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--- cards:oil_and_water [2015/08/19 08:07] – links added denisbehr
+++ cards:oil_and_water [2015/09/03 14:27] – link added denisbehr
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 ====== Oil and Water ======
-Generally credited to Edward Marlo, although this has been challenged by Karl Fulves. Marlo first published the effect and a method for it in //[[http://askalexander.org/display/14971/M+U+M/148|M-U-M]]//, Vol. 43 No. 4, Sep. 1953, p. 148. Later that year he published an expanded, three-phase routine in his book //[[http://askalexander.org/display/10922/The+Cardician/112|The Cardician]]//, 1953, p. 111. Marlo went on to publish numerous methods and several variant effects, such as causing the colors to remix magically, after separating; see "Oil and Water Climax" in //[[http://askalexander.org/display/9333/Ibidem+Volume+1/199|Ibidem]]//, No. 8, Dec. 1956, p. 15.
+Generally credited to Edward Marlo, although this has been challenged by Karl Fulves. Marlo first published the effect and a method for it in //[[http://askalexander.org/display/14971/M+U+M/148|M-U-M]]//, Vol. 43 No. 4, Sep. 1953, p. 148. Later that year he published an expanded, three-phase routine in his book //[[http://askalexander.org/display/10922/The+Cardician/112|The Cardician]]//, 1953, p. 111. Marlo went on to publish numerous methods and several variant effects.
 Marlo has been quoted as writing that the Oil and Water routine was not new with him. However, the full quote from //[[http://askalexander.org/display/10922/The+Cardician/113|The Cardician]]//, 1953, p. 112, reads: "Altho the Oil and Water routine is not new with us, having worked out several other versions years ago, this present version we feel is superior in directness of effects." Here he seems to be saying that he has worked on the Oil and Water effect for years, and therefore it isn't new to him. Without the qualification given by the full sentence, the first phrase can seem to mean that he is acknowledging that Oil and Water was not his original effect.
+Several color-separation tricks that preceded Marlo's "Oil and Water" have been cited to suggest that the plot was not original to him. The earliest is the centuries-old idea of separating the colors of a shuffled deck with one cut. The method employed a Stripper Deck. Reinhard Müller cites two early sources for this: William Hooper's //[[http://askalexander.org/display/12809/Hooper+Rational+Recreations+Second+Ed+Vol+4+1782/232|Rational Recreations, Vol. 4]]//, 1782, second edition, p. 264; and //Ein Blick in Döbler’s und Bosco’s Zauberkabinett// edited by L. Schellenberg, 1832, p. 193. Ottokar Fischer published what seems a description of this effect, rumored to have been done by J. N. Hofzinser with an unprepared deck; see "Die magische Separation" in Fischer's //[[http://askalexander.org/display/15020/J+N+Hofzinser+Kartenkunste/230|J. N. Hofzinser Kartenkünste]]//, 1910, p. 217; also Magic Christian's //[[http://askalexander.org/display/7924/Johann+Nepomuk+Hofzinser+1806+1875+Non+Plus+Ultra/344|J. N. Hofzinser: Non Plus Ultra, Vol. II]]//, 2013, p. 390. There are three problems with this theoretical Hofzinser effect. First, it is uncertain if he actually did it. Second, the method is not known. And third, Fischer's description states that the performer sets the mixed deck on the table and makes two piles. It is not specified if the formation of these piles is done with a cut, by dealing or with some other procedure. With so many points of uncertainty, making a case for a relationship between this effect and Oil and Water is difficult.
+Another trick proposed as a precursor to Oil and Water is Edward Victor's "Reversed Cards", marketed in 1920 by Will Goldston. While no information on Victor's method seems to have survived, examining the ad for the trick in Goldston's //[[http://askalexander.org/display/7389/The+Magazine+of+Magic/57|Magazine of Magic]]//, Vol. 7 No. 3, Feb. 1920, inner front cover, shows that the effect is a packet variant of Charles T. Jordan's "The Alternate Reverse" from his //[[http://askalexander.org/display/14618/Thirty+Card+Mysteries/56|Thirty Card Mysteries]]//, 1919, p. 54, in which cards are alternated face up and face down, and then right themselves magically. The colors of the cards appear to have no bearing on the effect, which is one of cards magically reversing, not of colors separating.
 In 1940, Walter B. Gibson published a one-phase color separation effect with a six-card packet: "Like Seeks Like" in //[[http://askalexander.org/display/12764/Jinx+No+051+100/233|The Jinx]]//, No. 91, May 1940, p. 569. Gibson used the Glide to cause the colors to separate. This has been cited as evidence that the effect is older than Marlo's "Oil and Water", but Marlo argued that important elements differentiate Gibson's effect from his: (1) an emphasized mixing procedure of the colors, (2) repetition of the effect and (3) the metaphor of oil and water to underline the effect.
