Baker, Al: Al Baker's Magical Ways and Means
©1941, Publ. by Carl W. Jones
92 Drawings by Harlan Tarbell, 47 Photos by Irving Desfor
Hard cover, 135 pages

1st of 2 copies

Comment: (Alan Stewart). This book can also be found as part of the compilation, The Secret Ways of Al Baker, published by The Miracle Factory

Contents:

xi Introduction

1 Chapter One: Cards
1 A Lesson in Magic (Baker version of 15 card trick with discourse on methodology)
8 The Magician at Home (Deck set on floor - cuts self to chosen card - now classic effect)
9 Red-Black Transposition
12 One Deck Do As I Do
14 Half Card and Cigarette Trick (Card in cigarette)
17 Ambitious Card Interlude
18 Herrmann's Vanish of a Fan of Cards
20 "Roughing" It (Making roughing fluid)
20 Outguessing the Spectator
22 Improved Card Code for Two Persons
24 Walking and jumping Card (Card from hat)
26 Flapless Envelope Switch (Baker Method)
28 The Knife Dial
29 Slipping the Cut, Table Method (Baker Improvement)
31 The Swinging, Rising Cards (Baker Method for Club Work)
34 Poker Face (Magician riffles cards; "detects" spectator's reactions to chosen cards)
35 Miniature Card in Balloon (Pocket version of card in balloon)

37 Chapter Two: Coins and Bills
37 Magical Filtration of Four Half Dollars
40 Stack of Quarters (Baker version of "Cap and Pence")
42 Rising Coin (Baker Method)
44 A Dinner Table Trick (Coin through tablecloth)
44 Bending a Half Dollar (Uses fake)
45 A Knotty Problem (Coin into handkerchief knot)
47 Dollar Bill and Cigarette (Baker method for borrowed bill to cigarette)
50 Erectile Dollar Bill (Before it's time?)
52 Dollar Bill Switch
54 Envelopes and Coin

56 Chapter Three: Silks
56 20th Century Silks (Baker Method)
59 Phantom Tube (Baker Presentation)
60 Spirits at Work (Silk knotting interlude)
63 A Silk Force (Forcing a silk color)
64 The Knot That just Won't
66 Sympathetic Silks (Streamline Version)

72 Chapter Four: Ropes
72 Give a Magician Enough Rope (Stage Version of Cut and Restored Rope Effect)
74 A Rope Interlude (Self untying rope -running gag)

76 Chapter Five: Mindreading
76 Cooperative Conjuring (Card appears at number selected by dice)
77 Acme Mindreading Effect
79 Seeing Through Solid Matter (Assistant "reads" numbers on concealed slates)
81 Super-Superprediction (Effect similar to brain-wave deck with ordinary cards)
84 Concentration-Card Crimp (Spectator crimps card unknowingly)
85 Al Baker Number Force-Prepared Cards
87 Baker Slate Easel
59Any Telephone Book Test
90 Number and Book Test

92 Chapter Six: Mnemonics
92 Saturday Evening Post Feat
96 Phenomenal Memory
98 An Impossible Count
100 The Celebrity Feat (Performer names chosen celebrity - confederate required)
101 The Polish Psychic (Telephone code)
102 Living and Dead Test Plus
104 A Miracle of Memory
107 The Pairs Repaired (New Baker Method) (Mutus Dedit Numen Cocis version)

109 Chapter Seven: The Linking Rings
109 Linking Rings Opening (8 rings are hanging "linked" at opening)
110 Baker's Linking Rings (9 ring set - one undersized - and lots of thread)

120 Chapter Eight: Specialties
120 Levitation of a Glass of Liquid
122 The Naomi Gold Fish Bowl Production
124 Ink Filtration (Baker Method)
126 Welded Flash Paper (Torn and restored paper with a flash)
127 Glass Penetration (Baker Method)
129 The Flying Match Head
129 Kiddie Party Slate
131 Torn and Restored Paper Napkin
132 The Quick and the Dead (With Baker Pellet Switch)
134 Cut and Restored Necktie