Your Say

THANKS!

From Erik Jansson, Dec 7, 2007:

Hello Tim and whoever is working on the Magic Fakers-website.

Thanks for doing all of this! Credits is a subject of which I care deeply for, and it brings me joy to see a website dedicated to this. I have put a link to your website on my blog, which is located at www.virtualerik.com

Thank you!

-Erik Jansson
Sweden

From Jeff Cardwell, July 25, 2007:

"HEY GUYS

KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK ON THIS SUBJECT TOO MANY PEOPLE HAVE BEEN GETTING AWAY WITH THIS!!!! I'VE BEEN PERFORMING MAGIC FOR OVER THIRTY YEARS AND IN THAT TIME I'VE SEEN PEOPLE SAY THIS WAS THEIR MOVE THEIR TRICK OR THEIR DESIGN ON AN ILLUSION AND I KNOW MAGIC AND ITS IDEAS HAVE BEEN AROUND A LOT LONGER THAT I'VE BEEN ALIVE. THESE PEOPLE REALLY MAKE THE MAGIC CIRCLES REALLY LOOK LIKE TOTAL THIEVES. ANYWAY KEEP UP THE WORK THOSE PEOPLE THAT REALLY CREATE NEW MIRACLES IN MAGIC SHOULD GET THERE CREDIT."

From Robert Long, May 30, 2007:

"Hi Tim!

I had seen your website and the page that states the rip-offs and the protection and such. I first of all just wanted to say THANK YOU for posting that site! I have gotten tired many times talking bout ethics to other magicians and would start not to share my ideas except for a few friends of mine."

ITR ISSUES

From James George, December 24, 2006:

"Please let us know what India Product we have on our web-site that is a knock-off and it will be removed immediately?

We do not stock any knock-offs intentionally.

My main issue with Denny is the over emotional reaction to me being upset about the Mark Allen knock-off and it is a knock-off. There was no other Invisible Thread Reel offered on the market prior to the release of the ITR. Shrinking down someone's concept does not constitute a change or a claim to someone/s intellectual property. Mark Allen knows this, he told me to my face he was going to knock me off and exactly how.

We checked extensively, prior to releasing the ITR and we were certain that no other retracting thread reel was offered anywhere.

Sincerely,

James George

CEO Sorcery Manufacturing

Inventor of the ITR"

PENGUIN ETHICS

From Jason Clareman, Sep 6, 2006:

"You might be interested in reading Penguin Magic's point of view on various 'New Products' they carry as stated by Maxwell Murphy HERE."

ITR ISSUES

From Mike Goeller, December 16, 2006:

"Regarding the August 23 comment, from James George on the Denny and the Thread Reels.

I have shopped with Denny for over 13 yrs. I now help out part time in the shop when I'm not doing shows. I can speak first hand that Denny refuses to carry any knock off's at all.

Because of the controversy surrounding the reels. Denny is not carrying any Thread reels (except the mesika spider pens at this time). The other reel maker that we did carry (who's name escapes me at the moment) claimed James George ripped off his smaller and improved design, James George claims that it was his design that was ripped off. We want no parts of it. Denny is the most ethical magic dealer I have ever met. He is constantly fighting the Magic Fakers. Regarding Denny's website we've had serious issues with the person servicing the site and Items have not been deleted or updated as they should have been. If you come in our shops, we do not have thread reels. Rather then get in the middle of the controversy and perhaps inadvertently carry a knock off Denny refuses to sell them. From what I understand however (and I could be mistaken) James George company is carrying many knock off products made in India. It seems perhaps that there company will sell knock off of others but not stand for having there own products knocked off. Hmm?"

From James George, August 23, 2006:

"Please also correct Dennys claim that I made the statement that his is continuing to carry the TM Reels, I made it very clear that this is not the case, he does and is continuing to carry Mark Allen products. I just checked his site today. My statement is that buyers should be made aware of this. I do not understand why he also would get so upset over my e-mail when he knew very well that this product was a knock-off of mine. His self rightous attitude is very disturbing as if I should have the nerve to criticise someone who is stocking a knock-off."

