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What's New at Abbott's
By Sid Lorraine
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We have made two visits to the new Chicago branch of the Abbott Magic Co. What a store! Situated over the Woods Theatre at the corner of Washington and Randolph, you can see it two blocks away. The large upstairs windows can be seen above all the traffic and you see a damsel floating in space . . . There are ghosts and skeletons everywhere and the name "Abbott's" shouts in every pane.
One flight up and you find yourself . . . well, I found myself in one of the largest Magic stores I've ever seen . . . reminded me somewhat of the old Magic department of Gamages in London .. . Illusions displayed around the floor and a regular stage at one end . . . a levi-tation was being performed as I entered . .. yes, a regular Aga levitation . . . just a demonstration for a customer . . . Apparatus and books and gimmicks and stuff by the hundreds all nicely displayed in modern showcases. A special room with chairs and tables and posters and clippings on the wall . . . Just the place to sit and try out that favorite move. Tom Rainey is managing the store and proved a capable and willing demonstrator for the many customers who were wandering in from the SAM conference just along the street.
I suppose you'd like to know what we saw that might be considered new. Well, we saw plenty . . . Duke Stern dropped in and did his usual clowning and good selling in helping Tom. We saw Duke's demonstration of Hull's "Nudist Deck" and in no time he sold out all they had in stock and took orders for several more. His presentatoin is very good and wish we could remember the routine so we could play around with it. Duke also has a first-class presentation with the "Wishing Papers" ... a sort of double sucker gag that looks excellent. I mustn't forget his clean routine with the color-changing knives . . . Yes, I'd say the Indianapolis boys are lucky the Abbott manager there is Duke Stern . .. he's a real thinker . . . THINKER, that is.
Percy Abbott was wandering in and out displaying this and that and selling just about everything he demonstrated.
Tom demonstrated the "Baffling Bunnies", a comical giant card item with bunnies and top hats . . . The rabbits change to top hats and
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disappear in a magical and amusing way. A good routine and one that possesses good entertainment value as well as first-class visual material.
The real hit of the store seemed to be "The Hippity-Hop Rabbits". We saw it performed about five or six times and every performance resulted in a sale. Percy demonstrated it for us and we can readily see why he made such a hit with it' in New York. The cut-out rabbits and the flat tubes look good and not too apparatusy to bother us (and we're fussy in that department). If you've read the ads you'll know the effect. A black bunny covered with a tube bearing a black hat; a white bunny covered with the white-hatted tube and the old gag of having them pass from one to the other then the difficult thing is to make 'em go back . . . tubes lifted and they haven't moved, of course ... all the razzberries received . . . and you repeat, this time turning each tube around to show that a hat is also on the other side of the tube . . . Here the wise guys all whisper that the rabbits are black on one side and white on the other because when the tubes are removed . . . and they're shown empty too . . . the bunnies have actually changed placets . . . then they'll yell and when the thing has gone far enough, you turn the rabbits around and one is seen to be blue and the other yellow. This is a very good trick for almost any type of audience and you don't have to be a genius to perform it and gather applause.
Abbott's marketed a trick several months ago called "Whereisit?" but, as usual, we've just caught up with it. We believe this to be a novel principle that can be employed to good advantage in many a trick. The bald effect of the advertised miracle is that three cards are held tightly by the spectator, a handkerchief is thrown over the cards, ' the handkerchief whisked away and when the spectator examines the cards he has been holding, only two cards are in his hand, the third or missing card is withdrawn from the performer's pocket or may be found in a nest of robins. It's the principle that tickles us. It's clever and worth much more than the fifty cents asked.
We saw the No. 9 Catalog too . . . What a giant affair .. . They had all gone when we ar-
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