Anyone have any info about this man.

I know he has a card book , does it have a biography aswell?

Thanks

Paul LePaul (real name: Paul Braden) began in vaudeville in the 1920's with a card manipulation act which he performed in theaters until the death of vaudeville in the 1940's. He also toured USO during WWII. Technically, he certainly ranks with Cardini. The finish of his act was springing the deck of cards from his hand into the top hat held by his assistant (five to six feet away.)
I never saw him, but have talked to several of his contemporaries who all tell me he was a very nice guy who did a great act. I have a review of his act from Billboard magazine in the late 1920's when he was first working vaudeville, which says (paraphrased) "LePaul does a wonderful act, but 18 minutes of card manipulaton is just too much!" I think he must have learned from that review and tightend the act through the years.
He was a lifelong cigarette smoker and died of lung cancer shortly after "The Card Magic of LePaul" was published.
I am not at my library at the moment (on the road) but I believe that David Price has a short essay about him in his book "Magic: A Pictorial History of Conjurors in the Theater."
David

Thanks David

Much appreciated

I only can add out of memory:

It was his BIG smile and friendlyness in handling his audience, the second he walked on stage, that made him a well liked and sought after performer..everybody liked him..
That he also created the wonderfull signed card to envelope/wallet and the outstandingly impossible looking *Flight of the Aces* made him a well established name.
It's all in his book..

My Father (The late Billy Bishop) met LePaul several times at the Chicago SAM. At the time he was performing in night clubs as a stand up act.

LePaul would open his stage act by taking out a sheet of tissue paper and ripping it up and then he would produce a canary from the torn tissue.

Then he would do his card fan act and a two handed production of single cards. He also used to spread the cards on his sleeve and toss them and catch them in many different ways. (Many of his card fan ideas are in the book the Card Magic Of LePaul).

He would close with the cards across with two people holding the cards that were wrapped up in handkerchiefs...

From what I was told in vaudeville LePaul got two small boys up to hold the packets of cards. And got a lot of situation comedy out of the two boys. In a night club he got two woman out of the audience and did the same effect using different lines.

LePaul also did close up magic but he was not a table hopping magician as we see magicians performing today.

My Father the late Billy Bishop also performed in these night clubs. From Billy Roses Diamond Horseshoe to the Silver Cloud Room to the Empire Room at the Palmer House Hotel.

Some of the night clubs had huge showrooms. Others did not. Some of the small clubs didn’t even book a band because of Union restrictions. So the acts that made it in the smaller clubs (Much like the comedy clubs of today) - had to make it as a talking act. And LePaul could do it because he also used comedy.

In the smaller clubs I would imagine like the silver cloud room in NY I would think that LePaul would do some of the close up material like the cards to envelopes because in the small room - like the close up room of the magic castle I think it would go over quite well.

Magicians that were conversational performers were big in the smaller rooms… Many magicians had more than one act that they did to bring home the money.

Magicians like LePaul, Jack Pyle, Paul Rosini, Tony Marks, Billy Bishop, Jay Marshall and others could work any sized room large or small.

At the time just before his death My Father saw him working on the coin star for his stage act as he was working on a misers dream routine.

LePaul was the tech - director of the magic in the movie Eternally Yours that Starred David Niven as a magician and Illusionist. LePaul can be seen in a short segment where David Niven hypnotizes his rabbit to load it into his tails while they get ready to go on stage.

They do a close up of the hands and the rabbit being turned over they cut to LePaul's hands as he hypnotizes the rabbit. Then the live rabbit is switched for a fake rabbit by movie cutting and the fake rabbit is loaded into the tails.

Niven also does a show in a rough theater and is booed off the stage as part of the story. The camera cuts in close to his hands springing the cards and doing a few card fans at this point. And those moves are Lepaul.

LePaul also does some card fan productions and does a quick vanish and production of an egg in one fast scene as he is made up like a butler and is doing an impromptu performance for the kitchen staff.

And he can also be seen as an onstage assistant helping in the tip over trunk illusion.

LePaul was a modern performer that could work today. He could do his act as a talking act. Or use music if there was a band. He could perform in large or small clubs with or without music.

And the book he wrote was a climax to his successful life in magic and show business. And it was stuff he did from his professional act!

Thanks for the insights. Unfortunately, that era is gone forever.

You need work on a book about your dad and his contempories through his stories. Or a least make a tape record of things.

Thanks again for sharing!

Already wrote a book about my Father and his life in magic. If you go to my web site you will see a picture of me sitting with Billy McComb and Whit Haydn. And Whit Haydn is holding Billy McComb's copy of the book.

It is called the Life and magic of Billy Bishop - Bish The Magish.

It got great reviews from Magic Magazine, The MUM and the Linking Ring.

Thanks for your interest...

It is Published by David Charvet of Charvet Studio's. David is also a member of this Café...

I have just reprinted "The Life and Magic of Billy Bishop" and it's available for $30 postpaid in US.
105 pages of great stories, tricks and routines from a lifetime of shows.
P.M. me if you'd like ordering information.
David Charvet
http://www.charvetmagic.com

Great read too... we need more books like this. We have more than enough books with variations of Red Hot Mama and Three Fly.

:kermit:

There is no listing for *Flight of the Aces* in the Le Paul book.

Why would there be?

Hi Kevin, this post may be too late to be helpful, but if you are still interested in Paul Le Paul, there is a booklet (approx. 35 pages) written by Roger Linden entitled "The Quartet." It has biographical information about Paul Le Paul, Bill Baird, Joe Scott and Roy Mayer all of whom were from St Louis. The booklet is not well produced but it is a wealth of information. I picked it up years ago at a convention from a used-magic dealer. Perhaps you can find it online.
Regards,
Barry Moran

Revisiting this thread. I have never heard of a LePaul effect called "The Flight of the Aces." I checked the Conjuring Archive page of LePaul affects and nothing by that name is listed:
https://www.conjuringarchive.com/list/person/40
I also checked askAlexander and my search of 'flight of the aces" generated some hits of an ad for a trick called "Lobenstern's Flight of the Aces" that was apparently a sell-out by the dealer--"Modern Magic Manufacturing" in Graham, Texas.

I thought maybe "Flight of the Aces" could be a other name for "Gymnastic Aces" since in a sense the aces fly out of the faroed deck.
If not, can someone describe the effect of "Flight of the Aces."

----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez

I have several films of him working that I am working on getting converted. Hopefully, they will give a little more insight into the main. He was known for his card work while a fellow St. Louis boy from the same era became known for his work with billard ballls....Bill Baird, the magnificent fraud.

My first mentor in Magic, another great St. Louis Magician, the late Gene DeVoe (Gene Zimmerman) was Paul LePaul's best friend, and shared many, many stories with me about what a WONDERFULLY TALENTED FIRST-RATE MAGICIAN LePaul was. Gene told me that he would put LePaul up head-to-head with any Magician out there.