Guy Jarrett's 1936 Jarrett Magic and Stagecraft, technical, with Additional Material
Jarrett, Guy: Magic and Stage Craft
©1936 Guy Jarrett
Hardcover, no dj, 106 pages
©1981Guy Jarrett; Jim Steinmeyer
Hardcover, 106 pages
ISBN-13: 9781122626767
ISBN-10: 1122626762
Comments: Stories, plans, and descriptions of magic illusions from Guy Jarrett's travels, revealing some of his own illusions and those of others. Many are just briefly described. Lots of diagrams and photos.
Contents (from book):
1 I Say: My book is...just different
4 Twenty-One People Cabinet Production: 21 people from a cabinet in middle of stage
7 Sawing a Woman in Two: Selbit's
9 - My Sawing
10 Sawing an Egg: woman sawed in egg shapped lattice
11 The Bankock Bungalow: vanish from pedestal, appear and vanish in cabinet, appear in aisle
16 Easal - Pedestal in the G.V. Follies: assistants appear from a pedestal
18 The Charlatan: sword cabinet for a play
20 Zeno: séance effects
23 Easel and Star Trab: assistant appears through a painting
24 Bottle Box: production box with climax of man sitting on top of it
25 Flower Cone: bouquet production
26 Curtained Cabinet Without a Base: appearance
26 Creo: figure dressed up and comes alive
27 Buried Alive: suspended under water
29 Floating Table: brief description
30 Thru a Jail Window: escape
31 Walk Out of a Rope Tie: escape
32 Plank and Chains: escape
32 Water Barrel Escape
34 Grandfather's Mirror Illusion: man vanishes and is replaced by a woman
35 Sack and Bolt Escape: bag escape
36 A Camel Back Trunk: trunk vanish
37 Coat, Hat and Sphinx Table: another vanish
38 Fefi, Streets of Paris Chicago Fair: a peep hole illusion
39 Tenagra - Little Venus on the Half-Shell: a tiny girl illusion
40 Shuttle Table for Pigeons: bird vanish
40 Otto Hornman's Own Ring Move: a clashing linking ring move described
42 Catching a Live Pigeon in the Air: with a net
43 A Free Walking Figure: a mechanical figure
44 Sheet Metal Box: man appears and vanishes in a box
55 Vanishing Polly Cage: vanishing bird cage
45 Water Tank Escape
46 Girl, Boy and Sak: boy and girl switch illusion
46 Whirling Tire: advertising mechanism
48 Coat Tie: removing coat while wrists tied
49 Magic In the Chicago Fair: discussion of some acts seen
51 Life Show: a display of human embryos
52 The Micro Show: a science display
52 Telling Time: magician knows time without a watch or confederate
53 Matches and Steel Bar: shoving things up the nose, and retcheing things up, and other body concealments
56 Dilger's Candle Stick: girl appearance
57 Ghost Show: some ideas
59 Lamb's Blood: an anecdote
59 The Nightingale and the Rose: making a color changing rose for an act
61 Thurston's Patented Steamship: provided to the US Government
61 Spear And Arrow In Crane Wilbur Drama: arrows being "shot" onto the stage
62 Spirit Paintings: paintings develop in front of the spectator
63 Frozn in a Cake of Ice
64 David Devant: Jarrett's fee refused
64 Dracula: a vanish for a show
66 Kellar Show to Thurston: how Thruston got the Kellar Show
68 Ching Ling Foo: the performance of some close up described, no secrets
69 Women Magi: Lila Selbini, Jane Thurston, Mrs. Houdine, and Madam Herman
69 The Old Pipe Trick: smoking witout a pipe
70 Cigarette Vanish: borrowed cig broken in half, lit end vanished and appears in mouth
70 Coin Vanish: with sleeves up
71 Coin Feke: like a coin wand
71 Illusions From World Renowned Inventors: criticisms of some illusions
72 Improved Old Illusions: a mermaid
73 Girl Without a Middle: general ideas
74 Up Side Down: idea
74 Substitution Trunk: ideas for improvement
75 Balasco's Mini: a crackling whip
76 Sample Spectator of a Magic Show: a view of magic from a spectator
