Summer Magic Auction - Online Only

Dorny (Werner Dornfield). “Secrets.” Vol. 1. No. 1. N.p. [Chicago(?)], ca. 1930s. Original manuscript, eight leaves, stapled, in ink, with doodles and pasted cut-outs, on rectos only. 4to (11 x 8 ½”). A previously unknown work by Dorny, fashioned as a magazine, the writing filled with inside jokes, satirical advertisements, and jabs at magicians in his circle, such as Jack Gwynne (most frequently), Johnny Platt, and Hermann Homar, and sends up the Chicago magic and vaudeville scene generally. One story, under the headline “Detectives Baffled,” within a section entitled “Chicago Chat,” describes “a peculiar smell which pervades the Loop for days. Finally calling in services of trained bloodhounds in above photo, odor is found to be coming from dressing room of famous magician, caused by mixture of rabbits roosters, Van Dyke Cigars, sweat shirts, hamburgers—gin—and bad reports from John Billsbury. Gwynne denies report that he does not use Listerine.” The other sections are Foreign News, Society Notes, Theatre Gossip, Editorial Department, Loop Scandal!, and Comic Section. Marginal tear with loss of text to last leaf; old folds.