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A Modern Handkerchief Act - with Patter
Hull, Burling Vulta
American Magic Corporation (1915)
In Collection
#4302
10*
Conjuring
Magic tricks
Paperback 
USA  eng
Hull, Burling: A Modern Handkerchief Act
©1915 Burling Hull, American Magic Corp., NY
Softcover, folded manuscript, 5.5x8.5", 20 pages

Comments: "An up-to-date program of selected tricks with handkerchiefs for magical entertainers playing Lyceum, Club, or Stage Engagements, with humorous patter."

Contents:

3 Introduction
3 Nature of the Act
3 Composition of the Act
4 B.H. Black Art Design
4 The Triumph Portable Table
5 A Modern Handkerchief Act With Patter
5 Preparation and Arrangement of Apparatus
6 How It Is Accomplished
7 Openings Suggested
7 Burling Hull Opening Handkerchief Production
8 Spool Production
8 The Greater Flag Trick
9 Production of Silks
9 Quality and Preparation of Handkerchiefs
10 Egyptian Handkerchief Casket
10 Top-o-Pocket Dodge
11 Handkerchief Casket
11 Regarding the Burling Hull Manipulation of the Egyptian Wonder Casket
12 Perfected Handkerchief Dyeing Trick
13 Dyeing Handkerchiefs
14 The Flying and Knotting Silks
15 Vanishing Silk and Handkerchief Pedestal
16 Improved Handkerchief Producing Pedestals
17 Alternative Conclusions
18 New Idea Flag Production
19 Nymex Production Boxes
20 Regarding the Nymex Production Chimneys
Product Details
Extras Rare
No. of Pages 20
Personal Details
Read It No
Location Magic Library (Home) Shelf N
Condition Good
Owner Bryan-Keith Taylor
Notes
Burling "Volta" Hull was an expert manipulator, mentalist, escape artist, illusionist, night-club performer, TV pioneer, and master marketer.

Burling Hull (September 9 1889 - November 1982) (alias "Volta, "Volta the Great", and "The White Wizard" ) was an inventive magician, self-styled "the Edison of magic," specializing in mentalist and psychic effects. During the greater part of his life he lived in DeLand, Florida.

In his earlier years he performed a skillful manipulation act, making billiard balls and silks vanish, multiply and reappear, while dressed entirely in white. [1]

Hull claimed to be -- and is generally credited as -- the inventor of the Svengali deck of cards, which he patented in 1909. He was a prolific writer, with 52 published books to his name. He wrote on a wide variety of magical subjects, including card tricks, mentalism, escapes, razor blade swallowing, sightless vision, billiard ball manipulation, silk magic, publicity and showmanship. His 33 Rope Ties and Chain Releases, written in 1915, is still popular today.

A shrewd businessman and marketer, Hull not only produced many titles about magical effects, he gave talks to magic conventions on business methods for entertainers. He was active in the movement to protect magic trade secrets by both patent on the gimmicks and copyright on the texts, as applicable, but he undercut his own ethical stance against plagiarism by publishing secret material from other magicians who had stolen from him, in order to get revenge for having been plagiarized.

Hull's weighty three-volume Encyclopedic Dictionary of Mentalism, published in 1961, was the largest compilation of mentalism sleights, gimmicks, effects, patter, and illusions in one collection up to that date. This work was also notable as the venue in which Hull carried out his excoriating feud with the equally famous mentalist Robert A. Nelson, whom he accused in print of teaching mentalism to gamblers and racketeers in order that they might commit what Hull called "thievery of the public", and whom he criticised for selling hoodoo folk magic curios that Hull said were used in rituals of "black magic and Devil worship". [2]

In the late 1950s he published a sort of newsletter called The G_d D__n Truth About Magic, mainly for the purpose of criticizing Nelson and supposedly written by one Gideon ("Gid") Dayn, but it didn't take much imagination to know what the first words actually stood for. [1]

In his final years he lost his eyesight, a loss he never learned to accept, and he died at the age of 93 in a nursing home. [1]





References
1. a b c Francis Marshall in the introduction to a reprint of The G_d D__n Truth About Magic.
2. Hull, Burling. Encyclopedic Dictionary of Mentalism. 1961.