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“CHANDU” REVEALS HIS MAGIC SECRETS

by HAROLD L. ZIMMER

Will L. Lindhorst, the original Chandu, tells you how to perform feats of magic which have amazed many millions.

THE original charter of the Society of American Magicians on Nov. 5, 1921 gave to Will L. Lindhorst the title of Chandu—a name which today has been made famous by his feats of magic on the stage and by radio broadcasts which have thrilled countless millions.

In this article, I will endeavor to acquaint you with several really worthwhile tricks as Chandu explained them to me. Whether or not you wish to become a magician, the tricks presented here will at least afford many happy hours of fun at home or at parties.
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COUNTING AMERICA’S 40,000,000 VOTES

NEWS of the election of George Washington as first president of the United States was borne by stagecoach in 1789 throughout the country in about three weeks. Barring a close division of the 40,000,000 voters, the outcome of the current contest of .Franklin D. Roosevelt and Alfred M. Landon will be made known to a far vaster country in about three hours after the polls close on Nov. 3. This miracle is made possible by the inclusion unofficially in the archaic Electoral system, itself little changed since Washington’s day, of every device evolved for the counting of votes and the transmission of results. Read the rest of this entry »

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Behind the Scenes With Movie Sound Fakers

The baying of wolves, the clackety-clack of horses’ hoofs, the creaking of auto brakes—these sounds which you hear from the silver screen seldom come from their real sources. This story by an eminent movie sound expert takes you behind the scenes and shows you how these noises are faked.

by MURRAY SPIVAK
Famous Hollywood Sound Director

ONE afternoon recently I sat in the scoring room of the movie studio where I am sound director watching a team of horses gallop down a country road. Later in the picture trees swayed in a violent wind, and then brush broke as an actor ran through a forest. But never a sound issued from the talking screen.
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Timely Tips for the Inventor

Concluding a Series of Articles by JAY EARLE MILLER

The problem of what to invent is one of the first to confront the young inventor, but no less important is the problem of what not to invent. In this, the concluding article of a series on inventors and inventions, Mr, Miller points out how useless effort may be saved by sidestepping unprofitable fields of invention.

A NEWS clipping under a Toronto date line, says: “An art lost 2,700 years ago, the quest for which has since baffled the scientists of the world, is claimed to have been discovered by two London, Ont., men who display samples of copper keenly hardened and ground.”
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Creating Illusions for the Talkies

by MARY SHARON

You can’t believe everything you see in the talkies, and it’s a bit of luck for you that you can’t; for these illusions lower production costs and help keep the admission price within your reach.

“IF THE mountain will not come to Mohammet, Mohammet must go to the mountain.”

“But, most noble prophet, it costs too much to go to the mountain.”

“Then we’ll fake a mountain right here in the studio.”
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How Auto Horns Work

What happens when you press the button? You’ll see quickly if you make these simple working models.

By Kenneth M. Swezey

THE makers of auto horns have come as far from their early baa-DOO-gah! days as have their brother engine designers. So if the horn on your new car both sounds better and carries farther, it’s no accident.

Some horn developments have been purely technical, but others have turned upon the physics of sound. Designers have found, for instance, that pitch is more important than loudness (amplitude) in achieving carrying power, and that loud sounds aren’t so unpleasant if they have a musical tone.
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Behind the Scenes with the MARCH of TIME

by JAMES DYSON

A FLOURISH of trumpets and the announcement “March of Time”, coming through the loudspeaker at your local movie theater, represents the introduction of a new kind of motion picture journalism—dramatized news pictorially presented to impress you with the importance of current events.

Like the fast moving drama of its daily radio news presentation and the vivid stories of its companion magazine, March of Time on the screen has won public favor because it combines the striking events of the present with the unusual background so often forgotten in the hustle of the average newspaper editorial rooms. A clever harmony of realism and illusion swiftly flashed on the screen indelibly stamps on the minds of the spectators the historic importance or the social or economic significance of the story being unfolded before them.
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Confessions of a Hot-Rod Jockey

By Earl Bruce – Amateur Champion

If you’re smart, careful and a mighty good mechanic you too can “soup-up” an automobile and become a “screaming” hot-rodder DRIVING a “hot rod” or “souped-up” car is a sport—cleanly competitive, law-abiding, and as reasonably safe as airplane, bike, or midget auto racing, boxing, football, or any other spine-tingling spectacle that thrills Americans in the country’s arenas today.

That’s my story and I’ll stick to it.
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He’s Forever Blowing Bubbles

Nat Fisher’s fluid for forming sudsy spheres may be the start of a $1,000,000 business.

By Bob Willett

BUBBLES FISHER is no strip-tease dancer as the name may imply—he is Nat Fisher of Hollywood, Calif., who says there are three things that will never die: marbles, tops and bubbles.

Most Americans are familiar with Fisher’s Billion-Bubble machines which he ‘began manufacturing nine years ago. A standard attention-getter at fairs, conventions, theaters and department stores, Nat’s bubbles have also become an important part of ice show, circus, nightclub and TV performances and his miniature plastic bubble-making machines are sold in novelty stores throughout the nation.
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Tricks of Advertising Photographs

Striking action photos of ships at sea or of vacationists riding the surf at Waikiki, used in illustrating advertisements in national magazines, are made in New York studios with the use of models and ingenious mechanical aids. Mr. McGinnis tells you how one big studio produces these remarkable photographs.

by Paul McGinnis

AN ADVERTISER can now get a picture of nearly anything on earth made in a few hours in the studios of Underwood & Underwood in New York City with the aid of mechanical devices. He can order his bathing suits photographed on the beach at Waikiki and have a picture in a day or two which can not be distinguished from one really taken at the famous tropical beach. Some of these pictures cost as much as $1,000. apiece, but they have been so successful that more than half the advertisements in twenty-six leading magazines are now illustrated by photographs rather than drawings.
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Mental Mysteries

Why do Diving Rods, Psychic Motors, Ouija Boards, Gold Finding Bobs, Sex Detectors and similar pieces of apparatus function with remarkable results in the hands of some operatives, yet science has proven that these things are fakes?

FOR hundreds of years, people have purchased all sorts of mystic devices for the purpose of foretelling their futures, or jim-cracks intended for the location of oil, water and precious metals.

A common form of mystic locating device is a forked witch-hazel twig, commonly called a devining rod which, in the hands of an operator generally called a “bowser,” has been used for centuries for the location of water. In later years its operatives encompassed wider fields and used the divining rod for locating oil, precious minerals, lost articles, lost airplanes, and even the bodies of people drowned in lakes.
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Secrets of FAMOUS DOG TRAINERS

HAVE you ever murmured “impossible” while watching the antics of famous dog performers at the theater or movies?

If so, were you correct in your assumption? It all depends on the stunt and who was doing it.

In movie comedies, dogs frequently are called upon to do the “impossible,” according to Harry Lucenay, who has spent fifteen years in training canine movie stars, including the renowned Pete of “Our Gang” comedy fame. Veteran of more than 200 comedies and feature pictures, this dog has made a fortune before Hollywood cameras. But natural born actor and comedian though he is, Pete himself would be amazed at some of his screen antics.
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