Sorry about that.
Who'd a thunk there's be sooo many David's!

David Ben.

He is working on a book about Paul Fox.

Ok. I will have to write David to find out what he is referring to.

Richard

This is not an obscure video. I have one it is titled "We Remember Blackstone" I also have one titled "We Remember Lee Grabel"
Rennie

Nick Ruggiero (formerly with Owen Magic, then -- with Rich Bloch -- Collectors' Workshop and now owner/operator of Signature Pieces in Sedona, AZ and a good friend of mine) toured with the Blackstone Sr. show as a teenager. He told me that one of his jobs was to care for the rabbits used in the show. They had a contract with a breeder who shipped a supply of bunnies to each city on the tour. According to Nick, on one occasion the rabbits didn't get there on time, so in order to ensure that they always had one available, unbeknownst to Blackstone, he or one of the others in the troupe would catch the child with the rabbit after the show and buy the bunny back so it would be available for the next performance.

Another favorite tale of Nick's involved one of his on-stage roles in the show. He was the assistant in the bellhop costume who entered stage right carrying a prop and 'accidentally' tripped, thus providing the misdirection for the vanish of the cage of ducks for the "Where Did The Ducks Go" routine. When the show played in Nick's hometown in New England, a contingent from the local magic club attended the performance. The club President visited Nick backstage after the show and made the following comment: "Great job Nick. Too bad you tripped that time, but don't worry -- I don't think anyone noticed."

Tells you something about the qualifications sometimes required to be a member -- or officer -- of a local magic club.

Andrew Martin has some video clips of Papa Blackstone and Gwynne
on his youtube page he put together. I let the video load so
I can watch it later (being on dial up) and I saw the clip
of the rabbit routine.

I was talking to dad about this the next morning again.

He said one of the reasons why Papa Blackstone would not
give the rabbit away is that the child would not know how
to take of it.

And it would make sense, since the main sponsor was the
candy company!

If you haven't seen it and want to, I can post a link here.

Mai Ling -
What years did your dad travel with Blackstone? When you were about four or five years old, I remember talking with your dad at Abbotts. Other than your dad, who was the first magician to perform your Dad's Lightbulbs through the Girl? Was it Blackstone, SR?

I have some Western Union telegrams where Blackstone would ask a Rabbit raiser to send him 35+ rabbits. I will have to dig those up. I got this batch of telegrams from another magic collector. He had several stacks of show information, like weekly pay sheets. Each person in the cast would have to sign the sheet, including Harry Sr. in order to get their wages. The "Send Me Rabbit" telegrams stick out in my mind. This led me to believe that he gave several rabbits away in the course of a week. This could have been earlier in his career before your dad, George and Betty Johnstone, Nick, and Del Ray assisted him.

Dick Christian, great story about Nick on the Blackstone show.

Garry Hayes

Nick, Del, George and Betty were not on the show at the same time. George and Betty were on much earlier. If memory serves me correct, Del first came on the show in Nashville. Either George had left the show or was leaving. Del first job was to go in the Flys and rig the levi. The dirtiest job always given to the new guy.

The light bulb trick performed by Sr. was made by Rudy Schlosser after Houdini declined it and said "Why don't you sell that to Blackstone". Houdini did not think very highly of the effect or Blackstone.

Richard

Hi Richard,
When you refer to "The Light Bulb Trick" in the above post, are you talking about The Floating or The Light Bulbs Through The Girl? I was under the impression that De Yip invented the fluorescent light bulbs through the girl.

Thanks for the update on Del, Johnstones, and Nick. I can not find my Waldron book. It is probably mentioned therein.
Garry Hayes

George & Betty had already left when Del joined the show.

The light bulb cabinet "aka through the girl" was not invented by my dad.
He re-created the illusion from memory and much better working version.

Tad Ware wrote an indepth article about the origins of the LBC in an
issue of Magicol. He owns the original cabinet that Blackstone used.

I'll dig it out for specifics of the origins of LBC. Its been a while
since I've read it, and I've not been working on that area of my book
lately.

I am talking about the light bulbs through girl. Louie improved greatly on the construction and made it much safer to do. I believe he made about 12 of them. Right Ma-Ling?

Yes it is all written in Magicol. Tad owns orginal and did it with Gay at the conference in Chicago when they honored Blackstone.

Richard

He built 8 of them.
I'm still tracking down two.
mark wilson and doug henning.
one of them was completely destroyed.