At Magicana, we continue to maintain a massive collection of magic related video. These include films and tapes from the William McIlhany Collection as well as those from other private collections. Throughout our reorganization, we continue to work, slowly but surely, to digitize the material in our care. However we have only released a small portion of the footage we have to be viewed publicly.
What has been released so far has been organized logically. We have shared large collections related to Dale Harney and the Magic Palace, from the private collection of Larry Thornton and from the collection of Juan Tamariz. Much of what remains is, to be frank, an absolute mess.
In the early days, film footage was not recorded in a consistent way. We have performances shot in theatres, at magic conventions and even in living rooms and back yards. Often the recordings only exist in snippets and highlight reels. The quality varies. The camera placement is often unusual. The idea would place a camera on a tripod at the start of a performance, hit ‘record’, and let it run to the end had not been invented yet. Many of the older clips are captured without sound. What survives is primarily through the initiative of passionate amateurs, and whatever magic related gathering they happened to be at the time.
We are also faced with another challenge. As anyone who has tried recording themselves performing magic has figured out, presenting magic for the camera is not quite the same skill set as presenting magic for an audience. So many of the performers captured are out of their element. We must also be open to the possibility that some noted magicians of the past had their skills embellished or exaggerated and that their performances simply do not match their reputations.
So with these challenges in mind and wanting to adhere to Prof. Edwin Dawes’ motto (“Collect, Collate, Communicate!”) we want to share video from the collection on a regular a basis. Our working title for the series is “The Good, The Bad and the… You Decide”.
We want to begin with this recording of Lewis Ganson. This is a short excerpt where he performs “The Diminishing Cards.” (Please note this clip has no audio.)
Ganson (1913-1980) is best known in North America as a magic author. He wrote some of the most well-known books on the magic of Dai Vernon and Slydini and dozens of other collections and shorter manuscripts. But he was also, as you can see, a technically skilled sleight of hand performer.
In the full ten-minute clip, you can see him perform remarkable manipulations with playing cards, including manipulations with gloves on. You can also see numerous fans and flourishes that presage the modern era of cardistry we are familiar with today.
If you are new to the Screening Room, there are hundreds of performances fully searchable waiting to be discovered.
