The Silence of Chung Ling Soo - out of print & collectible
This high quality and out-of-print hardback book was compiled and published in a limited run in 2001 by Todd Karr's Miracle Factory. Like all of his books, William E.Robinson and his enigmatic alias Chung Ling Soo is thoroughly researched and illustrated. It includes color plates of Chung Ling Soo's lithographic posters from private collections (although some are small - one to four posters per page), many illustrations, and photographs. The books covers different periods of Robinson's magic career including all of the magic effects he performed on stage with instructions and illustrations reprinted from magic books of his era. There are full reprints of articles he wrote on the Art of Magic, Alexander Herrmann, and Indian Jugglery to name a few. There's also essays written about him by Jim Steinmeyer, Walter B. Gibson among others. There are reprints of all the articles and magic instruction he wrote for various magic periodicals, all of his personal letters to his close friend Harry Houdini (a lot), and his complete book on the Spirit Slate Writing and Kindred Phenomenon plus a couple of smaller publications. There are reprints of hand written telegrams and notes on Chung Ling Soo stationary. And of course it covers the challange by the Chinese magician he impersonated, Ching Ling Foo with some new interesting details, also how he deceived the public who believed he was really Chinese, and his tragic death with his infamous Bullet Catching Illusion that went horribly wrong, bringing to light that he was an American and was secretly married to two different wives at the same time. All of Todd Karr's books dig up a wealth of information, old photos, and prints; much of it coming from private collections. However this book is not strictly a biography. Instead it covers in great detail all of the magic and wrtten material by and about Robinson's magic and paraphernalia mostly from his era. For a more thorough and in-depth biography that reads like a novel that you just can't put down, I highly recommend "The Glorious Deception - the Double Life of William Robinson aka Chung Ling Soo the Marvelous Chinese Conjurer" by Jim Steinmeyer.
Love Piper Magic. Always a pleasure to deal with. Very nice black deck of cards. Markings are easy to learn. Be careful with the tuck. It doesn't really secure the cards perfectly and some can fall out if handled incorrectly.
The move is bold and it fools laypeople badly--the premise is engaging and you can do it live or online. I gobsmacked a radio announcer online so much that he was speechless --which is hard for a radio announcer. I highly recommend this trick. Great reactions.
