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Kellar and Goldin - My Best Trick PDF
Kellar and Goldin - My Best Trick PDF
My Best Trick
Harry Kellar
As told in a letter to Arthur Gans in 1918.
Dear Arthur:
Many years ago in South Bend,
Indiana, the sheriff came on
stage and attached everything I
had in the world to pay my
creditors and left me nothing but
the clothes I wore.
I knew for the first time what it
was to be stranded in a strange
town. But, being young and
hopeful, I did not give up. I
walked out of South Bend in a
snow storm and followed the
railroad track to a station called
Salem Crossing. There I boarded a freight train and the conductor
kindly allowed me to ride into Chicago.
Once in the city I proceeded directly to the Chicago and Northwestern
Railroad Station and got on a passenger train bound for Milwaukee.
My intention was to work the conductor for a free ride but that
individual was obdurate and put me off at Rose Dale, one of Chicago's
burying grounds. But I had no intention of laying my magical
aspirations in the ground just then.
I just settled down for a walk to Waukeegan, and after many weary
hours' tramp through the snow, arrived safely, but weary and foot sore
at my destination. I immediately called on the proprietor of Phoenix
Hall and after a pleasant chat with him, flattered by praising his
brilliant fancy that had led him to pitch on the name Phoenix for a
place that had been built over the ashes of another hall.
The proprietor became very gracious and purred softly like a cat when
I proposed to hire the hall for the next two nights. The old fellow did
not forget to mention that his rule was to have the rent strictly in
advance. I was once more complimentary and it was finally agreed
that the question of rent should stand over until eight o'clock on the
evening of the first performance.
Being young and sanguine in those days, I felt sure that by that time
there would be enough money in the box office to pay the rent. Then I
wrote on the envelopes prepared for the trick. When I asked for
someone to lend me a ring, a very pretty little lady with snappy black
eyes, handed a small band with a solitaire diamond setting. I made a
few remarks about some conjurors using cumbersome apparatus,
whereas I depended entirely on the dexterity of my hand to
accomplish such wonders. Scorning to use apparatus (for the best
reason in the world, having none to use) and calling a small boy on the
stage, gave him what appeared to be the borrowed ring. There was no
scenery, and at the back of the stage there were three windows. Under
the window flowed a stream of water. I told the lad to throw the ring
out of the window into the stream. Then proceeding to the prepared
envelopes the first name was called. A gentleman stood up, opened
the flap and read the name of the man on the next envelope, and so the
envelopes passed to 10 different persons. Of course, when it came to
the last one I intended to say, "There you will find the borrowed ring."
Imagine my surprise and delight when on the last name being called,
the little lady who had so kindly loaned the ring arose. I told her to
open the envelope and she would find her ring within.
There was dead silence for a moment and then I was greeted with
rounds of loud and prolonged applause. The lady belonged to one of
the first families of the town, and it was without prearrangement that
she loaned her ring, and that her name appeared on the last envelope. I
didn't even know who the persons were on my list for the trick. I only
knew they were in the audience as I had requested the doorkeeper to
give me the names of some prominent people in the hall and the lady's
name was among the rest. It was the best trick I ever performed, and it
brought me a crowded house the following night.
I left town with a full purse, a light heart, and was in high spirits at the
favorable turn my fortunes appeared to have taken. Of course, all this
good luck was to be set down to the credit of the young lady with the
black eyes. She was my Genii of the Ring.
My Best Trick
Horace Goldin
Originally published in Goldston's
The Magician's Annual, 1907-1908.
tricks, and thereby tricking the managers into paying at least three
times the amount of salary to conjurers ever paid before.