Conjuring Credits

The Origins of Wonder

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Retention of Vision Vanish

This type of vanish is frequently attributed to T. J. ­Crawford. However, in the first published description of Crawford’s handling of the sleight, in The Art of Magic, 1909, p. 243, authors ­Hilliard and Downs pronounced the sleight as neither “original, or even new”, and mentioned it “ a favorite of the late Harry Stork, and […] a spe­cialty of an esteemed correspondent, Mr. T. J. Crawford.” An earlier example of this type of vanish is Claude ­Grivolas's “L'Empalmage” recordedI’Illusionniste, Vol. 16 No. 67, July 1907, p. 296.

Dai Vernon contributed his handling of the sleight to Hilliard’s Greater Magic, 1938, and championed it for many years in his lectures. See Greater Magic, p. 666 for Vernon’s handling, and p. 717 for Crawford’s. Both are repeated by J. B. Bobo in his Modern Coin Magic, 1952, pp. 29–32. David Roth furthered the Professor’s popularization of the move. See David Roth’s Expert Coin Magic by Richard Kaufman, 1985, p. 7.