While on the topic of fanning decks...
Does anyone know what brand of "fanning" cards Channing Pollock used in his act and as shown in the movie "The Red Sheik?" It looked like a very simple black and white checkerboard pattern, so although he made a fan and "split" it into two fans, there was no real color changing effect. As I said, it was a very simplistic design.

Also, is there any news about a definitive biography of Channing?

----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez

Hi Sonny:

I don't know the origin of the deck that Channing used. The only other person I ever saw that had that deck was the pro magician Laurence Parsons. I saw Mr. Parsons do a short fanning routine with that exact same deck (as Channing) in the late 1980s at New York's "Mostly Magic".

I don't know if Mr. Parsons is still around, but I'm pretty sure that he was from Arizona.

Best regards,
Levent
http://www.LeventMagic.com
http://www.MagicQandA.com

Sonny,
I looked long and hard for Channing Pollock information. There is only stories about him from other magicians. Neil Foster trained him at Chavez Studio.

I suggested when Stevens came out with there to interview him, but Joe Stevens rejected the idea.

Here are some facts as told to me:
He was a rich kid.
He was not very ambitious at the time.
He learned everything to perfection.
He was considered very hansome.
He wanted to be in movies but only got one European Nites or something like that.
He had more then one wife that were his assistants.
He was one of the few who graduated and entered the profession immediately.
He gave his act to his regular Cab Drive in Europe 'Franklin' when he felt there were to many other dove acts entering the market. That included his clothing, Franklin then performed his act, but never got the fame Pollock received. From that, he must have trained him as well, unless Franklin was already a magician and watched is act a lot or visited with pollock a lot.

That is why I was so surprised when I seen a video of him on a magic special in Monte Carlo setting in the balcony and he produced a dove from a scarf. As it was said that he swore to never do magic again.

Owen Magic makes and sells his versions Double Dove Production and Vanishing Bird Cage. Both are very expensive.

He had a short career, only about 10 years in the 1960's. But played all the famous nite spots in the United States and Europe.

No information as to who was his agent, how he got his 1st gig.

They say after his quiting magic performance, he went into the Oil Business and became more wealthy.

I cannot understand why Channing Pollock and Jack Kodell never offered their acts to be published. I guess someone will someday write a book and have to make a lot of assumptions as in previous books of greats.

Bill

Bill,
"European Nights" was the only documentary-style film that Channing made, but as mentioned in other posts, he played in a number of European swashbucklers including "The Red Sheik" and "The Sea Musketeers." In addition to the "Daniel Boone" TV appearance, he had a cameo appearance on an episode of "The Rogues" called "Easy Come, Easy Go" where he played a night club magician who was something like a secret agent. It was basically a cameo where, after a brief shot of him doing a few seconds from his act, he met with the series star to pass along some espionage information.

A complete list of his TV and film appearances is at the International Movie Database:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0689639/

I've tried to track down copies of these appearances, but except for the well-known Daniel Boone appearance that inspired Lance Burton, and of course the European Nights bit that inspired Shimada, never found anything else. In total there were I think nine TV and movie appearances.

----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez

Thanks as I was totally unaware of so many appearances in film. I only remember reading he tried acting in Europe or a similar comment I ran across in a magic book or magazine.

Was that the Disney Daniel Boone with Fess Parker, I had the last release of those television movies on DVD, but gave them away. If I had known would have hung onto them. That Davey Crockett and Daniel Boone era, I was right in the middle of its success.

Disney's "Davy Crockett" with Fess Parker was in the 1950's. In the 1960's, Fess Parker re-donned the coonskin cap, but this time as Daniel Boone. I remember reading that when Lance Burton was talking about being inspired by Channing's appearance on Daniel Boone, that someone started singing the Daniel Boone Theme Song:
Daniel Boone was a man!
Yes, a BIG man!

Coincidentally, Disney also did a program on Daniel Boone starring Dewey Martin, but only on the Disneyland TV show, not as a series.

----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez

Here's a clip from another Pollock film called Judex where he plays a bird god. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmNvrfJqxlI Wish that I can find that Daniel Boone episode.

Pollock was also in an episode of Bonanza called Easy Come, Easy Go and the Beverly Hillbillies called The Garden Party.

