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Magical
Sideshow life
displayed in book
After 39 years as a
magician with circuses and carnivals throughout the United
States, there aren't many magic trick Howard Bone doesn't know.
But that doesn't
mean he's about to destroy the mystery other performers create.
Friends will often
mention a feat they've seen a magician do on television and ask,
"Did you see it?"
Bone, who's a fan as
well as a retired performer, will answer yea and wait for the
inevitable next question: "How did he do that?"
He has two stock
answers: "Very well" and "With lots of practice."
But if you want to
know how Bone did his magic tricks - when he was known as Kard-O
the magician - dip into the pages of "Hurry ... Hurry ...
Hurry!"
It's Bone's account
of life as a sideshow magician. Robert Lund, curator of
the American Museum of Magic in Marshall, Mich., says it's
"the best book of its kind ever written."
The book published
by Dragon Fire & Magic and printed by Behagg & Reeb Printers at
113 Harriet St., gets its title from the sideshow barker's spiel
- "hurry, hurry, hurry" to see
the show.
His book includes
escape tricks, rope tricks, sword tricks.
And it includes that
patter that goes along with the stunts he perfected over the
years, "cleaned up," Bone explained from family
consumption. The book also includes tips for dealing with
hecklers.
Besides performing,
Bone also would drive circus and carnival trucks, "except for
the elephant truck. The animals keep moving around and
it's too hard to keep control."
"(Carnival) is a
hard life. You're out in all kinds of weather. You
don't make much money. It's an easy life to quit....
I know, I've quit 100 times."
Howard Bone,
magician
But he was grateful
to the elephants once when he was driving in a circus and
stopped in a Missouri town. It had been raining earlier,
the baseball diamond where the big top was going up was wet and
Bone - following instructions to "swing around toward the fence"
- got stuck. It took the elephants to push his truck out.
Bone, now 68, said a
circus-carnival life "is a hard life. You're out in all kinds of
weather. You don't make much money. It's an easy life to
quit .... I know, I've quit 100 times."
The last time, about
14 years ago, was for good because of declining health. He
returned to Evansville, his home town, where he now lives at
Buckner Tower.
Story from the
Evansville Press Metro August 8th 1994 by Patricia Swanson Staff
reporter
Dad's book. "Hurry, Hurry, Hurry" is no longer in
production. I don't know how many copies were initially
made though in my copy of it he has hand written "Limited
edition 100 copies." It was Printed by Behaag & Reeb
Printers, Inc. Here in Evansville in 1993. It is a first
edition. The man who owned Behaag & Reeb was a fellow
magician by the name of Mike Anderson. Mike was a member of
the International Magicians Association and a Hadi Shriner.
He passed away in 2001 and the company is no longer in
business. I am not sure how to go about getting the
copyrights. Perhaps you can help me there. I would love to
be able to get the book re-published as there seems to be an
interest in it. The book is 102 pages and is spiral bound.
The pages are aprox. 5x7. I am also attaching a scanned
image of the front of the book along with the Dedication
page, and the editor's notes on the inside cover.
The book was given to me after Dad passed away.
If you have
a something you would like to submit email us at the
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