Conjuring Credits

The Origins of Wonder

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Jordan Count

This count appeared, applied as a displacement, in “The Phantom Aces” within Charles Jordan's Thirty Card Mysteries, 1919, p. 65. Karl Fulves named the sleight the “Jordan Count,” and Francis Haxton, Norm Houghton and Ed Marlo each independently rediscovered the dynamic in the context of a false display. Houghton was first to print, with “Modified Elmsley Count” in Hugard's Magic Monthly, Vol. 21 No. 3, Nov. 1963, p. 18. Marlo, calling it the “Flexible Count,” followed a month later in New Tops, Vol. 3 No. 12, Dec. 1963, p. 22. Haxton enters the picture in Epilogue, No. 10, Nov. 1970, p. 75, with “Jordan's 4-as-4 Count.” Also see “Card Problems” in Epilogue, No. 9, July 1970, p. 72; and “You Can't Count on Jordan” in Sticks & Stones, No. 1, Jan. 1975, p. 3.