Magic Exposure in 1944
E X P O S U R E S
By Jean Hugard
A prophet might well say to his flock of magicians — "The exposer shall never cease out of the land." It is so at the present moment and as far back as I can remember it has always been so. From the time when magic first began to emerge from its status as the profession of charlatanry at the fairs and in the city streets, whenever a publisher ran short of material to keep his typesetters busy, a favorite plan was to reprint pamphlets exposing magic tricks. The long series of editions of Hocus Pocus Junior in England and an even greater number of pamphlets in French exposing tricks taken from the works of Ozanam and Guyot bear witness to this fact.
Some commentators maintain that it was through the exposure of the secrets of the magic of those days that the art was forced to progress in order to maintain its standing in the face of increasing popular knowledge. Therefore, they say that, for the same reason, the exposure of the secrets of present day magic is a good thing in that it will force ever greater improvements in the art. It is a fact that in the so-called Golden Age of Magic of a generation ago exposure was more rampant than it had ever been. All the "greats" — Maskelyne, Devant, Servais LeRoy, Goldin, Houdini and many others, divulged treasured secrets in the pages of popular magazines and newspapers. Is it possible that magic lags at the present time for want of more and bigger exposures?
The continued outcries by some amateurs (the professionals don't join the chorus) are futile because there is a vast body of unorganized people who are interested in magic and who consider they have right to get information. However, with regard to organized magicians, their remedy is a simple one. Every magic society requires its members to take a vow on joining that they will not reveal any of the secrets of magic. If any member of such societies feels his urge for publicity as "a great magician" compels him to break his vow, then he should be made to suffer the penalties provided in such cases without regard to persons. If such offenses are condoned or glossed over the societies stultify themselves.
On the other hand, the course of any member of such a magical society is equally clear. If his need for publicity is overpowering, he should resign his membership before indulging it.
There is, however, another form of exposure for which there is no excuse and for which, alas, there is no remedy. It is the deliberate exposure by professional magicians of magical methods in their public performances. A flagrant example of this was given at a recent magical show in New York. A professional magician, after having vanished a ball in so clean a fashion that the feat brought applause even from the initiated, deliberately showed that it was simply hanging from his thumb by means of a loop of thread. Not content with that, he exposed in slow motion every detail of the actions necessary to show that apparently both hands were empty back and front. It is strange that such artists? cannot see that such exposures ruin the whole effect of their acts, for the spectators naturally conclude that their other feats are done by equally simple methods and the whole glamor of magic is destroyed. This man used no sleight of hand and probably thought he was not harming his own performance, but I wonder what he would say if another performer had shown how simple it is to steal the key ring for the linking rings from the back of a chair.
Originally published in Hugard’s Magic Monthly, Vol. II, N. 7, December 1944
