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--- cards:fusion [2019/04/25 06:39] – Added precursor. tylerwilson
+++ cards:fusion [2022/10/27 18:28] (current) – Added Weston citation and pruned redundant further citations. 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.
+Roughly eight months later, a routine by Mark Weston, "Fantasy with Two Faces", appeared in //[[https://askalexander.org/display/18614/Abracadabra/430|Abracadabra]]//, Vol. 22 No. 568, Dec. 15, 1956, p. 346. This is the second seminal item in the development of the fusion plot. The performer takes two seemingly random cards from the deck. He places them into an envelope, from which he proposes to make them disappear. But things go wrong---only the faces vanish, leaving a single card made of the two backs fused together. And the two faces are found in the middle of the deck, also fused together as a single card. To right the situation, the double-backed card and double-faced card are put into an envelope, from which they vanish. The deck is spread, and one of the cards is seen face up in the middle. Below it, face down, is the second card: two complete and normal cards again. Weston's routine establishes both face-to-face and back-to-back fusions of two cards, and the open use of a double-backed card and a double-faced card. Despite the establishment of these central ideas for the fusion plot, his routine went entirely overlooked in the later progression of fusion card effects.
-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.
+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.
-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, is conceptually different). The double-backer was then split back into two cards, giving the merger 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 ended 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 his text, Beam claims to have been doing the routine since his college days.
+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 he thought originated in England 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.
+Despite these developments, fusion effects with cards didn't begin to become really popular with magicians until the publication of "Fusion" by Gene Maze, Richard Kaufman and David Arthur in Kaufman's //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). A double-backer was used, which was then apparently split back into two cards, giving the merger no permanency.
+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 fuse together two spectator-signed selections is "Hotfoot" by Jay Sankey, in //Sankey Panky//, 1986, p. 76.
+The citations above offer points of origin and some highlights in the evolution of the fusion effect. To explore the subject in greater detail, 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.
-  * [[http://www.conjuringarchive.com/list/category/899|Category in Denis Behr's "Conjuring Archive"]]
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