Vernon's reputation was in no way dependent on his being the called "The Man Who Fooled Houdini,"(Rick Jay) here the documentary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeIBCLw4p8o <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeIBCLw4p8o> Stonre mentioned "inattentional blindness", a phenomenon which enables many illusory feats.Here at FFL for example Daniel Simons's famous "invisible gorilla" experiment has been mentioneed severeal time http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtKt8YF7dgQ <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtKt8YF7dgQ> where subjects were asked to watch a video of people passing a basketball and tally the number of passes that occurred. Subjects who counted correctly tended to completely miss the appearance of a person in a gorilla suit. Could it be that Mr. Stone's arrival at the Magic Olympic Village in Stockholm(that's how his book begins with a "magical trick")"was no Olympic Village, because there is no Magic Olympics"."just a triennial gathering of magic enthusiasts, sponsored by an international organization of magic clubs "and he himself victim of "inattentional blindness"? "Self-initiates Mr. Stone" (as Ricky Jay called him) who encounters or studies with , according to Stone, a chain of superlatives"legendary," a "genius," a "virtuoso" or a "master" and "mastered (in 12 months of study only)hundreds of moves and dozens of mind-blowing tricks" claiming that 20 years before Robert-Houdin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzNpEMsBUU8 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzNpEMsBUU8> ever performed public!publish his book,tells us about amateur magician and friend of Robert-Houdin creator of the first special-effects films etc etc George Melies http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPmKaz3Quzo <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPmKaz3Quzo> RICKY JAY described "Fooling Houdini" as " an ostensibly self-effacing memoir by an inept amateur conjure". http://online.wsj.com/article /SB10001424052702303734204577464450347187644.html <http://online.wsj.com/article /SB10001424052702303734204577464450347187644.html> Do not miss "Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay," and his comparison to ZEN Now You See the Real Ricky Jay (or Do You?) http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142412788732334630457842284279355975\ 4.html <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100014241278873233463045784228427935597\ 54.html> Trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OlSeOxJmzg <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OlSeOxJmzg> and "Magical Mathematics" by Persi Diaconis and Ron Graham http://www.maths.tcd.ie/pub/ims/bull69/FOC.pdf <http://www.maths.tcd.ie/pub/ims/bull69/FOC.pdf> History.Channel.Houdini.Unlocking.The.Mystery http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0idt8rh1Tc <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0idt8rh1Tc> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb wrote: >snip > I'm going to try to track down this movie, because I suspect > it'll talk about Dai Vernon, Doug's mentor and probably one > of Ricky's. snip >