77 Moving Pictures With Perspective: making 3d pictures
79 Vanishing Auto: for stage
80 Vanishin Elephants: Houdini's, and Jarret's approach
83 The Kid Show Attractions
83 - Hole In the Tongue
83 - Martha: amputee who could type with her toes
84 - Lentini: has a third leg
84 - Jean: man has remains of a siamese twin stuck to him
84 - Half Man, Half Woman: a hermaphrodite
85 - Chastity Belt
86 Revolving Cabinet: appearing girl
87 Bewitched: blooming flowers and bushes for a play
88 Boaconstrictor: with a man's head
90 Strippers: trick card deck and how to handle it
93 Instantaneous: the memorized deck
95 Knock 'em Dead: magician pulls selections out of deck in his pocket as named
96 A Positive Mind Read: location card trick
97 The Fall of Show Business
101 Fish Bowl Table: appearing fish bowl
102 Levitation: of a girl
103 Puzzles: a series of math and logic puzzles
104 If I Ran a Magic Show
105 Not How Books Are Usually Published
| Owner | Bryan-Keith Taylor |
|---|---|
| Location | Magic Library (Home) |
| Index | 5479 |
| Added Date | Mar 09, 2026 12:25:05 |
| Modified Date | Apr 06, 2026 14:24:02 |
| Book Condition | Very Good |
|---|
Jim Steinmeyer
(b.1958) has been called by The New York Times the "celebrated invisible man—inventor, designer and creative brain behind many of the great stage magicians of the last quarter-century." He's also the inventor of the Nine Card Problem.
Biography
Steinmeyer has worked with most of the leading magician around the world, produced magic for their television specials, and authored many books on illusions and the history of magic. He served as a consultant for notable magicians including Siegfried and Roy, David Copperfield and Lance Burton and developed magic for Orson Welles, Harry Blackstone, and The Pendragons.
He was the Magic Designer for Doug Henning on his four television specials, six touring shows and two Broadway shows.
For one of David Copperfield's television specials, Jim proposed the scenario and secret by which the Statue of Liberty "disappeared."
In 1991 he was awarded The Creative Fellowship by The Academy of Magical Arts.
Steinmeyer produced the 1997 four hour A&E Television Special, "The Story of Magic," hosted by Ricky Jay.
Books
Jarrett (1981)
Antonio Diavolo, A Souvenir of his Performance (with John Gaughan) (1986)
Device and Illusion (1991)
Strange Powers and Other Problems for Magicians (1992)
The Magic of Alan Wakeling: The Works of a Master Magician (1993)
Modern Art and Other Mysteries (1995)
Art & Artifice and Other Essays on Illusion (1998)
The Science Behind the Ghost (1999)
The Complete Jarrett (2001)
Discovering Invisibility (2001)
Impuzzibilities (2002)
Hiding the Elephant (2003)
Artificial Conclusions (2003)
The Glorious Deception (2005)
The Conjuring Anthology (2006)
Further Impuzzibilities (2006)
The Secret No One Tells You (2008)
A Tribute to Robert Harbin - Two Lectures (2009)
Technique and Understanding (2009)
Modern Art and Other Mysteries (2009)
The Last Greatest Magician in the World: Howard Thurston vs. Houdini & the Battles of the American Wizards (2011)
Subsequent Impuzzibilities (2011)
References
The Linking Ring, Vol. 71, No. 2, February 1991, Memoirs Of A Magician's Ghost, by John Booth, CHAPTER 251 – Jim Steinmeyer: Consultant Extraordinary, page 63
The Linking Ring, Vol. 71, No. 3, March 1991, Memoirs Of A Magician's Ghost, by John Booth, CHAPTER 251 (continued) – Steinmeyer on Creativity, page 67
Jim Steinmeyer: Deviser of Illusions By T. A. Waters, MAGIC Magazine, September 1996
Cover Genii Magazine, Vol. 66, No. 11, November 2003
http://www.jimsteinmeyer.com
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