Magic Auction for NEMCA

Cole, Judson. Important Archive of Judson Cole Patter, Photos, and Memorabilia. 1940s – 50s. Substantial grouping of information regarding the life and career of comedy vaudeville magician Judson Cole, including two 8 x 10” photographs (one by Hal Phyfe); newspaper clippings; several handwritten pages, likely in Cole’s hand, outlining the routine and program for a never-produced “big show” he intended to head, titled “Judson Cole’s Hocus Pocus,” including one drawing and lists of props required; two lengthy ALSs by Faucett Ross outlining Cole’s act in minute detail; and extensive notes in an unknown hand recording in minute detail many aspects of the patter for Cole’s two most famous routines, the Rapping Hand and Kling Klang (with one basic diagram), as well as other gags and lines from his Egg Bag routine and act in general, and further data and details regarding Cole’s life and death and accomplishments; a finely printed New York SAM program featuring Cole in the closing spot presenting the Guy Jarrett 21-Person Cabinet; and other handwritten notes. 4to and smaller, condition generally good or better. A unique archive of material related to one magic’s earliest comedy stars.Cole (1894 – 1943) was one of the first true comedy magicians, a contemporary of Fred Keating, Jay Marshall, and other talking magic acts of the vaudeville era. Working in what might be referred to as a “stand up comedy” style, as he rose through the ranks of vaudeville, Cole developed lines of patter that separated his renditions of standard tricks from those of his contemporaries. Many of those lines are recorded in the papers contained in this archive. Today, his jokes read as corny, but in their time – delivered in Cole’s style – they played well. When introducing the glass in the Kling Klang trick, for example, Cole remarked, “I call it a tumbler, though it does no tricks.” In the Rapping Hand, he stated, “The hand is ready to misinform the public on any question they care to ask about.”