-In 1928, Leslie Guest preceded Marlo in proposing the effect of causing the cards in two banks—one red, one black—to alternate magically. In his column in //[[http://askalexander.org/display/40797/Linking+Ring/45|The Linking Ring]]//, Vol. 8 No. 8, Oct. 1928, p. 639, Guest mentioned that a number of methods could be constructed, and gave as an example preparing a deck by waxing pairs of cards together. This variant effect is now commonly called "Anti Oil and Water".
+An unusual red and black separation effect, "Les Seize Rouges et les Seize Noires", is an early relative of the Oil and Water plot. This appeared in the French conjuring journal //[[http://www.conjuringcredits.com/lib/tpl/credits/files/passez_muscade.pdf|Passez Muscade]]//, No. 23, Sep 1924, p. 290, under the byline of "Professeur Magicus". A deck is examined and shuffled by a spectator and set under the foot of a goblet. The goblet is covered. The spectator next chooses red or black, and all cards of this color are made to travel magically from the deck to the goblet above. The method involves the Mirror Glass principle, a box that switches decks and a prepared set of double-faced cards with red faces on one side and a Deland-like two-card-spread gaff on the other side. When the pack is fanned with the gaffed two-card faces showing, it appears to be a full deck, but when the other side is fanned and displayed, only red cards are seen and they may be counted to prove there is only half a deck left.
-Other examples of color-separation tricks preceding Marlo's "Oil and Water" have been proposed. The earliest is the centuries-old idea of separating the colors of a shuffled deck with one cut. The method employed a Stripper Deck; Reinhard Müller cites two early sources for this: William Hooper's //[[http://askalexander.org/display/12809/Hooper+Rational+Recreations+Second+Ed+Vol+4+1782/232|Rational Recreations, Vol. 4]]//, p. 264 of the second edition, and //Ein Blick in Döbler’s und Bosco’s Zauberkabinett// edited by L. Schellenberg, 1832, p. 193. Ottokar Fischer published what seems a description of this effect, rumored to have been done by J. N. Hofzinser with an unprepared deck; see "Die magische Separation" in Fischer's //[[http://askalexander.org/display/15020/J+N+Hofzinser+Kartenkunste/230|J. N. Hofzinser Kartenkünste]]//, 1910, p. 217; also Magic Christian's //[[http://askalexander.org/display/7924/Johann+Nepomuk+Hofzinser+1806+1875+Non+Plus+Ultra/344|J. N. Hofzinser: Non Plus Ultra, Vol. II]]//, 2013, p. 390. There are three problems with this theoretical Hofzinser effect. First, it is uncertain if he actually did it. Second, the method is not known. And third, Fischer's description states that the performer sets the mixed deck on the table and makes two piles. It is not specified if the formation of these piles is done with a cut, by dealing or with some other procedure. With so many points of uncertainty, making a case for a relationship between this effect and Oil and Water is difficult.
+It has been pointed out that Samuel Pavloff contributed a Four Ace effect, "What's Up?", to //[[http://askalexander.org/display/38699/Hugard+s+Magic+Monthly/68|Hugard's Magic Monthly]]//, Vol. 6 No. 7, Dec. 1948, p. 494, in which, at one point he uses an oil-and-water metaphor with others conveying the idea of separation. That is the only similarity to Marlo's "Oil and Water".
-Another trick proposed as a precursor to Oil and Water is Edward Victor's "Reversed Cards", marketed in 1920 by Will Goldston. While no information on Victor's method seems to have survived, examining the ad for the trick in Goldston's //[[http://askalexander.org/display/7389/The+Magazine+of+Magic/57|Magazine of Magic]]//, Vol. 7 No. 3, Feb. 1920, inner front cover, shows that the effect is a packet variant of Charles T. Jordan's "The Alternate Reverse" from his //[[http://askalexander.org/display/14618/Thirty+Card+Mysteries/56|Thirty Card Mysteries]]//, 1919, p. 54, in which cards are alternated face up and face down, and then right themselves magically. The colors of the cards appear to have no bearing on the effect, which is one of cards magically reversing, not of colors separating.
+===== Anti Oil and Water =====
-It has also been pointed out that Samuel Pavloff contributed a Four Ace effect, "What's Up?", to //[[http://askalexander.org/display/38699/Hugard+s+Magic+Monthly/68|Hugard's Magic Monthly]]//, Vol. 6 No. 7, Dec. 1948, p. 494, in which, at one point he uses an oil-and-water metaphor with others conveying the idea of separation. That is the only similarity to Marlo's "Oil and Water".
+In 1928, Leslie Guest proposed the effect of causing the cards in two banks—one red, one black—to alternate magically. In his column in //[[http://askalexander.org/display/40797/Linking+Ring/45|The Linking Ring]]//, Vol. 8 No. 8, Oct. 1928, p. 639, Guest mentioned that a number of methods could be constructed, and gave as an example preparing a deck by waxing pairs of cards together. This variant effect is now commonly called "Anti Oil and Water".  Marlo reinvented the effect when he published "Oil and Water Climax" in //[[http://askalexander.org/display/9333/Ibidem+Volume+1/199|Ibidem]]//, No. 8, Dec. 1956, p. 15.
 ===== The Oil & Water Effect applied to Card Backs =====

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