This now standard bit of business, in which the performer pretends to wind up the deck of cards, was done with a Watch Winder when explained by Karroll Fox in Kornfidentially Yours, 1954, p. 41, item 7.

Months later, Paul LePaul credited the gag in its better-known form—riffling the thumb down one corner of the deck to make a loud “winding” noise, rather than using a Watch Winder—to George Coon; see The New Phoenix, No. 324, Mar. 8, 1955, p. 106.