Is there any video of him doing the fish bowls production?

SAM Film library I believe has some footage.

Richard

Jack Gwynne on Youtube!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sh6lIp3Fpzk

Jack Gwynne and his royal family of magic. Onstage and the nite club in 1930's. Compiled by Andrew Martin.

http://chicagoroundtable.com/

Jack Gwynne inspired me to develop my own method for the stack of bowls which I used for 5 summers when I worked theme parks.

Gil Scott

I have some old footage of Jack and Anne on 1961 Abbott gettogther performing the fish bowls - silent footage tho.

I have performed Gwynne's fishbowl routine using his original apparatus. Believe me, it's not as easy as it looks! In my book, "Jack Gwynne," I explain the entire routine and the working. I don't know of anyone who is building the Gwynne style gimmick (actually the Doc Nixon gimmick). I do have one built for me by the late John Pomeroy about 20 years ago and it works beautifully.

Gwynne began performing the effect in about 1919 and did it consistently throughout his career until his death in 1969. That's 50 years. He worked out a lot of nuances and changes in the routine during that time. I estimate he performed it at least 20,000 times on stage.

The big secret of the Gwynne fishbowl routine is the timing between the magician and the assistants. To do it right, you need at least two assistants, and preferably three. There is a lot of misdirection involved, and it's provided by the assistants. By the way, the entire effect from beginnng to end (from the production of the silks to the appearance of the stack of bowls) only take about 90 seconds. But a lot is happening in those 90 seconds!

It is a difficult routine to do. The bowls (with water) are very heavy.

I have considered making a bowl stack release but it doesn't seem the interest is there.

Richard