From James George, August 22, 2006:

"ITR is a registered Trademark of Sorcery Manufacturing

Shrinking down someone's original concept does not give them a right to your invention or concept.

We had built smaller reels prior to meeting with Mark Allen, they proved to have a very speedy retraction and not a slow smooth magical retraction like the standard ITR, but we did later come out with the Boss Reel. Still our original idea, just smaller. If I shrink down a delite and make it child size, am I inventing something new? Please, give me a break.

We also found that Denny was the only dealer having these kinds of problems with our products, but we did have some quality control issues related to dealers not paying their bills on time and forcing us to lay off our good people. Yes I take full responsibility for being so altruistic, I no longer see altruism as a virtue, I am now and objectivist and extensively study the work of Ayn Rand, my life and business have improved a thousand fold since adopting her philosophy.

Please see our testimonials page at MyITR.com for the endless raving of our current product line.

Denny also promised to carry the original product from us, we in good faith sent him samples of our latest items about 250.00 worth of products.

I called him because I didn't feel good about the letter I sent him. I thought it would be better to talk with him, I told him to delete it, and inspite of the phone call and effort he chose to hold a grudge, even though I had apologized for sending it and thought it best if we could work this out on the phone.

When I phoned him up after a few weeks he was always too busy or couldn't get around to looking at them, stalling me off etc. Leading me to the one and only conclusion, that he continues to sell the knock-offs.

Our ITR's come with a 100% lifetime guarantee of FREE repairs, I don't know what more we could do?

I can only come to the conclusion that Denny has some weird irrational jealousy of me? Yes we have made millions of dollors on the ITR, we do not say this to brag, but hopefully to inspire the next great Magic Invention.

We have always offered to solve the problems we have had and get him taken care of, but he won't let us solve the problems, nor do we want to try any longer. He had a huge problem with our Dancing Cane which can appear also, the only one on the market that does appear and allows you to do the dancing cane routine. He didn't like it, completely emotional as I am certian he has never performed it for anyone or even bothered to learn to use it. I have found it best to not do business with irrational individuals.

We will never sell our products to Denny and Lee, he is forbidden from being an Authorized Sorcery Dealer, I made this decision after he told us he would carry the originals, then after giving him six months or so to sell out the pirates, he refused to place an order with us. We also have many new inventions that will only be available through select dealers.. I.e. Hocus Pocus will be getting an exclusive on our latest Invention.

We have found that most Magic Dealers have a heck of a time paying their bills on time, many of them struggle and eventually file for bankruptcy leaving us holding the bag. ( Over $279,000.00 owed to us to date ) This caused us a huge amount of frustration in the past and made it impossible to retain good employees and keep up our quality. We learned this lesson and we managed to survive, many magic dealers are just plain crooks. I am certain Denny does not look at Magic Dealers the same way we do.

These issues have been completely solved; by not selling to all of the dealers out there, this is why we now only sell to a few very good dealers, Hank Lee, Hocus Pocus etc. The crappy reels that Denny is referring to are the knock-offs from india and from Fun Inc.

Please see the latest News at Magic Cafe on our Pen Reel compared with the spider pen.

The Thread Manager is an unauthorized knockoff of our invention and is extremely difficult to repair. Our 2006 series Original Boss Reel is far superior to any other close-up reel we have ever designed, it has a really nice even tension and an amazing 10' of retraction distance in a reel that is about 2" long.

Our new 2005 Pen Reel is the most practical solution to the pen reel concept, No batteries to die and extremely reliable, designed from a very nice pen from Office Max and does not look like a cheap toy.

Hope this clears up the irrationality of Denny and Lee, I personally would recommend shopping somewhere else.

Kind Regards,

James George

P.S. He once told me I had too many different items, that is why he didn't want to buy from us. I hope he dosn't carry all the different types of card decks coming out, because if he does he is in direct contradiction with his own philosophy.

