Conjuring Credits

The Origins of Wonder

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cards:svengali_deck [2019/04/29 05:16] – Added no-dupe reference. tylerwilsoncards:svengali_deck [2024/03/17 22:13] – Clarified early history. stephenminch
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 ====== Svengali Deck ====== ====== Svengali Deck ======
  
-The short-long principle was transferred from [[paper:blow_book|blow books]] to playing cards by the 1600s; see the anonymous //[[http://askalexander.org/display/38803/Gibeci+re/74|Asti Manuscript]]//, c. 1700, p. 73 of the Pieper translation. This manuscript was translated in //Gibecière//, Vol. 8 No. 1, Winter 2013, p. 29-234.+The short-long principle was transferred from [[paper:blow_book|blow books]] to ungimmicked playing cards by the 1600s; see the anonymous //[[http://askalexander.org/display/38803/Gibeci+re/74|Asti Manuscript]]//, c. 1700, p. 73 of the Pieper translation. This manuscript was translated in //Gibecière//, Vol. 8 No. 1, Winter 2013, p. 29-234. Spot cards were slightly outjogged, leaving face cards slightly injogged, so that, when riffled in one direction, all the cards seen were spot cards; riffled in the other direction, they changed to face cards.
  
-The next significant step in the evolution of these gaffed decks occurred in the early twentieth century, with the Svengali Deck. There has been controversy over who invented the Svengali Deck, W. D. LeRoy or Burling Hull. T. A. Waters and Sam Sharpe both credit LeRoy; see Waters's //The Encyclopedia of Magic and Magicians//, 1988, p. 323, and Sharpe's //[[http://askalexander.org/display/5250/Magic+Circular+Vol+53/97|The Magic Circular]]//, Vol. 53 No. 593, Feb. 1959, p. 80. Bart Whaley and Jean Hugard both credit Hull; see Whaley's //Who's Who In Magic//, 1990, p. 288, and Hugard's //[[http://askalexander.org/display/14938/Encyclopedia+of+Card+Tricks/248|Encyclopedia of Card Tricks]]//, 1937, p. 245.+Card cheats used the short-long---or more precisely, narrow-wide---principle in conjunction with a stacked deck, according to the anonymous author (believed to be Ange Goudar) of  //L’antidote ou le Contrepoison des Chevaliers d’Industrie, ou Joueurs de Profession//, 1768, p. 85; see Lori Pieper's English translation in //[[https://askalexander.org/display/36270/Gibecière+Vol+7+Issue+2/85|Gibecière]]//, Vol. 12 No. 2, Summer 2012, p. 85. Of course, the purpose was not for a magical change, but for forcing a player to cut to certain disadvantageous cards. 
 + 
 +In 1907, Ellsworth Lyman contributed a gimmicked improvement for displaying the deck first as all red, then as all black: The deck used shortened corners rather than short cards to make the faces turn all red, then all black; see "A Color Changing Trick" in //[[https://askalexander.org/display/38528/The+Sphinx/7|The Sphinx]]//, Vol. 6 No. 9, Nov. 1907, p. 107. 
 + 
 +The next significant step in the evolution of these gaffed decks---its main purpose being to force a card, although displaying random cards and then all the same card is also done---was the Svengali Deck, which appeared two years after Lyman's variation on the centuries-old color-changing deck. There has been controversy over who invented the Svengali Deck, W. D. LeRoy or Burling Hull. T. A. Waters and Sam Sharpe both credit LeRoy; see Waters's //The Encyclopedia of Magic and Magicians//, 1988, p. 323, and Sharpe's //[[http://askalexander.org/display/5250/Magic+Circular+Vol+53/97|The Magic Circular]]//, Vol. 53 No. 593, Feb. 1959, p. 80. Bart Whaley and Jean Hugard both credit Hull; see Whaley's //Who's Who In Magic//, 1990, p. 288, and Hugard's //[[http://askalexander.org/display/14938/Encyclopedia+of+Card+Tricks/248|Encyclopedia of Card Tricks]]//, 1937, p. 245.
  
