The Magic of Money
Past Times with Coins looks back on Clarence T. Hubbard’s 1965 article in Coins magazine, “Coins are Big Business in Show Business.”
Every once in a while, Coins magazine ran articles by Clarence T. Hubbard, a Hartford, Conn., magician whose business card proclaimed him as “The Pattering Magician” – a “big time” entertainer who was “always actively engaged with a brilliant program of clever novelties, patter predominating.”
A short biography of Hubbard on Magicpedia states that he was born in 1894 and passed away in 1973. His articles on magic appeared in publications such as Scientific American, American Boy, Antique News, and Coins.
“The whole world of stage magic is replete with money tricks often specialized in by some ... notable performer,” Hubbard wrote in “Coins are Big Business in Show Business” in the May 1965 issue of Coins.
“[Emil] Jarrow fashioned a profitable life in his stage appearances based mainly on ‘a few borrowed bills.’ His vaudeville act, never copied, concluded with his borrowing about four bills of any denomination from members of the audience. He possessed quips to associate with any bill offered. He usually was tendered a $5, but once in a while, a $50, and even higher.
“He showed a lemon and had it examined and marked. The borrowed bills were rolled up and wrapped in a handkerchief. At his word, he shook out the handkerchief; the bills were gone. He pulled the lemon from his pocket, had the markings identified, cut the lemon in two with a knife, and there were the borrowed bills!
“Jarrow has since retired [sic, passed away in 1959]. While the trick is occasionally performed by others, none have reached his perfection. It can even be purchased today from magic supply houses but the current modus operandi involves ‘gimmicks’ which Jarrow disdained. One of the present ways is to use a knife with a hollow handle from which the bills are extracted, another is by a pointed cone that can be pushed into the lemon. Jarrrow’s method was pure sleight-of-hand, excellently contrived.”
“Mechanical coin wands are still in demand. By pushing a slot, a ‘quartered’ coin comes together and appears whole at the tip. The prestidigitator reaches for it, pulling the quartered coin back into the hollow tube. There is even a sword that can be used to ‘produce’ half dollars at the tip.
“A classic is the ‘coin-in-the-ball-of-wool.’ Oddly enough, public explanations of this trick have failed to lessen its usage. One day, I had an engagement representing my fourth return date, and in desperation, I used the coin-in-ball-of-wool. It so mystified everyone I kept it in [my act]. A coin is borrowed and vanished. A ball of wool is unwound, and in the center, one discovers a metal box. Opening the box, a smaller one is found inside, locked, requiring a key to open! The borrowed coin, marked by the owner, is extracted from this interior box.
“Some conjurers vary this. One has the coin found inside the smallest box. There are so many ways of vanishing the coin… The simplest way to vanish a half dollar is to put it under a handkerchief and, in doing so, substitute a circular piece of glass the same size. Use a small medicine glass filled with water or any liquid. Tell the spectator to hold the coin under the handkerchief by the edges, drop it—and it is gone. The round piece of glass will fall and fasten itself to the inside interior bottom of the wine or medicine glass and never be seen.
“Another extraordinary individual who made a lifetime career out of a few random bills was Paxton, still going strong. He was one of the acts once featured at the Palace in New York. He would go through the audience, looking at the numbers of about eight or ten bills offered by various members. Returning to the stage, he would not only call out the numbers but also read them backward and finish by reading two from the center each way!
“This trick is actually explained in an early book on magic but Paxton is the only one I ever saw do it. I tried it myself but soon found that it required a most agile mind and everlasting practice ...
“The whole realm of Coin Magic is a fascinating study. Magic books, available in all public libraries, have many simple tricks any interested person can master ... If you were not born dexterous, it is most difficult to become a satisfactory coin manipulator. But there is still a long list of coin tricks you can do to be found in the half-a-dozen books or so on the subject. But mainly, as a numismatician, you should be aware of this land of coin magic and folding bill conjuring. It is another manifestation of the diversity of coinage.
“Robert Houdin, the first known professional magician, and after whom Houdini fashioned his name, amazed kings with coin feats. By bribery he would see to it that gold coins were placed in the possession of the King. He would borrow one, mutilate it, then have the King’s chef bring in a fish, cut it open, and there would be the borrowed coin.
“Coin magic was easy in those days of unsophistication. Today, the audience is sharp, and the performer must be way ahead of him. In the early days of vaudeville, magicians often ‘planted’ dollar bills on persons through the theater ticket seller who gave them when making change. They would know where such a person sat, have them take out a bill, and then read the number on it….
“[Karl] Germaine, a most clever conjuror who at the height of his career retired from the profession and became a criminal lawyer, was responsible for many new and different tricks of stage magic. He brought out the skeleton of a clock made of chromium steel. He borrowed 12 coins from the audience, arranged them in clock fashion, and then brought out a small bright steel clock pointer which would spin on a spindle. He would ask any spectator who loaned him a coin to call out the date of his coin, which the audience member could remove. The pointer was weighted most expertly, and the weight could be shifted by Germaine to make it stop where he wished.
“These are a few of the great names in coin magic but without coins their acts would have been rather flat. The United States Mint was a great boon to American prestidigitators.”
You may also like:
