The Magic House of Babcock by Michael S. Richman

For those who know Mel Babcock and his work, this is an excellent collection of stories, tidbits, descriptions, and pictures of his life and his workmanship. Mel builds some great items and his prices makes these pieces a real steal. His Nested Boxes and Instant Transposition, all handcrafted in exotic woods, are truly exceptional items and speak well of his skills.

The book is well written and adorned with black and white photos, but the color images of his magic towards the end of the book is a real treat. I liked the chapter detailing Mel’s steps in making a die box and the one describing the various exotic woods used in his apparatus. This is definitely a fact filled book on a wonderful man and his contribution to magic. 

My biggest issue with this wonderful book is that there are very few dates in the Effect Descriptions section. If you compare this with Donald Croucher’s superb book Magic by Miller, Donald spent the time adding as many dates as he could. The Magic House of Babcock is still an excellent book and will appeal to Collectors, but adding the dates would have really made it more generally useful research source too.  Dates are the quickest thing that creators and magicians forget and are vital to place a creator’s magic in context and really helpful for my History Project 🙂 

Details: For more than 25 years, Mel Babcock has turned out magnificent, crafted, collector-quality magic props. “The Magic House of Babcock” is a wonderful adventure of a man’s passion for learning the art of magic, performing, and developing a talent for woodworking. It is a story that shares the creativity, challenge, and motivation of one man in his journey to build quality magic apparatus. This is an 8 x 11 inch hard bound volume with dust jacket. It contains 192 pages printed on glossy paper. Included are product descriptions and approximately 150 photographs, as well as a 20 page color gallery of many of the magic props built by Mr. Babcock. Supply limited to 500 autographed copies.

With encouragement from William King, the book was written by Michael S. Richman of Germantown, MD. Mr. Richman is a magic hobbyist and collector of fine apparatus. He works in the field of biotechnology where he helps manage and develop pharmaceuticals and biologic products.

Contents:

12 Introduction
14 The Person
34 Getting Interested in Magic
42 Mel the Magician
62 The Craftsman
82 In the Shop
102 Building a Die Box
112 The Business
124 Conclusion
126 Effect Descriptions

1. ABC Blocks
2. Block and Ball Transposition
3. Block, Ball and Coin Penetration
4. Block, Frame and Ribbon Penetration
5. Block Production Box
6. Card Box
7. Card Box (Lippincott-Style)
8. Coin Tray
9. Coin Vanish
10. Color Changing Rabbit
11. Dice Boxes
12. Die Box
13. Die, Frame, and Cord Penetration
14. Die Tunnel
15. Double Block Release
16. Dry Erase Prediction Slate
17. The Elusive Teddy Bear
18. Flat Dice
19. The Flying Die
20. Harbin-Style Folding Table
21. Improved Phantom Die
22. Instant Transposition
23. Lester Lake Guillotine
24. Magic Wands
25. Mirror Penetration
26. Okito’s Alphabet Block
27. Pivot-Lid Coin Box
28. Psychic Arithmetic
29. Ring and Box Trick
30. Ring and Post Puzzle
31. See-Thru Block Box
32. Square Circle
33. Square Production Tube
34. Twin Tube Block Penetration
35. Bewildering Blocks
36. Block and Silk Transposition
37. Block-Off-Ribbon
38. Bow Sawing
39. Brass Washer and Silver Dollar Trick
40. Break-Apart Die Box
41. Broom Illusion
42. Bunny Box
43. Card Appearance Frame
44. Checker Cabinet
45. Coin Ladder
46. Cutting a Girl into Sixths
47. Dagger Heade Chest
48. Die Box to Rabbit
49. Die to Ball
50. Double-Door Production Box
51. Double Tube Production
52. Dove from Balloon Pagoda
53. Dove From Balloon Tray
54. Doves to Rabbit
55. Dove-Switching Cage
56. Dove Take-Apart Vanish
57. Dove Tear-Apart Vanish
58. Drawer Box
59. English Die Box
60. Finger Chopper
61. Flash Appearance
62. Flip-Over Vanish
63. Folding Roll-On Table
64. G.M. Die Box
65. Gunther Die Box
66. Gwynne-Style Rabbit Vanish
67. Hong Kong Dove Frame
68. Jap Hank Box
69. Last Card
70. The Madison Die Box
71. Mirror Boxes
72. Money Machine
73. Nest of Boxes
74. Nest of Boxes Key Stand
75. Oriental Die Box
76. Oriental Square Circle
77. Pagoda Production Box
78. Pivot-Panel Production Box
79. Pivot-Panel Production Screen
80. Rabbit From Balloon Box
81. Reappearing Lollipops
82. Ribbon and Glass Release
83. See-Thru Block Production Box
84. Shadow Box Illusion
85. Silver Dollar Die Box
86. Slow Motion Visible Block Penetration
87. Square Circle Illusion
88. Squeeze-Away Blocks
89. Super-X Illusion
90. Swirling Dove Vanish Box
91. TV Card Frame
92. Take-Apart Rabbit Vanish
93. Toy Chest
94. Tray, Box, and Screen Production (Gwynne-Style)
95. Triple Card Prediction
96. Triple Coin Boxes
97. Ultimate ABC Blocks
98. Vanishing Dove Cage
99. Walking Through Ribbons
100. The West Die Box
101. Wine Bottle Cabinet
102. Wrist Chopper
103. Zig-Zag Illusion
104. Zombie Box

166 Exhibits
174 Color Gallery

1. Squeeze-Away Blocks
2. Ultimate ABC Blocks
3. Zig-Zag Illusion
4. Bow Sawing
5. Dagger Head Chest
6. Mirror Penetration
7. Lester Lake Guillotine
8. Last Card
9. Folding Roll-On Table
10. Triple Card Prediction
11. Harbin-Style Folding Table
12. Wine Bottle Holder
13. Bewildering Blocks
14. Dove Tear-Apart Vanish
15. Block and Silk Transposition
16. ABC Blocks
17. Oriental Square Circle
18. Toy Chest and Block and Ball Transposition
19. Wrist Chopper
20. Card Appearance Frame
21. TV Card Frame
22. Card Boxes
23. Square Production Tube
24. Checker Cabinet
25. Slow Motion Visible Block Penetration
26. Die Box To Rabbit
27. Double Tube Production
28. Die Boxes
29. Nest of Boxes
30. Dove From Balloon Tray
31. Square Circle
32. Dove Take-Apart Vanish
33. Double Block Release
34. English Die Box
35. Oriental Die Box
36. Mirror Box
37. Pivot-Panel Production Screen
38. The Elusive Teddy Bear
39. Flip-Over Vanish
40. Dove From Balloon Pagoda Style
41. Another Mirror Box

• Publisher: Mel Babcock
• Pages: 192
• Location: USA
• Dimensions: 9″x11″
• Date: 2003
• Binding: hardbound

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