Please also note for Denny that we did not make the claim that he continues to promote the Thread Manager, only that he continues to promote some of Mark Allens products, which he does."

WHERE CAN WE BUY THE ORIGINALS?

From Matt Wood, July 24, 2006: "I strongly believe that your 'Magic Fakers' site is a very important part of the magic community. However, would you be able to provide links to where you can buy the original products? I ask this because the rip offs are often very easy to find, but it is usually much harder to find the Originals.."

MORE LINKING RING ARTICLE FEEDBACK

From Mike Jones, Mar 2, 2006: "About time someone showed an interest in exposing those rip-off artists."

From Robert N. Clarkson, Feb 26, 2006: "Interesting page to say the least a good effort. I went to it after reading the ethics page in LR 2/'06.

However this age-old argument has nearly soured my interests in the World Magic Societies. When I joined SAM one of the ethics was to oppose cheap plastic reproductions of quality illusion apparatus, i.e. Zig Zag Cigarette (a cheap plastic knock off of the famous Harbin Illlusion), this has since been changed an now we see these items being awarded as innovators for encouraging children in magic. However, as a sometimes instructor I also see the frustration and discouragement that poor quality cheap props present.

I left touring in professional magic in 1991-2001 to care for my parents in their last years. Several items you name on your page are in my collection and pre-date the manufacturer an dealers claiming to have originated these effects. In Reno 2002 I saw the Insight Wallet and nearly purchased it from my friend Larry Becker, but I already own a set of Dr Jacks Wallets, they are nearly the same and use identical modus but mine are 2 fold leather an Larry's is a tri-fold leather wallet with credit card pockets.

I bought an old "Improved Mental Die" at an antique shop in SanFrancisco while working there in 1984. This is the identical effect to Chazpro's Die Cypher, it is plastic an the modus allows the holder to determine the exact face placed upward as the die is locked inside a brass 'Okito' Style opaque box by a spectator.

I think in 1990 I attended a lecture by Ali Bongo, I have the notes someplace in my files. Ali told the story about an effect he had invented for a Paul Daniels Television Show episode opening in which a white rose was out-of-place an Paul passes his hand over it, changing it to red to match the bouquet he then presents to Suzie. Hmmm is this "Floral Fantasy?" The modus shown on your page is the same.

I could go on, but there is not space in an e-mail and I do not want to spend the time to document from my extensive library files.

What I am attempting to illustrate is that there are, in fact, new innovations ocuring in magic and we should honor the innovator's right to profit from his/her original idea. However the idea needs first to be original or novel to deserve this type of treatment. To merely read an old dusty forgotten book and then recreate a "lost" effect is fair game for imitators in my opinion. Card Boxes with a flap / flap slates / gambler's die boxes / holdouts etc are 2 or 3 generations old and have been common magic pitch items. It annoys me to see some guy in his 20's running around claiming; "He invented such an such an nobody else can use it!" when the effect is described in detail in common publications such as the Tarbel Course. Sorry but I don't believe any legal system in the world supports this kind of opinion, it only exists in the so-called magic fraternities with dealer clicques promoting their agenda among the elected leadership.

Your page with letters is GREAT!!! it illustrates what I am saying about such arguments.

By the way I do have a Dunninger Floating Lightbulb. It is huge and very fragile.

I wanted to add that my "Mental Die" was hand-made by Milson with instructions by Fr. Brennan. I have s few other effects in boxes, including folding bill ( that I purchased for my act from the originator on the advice of George Schindler at the Edison Hotel Magician's Lunch meeting in NYC in 1989)."

