Shell Game with Matchboxes. Barcelona
This is an interesting warning for tourists in several languages and cartoons about the dangers of playing the shell game:
Blog Archives
Waiting for photos from our members:
Anyone else receive their campaign kits?
We are about to ship out another hundred, and still only a handful have posted photos with their buttons. If you haven’t signed up to get your free campaign kit (with big Pop Haydn button, campaign poster postcard, and American Confidence Party membership card), then go to Campaign Headquarters and you will find out more about the Greater American Confidence Party and Pop Haydn’s campaign for President of the United States in 2012.
The Lummis House:
Taken at the historic Lummis House (ca 1880), this is a fundraiser for the Historical Society of Southern California, featuring a Medicine Show with Pop Haydn and Phil Van Tee, followed by a casino night in which Phil and Pop suckered the people with the shell game, three card monte and fast and loose.
Photos are here: Lummis House
BofA’s New Debit Card Fees:
Bank of America
From today’s Los Angeles Times, from a column by David Lazarus:
“I asked BofA’s Pace how much it really costs the bank to process a debit card transaction. She declined to answer.
“I asked how much it costs the bank to provide fraud and overdraft protection. She declined to answer.
“I simply asked how many debit card users the bank has. She declined to answer.”Nevertheless, Pace said that BofA is trying to be “clear and transparent with customers” about the fees.”
Canine Support
- Cash
My campaign for president is humming along with the support of so many wonderful people, and here, representing the non-voting canine population is an Australian Shepherd named Cash, who is my faithful dog. He is wearing a Pop Haydn campaign button, and looks very proud about it.
You can still get a free campaign kit–as long as they last–with free shipping. It features a large campaign button, a membership card in the Greater American Confidence Party, and a Vote Pop! campaign poster postcard. Just go to ACP Headquarters and register for the party as directed. This is a totally virtual party, and anyone from any country is welcome to join. We have only virtual truths to support and only virtual goals to implement, and only virtual votes to cast–our party is too honest to participate in reality.
Campaign Kit
The Horn Nut Scam
In the course of a tour de force round of stories and virtuoso performances of a number of entertaining pitches and ballys, Bobby Reynolds explains the Horn Nut Scam, a ruse he used as a child to sell worthless Chinese horn nuts as Chinese Water Lily bulbs.
The scam is evidently very old and has some interesting associated stories.
The nut looks like a water buffalo head, and the horns will float upwards when the nut is placed in water. A hole is drilled between the horns, and a gladiola flower is glued in place. Three or four of these are floated in a bowl of water.
Horn Nut
Nancy Magill and I were delighted to participate in both of the Senior Pitchmen Reunions in Las Vegas. This is a gathering of pitchmen over sixty years old, people who sold medicine in the medicine shows, svengali decks in the carnival, puppets on the street corner, and kitchen gadgets, miracle cleaners, dusters and a million other items on television and now on the internet.
We videod four hours of interviews at the convention in 2009, and that became our DVD, “The Senior Pitchman’s Reunion, 2009” from School for Scoundrels (available at www.scoundrelsstore.com)
This video is from volume II, “The Senior Pitchman’s Reunion, 2010.” We should be releasing this volume in the next month or so.
— Pop Haydn
New Senior Pitchmen DVD
Here are Bobby Reynolds, S. David Walker and Wally Nash talking about the Medicine Show pitch at the 2nd annual Senior Pitchmen Reunion in Las Vegas in 2010.
Nancy Magill and I video-taped four hours of interviews at the first convention in 2009, and that became the Senior Pitchmen Reunion DVD available from www.scoundrelsstore.com
This clip is from the second annual convention DVD, the Senior Pitchmen Reunion 2010. We will be releasing this DVD in the next month or two.
Magill did all the camera work, and I did the editing and titles.
We want to thank Gene Haaheim for letting us be a part of both of these wonderful get-togethers and record them for posterity.
This is a convention of pitchmen–the guys who sell watches, puppets, svengali decks, flower bulbs, kitchen gadgets, miracle cleaners, knives and dusters on the street, in carnivals, in stores, on television and on the internet–all of them over 60 years old.
These are guys who spent a lifetime hustling, drawing a crowd, and pitching the product.
Pitchmen are not only a fascinating, unique and attractive life-style and sub-culture, they are a fountain of information on how to survive and prosper in this most basic of entreprenurial fields. But their knowledge is also helpful to magicians, salesmen, emcees and others who need to know how to draw and hold a crowd, how to control their thinking, and how to sell them a product.
Fundraiser at Historic Lummis House
El Alisal is the home built by Charles Fletcher Lummis between 1896 and 1910 on the west bank of the Arroyo Seco in northeast Los Angeles. It takes its name from local sycamore trees, one of which is featured in the home’s interior courtyard. The house is built using stones from the arroyo bed, concrete, and wood. The design of the home is influenced by mission architecture and the dwellings of the Pueblo Indians. Though not directly influenced by the English Arts and Crafts movement, the house shares many of its design principles; it is furnished with hand-crafted wooden furniture, and features exposed wooden cross-beams and concrete floors.
Fundraiser for the Historical Society of Southern California
Join us Saturday, October 1st, from 6:00–9:00 pm for a special fundraiser celebrating money and magic in the West. This will be at the historic Lummis house in Los Angeles.
Buy in and participate in demonstrations of classic games like the shell game and three-card monte.
The dealers will be Magic Castle magicians Pop Haydn and Phil Van Tee. All proceeds go to HSSC. There will be a silent auction as well as music, food and beverages. Western outfits and period costumes welcomed. Hats, yes. Guns, no.
Members $60, Nonmembers $70.
Special price for reservations received and paid before Sept. 10: Members $50, Non-Members $60
For Non-Members, you can get tickets HERE.
Happy Birthday to Irene Larsen!
Happy Birthday to Irene Larsen, one of the co-founders of The Magic Castle. Irene is a lovely, vibrant lady, one of our real treasures at the club. She is always a lot of fun to be around. Her husband Bill Larsen, and she, along with Milt Larsen (Bill’s brother) originally put together the Academy of Magical Arts and its world famous clubhouse in Hollywood, The Magic Castle.
Irene is a past-president of the Magic Castle, and affectionately known by everyone as “Princess Irene,” a stage name she was given by her first husband, magician John Daniel.
Irene is Honorary President for Life and Ambassador-At-Large for the Academy of Magical Arts and a current member of the Board of Trustees.
Happy Birthday, Irene!
Nancy Magill
Pop Haydn
Pop's Soapbox 