Continuing our series of “The Good, The Bad and the… You Decide” we are pleased to share two clips from Arthur Buckley. (If you missed the previous release featuring Lewis Ganson, consider stopping there first.)
Buckley (1890-1953) was an Australian born magician with a passion for sleight of hand magic. He came to the United States in 1918 where he worked as a Vaudeville performer.
His lasting legacy to the magic community come in two books on sleight-of-hand magic; Card Control, which deals primarily with close-up card magic, and Principles and Deceptions, which explains manipulation with coins, cards and billiard balls. Buckley also performed a two-person mindreading act with his wife Helena and wrote the book Gems of Mental Magic.
Please note this clip contains no sound.
In this clip, we see Buckley demonstrating a rapid flurry of techniques using a billiard ball. The clip appears to be filmed inside of someone’s home in a makeshift studio – a common setting for the this kind of filming during that period. You can watch the full video in the Screening Room which also includes more card manipulations, including his “Cards to Pocket” routine, card fan productions and his version of the Miser’s Dream which was published in his book as “A Phantasy in Silver.”
This later recording of Buckley was captured with sound. It was also produced by Edgar Bergen! We see again a flurry of card fan productions, the “Cards to Pocket” and the full “Phantasy in Silver” from Principles and Deceptions.