INVISIBLE THREAD REELS - RESPONSE

From Denny, Feb 25, 2006: "I try to stay off of chatrooms, bulletin boards, and message rooms on magic. Still, there are times when I feel I must defend myself and will do so at this point. This is in regards to the James George statement about my shop continuing to carry and promote the Mark Allen Underground TM Reel. His posting is dated February 17th, about the same time as my last phone conversation with him about the Mark Allen reel. He asked me if I still carry them and I told him "No, and I have removed them from my website." The last Mark Allen reel sold out of this shop was on September 23rd, 2005. This item was removed from my website after my first conversation with James a few months ago. I removed it because after speaking with James I felt it was "questionable." Most of you who deal with me know my ethics in magic. I am one of the foremost soldiers in the battle against unauthorized rip-offs and while many other shops profit from carrying those knock-offs, I struggle to keep my business alive rather than make high profits from stolen works.
I had explained to James that I was informed that Mark Allen had come up with the idea of making a "miniature" version of an ITR that was easier to hide and improved in operation and repair. The only reason I showed an interest in the Mark Allen TM Reel was that I was unhappy with the "Thread Boss" and other items that Sorcery was sending to me. Yes, when I first opened this shop I was ordering a LOT of magic from Sorcery. The ITRs were coming in to me crushed and broken. The ones that weren't broken had very rough edges around the hole and the thread would constantly break. The little safety pins to attach the ITR were difficult to work with. When a lecturer came through my shop, I saw the Mark Allen TM Reel and asked about it. I was told that Mark was the first one to come up with this "miniature" version. If you will read the posting from James George, you can see that it "seems" this is a true statement.
Here is what James says:

"We met an individual by the name of Mark Allen at the IBM Convention in Utah. He thought it would be a great idea to shrink the reel down. This of course is very obvious BUT our thinking was that it would be easier for people to learn and repair it with large parts. We LATER did shrink the reel down and created the very popular Thread Boss Reel, Mark claims the entire idea is his invention. Denny and Lee has and continues to promote some of his products so please be aware of this."

After reading the above over and over, it looks to me as if what I was originally told was correct. See if this doesn't make sense after reading James'
paragraph:
FACT-Yes, James George invented the ITR.
FACT-Mark Allen came up with the concept of a miniature version and James was against it for the reasons stated above.
SO-Mark came out with his miniature Underground TM reel and it was seen to be a good one, worked smoothly, no rough edges, alligator clip instead of the cumbersome safety pins. The mechanism was sleightly different and repairs were quick and easy instead of splitting the unit in half to repair. All nice improvements.
THEN James came out with the Thread Boss after Mark showed that this could be done and eliminated the drawbacks that James thought would make it unworkable.

Read James' statement above and see if this is not what you get out of this.
That's what I see in it.

So here I was, unhappy with the Sorcery Reels and I began carrying the Mark Allen Underground TM. In fact, I discontinued all business with Sorcery Manufacturing the day I received their "Appearing Dancing Canes." When I spoke to one of their salesmen about this cane they assured me that they were comparable to the Creekmore Dancing Cane. When I received this "short appearing pole with a piece of monofilament" I promptly sent them back with a letter stating that a product this bad will only damage their reputation and it is obvious that they don't know a dancing cane from a change bag. Those of you who have purchased this item will understand. The Appearing Microphone Stand was another wobbly piece of disappointment. They were also beginning to carry poor quality products made in India. I felt they were going over to the "dark side."
That is why I discontinued doing business with them.. Just a personal business decision.

I expressed all of this to James George on the phone the first time he called me. I had also told his "cold calling" salesmen many times about my past problems and to pass the information on to James. He finally called me after about a YEAR. He said that his salesmen hadn't been telling him about my complaints. By the way his phone call came AFTER he sent me a nasty email about me CHOOSING to carry "knock off" items. Apparently he knows NOTHING about my ethics in magic. After I talked to him on the phone, he told me to just ignore the email he just sent. Too late, I read the email and was truly insulted. His answers on the phone were "We're making the ITRS better now, we're more careful in the way we pack them, we're not carrying that kind of junk anymore, and the girl that told you about the Appearing Dancing Canes doesn't work there anymore." I knew he was sort of "passing the buck" and perhaps trying to get my business back again so I said that I would remove the Mark Allen Reel from my website, which I immediately did and that I would trust that he is now making better ITRs and will order from him.

