Conjuring Credits

The Origins of Wonder

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Color-changing Deck

This plot was first published or marketed by Charles T. Jordan as a trick titled “Speaking of Pink Elephants!”, 1916. Jordan, in turn, credited William McGrew with the plot. The method utilized long and short card pairs, glued at one end.

Students will find it interesting to compare Theodore Annemann's “Color Changing Deck” in his $50 Manuscript, 1932, with Dai Vernon's influential handling in Dai Vernon's Inner Secrets of Card Magic by Lewis Ganson, 1959, p. 25. It seems likely that Vernon built on Annemann's handling, adding refinements.

In 1948, Joe Stuthard marketed the Bi-Co Trilby Deck, which used End Strippers to cause the backs of the deck to change from red to blue and vice versa; see The Wizard, Vol. Vol. 2, No. 22, Jan. 1949, p. 352. This was a direct variation of Ellsworth Lyman's “Color Changing Trick” in The Sphinx, Vol. 6, No. 9, Nov. 1907, p. 107. Lyman's deck used End Strippers to cause the faces to change to all red cards, then all black cards. (In turn, Lyman's gimmicked deck was a development of the Impromptu Long-Short Deck principle.)

See also: Trilby Deck.