Here is the clip from the Bonanza episode http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJsyi0fg6IY&NR=1 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V87MnzRjZPA&NR=1 Pollock appears at the 5:30 mark of the episode.

That's great, thanks for the link, I never saw the Judex clip before! Now I know for sure that Channing used snaps on his harnesses because the boom microphone on the motion picture set picked up the sound of the snaps popping open!

Levent
http://www.LeventMagic.com
http://www.MagicQandA.com

He had to use snaps because they didn't have the use of velcro then. I get a kick out of a comment that was made in the book The Worlds Greatest Magic by Hyla M. Clark. Being a layperson, Clark described Pollock producing the doves by molding them in his hands. What she didn't realize that as he was "molding them in his hands" he was releasing the snaps.

I guess you're right as Velcro was invented in 1941, but not actually manufactured until around 1956. Channing was already doing the dove act by then (I think he did Ed Sullivan in 1954?). Still the Judex clip confirms the use of snaps. That said, I wonder how the harness is closed in the twin dove production (snaps, threading or something else perhaps)? I know the method that Tomsoni uses and I pretty sure that the rigging is the same as Channing, but Tomsoni doesn't use snaps on the double dove. I must ask Johnny about what Channing did the next time I talk to him.

Levent
http://www.LeventMagic.com
http://www.MagicQandA.com

He doesn't use snaps as the birds are produced without hesitation. It might use some kind of pin release. I know one was described in the Chavez book on doves. I'm sure the same kind of rigging was done with this.

I know the rigging and harness construction for the double dove, so that it can be opened with both hands without hesitation, but I'm not at liberty to describe it until Tomsoni's book is published. But now that I re-watched Channing's video, I'm guess there are snaps involved (although Tomsoni uses the same system, except their are no snaps).

Speaking of 1950s dove work. When I was a kid, there was very little in print and certainly no video that explained the kind of Dove magic that Channing did. Except there was one little booklet that I bought for $3 at Tannens in 1976, that tipped a lot of the "real work" from that period. That was "TV Dove Classics" by Kirk Kirkham. It did NOT have a lot of pictures, nor a lot of words, but if you really studied it, it had all you need to do a Dove act.

This came up in a conversation a few weeks ago at the SAM convention in Atlanta. We were talking about what was the best book on Dove magic and at the exact same moment, Tomsoni and I, both shouted out "TV Dove Classics"!!!

Best regards,
Levent
http://www.LeventMagic.com
http://www.MagicQandA.com

There is one for sale here: http://www.redskybooks.net/cgi-bin/rsb455/041271

The Daniel Boone episode that inspired Lance Burton was called "Seminole Territory" from season two. You can find it described at
http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/24388/dan......son-two/

Best Buy carried the entire Season Two of "Daniel Boone" in their DVD section, including of course the "Seminole Territory" episode.

The guest stars in addition to Channing Pollock include Leonard Nimoy as Oontah, an Indian, before he became famous as Mr. Spock on "Star Trek." Channing was a travelling magician named Fletcher Cameron, and Diane Ladd played his wife.

Channing starts out as a likeable guy, performing part of his classic act for Daniel Boone and Mingo (Ed Ames). After the performance, Mingo says something like, "I know some medicine men who would give their eye teeth to be able to do that." Later he is viewed by the Seminole tribe as a "god" and lets it go to his head. The episode loses some of its credibility--at least for magicians--when Fletcher/Pollock tries to produce a dove from a silk--and can't because good ol' Dan'l Boone has sabotaged the load pockets of his costume.

It was interesting to see a Rice's silk streamer used as one of the props in Channing's act. The card manipulation sequence is nice as always, although if you watch closely, there is a slight flash as some cards are vanished. (I always thought the slow motion sequence of Channing's hands in "European Nights" was a little too revealing, too.)

----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez

That's why I couldn't find it on Youtube. It seems that when videos are for sale, they are blocked by Youtube. Would seem to be worth it just to see Channing Pollock in action.

Laurence Parsons is indeed from Arizona. He and his wife/assistant Heidi left Arizona in the '70s and made a name for themselves in Europe and as cruise ship entertainers as well. The last I heard he's still living overseas. (I also heard that Heidi died a while back, but I don't recall seeing anything in any of the usual publications confirming that.)