When I carried ITRS in my shop, I only carried a dozen or so at a time. They are NOT one of my big sellers because I don't sell to laymen and expose the ITR to them We are NOT a laymen shop. I do not demo the floating dollar bill and sell what I consider to be an excellent secret to anyone who walks in my shop. I am against that. I would rather they buy a Tarbell Volume One and begin to learn magic correctly.
Apparently James George is upset because I haven't began placing orders for his ITRs. He just called me a week or so ago asking when I am going to order.
Perhaps it is because I don't care if I carry ITRS or not. You can get his ITRs at any layman trick or joke shop. Why should I even carry them? I only carried the Mark Allen Reel for the guys "in the know" who were looking for a good ITR and I felt that the Mark Allen Reel was a superior one.

The statement that I continue to carry and promote the Mark Allen Underground TM reel is A LIE. James, you should check my website before you make such statements.

James George continues to "bash" me apparently because I won't place a big order for ITRs from him . Look on my website and you will see that I don't
carry ANY ITRs. Hey James, did you ever think that maybe that first rude email
you sent to me could have turned me off to your company? I was seriously getting ready to order more Sorcery ITRs and then someone sent me a copy of this posting that James made on February 17th. That was right after talking to him and assuring him that I no longer carry the Mark Allen Reel. As I have stated before, they were removed from my site the very first time James called and the last one sold out of this shop was on September 23rd, 2005.

So here it is........I guess I will not carry ITRs at all. Since the Mark Allen Reel is "questionable" as to who invented it, I won't carry it. (Yes, James. You don't know me well enough to even BEGIN to understand my ethics in this
business) I haven't carried it for the past five months. I can assure you of one thing. I WILL NOT carry a Sorcery Product in this shop. I can do without an ITR. Let the joke and trick shops carry them. You can get them anywhere. I have just made a decision to do NO BUSINESS with James George or Sorcery Manufacturing. That is my right to choose. "

INVISIBLE THREAD REELS

From James George, Feb 17, 2006: "Hi Everyone, This is James George from Sorcery Manufacturing the guy who Invented the ITR, I had this concept in the back of my head since the age of 14. (1979) It wasn't until 1992 that I located the material to build the first Invisible Thread Reel and began marketing this concept in March of the same year.

We met an individual by the name of Mark Allen at the I.B.M. Convention in Utah, he thought it would be a great idea to shrink the reel down, this of course is very obvious, but our thinking was that it would be easier for people to learn and repair it with larger parts, we later did shrink the reel down and created the very popular Thread Boss Reel. Mark claims this entire idea is his Invention. Denny & Lee has and continues to promote some of his products so please be aware of this.

Fun Inc. manufactures a rip-off product known as the Invisible Thread Retractor and also promotes rip-offs of our appearing pole line of products. D. Robbins promotes another Knock-off known as the India Thread Reel, this is of very inferior quality and destroys the reputation of Magic in general. Another Knock-off comes from Italy and they use my trademarked name Micro ITR. Mak Magic also promotes a rip-off ITR as well as rip-offs of our Appearing Pole products. The term ITR is a registered trademark of Sorcery Manufacturing and any info as to the infringment of this trademark or any of our other copyrighted material of ours will be greatly appreciated and can be forwarded to Sorcerymfg@aol.com

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TWISTER ILLUSION

From Louis McClung, Feb 8, 2006: "Tomsoni's Answer To Zaney Blaney's Original Inquiry About The Twisters Origin (Italics and bold are mine)

                                Dear Walter: (Zaney Blaney)

