Conjuring Credits

The Origins of Wonder

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Jinx Switch

When Theo Annemann published this switch in The Jinx, No. 36, Sep. 1937, p. 243, in the context of a gambling demonstration called “Call Your Hand,” he thought it original with him. At the end he mentions that a card cheat thought it better than the packet switch used at the card table. Annemann seems to have reinvented this packet switch, as it was described by Jack Merlin as “The Hop Off the Bottom” in ...and a Pack of Cards, 1928, p. 52 of the combined 1940 Hugard revision. There is a difference in presentation. Merlin exposes the switch in the context of a gambling exposé; Annemann uses it secretly in his gambling demonstration.