. 3 is in palming that the principal difficulty of the Cups Trick lies.

fig. 3

To palm, you must take the ball in the middle of your thumb and the end of your first finger, and make it roll with your thumb between the second and third fin­ gers, where you hold the ball by Fig. 6 pressing the two fingers tightly together, and opening your hand, Fig. 5

fig. 5

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O z a n a m ’s M a g i c

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O z a n a m ’s M a g i c Plate 6, Fig. 22

If you want to have them change in another way, you must glue a piece of paper the size of the Card, and only glue [it] half­ way, so that the other half can be raised and lowered; paint it on both sides, so as to make the change. Side A represents a Jack and when you turn the glued sheet over, the other side B represents a Diamond. If it were another type, you would need to make it upside down; but for a Diamond, it doesn’t matter on which end it is turned. You turn the Card down; when you want to change it, you blow on top to make the paper turn over. And you [may] paint the subject you want on these cards.

fig. 22

X. Fig. 23

The Awl that you pretend to stick in your forehead is made in this way. The handle is hollow, there is a kind of hooked instru­ ment3 made of quite thin coiled iron wire that forms a spring.

You hollow out the handle from end C as far as D, and you put [in] the Awl E, which is welded to a little plaque the width of the hole that is in the handle; you pass it through this hole, point first; and from hole D as far as G there is a very small hole solely

fig. 23 Gibecière ‹› Winter 2011 • 114

O z a n a m ’s M a g i c You must begin by making a knot like G, and note the side of the cord that passes on top, which is H, or rather the side of the cord that comes out on top. You must take care that the same side is to be brought out at the second knot on top, [for] it is in this that the mystery lies. Then you take the end of the cord L, you pass it into hole M or G on top, and you bring it out on the bottom; you then pass it through hole I, so that it comes back [out] at K. Finally you take end K and end N, pull both together, and in this way you undo the two knots.

fig. 27

XV. To change a Token into 15 sous in a person’s hand, you first put a Token in his hand, and you will tell him to close his hand quite quickly, and then to open it, because he has not closed it quickly enough. You have him close it again; as you make him close it, you put a 15-sou piece in it. You have another 15 sou piece in your hand, which you command to take the place of the Token; at the same time you palm the 15-sou piece; then you tell the person to open his hand and he will find a 15-sou piece in his hand. Note that each time you have him open his hand, you take away the token, so that he does not perceive [it] when you palm

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O z a n a m ’s M a g i c

fig. 29 then put it through the hole 3, and come out again through hole B in piece B. You will make a knot in it; you will cut off the surplus of the cord, and you will pull the knot inside as far as hole 3. For the large string you will begin by passing it through hole 1; you will make it go down and come out through hole 5; you will then make it go back into hole 6 and come out again through hole 4.

You put the two pieces one against the other, 2 against 3, and 5 against 6. You pull the long cord, and you make it go and come from one and to another; then you hold the two pieces in your hand, in order to hide cord 5, 6, and have the cord cut, as it is marked at C. You close your pieces, and you pull your large cord to show that it has not been cut.

XIX. The Trick of the Cord that is done on a stick is one of the Plate 8, most beautiful, although it is not difficult. I did what I could to Fig. 30 learn it, without being able to find anyone who would teach it to me; but since I wanted very much to know it, it obliged me to search, and I found it, as well as the one of the Garter, which is quite pretty, and which I will describe after this one.

The Trick of the stick with the Cord is done with a linen ribbon, the two ends of which are knotted together; and after

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