The magician is holding one card and asks a spectator to think of any card, then name it. Amazingly, the card the magician is holding is a match. Check the Details for the explanation.
Jokes
The butterfly is powered by a rubber band. Once wound up, the butterfly is placed in a folded piece of card inside an envelope. As soon as an unsuspecting person removes the card, the butterfly flies out creating quite a surprise. Made by Klawvana, England. The company was run by Jack Klaw, who also traded under Novelties Unlimited. This butterfly was one of six designs sold under the name Klawvana Flying Butterflies. I have Philip Treece to thank for permission to include illustrations of the packaging and some other designs from his collection. Philip’s excellent blog www.CollectingMagic.co.uk contains an article on Jack Klaw and his products.
This is one of the Oswald Williams crazy inventions which came into the Davenport Collection via his wife Rae Warwick. The collection also contains an exercise book (illustrated) which is headed ‘Inventions and illustrated ideas for more’ in Rae Warwick’s handwriting. The book is full of some great ideas including this one. The entry makes it clear that the shirt fronts are hinged in the centre. If the front becomes dirty, all you have to do is flip over a clean one and no change of shirt is needed. It is likely that Harry Hemsley was involved in some or all of the inventions. The collection has two examples of the hinged shirt fronts. One has the initials O.W. on it and the other has a sticky label on it with the words ‘Spares for shirt front’.
This is one of the Oswald Williams crazy inventions which came into the Davenport Collection via his wife Rae Warwick. We know of no written patter for it, but John Davenport’s father believed that the shoe solved the problem of your foot remaining soaking wet once you’d got caught out in the rain. All you have to do is lift your foot up and push down on the front of the shoe. The toe cap hinges downwards and the water simply runs out. You then let go of the front and the toe cap neatly snaps back into place. The Davenport Collection also contains an exercise book (illustrated) which is headed ‘Inventions and illustrated ideas for more’ in Rae Warwick’s handwriting. The book is full of some great ideas but, unfortunately, this shoe is not explained. It is likely that Harry Hemsley was involved in some or all of the inventions.
This is one of the Oswald Williams crazy inventions which came into the Davenport Collection via his wife Rae Warwick. We know of no written patter for it, but John Davenport’s father Gus believed it was a portable ash tray. The story is that you can never find an ash tray when you need one, so you take this out of your pocket, knock the ash from your cigar or cigarette into the hole in the middle, and then fold the ash tray up again and put it in your pocket. The craziness is, of course, that the ash simply ends up on the floor. The Davenport Collection also contains an exercise book (illustrated) which is headed ‘Inventions and illustrated ideas for more’ in Rae Warwick’s handwriting. The book is full of some great ideas but, unfortunately, the ash tray is not mentioned. It is likely that Harry Hemsley was involved in some or all of the inventions.
The vanishing wand trick was very popular in the early to mid 20th century. The magician takes a solid magic wand and rolls it up in a piece of paper. The paper is then crumpled up, proving that the wand has vanished. The wand can then be produced from a place of the magician’s choosing. One approach used by (male) magicians was to pull up a trouser leg to reveal the wand tucked into his sock. In this comedy version the magician wears this colourful sock, which gets a laugh because such socks are not worn with a dinner jacket. A second laugh can be obtained by not wearing a sock at all on the other foot. This allows the magician to say: “Do you like my sock – unfortunately I’ve only got one of them” – as he shows the lack of any sock on his other foot. This was a gag used by Gus Davenport who always got a good response to it.
This does not look like packaging used by Davenports for their Demon Series. As it says on the container: ‘It looks like cotton wool – but touch a small piece with a lighted cigarette and it will instantly vanish in a flash. Leaves no smoke or ash. Lots of fun. Quite harmless’. The words and illustration on the container suggest it was being sold as a joke. However flash wool of this type was also used by magicians to create unexpected flashes.
When the pistol is fired the barrel breaks up and droops in a most absurd way. Note that a Davenport demon head and the word DEMON are stamped into the wooden grip. Advertised by Davenports for 15/6d.
When the pistol is fired the barrel breaks up and droops in a most absurd way. Note that a Davenport demon head is stamped into the wooden grip.
Although this is just a gag, it can be used in many ways, including having some fun with a magic tricks. For example, a magician could put a card face down on the table and say “We must keep an EYE on that card”. The eye comes with a whole host of printed ideas for its use, copyright by L. Davenport & Co., London. Television and American Rights Reserved. Also illustrated here is the Davenports advertisement.
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The September 2022 issue included:
– three seldom seen tricks.
– a little known Davenport shop.
– two jokes for your drinking and card playing friends.
– Jimmy’s Magic Pencil.
– magicians and their families
– noise-making novelties.
To see all the other e-news, click on Website e-news.
The dummy pack of cards contains a clockwork motor and a bell. When the pack is removed from a card box by an unsuspecting player, the pack suddenly starts to ring its bell.