MEMORIES OF FRIENDS PAST AND PRESENT

by David Lederman

Back in the 1930's, Dick Cardini was at the peak of his long career. He played all the top houses, including three to four thousand seat movie houses, which in those days had stage shows between showings of the films, similar to what New York Radio City Music Hall still does today. In addition to the Palace, which was the Mecca for all vaudeville, New York City had Loews State, the Paramount, Roxy's and, up in the Bronx, Loews Paradise, all of which had stage shows.

Cardini played most of them at one time or another, and captivated the massive audiences with cards, cigarettes and billiard balls when most of us considered these to be close-up or club material. Cardini's choreography was so great audiences knew what was happening from his body language and the flow of the action, although his facial expressions as the slightly tipsy, surprised conjuror really enhanced the vignette.

One evening, I had a phone call from Frances Carlyle, "Cardini is at Loews Stage. I'll get Miaco, you and I, get there early and grab seats in the fifth row, right, center and left and take notes. Center records entire act, left everything right hand does, and right the steals."

Cardini hated magicians and accused anyone doing split fans and cigarettes of stealing his act, which to a degree was true, although there were magicians who had done this type of show independently . . . notably one I remember, named Sahl, who did a superb cigarette act dressed as a Mexican.

Caption: Richard "Cardini" Pitcbford, ace manipulator noted for his flawless technique and superb misdirection. One of the ten original card stars, be received both a Performing and Masters Fellowship from the Academy of Magical Arts. He retired in 1966 and died in 1973-

Anyhow, the ethics of these three teen-agers was questionable to say the least, though we had no idea of duplicating the show. We felt at the time it was like going to school with the master! We sat through four shows, movie and all, and the apocryphal story subsequently made the rounds that Cardini spotted us and sent sandwiches — a lie!

Many years later, I became friendly with Dick . . . not through magic. I have always been a pretty good mechanic, making a few magic items, and occasionally repairing reels and antique magic for Mario Carrandi. I had seen some of Cardini's wrist reels and found out that he and Swan lived in Jamaica, Queens, near the station of the subway where I parked my car en route to my office.

I called Cardini and started a relationship based, at first, on a mutual love of good tools and things mechanical. He told me that when working in Germany, he couldn't take money out of the country. So he became involved in buying watchmaking tools and parts for resale in the U.S. He became intrigued with jewelers' lathes and equipment and so started his hobby of making fine magical gimmicks.

Incidentally, I have since repaired several of his beautiful wrist reels, encased in wristwatch cases, and found no two to be alike. He constantly experimented, using different watch cases and different ways of fastening the springs!

In a similar vein of approaching professional magi (who early on, in many cases, disliked or avoided pesky amateurs via a back door), I met Dante. In 1937, while enrolled in the Royal College of Physicians and

Surgeons in Edinburgh, Scotland, I saw that Dante was booked into the Empire Theatre in Edinburgh. The theatre was directly across the street from our anatomy lab.

I had read somewhere that like other pros, Dante also avoided amateurs. I sent a note backstage describing myself as an American from New York studying medicine, all true, and asked if we could have lunch together since I knew the local eateries. He graciously agreed, and throughout the meal we discussed no magic other than my admiration for his show! •

Jay Marshall tells a story of Prince Mendes doing a Cardini-like act at a magic show. Al Flosso was sitting next to another magician who turned to him and muttered, "Another Cardini imitator. " Al grinned and said, "There's only one man who can do that act, and that's Paul Duke!" There were then as now a lot of people trying to cash in on the leader. It didn't work then, and it doesn't work now!