                                Of course it's true! Lou, who was the resident magi at the Newport Beach Magic Island during its early years, suggested this to just about every comedy magician that ever worked there. Pam and I headlined there in eighty-three and Lou touted us onto his idea at that time and I thought it was a great idea.
                                In method it's based on the Head Twister and the Sphinx principle a la the Sword Cabinet, but his idea of hiding the mirror with the twisted body and exposed hands was really quite brilliant. It's a shame that Lou has never gotten credit for coming up with the idea, let alone that someone else is receiving a rather heavy license fee from the various builders for Lou's comedy illusion concept.
I know that Mark Kornhauser was the first one to actually build the illusion, but I also know, as do Fielding West and Ed Alonzo, that it was not Mark's concept.
                                In fact I happen to know that Fielding West was the one who passed that the information about Lou's illusion idea to Mark when he was stayingat my house in Glendale, California. He had previously mentioned that Lou had given him the idea and I retorted by saying that he had touted the illusion to just about every comedy magician that worked the Island. Fielding, during his stay at my place, mentioned in passing that he had decided not to do the trick and instead, sketched it out for Mark while he was at the Castle. I have no particulars, since Fielding covered the entire incident and correctly identified Lou Lancaster as the inventor in a cover story for the Linking Ring.
                               As far as Franz is concerned, I have know idea why he thinks he has any claim to it at all, especially since he claims to have come up with it in 1989, at least eight years after Lou began trying to get one of us comedy magicians working the Island in the early eighties to build the thing.
                              I respect both Mark and Franz as performers, but can't for the life of me understand why one wants credit for inventing it and he wants the same and collects money for it. I don't know why Mark doesn't do the right thing and acknowledge that it wasn't his idea and, perhaps it wouldn't be a bad idea for Mark to take care of Lou in some way financially, as well. I'm sure Mark didn't do this with malice, perhaps he's just forgot that the info was passed onto him by Fielding. I know I was around Lou during the early eighties and I certainly can remember that it was his concept and idea.
                         -    Nuff sed!

                             Please send a copy of this to Bill Smith. By the way, he's (Lou's) not an old codger with a pipe dream, he did come up with the "Twister" and he's rightfully upset and angered.
                             - John Thompson (Tomsoni)

My Story

                               During 1981 and 1982 I was a resident magician at Magic Island in Newport Beach, California. I no longer wanted to do illusions and since I had come up with an illusion that was not only funny to watch, but could be done surrounded and required only one girl assistant , I told just about every comedy magician about the Twister Illusion and even drew its plans for them. I told Fielding West, Ed Alonzo,Mark Kornhauser, Mark Hendrickson and Johnny Thompson about the Twister Illusion.
                                     In 1995 Fielding West phoned me in NYC and told me that people were complaining to him because he had correctly credited the Twister Illusion to me. Apparently these people had seen ads in the IBM. Linking Ring and elsewhere with Mark Kornhauser and Franz Harary's name in the ads. I wrote a letter to Philip Reed Willmarth (editor of the Linking Ring magazine) and NEVER received a reply.
                              Mark Kornhauser and Franz Harary have as much to do with any part of the invention of the Twister Illusion as they do with the invention of the light bulb!
                              Bill Smiths Magic Ventures in Long Beach, CA had been building the Twister and charging money for its plans and performance rights (and in his ads crediting it to Kornhauser and Harary). I know that its been built and performed all over the world.
                               Recently I contacted Walter "Zaney" Blaney (former President of the World Alliance Of Magicians) who wrote Johnny Thompson (Tomsoni) about my claim to the Twister. Tomsoni's reply is reproduced above.

- Louis McClung

LINKING RING FEEDBACK

Jim Collins, Feb 1, 2006: "After receiving the Linking Ring I read the article concerning Rip Offs, if magicians ,at least the novice ones, would take the time to look into the effect they might realize why the cost of certain tricks are so expensive and not be tempted by Knock Offs to but the less costly ones. You get what you pay for naturally, but if you want well made, long lasting apparatuses then you pay the price. I guess I'm fortunate to have the time to look & research the effect & compare the same effect to other dealers or mfgs. There are dealers whom have the power to purchase quality items than others but on the other hand there's those who purchase quantities that just want to sell period. So my advice to the younger magicians coming up is to take time to compare, look at the effect, do the research , its time consuming yes but well worth the effort in the long run."

