The Davenport Collection
- a growing resource on magic and entertainment history

T.L. DeLand Jr.

DeLand’s Automatic Dollar Deck

DeLand’s Automatic Dollar Deck

Amazing card tricks are possible when the performer is experienced in using DeLand’s Automatic Playing Cards. The collection has one pack with a yellow wrapper, and one without. According to the card case, the packs of cards were made in America exclusively by S.S. Adams Co, Asbury Park, N.J. The pack has been on the market for decades. Richard Kaufman, an expert on DeLand, says that DeLand’s Dollar Deck had that name from the time it first appeared on the market in May 1914 until the end of 1918. When S.S. Adams first put it out in early 1919, they did so with the title, Automatic Playing Cards, and it was under that title that it has been sold until sometime in 2009, when Magic Makers bought S.S. Adams and changed the title to DeLand’s 100 Dollar Deck.

La Mystérieuse

La Mystérieuse

Cut the postcard into 3 pieces. Where does the 16th card go when the position of the two lower pieces are reversed? The postcard advertises Martinka & Co., a magic shop in New York City.