Cardini’s “imitators” scrapbook.

Cardini’s “imitators” scrapbook. Small scrapbook of newspaper clippings, correspondence, ephemera, and photographs compiled by Swan Cardini and chronicling many of the magicians who imitated – in some small way – the tricks and routines popularized by Cardini. Among the magicians represented are Paul Fox, Paul Duke, Tommy Martin, Pablo, LePaul, Keith Clark, and others. Marginal notes, some quite biting in tone and likely in Swan Cardini’s hand, appear on several pages. Green pebbled cloth. 8vo. Some contents removed, some pages blank; overall very good. There is little dispute over the fact that Cardini was the most imitated magician of the twentieth century. If Alexander Herrmann was the archetype of the magician circa 1880, Cardini’s image became a worldwide icon for magicians the world over in the next century. The concept of the top hat and tail-wearing conjurer, working center stage, in one, only came to be after Cardini scored his greatest successes. Then came a litany of copycat acts too numerous to mention. Some of those acts are chronicled in this scrapbook. Of course, not only was his image aped, so were his tricks. Magic acts centering around card, cigarette, and billiard ball manipulation remained in vogue throughout Cardini’s career, or, at least until Channing Pollock gave magicians a new ideal to imitate.