$14.50
ESTATE: Condition good
Published in 1950 by the legendary Ireland Magic Company in Chicago, The New Look for the Magic Show by R.E. Arthur is a classic, highly practical guide focused entirely on the production value, stage design, and visual scale of a magic act.
Rather than teaching sleight of hand or explaining how to build complex illusion boxes, Arthur addresses a common problem that plagued club, school, and parlor magicians of the mid-20th century: how to make a small or mid-sized act look grand, expensive, and professional on a budget.
At just over 20 pages, the book serves as a master blueprint for building and utilizing portable scenery and visual flair.
Key Core Philosophies
1. Bigness, Color, and Fanfare
Arthur argues that the general public judges a magic show with their eyes before the first trick even lands. Even if you are performing standard, mid-sized parlor magic, framing it with the right color, sparkle, and backdrop elevates the entire audience experience. He advocates for adding "glamour" and theatrical elements to make any act look like a major production.
2. "Suitcase Scenery" and Portability
For a working magician traveling from venue to venue (especially the nightclubs, banquets, and school assemblies of the 1950s), massive theatrical flats are completely impractical. Arthur focuses heavily on portable, lightweight design—scenery that can fold down down to fit inside a standard car or suitcase but expands to dominate a stage.
Featured Concepts & Construction Plans
The booklet contains 14 pages of detailed schematics alongside 20 pages of instructional text, walking the reader from buying raw materials to final paint jobs. Key concepts include:
The Magic Book Scenery: A clever, multi-leaf backdrop designed to look like a giant book. As pages are turned by the performer or an assistant, the background change signals a shift in the act's theme, functioning as a lightweight, manual scene changer.
Roll Blind Changes: Utilizing spring-loaded window roller mechanisms disguised as decorative stage headers. Pulling them down instantly changes the backdrop scene or color palette with zero complex rigging.
Translucent Backgrounds: Guides on using specific lighting positions behind thin, semi-opaque fabrics to create dramatic silhouettes, color washes, and mystical staging effects.
Novelty Devices and Custom Props: Plans for building specific crowd-pleasing visual pieces, including a specialized Rabbit in the Hat stage prop engineered for visibility on a large stage.