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Bill Hegbli Eternal Order Fort Wayne, Indiana 22797 Posts |
A new book by David Charvet has just been published. It is a book about the famous Emil Jarrow, secondary title "Life of a Vaudeville Headliner". I just ordered the book and it is on it way to me by snail media mail.
David Charvet was kind enough to let me read the introduction and that is all it took to convince me that this is going to be an exciting book, as he has gathered new information direct from living relatives that actually rummaged through stored material to give a true depiction of Email Jarrow. Jarrow was much like the members on the Café that want to be "purist" for a lack of a better word, meaning only use ordinary everyday objects in his act. This actually meant that he could find everything he needed to perform his act in every city, here in the U.S. and abroad. The pages I was lucky enough to read were expertly written and made the reader want more. I think this will be a book that you cannot lay down once you start reading it. The book will tell the story of Emil Jarrow's magical life as well as his act on the stages of vaudeville theaters. Jarrow was one of the highest paid performer on the theater circuit earning $2000 a week in the 1920's and 1930's. This is nothing like David Charvet's previous published work on Jarrow, namely the 1990 cardboard cover, perfect bound book titled "The Bill IN Lemon Book" "featuring The Life and Times of Emil Jarrow", which is out of print. That book just touched on Jarrow's beginnings and how he went from a tavern weight lifter to a famous magician. The book center point of that book was the Bill in Lemon trick and Jarrow simple solution to performing it without any gimmicks or preparation to the lemon. I will give a more actual description once I have had a chance to read, but I think this book will be a much have for magicians that actually perform in today's market of simplicity in performance. The book is reasonably priced at $40 plus $5 postage. It is Hard Bound and contains 168 pages in 6 inch by 9 inch format. I like this smaller size book for carrying and reading personally. |
Bill Hegbli Eternal Order Fort Wayne, Indiana 22797 Posts |
Received the book, and just started reading it. It is the best book David Charvet has ever written, in my opinion. It is more factual and conversational in structure of the material.
The book not only takes you through a journey of his Jarrow's life as a strong man and later magician, it highlights different periods of time as the information he received does skip vast amounts of time. Six tricks is all Jarrow did for 40 years, every night on the stages of bars, and later theaters. I wonder if this is were Dai Vernon got his saying to learn 6 tricks well, and that is all you need, or something along those lines. Within the pages the 6 tricks are described as Jarrow presented them on stage. It is a wonder how a patter act with only 6 tricks cold get $1000 a week in the 1920's. Also Jarrow never bought a trick for his act. He used ordinary every day items. Pocket change, newspaper, a card trick, and his famous Bill in Lemon trick, to name a few. Jarrow rubbed elbows with what we consider famous magician, like Dai Vernon. His idea were also published in the magic magazines of the day. If you would like to see how magic was done in the early 20th Century by professional magicians, get this book, it may just enlighten you to a new way of thinking and not buying the current got to have latest new trick on the market. From a non-magical side, this shows the reader the endurance a man can have to survive. Even back in those early days, we had high unemployment and men had to do what could to earn some cash. With no Social Security to fall back on, they had to plan for hard times and retirement. I also could relate to Jarrow keeping a hotel room in New York as his permanent residence, and retirement place. As a young man I worked downtown, and as I walked around what we new call the metropolitan area, we had at least 6 hotels. through the lobby windows you could see elderly men sitting reading a newspaper or magazine. You see this was their homes. If you would see those very small hotel rooms, you will quickly come to the conclusion that these men had no personal belongings at all. The clothes on their backs and a few extras and that was it. This was the real meaning of living out of a suitcase. Well Jarrow was like these men, having very little and living out of a suitcase his whole adult life. Now we are a very tangible society, that has to accumulate everything they see. For many that was not the way of life, if you wanted to read the newspaper you went to library. Latest new book, go to the library. In many ways this book can help you see and recognize your actions in your life as well. Of course in those days they had a theater circuit that performers made the rounds to. Remember this was before the movie theaters, many of todays movie theaters were vaudeville houses. Just like movie films get sent to a network of theaters, performers were sent to theater houses to perform. I recommend this as good book to see how "real" magicians worked, lived, and performed. |
Scott Alexander V.I.P. 1471 Posts |
This book is really good. So glad this stuff is preserved in print! Highly Recommended.
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David Charvet Special user www.charvetmagic.com 501 Posts |
Bill and Scott - Thanks for the kind words!
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The Magic Cafe Forum Index » » Books, Pamphlets & Lecture Notes » » JARROW "The Humorist Trickster" by David Charvet (0 Likes) |
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