Hi all,
I'm looking for information about Paul LePaul - the man and the magician. I'm a big fan of his book The Card Magic of Paul LePaul and I also have his booklet on the card magic of Bro. John Hamman. Apart from that, I know nothing about the man. Any information about LePaul would be highly appreciated.

Uli,

I think I actually saw him once in a movie. Under his real name Paul Braden I believe. Don't know if he did more than the one movie. It was called Eternally Yours with David Niven as a magician.

I once asked Marlo about him and he told me LePaul was very good. A very suave performer who executed his sleights very well.

Right you are Jimmy! He's the guy in the kitchen doing split fan productions. He was working Vod-vil as early as 1922, since a friend of mine (Jack McMillen) saw him in a theater then. The wallet that bears his name was not his invention, and in fact, though he had one, he didn't use it. I have some other bio info in a file, but can't remember off the top of my head. I will pull it and post...

Best, PSC

Paul LePaul did a great manipulative act (card fan productions, etc.) I saw him perform at a combined SAM-IBM convention in Chicago (in the fifties, I believe). He also did a great many tours with the USO professional branch, Camp Shows.

Uli,

You will find some further information about Paul Le Paul in the book Words About Wizards, authored by Robert Parrish and published in 1994.

Regards,

John

He was also tech adviser for the movie and can be seen on-stage as one of the assistants when Niven is doing the tip over trunk as a vanish...

Paul, that's a pretty big wallet to carry and not use. Any clues as to why he didn't use it?

Thanks!
Chris

Perhaps it was exactly that - a pretty big wallet to carry - or else LePaul may have already gotten too comfortable with the Card in Envelope idea, the double tabs of the adjacent envelopes, which, I believe, was U. F. Grant's idea (which he marketed, even in the 1960s, as I recall) and is described in The Card Magic of LePaul. The wallet, which sometimes bears LePaul's name and later that of Larry Jennings, was actually devised by Chicago amateur magician, Dick Washington, who made one for Paul LePaul in 1950 and perhaps for others as well, most likely to order. It's possible that LePaul may have used it initially but may have come to prefer the Card in Envelope idea he had been using previously over the large and less-than-common pocket secretary-type wallet. Anyone, especially in the Chicago area, know the full story for certain?

I can only give you some conjecture about the wallet, simply from the perspective of a performer who uses one.

The wallet really isn't any bulkier than the LePaul envelope setup. I use Alan Okawa's. I used a Lee Noble wallet for ages. However, you have to set your pocket up correctly to use it. You can't adjust the wallet. Also, it's a bit stiffer than the envelopes.

Many performers become so accustomed to one way of doing things over the years that ANY minor change in the way that a trick works messes up their mental rhythm. He may have found it difficult to manage. I had my clothing tailored for the wallet, so there wasn't any problem for me.

LePaul was very good at adapting sleights for his performing conditions. I once asked Howie Schwarzman, who did know LePaul, why LePaul thought his variation on the Diagonal Palm Shift was an improvement over the Erdnase version. Howie said that it was probably because when he performed for the USO shows, he was up on stage, above the eye level of the first rows, and that may have posed some visibility problems with the Erdnase version. This made some sense.