Conjuring Credits

The Origins of Wonder

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Glorpy

The title popularly used by magicians for this close-up, animated handkerchief effect, comes from “Glorpy, the Gerkulating Ghost”, marketed by Bill Madden and Bernie Trueblood in 1963. Madden and Trueblood's Glorpy was an improvement on George Blake's “Haunted Hanky”, marketed the year before. Blake's version in turn built on Dik Van Brummer's “The Solid Ghost” (aka “It”), published in the November 1957 issue of The Gen, Vol. 13 No. 7, p. 205. For a full history of these tricks and their evolution, see Max Maven's “A Brief History of 'It'” in MAGIC, Vol. 9 No. 9, May 2000, p. 78.

Also see It or The Solid Ghost and Glorpy as Spirit Writer.