Ok John, take this

In 1956 (still 10 years before atfus in the new tops) Alex Elmsley published an effect in the Pentagram called "still taking three" based on a Jordan plot.

Still Taking Three was republished in Collected Works of Alex Elmsley volume 2 page 109-117

Now on page 116 of that same book Steven Minch gives a bit of history, I've typed it out below. Enjoy

"Those familiar with Edward Marlo's ATFUS handling will readily understand how its refinements can be applied to the Elmsley switches in the above methods. Having mentioned ATFUS, some clarification would seem necessary concerning the history of that switch and those of Mr. Elmsley's invention.

Students of sleight-of-hand will have noticed that the face-up switches used in these handlings are obvious forebears of ATFUS; and therein lies a story of interest only to that group of us who take pleasure in combing (and often splitting) the hairs [splitting hairs.. See where my fotenote was going now? - Euan] on the woolly beast of magical history. In the Olram File (Vol 1. No 4. April 1991) there appears a sequence for "the magic seven" trick, in which the underlying principle used in the Elmsley and Marlo switches is employed to steal a face-up card from one packet and to load that card at a desired position in another packet. Jon Racherbaumer writes that Mr. Marlo worked out this sequence in 1953 [backdating?-Euan], but discarded it for reasons of routining when in 1954 he released The Magic Seven. The sequence went unpublished.
On October 15th. 1956, Mr. Marlo recorded in his private notes a procedure quite similar to the Elmsley switches, offering several small but trenchant refinements. This was roughly a month after "Still Taking Three" appeared in print [now we're getting somewhere - Euan]. He eventually published this handling, more than eight years later, in the February 1964 issue of The New Tops (Vol 4. No 2, pp.17-18). The following April he published ATFUS from notes of the same vintage (The new tops vol 4. No 4. pp 33-44). ATFYS was a more flexible variant of the face up switch sequence. Three months after that Mr. Marlo extended the concept still further by publishing the FUFU switch in the July number of the new tops (Vol 4. no 7. pp 4-5). THroughout this excellent series, no acknowledgment appeared of Mr Elmsley's previous published work [interesting - Euan], and this has led recently to some unfortunate controversy over credits in a few sunless corners of Cardopia. Mr Elmsley, it should be noted, was unaware of this obscure dispute and would never dream of participating in it. This summary of the matter is mine alone, and is given in the hope of putting the subject peacefully to rest. [amen - Euan]."

Hope that clears things up.. As I see it, The Ed Marlo ATFUS is just a small handling refinement on Alex Elmsleys unnamed face up switch technique. An uncredited one at that.

Euan

Thanks Euan; I was following this with interest also. Jon Racherbaumer has written an article on this topic on his website entitled "What's the At-Fuss?". It all gets very complicated. What is clear both in the Elmsley book and in Jon's essay, however, is that Elmsley definitely deserves some credit in the history of 'Atfus', though personally I believe the final switch should remain Marlo's in name.

Great discussion, though; the kind of thing I really enjoy reading. Yeah, I know... Jamie.. get a life ;-)

Jamie.

You're welcome, I'll have to have a look at the Racherbaumer article at some point..

As an aside, for those of you who want to get an idea as to my thinking and construction with regards to magic you should check out this months edition of Genii. An effect from Free From Filler is described in the Magicana section.

Euan

So now to answer the ever pressing question.

The tilt..... Marlo or Vernon?

Shaun...

You forgot about Edward Victor!

Jamie.

Randy Wakeman goes over the whole Tilt issue in this thread http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewt......;forum=2

Some of it is hearsay though..

Euan

There's a review of this on http://www.allmagic.com by Andi Gladwin.

Does this heartstopper effect need a duplicate?