by Part-Timer » Mar 15th, '05, 10:35
As suggested by Mandrake, this is a thread about the Inzani-Henley Magic Company.
They were based in Borehamwood, but I don’t know much more about them than this. I’m sure Dale will offer further details.
I became involved with them in the very early 80s. Somewhere I found out about the young magicians club they ran (I think it might have been a rather nice hardback book Ali Bongo produced). I wrote off with my postal order, or cheque provided by a parent, and joined up.
They used to send round flyers of tricks and I think I ended up buying nearly everything on the ones I saw (early CUPS sufferer).
They also used to produce little packaged tricks and there was a shop near me (sadly long since gone) that had a toy department selling these. They were simple things like ‘Multiplying Doggies’, or the ‘Grandmother’s Necklace’, but they had a few things I haven’t seen elsewhere. They also used these very strange sponge cubes that were made of extremely dense foam.
The mascot was Rudy Rabbit and he featured on the free badge you got when you joined the junior club. They also produced an enamelled badge, which I bought. He also appeared on the packaging of some of the company’s products.
Not long after this, Rudy got his own strip in ‘TV Comic’. They were stories of him and (as I recall) his nephew. There was usually some kind of magic theme.
At the bottom of the page, was a trick or puzzle offering from Ali Bongo.
Then, in about 1983 or 1984, I stopped hearing from the company and, as I had slightly lost interest in magic at that stage (largely because I wasn’t hearing much from them and my CUPS had waned), I never looked into it further. However, Dale might be able to shed more light on this.