I'm trying to find out who Jeans sold the rights for "Silver Hat" to and when. At some point Maskeylne bought the idea as did Selbit (who sold it to Thurston) and also Chefalo. What I'd like is any futher details such as dates, prices etc.

If no one else answers in the next few hours, I will check the book when I get home from work.

Amos McCormick

According to the book, in the Autumn of 1927, a "wealthy citizen of Leeds, named Waddilove, had become a patron of magic, and with this interest he had already purchased the apparatus used in The Silver Hat."

Although there are several descriptions of Jeans' efforts to establish the origin of the illusion, this is the only reference I can find to ownership or rights being "transferred".

Hope this helps...

Amos McCormick

I searched high and low for this book for months to come up with nothing...then suddenly I got hold of two copies within the space of two weeks...its a great book but really hard to get hold of.
Its a fasinating read.

Mark, I envy you, and wish I'd picked up a copy years ago when I had the chance.

Amos, thanks for your efforts. Perhaps I should have said licenced rather than sold the rights. Selbit certainly came to some arrangement with Jeans to use the illusion and according to Sam Sharpe Noel Maskelyne used the principle in a number of his illusions. In 1928 Thurston and 'Fasola' (Fergus Greenwood) filed a patent for the device in the USA citing Greenwood as the inventor. No mention was made of Jeans in the application and I don't know how this arrangement came about. Anything anybody can add would be appreciated.

In the book there are several comparisons made with another illusion called The Red Hat by Servais Le Roy, but the book goes on to imply that the principles were not the same. The Silver Hat used a principle called the Mirror Tunnel. It was performed by Marvello at some time, but I found nothing in the book about Thurston and Fasola.

I'll be happy to look in my Thurston books, however, if you think it will help.

Amos McCormick

Amos, anything you can glean from the Thurston book would be useful but I fear that many of the details might have been lost to history. Sharpe mentions Le Roy's 'Red Hat' and notes that there were a couple of exchanges between Jeans and Le Roy in the magical press about who invented what and when etc. It seems that the two Protagonists met in private and settled the issue to their own satisfaction but the details weren't recorded. It's hard to be sure but I doubt Le Roy came up with the same method so many years prior to Jeans. If he had I'd have expected him to have made more of it and for the principle involved to have been 'borrowed' by other illusionists before Jeans came up with his 'Silver Hat'. Marvello (Harry Hutchinson) seems to have been the first person to present the 'Silver Hat' and did so under the banner of 'Jeans' new era magic'.

In the most recent issue of MAGIC, Mike Caveney has a full page advertisement for a new edition of this book. It's available on his website now (http://www.mcmagicwords.com/) but there's no description posted there yet. Here's the pertinent section from the add.

We are pleased to announce a brand new edition of Walter Jeans: Illusioneer. This is not a reprint of the first edition but rather a book nearly twice the size of the original. It features an abundance of new material including a transcription of Walter Jeans' original autobiography. Disover the true story behind Jeans greatest creation The Million Dollar Mystery and study both the British and American paten paper for this ground-breaking principle....

The books will be numbered from 501-1000 and will include a brand new, tipped-in colored frontis piece.

It sells for $50, including postage.

-Brian

Brian, many thanks. Mark Parker, in a fit of extreme generosity, lent me his spare copy of the Jeans book and also pointed out the upcoming release of the new version. It's on my Christmas list!