Description
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 🙂
Effect: 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
- ABC Blocks
- Block and Ball Transposition
- Block, Ball and Coin Penetration
- Block, Frame and Ribbon Penetration
- Block Production Box
- Card Box
- Card Box (Lippincott-Style)
- Coin Tray
- Coin Vanish
- Color Changing Rabbit
- Dice Boxes
- Die Box
- Die, Frame, and Cord Penetration
- Die Tunnel
- Double Block Release
- Dry Erase Prediction Slate
- The Elusive Teddy Bear
- Flat Dice
- The Flying Die
- Harbin-Style Folding Table
- Improved Phantom Die
- Instant Transposition
- Lester Lake Guillotine
- Magic Wands
- Mirror Penetration
- Okito’s Alphabet Block
- Pivot-Lid Coin Box
- Psychic Arithmetic
- Ring and Box Trick
- Ring and Post Puzzle
- See-Thru Block Box
- Square Circle
- Square Production Tube
- Twin Tube Block Penetration
- Bewildering Blocks
- Block and Silk Transposition
- Block-Off-Ribbon
- Bow Sawing
- Brass Washer and Silver Dollar Trick
- Break-Apart Die Box
- Broom Illusion
- Bunny Box
- Card Appearance Frame
- Checker Cabinet
- Coin Ladder
- Cutting a Girl into Sixths
- Dagger Heade Chest
- Die Box to Rabbit
- Die to Ball
- Double-Door Production Box
- Double Tube Production
- Dove from Balloon Pagoda
- Dove From Balloon Tray
- Doves to Rabbit
- Dove-Switching Cage
- Dove Take-Apart Vanish
- Dove Tear-Apart Vanish
- Drawer Box
- English Die Box
- Finger Chopper
- Flash Appearance
- Flip-Over Vanish
- Folding Roll-On Table
- G.M. Die Box
- Gunther Die Box
- Gwynne-Style Rabbit Vanish
- Hong Kong Dove Frame
- Jap Hank Box
- Last Card
- The Madison Die Box
- Mirror Boxes
- Money Machine
- Nest of Boxes
- Nest of Boxes Key Stand
- Oriental Die Box
- Oriental Square Circle
- Pagoda Production Box
- Pivot-Panel Production Box
- Pivot-Panel Production Screen
- Rabbit From Balloon Box
- Reappearing Lollipops
- Ribbon and Glass Release
- See-Thru Block Production Box
- Shadow Box Illusion
- Silver Dollar Die Box
- Slow Motion Visible Block Penetration
- Square Circle Illusion
- Squeeze-Away Blocks
- Super-X Illusion
- Swirling Dove Vanish Box
- TV Card Frame
- Take-Apart Rabbit Vanish
- Toy Chest
- Tray, Box, and Screen Production (Gwynne-Style)
- Triple Card Prediction
- Triple Coin Boxes
- Ultimate ABC Blocks
- Vanishing Dove Cage
- Walking Through Ribbons
- The West Die Box
- Wine Bottle Cabinet
- Wrist Chopper
- Zig-Zag Illusion
- Zombie Box
166 Exhibits
174 Color Gallery
- Squeeze-Away Blocks
- Ultimate ABC Blocks
- Zig-Zag Illusion
- Bow Sawing
- Dagger Head Chest
- Mirror Penetration
- Lester Lake Guillotine
- Last Card
- Folding Roll-On Table
- Triple Card Prediction
- Harbin-Style Folding Table
- Wine Bottle Holder
- Bewildering Blocks
- Dove Tear-Apart Vanish
- Block and Silk Transposition
- ABC Blocks
- Oriental Square Circle
- Toy Chest and Block and Ball Transposition
- Wrist Chopper
- Card Appearance Frame
- TV Card Frame
- Card Boxes
- Square Production Tube
- Checker Cabinet
- Slow Motion Visible Block Penetration
- Die Box To Rabbit
- Double Tube Production
- Die Boxes
- Nest of Boxes
- Dove From Balloon Tray
- Square Circle
- Dove Take-Apart Vanish
- Double Block Release
- English Die Box
- Oriental Die Box
- Mirror Box
- Pivot-Panel Production Screen
- The Elusive Teddy Bear
- Flip-Over Vanish
- Dove From Balloon Pagoda Style
- Another Mirror Box
- Publisher: Mel Babcock
- Pages: 192
- Location: USA
- Dimensions: 9″x11″
- Date: 2003
- Binding: hardbound
Contents: martinsmagic.com - click for details