New Era Card Tricks by August Roterberg
New Era Card Tricks was written specifically for magicians by Chicago magic dealer August Roterberg, unlike prior magic books which were published and written for the public.
New Era Card Tricks contains a number of mechanical card effects and gaffs reproduced from the German works of F. W. Conradi. The book introduced the term "Color Change" and gave an early explanation of the Double Lift. It was also the first book to provide a description of the Back Palm. It may have been an influence or inspiration for S.W. Erdnase when writing Expert at the Card Table since some of the sleights are identical or provided inspiration for Erdnase.
In 1897 it sold for two dollars. Original copies have gone for $250 or more on auction sites.
Lucky for us it was reprinted just a few years ago and is available at a very reasonable cost thanks to Stephen Minch and Byron Walker.
It is definitely one of my favorite card magic books. It's full of popular card magic from the turn of the century and includes some amazingly strong magic,
Just because it's old doesn't mean it is not full of cutting edge magic.
Probably the first version of the Haunted Pack ever published. This is a classic of magic popularized by Al Baker, Eugene Burger and others.
Look up August's "The Hypnotized Card" inside this book for a magical version where the deck cuts all by itself exactly where the selected card lies. Here's a tip: instead of using a magic wand use a pen and a pad of paper. You'll thank me later ;).
Another favorite effect of mine from this book is an extremely magical trick where a letter that you received in the mail is displayed and when you toss the letter in the air it turns into the selected card. This is great visual magic at its best. Another hidden gem called "the envelope card" and is found on page 258.
Here's one more:
"Improved cards read behind the back". This effect could be used to close your show!!! A deck is thoroughly shuffled by audience members and the performer has his back turned and is blindfolded.
You could even have a bag over your head because you genuinely cannot see. Even though the cards of been shuffled and you are blindfolded you are now able to call off the cards in order as they are dealt one at a time until you have named every card!!!
Track yourself down a copy and you'll be glad you did. Enjoy!!!
Kranzilla :-)
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Very nice post! Thank you
A very nice PDF of the original is available for free here: https://archive.org/details/neweracardtrick00gossgoog
Roterberg’s book is available as an ebook from lybrary.com.
Great suggestion. Would have appreciated more info on name of effects you referred to as well as possibly the page number in Roterberg’s book
Thanks.