NOTE: A MORE DETAILED HISTORY WILL APPEAR IN GEBICIERE IN THE LATTER PART OF 2014. WHAT'S BELOW IS NOT ACCURATE. – MAX

While often credited to Will de Seive (Bill Wilson), Harlan Tarbell gives the full genesis in The Tarbell Course in Magic, Vol. 5, p. 275. He had discovered the principle, using cloth strips and, showing it one day to Joseph Kolar, found that he had also discovered it, but with paper, which worked better. Kolar later marketed the trick with red paper strips, calling it “The Kolar Magic Shears.” It was released by Floyd Thayer, who first advertised it in The Linking Ring, Vol. 9 No. 1, Mar. 1929, p. 69, and the same month in The Billboard, Mar. 1929, p. 46.

Tarbell came up with the idea of using newspaper columns for it, which he showed to Frakson (José Jiminez Seville), who took the idea back to Europe. A little while later, de Seive marketed it as “Clippo,” 1937.

Howard B. Kayton released “The Bewitched Paper” in J.G. Thompson Jr.'s My Best, 1945, p. 251. It is a Do-As-I-Do effect, using the Clippo principle. Kayton's original name was Hans Katzenstein. He immigrated to the U.S. from München in 1937 to avoid Nazi persecution. He contributed his “Das Verhexte Papier” to Magie , 1934, p. 151, under his stage name, Hakamü. In Germany, “Clippo” is known as “Hakamü.” However, this date is seven years after Tarbell and Kolar's claim, and five years after the release of “The Kolar Magic Shears.”