FLOATING LIGHT BULB

From David Alexander, Jan 1, 2006: "Some clarification....Burling Hull did NOT invent the Floating Light Bulb. See The Sphinx, June 1931 for the following:

Dr. William Endlich reports that at the Philadelphia Assembly No 4 of the SAM there had been a discussion of the theft of tricks. Case in point: Frank hall, who presented to this SAM group, at his him in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania about 18 months earlier, his own creation: The Floating Light Blub. Hall had marketed several to a few professionals and suddenly finds a well-known dealer [Burling Hull who was then running prominent ads for "Dunninger's Miracle Floating Light"], selling the trick as his.

Nothing much has changed, has it?"

SEARCH FEATURE?

From Bob Seaver, Dec 31, 2005: "This is a great service, but why not have a search function? So that if you know the current name of the ripoff, or the name of the original, you can find them without having to scroll through everything? Or maybe I am missing some link?"

Unfortunately I'm not that clever... but try clicking on the EDIT menu on your browser, then using the FIND feature.

THANKS

From Jacques Lord, San Diego, Dec 28, 2005: "Thank you for providing information; accurate, enlightening, and galvanizing information. I will shop with a more critical eye, and respect the inventor's efforts with my purchases."

GOOD START

From Douglas Moors, Dec 1, 2005: "Dear Tim and Sue-Anne, I think you are doing the magic consumer/inventor communities a great service with this site, but my fear is that you may have only scratched the surface.

A magician-friend of mine invented a baffling trick, which was immediately ripped off by another magician who had just seen my friend's lecture (the rip-off guy developed instant amnesia regarding seeing the lecture- odd symptom for a so-called mentalist GE?). The problem is that (as with other rip-offs) the imitation got the gimmick right the but got the WELL THOUGHT OUT handling wrong!
Surprise, surprise.

Is it me, or is such flagrant and obvious thievery more prevalent now than ever before?

Also, I found this site by sheer accident because I forgot the actual name of the trick where two lifesavers link together (I will get mine from the inventor!). Also, I will boycott companies such as "Puffin" and "Tragic Fakers" that sell rip-offs.

Keep up the good work and don't let the smarmy slimemeisters get you down!!

Doug

P.S.: Kyle, dude, you seem to have missed the entire point of the site. Just because you say something is not ripped off does not make it so, although I am sure such rationalization assuages any guilt your semi-literate quasi-aware conscience may muster up. The fact that you cannot discern the difference between some hack mass-producing poor-quality imitations of John Cornelius pens and between Wal-Mart and K-Mart make me fear that you severely lack critical thinking skills. There is a reason that the United States intercedes when China churns out rip-offs of U.S. jeans or software.
Flooding the country with cheap knock-offs is against the law. Why should we let our magic brethren (born, apparently with a defective integrity gene), get away with the same thing?"

DUMB WEBSITE

From Kyle Scott, Nov 27, 2005: "I think your site is dumb.

1.I just recently ordered 3 items from Penguin magic [Folding quarter, Svengali Deck, Royal Road to Card Magic] and I have no commplaints, they arrived before they were supposed to they all work,and they all were worth the money.

2.You say they are ripoffs I say there not

3. you say there just copying other people Thats just like pepsi and Coke. And Xbox and PS2 ,Walmart K mart "

From Jack Shea, Nov 22, 2005: "Your page is fantastic and it amazes me to think that so many rip offs even use the very same name.

Many years ago in MAGIC Magazine Juan Mayoral placed an ad telling all that he invented LUMINOUS EARS. He claims that it was his and was never seen before he invented it.

I had to write the magazine and tell that, while not made commercially for sale to magicians, my father invented ears that light up around 1960. My father invented a ton of stuff and his bigger inventions never garnered him much as he worked for General Electric and they didn't allow an employee to put their name on an invention and they became the property of GE.

I was working as a stand-up comic at a local nightclub to get experience and one night as I was doing my thing I could see someone came in the room toward the back wall and was walking along that wall and this person's ears kept lighting and blinking and it nearly threw my timing off as I was fascinated by the effect. It was my father who stopped by to show me his latest toy he made.

