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--- cards:fusion [2018/10/07 13:26] – Added gaffed card section. tylerwilson
+++ cards:fusion [2022/10/25 18:30] – Removed several superfluous citations and moved Wesley James to the end of the chain. stephenminch
@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 The plot of causing two cards to fuse into one was published by Norm Houghton as "Stranger of Another Color" in //[[http://askalexander.org/display/9333/Ibidem+Volume+1/145|Ibidem]]//, No. 5, Apr. 1956, p. 19. Houghton had a blue-backed card fuse to the face of a red-backed selection. No signatures were involved.
-Several years later, signatures made their way into the fold. The first few handlings to involve signatures weren't presented as fusions, but rather as predictions or moveable ink -- the result was the same, though; that of two signed cards becoming one. The first of these was J. G. Thompson, Jr.'s "Joint Signature" from //[[http://askalexander.org/display/12839/Pallbearers+Review+Vol+5+6/79|The Pallbearers Review]]//, Vol. 5 No. 12, Oct. 1970, p. 365. In this trick, a prediction card, signed by the performer on the back, ends up on a selection signed by its chooser on the face. The next was Karl Fulves's "Future Minus" from //[[http://askalexander.org/display/13083/The+Book+of+Numbers/39|The Book of Numbers]]//, 1971, p. 39. A red-backed prediction card fused to the initialed face of a blue-backed selection. Dan Tong later used signatures to reintroduce the fusion premise with "Signature" in //The Blueprint//, Vol. 1 No. 8, Feb. 1975, p. 32. Ian Baxter -- an editor of //The Blueprint// -- anachronistically published his own variants of Tong's trick as "Signature Variations" in the previous month's issue, Vol. 1 No. 7, Jan. 1975, p. 27.
+Several years later, signatures made their way into the fold. The first fusion of signed cards, one signed by a spectator on its face, the second by the performer on its back, is Art Spring's "Matched Cards" in //[[https://askalexander.org/display/12851/Pallbearers+Review+Vol.+3+&+4/150|The Pallbearers Review]]//, Vol. 4, No. 10, Aug. 1969, p. 278.
-Wesley James has claimed the Fusion plot as his, but he didn't publish his "Forgery" until //[[http://askalexander.org/display/14532/Stop+Fooling+Us+Lecture+Notes/46|Stop Fooling Us!]]//, 1989, p. 39. James has two cards fuse, one signed by the spectator, the other by the performer. Even if calculating by James's claims of creating his trick in 1965 (see //[[http://askalexander.org/display/12674/Enchantments|Enchantments]]//, 2004, p. 5), Houghton's fusion effect, although lacking signatures, predates it by nine years.
+Four issues later, Karl Fulves added a note regarding Spring's effect (see //[[https://askalexander.org/display/12839/Pallbearers+Review+Vol.+5+&+6/22|The Pallbearers Review]]//, Vol. 5, No. 2, Dec. 1969, p. 308). Fulves first mentioned Houghton's trick. He then described an effect he recalled in which two chosen cards, unsigned, are returned to the deck, one face down, the other face up. When the deck is spread, the face-up selection is found fused, back to back with the face-down selection, creating a double-faced card. This trick has yet to be identified.
-The open use of gimmicked cards was later introduced to enhance the effect. Gene Maze, Richard Kaufman, and David Arthur used a double-backed card in their "Fusion" routine from //CardWorks//, 1981, p. 47. Strictly speaking this wasn’t a fusion routine, regardless of the title. The cards weren’t fused but merely “stuck together” (which, while similar, are conceptually very different). The double backer was then separated back into two cards, meaning the merger had no permanency. That same year, Paul Harris and Looy Simonoff published "The Beast With Two Backs" in //Close-Up Fantasies Finalé//, 1981, p. 113, which climaxed with two cards permanently fused together in the form of a red/blue double backer. Steve Beam developed the idea of ending with a double facer, publishing it as "Making Faces" in //The Trapdoor//, No. 7, Jan. 1985, p. 115 (in the text, Beam claims to have been doing the routine since his college days).
-Prior to the fusion effect being applied to cards, it was developed for [[coin:fusion|coins and billiard balls]].
+The open use of a double-backed card was later introduced to enhance the effect. Gene Maze, Richard Kaufman, and David Arthur used this gaffed card in their "Fusion" routine from //CardWorks//, 1981, p. 47. Strictly speaking, this isn’t a fusion routine, regardless of the title. The cards weren’t presented as fused but merely “stuck together” (which, while similar, is conceptually different). The double-backer was then split back into two cards, giving the merger no permanency.
-  * [[http://www.conjuringarchive.com/list/category/899|Category in Denis Behr's "Conjuring Archive"]]
+also saw the publication of Paul Harris and Looy Simonoff's "The Beast with Two Backs" in //Close-Up Fantasies Finalé//, 1981, p. 113. This trick ended with two cards permanently fused together in the form of a red/blue double-backer.
+The first published variation to use a double-faced card to fuse together two spectator-signed selections is "Hotfoot" by Jay Sankey, in //Sankey Panky//, 1986, p. 76.
+Wesley James has claimed the Fusion plot as his, but he didn't publish his "Forgery" until //[[http://askalexander.org/display/14532/Stop+Fooling+Us+Lecture+Notes/46|Stop Fooling Us!]]//, 1989, p. 39. James has two cards fuse, one signed by the spectator, the other by the performer. Even if calculating by the 1965 creation date James claims for his trick (see //[[http://askalexander.org/display/12674/Enchantments|Enchantments]]//, 2004, p. 5), Houghton's fusion effect, although lacking signatures, predates it by nine years.
+The complexity in the development of the card-fusion concept makes it a forbidding topic for succinct discussion. The citations above offer points of origin and some highlights in its evolution. To explore the subject further, refer to:
+* [[http://www.conjuringarchive.com/list/category/899|Category in Denis Behr's "Conjuring Archive"]]
+----
+Prior to the fusion effect being applied to cards, it was suggested for [[coin:fusion|coins and billiard balls]].
+----
+===== Precursor =====
+Prior to cards being fused face-to-face or back-to-back, George Fairclough published a method of fusing cards end-to-end. His trick, "The Mystical Aces and Kings" appeared in //[[https://askalexander.org/display/38527/The+Sphinx/5|The Sphinx]]//, Vol. 6 No. 8, Oct. 1907, p. 93.
 {{tag>effect}}

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