Temple of Cambodia by Owen Magic Supreme

Owen’s have consistently produced some of the most amazing magic for over 100 years from small pocket tricks to large stage sized illusions they are always held up as the standard to beat.

This is one of the earliest versions of Owen’s beautiful Temple of Cambodia (in fact the panels have #4 stamped on them) created during the late 1950’s and early 1960’s by Carl Owen himself. For something almost 65 years old it looks amazing with a few scratches and marks but otherwise a really beautiful piece. I spent some time adding some lubrication to a few key areas and some small strips of black felt to minimize the noise and this beauty works perfectly now.

You could do quite a lot with these props but the routine that comes with the later instructions (that I have included) about the King of Cambodia works well for me.

The key moments in the routine are:

• The stack of gold (red and yellow discs) are cleanly shown separate.
• They are placed in the center of the cabinet.
• Each compartment either side of the center of the cabinet is shown empty.
• The stack is removed from the center and placed under the tube.
• The ghost goes into the center of the cabinet.
• The ghost swaps places with the stack of gold.
• The cabinet is broken down and shown to be otherwise completely empty .

It is an easy to do effect with simple to learn handling and patter and will look amazing in your collection 🙂

Effect: Deep in the jungles of Cambodia lie ancient ruins of mighty temples built by a forgotten race. Who these people were, or where they vanished is erased from the book of time.

There is a legend of a powerful king who, in those long gone days, held court within these walls now overgrown with jungle growth; a refuge for huge lizards, scarlet bellied snakes, and birds with gaudy plumage. As the story goes, this king gathered a store of gold (show the stack of discs) for which he built a secret treasure vault (raise the center panel and place discs inside). He cunningly concealed it between two rooms of the palace in such a way that no one knew of the vault, except for one poor mason he employed to wall the treasure up. (Lift the end panels).

On his deathbed, the king summoned the man to him and told him of a curse, which he had laid upon the treasure, swearing he would haunt whoever disturbed its resting place. A magic spell would kill the thief and cause the treasure to return to the secret vault.

Upon the king’s death, the man got little rest by day or night and, at last, resolved to take the treasure for his own. One gloomily night, he crept into the vault and moved the treasure (take out the discs), but he did not see the king’s ghost entering the chamber (place the figure in the compartment and replace the panel). He removed the gold to a remote part of the palace and placed it in a hollow pillar (cover the stack with the tube).

Many years had passed when the man, unable to restrain himself, returned another night to gloat upon the gold. With a pickax he hastily removed the stones and found, not gold, but the ghost of the departed king staring him in the face (raise the tube, disclosing the figure). A madness seized him, and rushing to the secret vault he tore at the lock with frantic haste. When the door was open, he saw the king’s gold as it was placed so long ago (open the center panel and remove the discs). As he stood entranced, an earthquake shook the land. All the palace doors were unhinged and thrown to earth, and nothing but the stark, bare walls were left upright. (Here the back of the cabinet and all doors are removed).

The thief’s skeleton still lies beneath one of the ponderous doors of the palace, the victim of the curse of the Cambodian king

Dimensions: 14 ¾ x 5 3/8 x 10”

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