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In Miscellaneous I have recommed to a beginner, who wants card tricks with little or No sleights ( 'I do not have the time to learn sleights'!!!!! he says) to look at the 2nd Card Magic book I bought when I was 13/14.
Even today there is a lot of good stuff in--CARD TRICKS WITHOUT SKILL by Paul Clive

AND IF you go for Card Tricks Without Skill (it has had several editions) IGNORE Chapter V11--The Identity Pack.
I did buy this, in a separate booklet then, in my mid teens, straight from Paul Clive.
It is a pre arranged deck but at age 13/14 it puzzled me no end. Looked at it last week at age 79 AND it still puzzles me.!!!

So -- if I cannot master it after 70 years of magic--Ranald--you do not stand a chance.

However you should like the other contents and PC writes in a simple, practical to understand way.

CONTENTS.
1. Conjurer's terms & Artifices. pages 7 to 39
2. Beginner's Tricks pages 40 to 51
3. Impromptu Mysteries pages 53 to 74
4. Miscellaneous pages 75 to 101
5. Treated & Prepared cards. pages 102 to 118
6. Pre-Arrangement pages 119 to 144
7. The Identity Pack. pages 145 to 157
8. Contributions by Present Day Magicians (this was 1946) pages 158 to 190

There is also an INDEX of each chapter at the end of the book; showing each item or trick, & the method involved.

When I was a very young boy--my parents bought my first Magic Set from Paul Clive's shop on Central Drive, Blackpool
Then I discovered he had a tall round booth on Central Pier and daily he would demonsrate the tricks. You could look all round the booth with its glass windows and glory over the marvels on the small shelves.
Later I found his big Magic Shop on the North Pier. Fatal!!
Every Blackpool holiday the coach driver would drop me off there and later--much later--I would find my way to the boarding house.
After this my parents hardly ever saw me, except at meal & bed times, whenever we holidayed in Blackpool

My first Table, Die Box, Diminishing Cards, Wandering Block and several hundred other tricks came from there. Items like Return To Karnak (transposition of a tall Mummy) & Robbery On 5th.Avenue (these were made by the House of Veroni?? a place where ken Brooke worked in his early years) and even today I still have the Stamp Album from the North Pier Shop.

In 1981-The year after my Dante Show, I took my wife to Blackpool as she had never seen the Iluminations. Obviously I HAD to visit the North Pier.
Alas the Magic Shop had vanished BUT just round its corner was a small magic shop and behind the counter was--Paul Clive. Now white haired.
The big surprise was how small he was. In the Central Pier booth he would be on a raised floor and to a little kid, he looked like a blonde giant.
We had a long chat--I bought some stuff-had to for old time's sake. I gave him one of the programmes from my Dante Show-he is credited in it with starting me off--and some photographs of several of the illusions.
I also told him his brother Douglas Craggs book -=The ABC of Ventriloquism had been of enormous help to my becoming a Vent. It is still the best book on Vent techniques ever published and yes, I still have the original( 1944 on wartime paper) and the reprint--1969 (published by Faber who also republished Card Tricks Without Skill)

In 2006 I lectured on Kalanag the German post war illusionist to Blackpool Magicians Club. AND again went to the North Pier. Alas even the small shop had gone but from the old big shop I bought several non magic souvenirs.

Allen Tipton

I knew Paul Clive well and in fact mentioned him in my memoirs, "The Lives of a Showman". I always found it amusing that he wrote one of the classic books on card tricks and his friend Joe Smith of Central Pier said to me, "I have known Paul for over 30 years and I have never seen him do a card trick in his life! I don't think he knows any!" The truth of the matter is that Paul knew very little about card magic but went around with a notebook asking various notables in magic if they knew any easy card tricks and he simply wrote them up in his famous book.

