The Wonderful Calendar
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Atomic Aggravation
One of the nicest alliterations I have ever come across. In this one Ada Addison and Alexander Abercrombie are alliterations artful aid.

How wrong can they be?
Predicting the future was not in the cards for these magicians.

1. Never set aside any accepted rule, unless it is absolutely necessary to do so for some clearly defined reason.
2. Always endeavor to form an accurate conception of the point of view most likely to be adopted by a disinterested spectator.
3. Avoid complexity of procedure, and never tax either the patience or the memory of the audience.
4. Never produce two simultaneous effects, and let no effect be obscured by any subsidiary distraction.
5. Let each magical act represent a complete, distinct, and separate entity; compromising of nothing beyond one continous chain of essential details, leading to one definite effect.
   
6. Let every accessory and incidental detail be kept well "within the picture," and in harmony with the generay impression which is intended to be conveyed.
   
7. Let nothing occur without an apparently substantial cause, and let every potential cause produce some apparently consequent effect.
   
8. Always remember that avoidable defects are incapable of justification.
   
9. Always remember that a plea of justification is ordinarily an aknowledgement of error, and consequently demands every possible reparation.
   
10. Cut your coat according to your cloth, but spare no pains in the cutting, or your procedure cannot be justified.
    
11. Always remember that a notable suprise is incapable of repetition; and that the repetition of an effect, of any kind whatever, cannot creat suprise.
    
12. A minor conception ordinarily demands the cumulative effect of repetition; a conception important in itself should usually create a distinct suprise.
    
13. The simultaneous presentation of two independent feats is permissible when one of them is associated with cumulative effect and the other in a final suprise.
    
14. Unless good reason can be shown, never explain, UPON THE STAGE, precicely what you are about to accomplish.
    
15. When presenting an effect of pure transition, the first and most important essential is the avoidance of every possible cause of distraction.
    
16. When an effect of transition ends with a sudden revelation or suprise, the course of the transition should be punctuated by actions or sounds leading up to and accentuating the final impression.
    
17. In every effect of pure transition, the beginning and end of the process involvedshould be distinctly indicated by some coincident occurrence.
    
18. In each presentation, the procedure should lead up to culminating point of interest, at which point the magical effect should be produced and after which nothing magically interesting should occur.
    
19. When a presentation includes a number of effects in series, the final effect should represent a true climax, and it's predecessors successive steps whereby that climax is reached.
    
20. When Magic and Drama are combined in one presentation, the stage procedure should primarily be governed by Dramatic requirements of the case, rather than the normal principles of Art in Magic.
    
21. When, in a combination of the two arts, the primary requirements of drama have been satisfied, all subsidiary details of procedure should be dictated by the normal principles of Art in Magic.
    
22. .No magician should ever present, in public, any magical feat in which the procedure cannot be, or has not been, adapted to his own personal characteristics and abilities.
    
23. Never attempt, in public, anything that cannot be performed with the utmost ease in private.
    
24. Never present in public any performance which has not been most perfectly rehearsed - first in detail, and finally as a whole.

The Wonderful Calendar

Start with the desired year in the upper right hand corner,trace the line left to the desired century, then down the column to the desired month. To the right is a calendar page for the year and month chosen. LEAP YEARS are in black, in leap years use the black months of January and Febuary.

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Atomic Aggravation

Ada Addison adored Alexander Abercrombie. Actually, Alexander avoided Ada as Ada's affability aroused attention. Alexander's Aunt Arebella admired Ada's accomplishments and abhorred Alexander's antagonistic attitude.
"Ada Addison's artistic" Aunt Arebella averred.
"Ada's arrogant and an agitator" asserted Alexander.
"Ada's an angel - ask anybody. Ada's arithmetic and algebra are acknowledged as astonishingly accurate. Andrew Appleyard agrees and Andrew's an accredited accountant."
"Ada's adenoids are appalling, anyhow" affirmed Alexander.
"Accepted" answered Aunt Arebella, "Ada's afflicted."
Ada's amorous and affected" added Alexander.
Alexander, attend! Ada's attracted an auctioneers attention."
"Alf Attenborough?" asked Alexander, aroused.
"Alfred Augustus Attenborough" amended Aunt Arebella. "Alfred's an auctioneer and an architect."
"Alf Attenborough's an acidulated ass."
"Alexander, abstain! Ada's arriving. Avoid argument and act agreeable," ajured Aunt Arebella.
Ada Addison advanced and accepted Alexander's armchair, after admiring Aunt Arebella's asters and antirrhinums. Aunt Arebella asked about Ada's atomic activities.
"Annihilation's assured" announced Ada, authoritatively.
"Atomic activities are atrocious and an abomination," argued Alexander.
"Alexander!" admonished Aunt Arebella, "Ada Addison's assertions are authentic. Apologise. Ada's affronted."
An animated argument arose and Alexander, aggravated, aquired an ancestral axe and attacked Ada Addison, afterwards also administering arsenic. Alexander's arrest's anticipated.

(Afterthought: Ada Addison's an angel, after all.)

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Dove Productions

Val Andrews (who called himself "Old Moore Andrews",) wrote "Magicians don't know when to quit producing doves, has no one told them the dove kick is almost over?" (Abra, Aug 1962.)

M.S. Mahendra

"The art of magic is fast passing out of the picture in my opinion. Today the youthful magician cares little about the art. He want's to know how much it costs? and how soon can he learn do it." (Linking Ring, Sept 1952)

Martinka

In 1913 he said, "Yes magic is on the decline. People have lost interest in the black art. Theatrical managers throw up their hands when asked to bill it. All the greatest magicians are dead or retired. (Note: Dante, Thurston, Blackstone, Chung Ling Soo, Goldin, etc. etc. are yet to come.) The moving picture business is adding to the trouble. I do not know what we shall do. (Linking Ring, 1953)

"Variety" July 11th 1913

A "man at the head of the profession" stated that the art of entertaining by illusion was declining. He puts it down to the lack of a master performer of the caliber of Herrmann or Kellar and to the prevalence of expose acts. Magicians have lost their drawing power and the art will sooner or later vanish entirely - and that at no very distant time. (Note: at this period performers included Goldin, Bouton (Harry Blackstone,) Thurston, Jansen (Dante,) Chung Ling Soo, Lafayette, Houdini, Masklyne, Devant, Lyle, Carter, Okito, Carl Hertz and many, many more.

Henry Ridgely Evans

Was also one of the Jeremiahs. "The coming of Herrmann and Kellar were heralded by enormous posters, always creating excitement among children of my youthful days. We talked of nothing else for weeks. Ah those packed galleries where the "gods" reigned supreme. But alas, the curtain falls! The theater is dark and cold! The great magicians are no more."

It seem that whatever the age one lives in, one always looks to the past as being better. In 2045, fifty years from when this is written, I have no doubt that magicians will look back to today and bewail the fact that there are no more magicians like David Copperfield, Harry Blackstone Jr., Sigfried and Roy, Lance Burton, Tihani, John Calvert, Richardi, Doug Henning and others.

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