Introduction

IT WAS "The Sphinx" which told me what went on inside magic when, as a very young magician, I could see only the outside. If was "The Sphinx" which brought me advice, from the very top people of magic, on how to better my performances. It was "The Sphinx" which gave me many of the feats of magic my audiences most enjoy. Therefore, as a performer, and one greatly interested in all phases of magic, the magazine has meant a great deal to me. I am not unique in my feeling for, during the half century that "The Sphinx" has been published, magicians everywhere have looked on the magazine as their key to the secret door of the world of magic. Just a few weeks ago William R. Walsh, America's number 1 amateur magician, wrote to me: "Well do I remember the thrill experienced when, as a young man, I found my first issue of 'The Sphinx'--how I accumulated at first single copies, and then, later, volumes-the many, many evenings I pored over each article and advertisement-how it opened up an entirely new world for me, one of intrigue and deeply rooted interest. This all began about 1915. A few years before this I had been casually interested in magic, but this was the beginning of a real and consuming hobby which has been very close to my heart ever since. Now I am the possessor of a complete file of 'The Sphinx'."

In all the fifty years of publication of the magazine, there have been but three editors, and I feel that I was very fortunate to have known well both the first, Bill Hilliar, and Doc Wilson, the second. In 1912 I was pleased and honored when Doc asked me to work for his paper. I enjoyed working for Doc Wilson for eighteen years. It, also, has been a privilege and a pleasure to edit "The Sphinx" these past twenty-one years. The mechanical headaches of any given month are forgotten with the enthusiasm of working on the next issue.

When it was decided to publish a book to commemorate the 50th Anniversary Issue of "The Sphinx," to include some of the outstanding magical effects which first had appeared in the magazine, I was in a quandary. To quote the old proverb. "I could not see the forest for the trees." To me the vast majority of the tricks published in "The Sphinx" were well worth republishing. However, to publish so large a number was an utter impossibility. Therefore, I felt that the selection of a reasonable number should be left to one not so intimately connected with the magazine. Milbourne Christopher was given the huge task of making the selection. To make the book uniform and more attractive, Sid Lorraine drew a completely new set of illustrations.

Throughout the years, each editor, in turn, has been grateful for the help of the thousands of magicians who were willing to share their cherished and most excellent secrets.

I believe that you, and your audiences, will like the magic in this book, too.

John Mulholland