I once saw his book in a magic shop in Toronto and told him it was there thinking he would be pleased. Instead he got quite irritated and was annoyed he wasn't getting any royalties from Canada. And here is another thing. He would never tell customers in his shop that he wrote the book when he sold it to them. His wife had to force him to do it. I think he couldn't be bothered signing autographs in the book if he revealed he was the author.

Paul does say in his Introduction--'So in this book which I now offer, I have endeavoured to COLLATE all the best material that does not involve skill in sleight of hand.'

At no point Mark, does he claim to have 'written himself' the material in the book.
In fact if you re look he adds where appropriate, the 'inventor/deviser's name. His own name is there for just a very few of the tricks and for his own, very puzzling, 'Identity Pack.'

Although over the years, I have had most of the famous tomes on Card Magic--this is still my favourite and it is SO easy & so enjoyable to read and follow.

Allen Tipton

Nice story Allen, it must have been great walking into his new shop all those years later. Sadly my interest in magic as a child was only very fleeting and I didn't have the discipline to stick with learning anything seriously but I remember my infrequent day trips to Blackpool as a child and being able to visit 'Joke Shop' that was on the corner of the car park we always parked in. My favourite was 'Smoke From Fingertips' which I was entralled with at the time. I'm not sure if the shop is still there but I seem to remember it had 'Joke Shop' painted on the car park side of the shop.

Shaun.

Yes indeed. I still use one of his (or perhaps not his) ideas from the book in connection with "Out of This World". I get the spectator to give me one card he is not sure of. At the end it proves to be a joker. It works great.

Incidentally Paul was the master of the Bird Warbler sometimes known in those days as the Ventrilo. He also had a grafting line (pitch product) known as the "Miracle Cloth". I remember he had a lady called Dolly in Selfridges doing it. She was taking good money with it too. His warehouse manager once said to me, "Paul will take the secret of that cloth to his grave". I don't think that is true because I have seen it sold in flea markets in Canada and I think I have seen pitchmen work something similar in all the home shows over here.

He emigrated to America at one point for around ten years or so and then returned. He told me going there was the biggest mistake he ever made.

]
Gosh Mark I had forgotten the Ventrilo--Bird Warbler but as soon as you mentioned it I can see now, in my mind a glass of water on his counter in the Central Pier Booth and he occasionally dipped--something (Bird Warbler) into it.
The Cloth I do not remember at all.

Douglas Craggs OBE., a renowned ventriloquist and Hon. VP of the Magic Circle was his brother.
Paul Clive was his trade name. During the war there was suspicion everywhere and the magic dealer Paul Clive had a different name on his Identity Card--Paul Craggs.He solved this by changing his name to Paul Clive by deed poll.
I still have one of his 91 page Witchcraft Magic catalogues--this one was from his branch in Aldersgate, London EC1. The Blackpool one, was it back of Cocker Street? is with my son Mike, in Portugal

Douglas wrote the finest book on the art of Ventriloquism and Doll techniques ever.
The ABC of Ventriloquism, (1944)
Not for him--substitute g for b etc. In the book are detailed drawings on the mouth's interior showing exactly how to pronounce the dreaded labials--m--p--b--v-f-w.
There was also a section on gags and dialogues.
My Dad bought my copy my copy (still have it) in 1946 from Davenports--their gold & black Demon sticker is still in the front of the book.
It was printed on War Time paper--quite thin & on pages 13 and a half inches by 8 (34cms by 20)
Later I bought DH's update version in hardback with some new gags etc in it. Published by Faber in 1966.This is 8 inches by 5 and a half.

Allen Tipton
I can paste the inside cover of the war time first edition here IF SOMEONE can tell me how to do this????? Does not work in the normal way.
Magic--yes--Theatre--yes Computer techniques--no!!!

There were features recently in The Magic Circular about Douglas Craggs and Paul Clive.

Barry

In the photos in Card TWS the two brothers look slightly different. But the earlier photo of Paul Clive in his catalogue you can see the resemblance instantly with that of DC in the card book.

Allen Tipton
I'll ask my oldest friend in Magic to scan me the MC info.