 John Booth, in //[[http://askalexander.org/display/40616/Linking+Ring/59|Linking Ring]]//, Vol. 70 No. 7, July 1990, p. 59, wrote, "Among his [Hull's] creations during this period was a deck he called 'Improved Cards Mysterious.' Apparently it passed into the hands of the Boston magic dealer, W. D LeRoy. Seeing its possibilities, LeRoy marketed it in 1909 under the title of 'Svengali Deck,' a name suggested by an employee of his, Herman Hanson, who would later attain fame as a vaudeville magician and Thurston's stage manager.... As a 19-year-old lad, on the ninth of March 1909 the trick deck was recorded in the Office of the Register of Copyrights, Washington, D.C., as 'Improved Cards Mysterious,' Class A. XXc. No. 233032, the 'rights' going to Burling Hull, Brooklyn, New York. He was only 15 when he invented this many-purposed deck." John Booth, in //[[http://askalexander.org/display/40616/Linking+Ring/59|Linking Ring]]//, Vol. 70 No. 7, July 1990, p. 59, wrote, "Among his [Hull's] creations during this period was a deck he called 'Improved Cards Mysterious.' Apparently it passed into the hands of the Boston magic dealer, W. D LeRoy. Seeing its possibilities, LeRoy marketed it in 1909 under the title of 'Svengali Deck,' a name suggested by an employee of his, Herman Hanson, who would later attain fame as a vaudeville magician and Thurston's stage manager.... As a 19-year-old lad, on the ninth of March 1909 the trick deck was recorded in the Office of the Register of Copyrights, Washington, D.C., as 'Improved Cards Mysterious,' Class A. XXc. No. 233032, the 'rights' going to Burling Hull, Brooklyn, New York. He was only 15 when he invented this many-purposed deck."
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 According to Judge Wethered in //[[http://askalexander.org/display/37476/Linking+Ring/26|The Linking Ring]]//, Vol. 28 No. 1, Mar. 1948, p. 26, Charles Fricke was the first to apply rough-and-smooth to the Svengali deck. He claims that this preceded Ralph Hull's Nu-Idea forcing pack c. 1935, although he provides no dates or citations. According to Judge Wethered in //[[http://askalexander.org/display/37476/Linking+Ring/26|The Linking Ring]]//, Vol. 28 No. 1, Mar. 1948, p. 26, Charles Fricke was the first to apply rough-and-smooth to the Svengali deck. He claims that this preceded Ralph Hull's Nu-Idea forcing pack c. 1935, although he provides no dates or citations.
  
-The Svengali Deck used twenty-six duplicate cards for its construction. Many possibilities are also available using a full deck of fifty-two cards, with half of them cut short. This variant was published by Walter B. Gibson in //[[https://askalexander.org/display/38493/The+Sphinx/10|The Sphinx]]//, Vol. 24 No. 10, Dec. 1925, p. 402.+The Svengali Deck used twenty-six duplicate cards for its construction. Many possibilities are also available using a full deck of fifty-two cards, with half of them cut short. One such variant was published by Walter B. Gibson in //[[https://askalexander.org/display/38493/The+Sphinx/10|The Sphinx]]//, Vol. 24 No. 10, Dec. 1925, p. 402.
  
-See also [[cards:impromptu_long-short_deck|Impromptu Long-Short Deck]].+See also [[cards:impromptu_long-short_deck|Impromptu Long-Short Deck]] and [[cards:trilby_deck|Trilby Deck]].
  
   * [[http://www.conjuringarchive.com/list/category/1570|Category in Denis Behr's "Conjuring Archive"]]   * [[http://www.conjuringarchive.com/list/category/1570|Category in Denis Behr's "Conjuring Archive"]]
  
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