Greetings,

I'm doing some research on the original Tarbell System, the mail order course of 60 lessons. If anyone owns a complete file of the original manuscripts I would like to ask them to help in my project and add them to the credits of my publication. I do know that it is now available in a single bound volume by Magic Masters but I need someone with the original lessons for this particular bit of research.

By the way, Wikipedia has the history of this course completely wrong. It states "It has eight volumes; the first five were part of the original home-study correspondence course compiled in 1928 by Dr. Harlan Tarbell, the remaining three volumes being added on later." The date is 1926 not 1928, The first five volumes were not part of the original home study course. The System (home study course) came first and they were later compiled into volumes by Tarbell, Lou Tannen, Bruce Elliott and others. The original Course was single lessons "bound" between two board covers with bolts and screws.

Wikipedia further states, "Volume 8 was published as a "graduate lesson" in magic and is composed of Tarbell’s writings that appeared in books and magazines that were not part of the original course." This statement is also factually incorrect. As the editor (with Richard Kaufman) of Volume 8 we created most of the book from material from the original System which was definitely part of the original lessons. Again totally wrong. I'll stop there but it goes to show how Wikipedia is very often not a good source for historical research.

The sad thing is that I recently read the above erroneous information in The Linking Ring. Now, when people reference the history of the course the errors in that publication will be accepted as fact.

Thank you for reading this, and again if anyone has a complete Tarbell System that would be willing to access, please PM or simply email me at steve@houstonmagician.com

Steve

I had two copies of the original course over the years. I loaned one to a young lad whom I was mentoring. in the mid '50s. Shortly after, he died in a boating accident. I was on the road, and, when I returned home, I learned that his young wife had thrown out all "his" magic props and books. (My Tarbell was gone.)

A few years later, I bought from Werner Dornfield (DORNY) his copy. I sold it to the late Chuck Stanfield, after I bought a complete set of the six bound volumes from Jay Marshall. Jay, and, Bob Lund, may have kept a copy of the original lessons.

You could check with Sandy Marshall at Magic Inc.Chicago, or the Museum of MAGIC in Marshall, Michigan.

Stever Burton, they may have some facts mixed up, you can send them a correction. I think from your post, they should have said, volume 7, and not 8. Without pulling my books out, I believe volume 7 was offerings of the current times. I know Pete Biro's Rising Card in Envelope was not part of the original series.

There are other offerings, one by Magic Inc. who was still selling the trick at the time of publication.

It really does not matter as none of the youngsters can read, only want to spend hours watching video. They are screwing up traditional jargon, and making up everything as they go along. No one corrects them on the Café, so it will all be lost like so many of the tricks from the past.

It is all very organic now a days.

Thank you Bill and Dick for your replies. I agree with you, Bill, about the organic nature of magic on the internet and how many effects are being renamed. Those who are doing this are missing the point in that calling a Stripper Deck a "Shaved Deck" points to the methodology too much, in my opinion. Early originators hid the secret and gave them wonderful names i.e. Svengali, Mene-Tekel, Ultra-Mental, etc. for a purpose. Just because they're hard to spell is no reason to rename them to something easier.

No, I don't think Wikipedia just mixed up Volume Seven and Eight as it states that the book is Tarbell writings found in other places and Seven is not. Seven does include some items from the Tarbell System (as do all the volumes) in the chapter, Lesson 90-ILLUSIONS. No, the contributor must have looked at an advertisement for Volume Eight and (without actually reading the book) concluded that since Richard had found some previously unpublished material and included it in the book that it must consist of solely of that material.

My research has to do with the Double L***, of all things. I'm trying to find out if the first time the turnover was described in print was in the Tarbell System. It occurred around 1927-1929 in one of the bonus effects included in the course but was not carried over into the Tannen publications verbatim. One subtle part of the description was left out. I suspect it may have been that Tarbell did not have Vernon's permission to publish it and he sneaked it in as bonus lesson. But that is just supposition at this point.

You might want to ask over on the Genii forum.

There's a whole lot of knowledge over there.