Luring ’em in with a bunny, Robert Orben serves up the Magicdotes, “A book of anecdotes and stories about magic, magicians & mentalists”. (Published by Louis Tannen, copyright 1948.)
An excerpt from the introduction:
The stories in [the second and third sections] represent a good cross-section of magic as the layman wants to see it. So, when you’re introduced as a magician, don’t just do a few card tricks — relate some sort of folk-lore of magic and you’ll be surprised at the interest it will create. The names Houdini, Thurston, Dunninger, Herrmann, strike up all sorts of imaginative thoughts in the mind of the lay public. They can listen endlessly to the stories concerning Houdini’s countelss escapes, Houdin’s adventures in Africa, or Dunninger’s amazing feats of mentalism.