It is interesting to note that many things are invented by people who either have no intention of selling the item or those who invent something that others will invent simply as an evolution of an idea...it is then up to one of these people to put it on the market. When more than one does this then there is a problem of trying to decide who was the original."

From Verne McCarthy, President, Magic Max Inc - Nov 21, 2005: "Sir, I am writing to you regarding John Cornelius's Pen Thru Anything. You did me a favor, and I wish to thank you for creating your web site. I came across it by accident one day, and was scanning through it, thinking that it was about time that someone put a web site up like yours.

You see, I'm an inventor of magic, and have about 80 items that are true originals with me. I too, have been ripped off, and don't enjoy it one bit. You may imagine my horror then, when as I went through your site, I found my own company listed as ripping off John.

I joined Magic Max (then Old Town Magic) in 1991. It was wholly owned and operated by Dave Eaton. Dave manufactured a few tricks, and bought everything else from other manufacturers. The Pen Thru Anything was one of the items that Dave manufactured.

Over the years, I slowly bought into Dave's company, and, eventually, purchased his stock completely. I am now the sole owner of Magic Max, Inc., and I do not condone rip offs of any nature. As soon as I saw mention on your web site of the Pen Thru Anything, I took the item that my company was making off the market.

I immediately contacted John, advised him of the situation, and apologized profusely (please feel free to verify this with John). I requested permission to purchase the item from him, and he graciously assented. I now have his PERFECT PEN, and am waiting for him to fill his back orders for PEN THROUGH ANYTHING. In the meantime, the Laser Pen is no longer being marketed on my web site ( www.magicmax.com ) rather, John's Pen is.

I wanted to thank you for inadvertently bringing this situation to my attention. Hopefully you will be successful in putting ethics back into magic."

From Gerry Frenette - Nov 20, 2005: "With this complaint about Penguin, the name "Magic Makers" comes up again in a negative way. We have been using the name Magic Makers for 20 years. We sell only large illusions produced by our Canadian company. We asked Rob Stiff a few years ago to stop using our business name but (surprise, surprise), he claimed it was a coincidence and refused to stop. We are incorporated in Canada so he was able to incorporate in the U.S. using the same name. People have been confusing us with them for years. It's disturbing to us, because Rob Stiff was initially riding on our good reputation and possibly tarnishing it due to the confusion, but at least it does not seem to have hurt our business. As time went on, however, Rob Stiff was beginning to earn his own reputation.

I just felt the record should be set straight again. Please inform your friends as well. A heartfelt "Thank You" goes out to Walter Blaney and all others who have been spreading the word that we have nothing to do with Rob Stiff's company or associated companies like Penguin."

From Doug Dyment - Nov 18, 2005: "Si Stebbins did not invent the Si Stebbins System; he just popularized it. He first did so in 1896 under the name of Wm. Vino, and again in 1898 under his own name. Howard Thurston published the same system in 1901, calling it "The Thurston System". In Stebbins' book, an increment of three is used, but in real life, he himself was using an increment of four. The "increment of three" version predates Stebbins by many years, though, having first been published by Gaspar Cardozo de Sequeira in his "Thesouro de Prudentes" (Portugal, 1612).

This was long believed to be the first such approach to a full deck stack. Recently, though, it was discovered that the oldest source (which turns out to be an "increment of four") is a book called "Giochi de Carte" by Horacio Galasso, published in Venice in 1593!"

From Dave Tenneboe - Oct 14, 2005: "I always thought Howard Hale invented The Vanishing Bandana. I think he won an award for creativity from one of the magic organizations at a convention contest."

From Bill Palmer - Oct 21, 2005: "Although Tom Ogden had a lot to do with this routine, I believe the actual originator was Tom Yarborough, who presented this in a character roughly like Alfalfa in the Our Gang comedy series. His other magnum opus was his presentation of the Square Circle which he called, "The Round Box -- Square Box Trick." When David Copperfield performed this, he purchased the rights from Yarborough. Yarborough got a credit for the trick on the show, as well."