Pagoda Mystery by Owen Magic Supreme, Thayer Quality Magic

This beautiful and practical utility device was first manufactured by Thayer c. 1936 as the “Wu-Ling” Pagoda Mystery and was originated by Englishman Wu-Ling (aka Mr. Richard C. Ritson, MMC, The Magical Mandarin).  In the Thayer literature it is also often referred to as the Pagoda Cabby. Owen’s carried on with their version and dropped the “Wu-Ling” from the title.

This one from Owen’s is very much Carl Owen’s style and looks beautiful.  For the most part the operation is very smooth and slides easily.  It is possible to put the sliding door back into the wrong track for the slider and this can cause the door to stick, but keep your wits about you and you’ll have a beautiful utility item whenever you need to vanish or appear or even exchange a large number of items 🙂

The routine in the video allowed me to vanish items twice instead of the normal single vanish or appearance you are used to.  By choosing a matching silk I could go back in and vanish two silks after I vanished the silk and the bottle to begin with. I thought this really maximized the use of the apparatus.  If you want to see an appearance instead of a vanish you can look at the video for this effect.

Includes:

• The beautiful Pagoda cabinet as shown (this has some minor touch ups with with a small hole towards the right side front foot.  Please look at all the photos for details.
• Two 36″ silks (bonus).
• One 36″ orange silk (bonus).
• Vanishing 7-Up Bottle by Nielsen Magic (bonus).
• Copy of Thayer instructions.

Effect:  This excellent piece of apparatus can be used in so many different ways – both as an individual effect, and also in many combinations wherein other apparatus is brought into use, that it becomes almost an indispensable item to every magician.

Inspection will show that this Pagoda is really a miniature illusion cabinet with a sliding front door. Thus the cabinet can be shown apparently empty or full at any time. This feature gives rise to a wide range of possible combinations, as experiment will show the illusion effect is made perfect even at close range.

Thus the Pagoda affords a simple and practical means for not only the production of various objects, but for exchanges and re-appearances as well.

• For instance – a simple rabbit production, or a huge quantity of silks is made extremely easy and effective merely by first removing front door and showing cabinet from all sides – replace door, and then make production from out of top of cabinet.
• A reverse working procedure will also create an effective vanish.
• Also for use with the popular “Sucker Die Box” effect, in place of the usual hat routine, the Pagoda effect offers a different and most effective arrangement, making it possible to show Pagoda empty, followed by the ultimate passing of die from Sucker Box to Pagoda.
• Pagoda supplies a brilliant and baffling combination effect, built around Thayer’s “Milk-o Illusion”.

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