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takes and breaks open. It's a nifty trick and Martin can get much more out of it than at present.''
I saw the show, in fact I saw most of Tommy's Chicago Theatre appearances. I sat with Tommy at Drake's Round Table as he expounded on his own private religious views and I remember he wasn't heart broken or too angry about the review. He
probably would have liked a better one but he knew where the act was weak and worked to correct it. I suggested he use a small plastic frying pan instead of the fan but he wasn't too enthused about the suggestion.
Paul Le Paul, an idol of mine in the semi-old days, was a good friend and he's still a warm memory to me. He was reviewed in Detroit, "A slick-appearing magician with lots of card tricks. Altho most of 'em are hard to catch far back. For an encore, calls two stooges from the audience for a coupla of tricks. Fair." I questioned the "fair" and I still do. Perhaps I should have written the critic a nasty Open Letter. To me Paul Braden was never just 'fair'. I was biased by friendship. I still see the faint, inscrutable smile on his face as he read the review. He sat, hunched over, smoothing the cards and lighting another cigarette from the hot butt still in his mouth. The cards soothed him and the cigarettes killed him but the criticism didn't seem to bother him. "Guess I'll have to do some home work", he told me. That's the difference between first class and steerage.
On the subject of first class I insist my friend Eddie Mario is by far the greatest card technician, the most inventive, the most dedicated and the most copied man who ever held a deck of cards. He will cut living legends to ribbons and send professors back to kindergarten. Several effects on the market today and advertised for sale in magic magazine ads are pilfered from stuff Eddie had in print years ago. True, like the rest of the cardboard geniuses, he's as commercial as a bottomless bed-pan. Einstein was a lousy juggler and Edison didn't know an injog from a Biddle count. You can't have everything, to coin a well known cliche.
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Did you know the effect where a face down deck is shown and any card thought of is seen to be face up and of a different color than the rest was devised by Paul Fox in 1932? Today it is known as the Brain Wave deck and still is one of the best layman effect if done properly. Did you also know Hitlers' personal surgeon was named Dr. Ludwig Stumpfegger, and that he changed it to Dr. Adolph Stumpfegger in honor of his uncle Hans ?
Do you know it's unsafe to travel thru bollweevil country in a pair of cotton un-derdrawers ? And that California is so far ahead of the times that the seven year locusts come back every three years ? Did you ever wonder what might happen if the man from Glad crashed into the Flying Nun! Do you think it's ethical for the tax man to hum, "Did your money come from Ireland" to a sweep stakes winner? Did you know Aesculapius is the Greek god of healing and that Rudolph Manderone is really Minnesota Fats ? Not one magician in a hatful knows these things. Did you know George Johnstone borrowed my rocks to use at the Illinois State fair on a trade show and didn't return them and now I've lost my rocks? While you're thinking about it feel sorry for the deodorant salesman trying to make good at a hippie-love-in and applaud the Ford salesman who made so much commission he could afford a Cadillac.
Did you know the Mayor of Chicago, furious at the stabbings, muggings and lootings on the streets, issued an order, "Kick all the Irish-born off the police force?" He also said, "Irish are a hopelessly criminal race and will never learn respect for law and order." The Mayor was Levi Boone and the year was 1855. Then, like today, slums had the highest crime rate. The poorest and the most violent were the hard-fisted, hard-headed, hard-drinking Irish immigrants. Employers posted signs, "No Irish Need Apply". The women became domestics and the men became cops, firemen and politicians. Bigotry and prejudice was worse than today. Mayor Boone's order was never carried out, the slums were never eliminated. And bigotry increased but other ethnic groups bear the brunt of the prejudice now and 'brotherhood' has no real meaning.
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