JAMES, Stewart (1908 – 96). Stewart James’ Headline Prediction Apparatus. [Courtright, Ontario, 1939]. A simple tin box with hinged lid, together with a wooden block in two pieces, and a small brass tube make up the apparatus. In effect, a prediction of future events was sealed in the brass tube, which itself was secured inside the wooden block (this being sealed with gummed paper tape). The block was then locked inside the tin box. This prediction was held in a secure location for a week or longer before the performance took place. When opened during the show, the prediction made was shown to match the day’s headlines almost exactly. In the case of this effect, the prediction read, “World War Threatens. Germany Attacks Poland.” Height of tin case 4 ¾”. One hinge faulty, else in good working condition. Sold together with an embossed leather album containing the original mounted newspaper clippings and related ephemera chronicling James’ build up to, and the aftermath of the prediction. THE FIRST HEADLINE PREDICTION APPARATUS ever devised and performed.
This prop and Stewart James’s performance with it marks the first time a magician ever predicted the headline in a daily newspaper. It was a concept so novel that it spawned an entire genre of magic props and a wide range of clever methods, some of them so innovative and advanced as to qualify as “James Bond-type” gadgetry. James’s apparatus was relatively simple, and was constructed by his father, a tinsmith and contractor, and Bill Brema, then working for Abbott’s Magic Novelty Co. in Colon, Michigan. (The inner brass tube was crafted by Brema especially for this prop and is in fact a rare variant of a standard Brema product.) Despite being first out of the gate, few magicians realize that the concept was a brainchild of James, who is today better remembered as an inventor of card tricks and mathematical puzzles.
Writing in his book Stewart James in Print: The First Fifty Years (1989), the author recalled his creation and performance of the effect in great detail, discussing the germ of the idea, its first performance, the construction and handling of the props, and confirming that the effect was indeed the first headline prediction/prediction chest effect in magic. He wrote, too, about the fact that the trick nearly failed: “When the day came, [Bob] Weill was supposed to smuggle me a copy of the newspaper so I would know the headline and could get set up. He was prevented from doing so, and the reporter appeared with the newspaper folded under his shirt. I did not see a copy before the prediction was opened, which even with the nicest metho poses a significant problem.” Fortunately, a radio broadcast earlier in the day tipped him off, and his prediction of the impending war was nearly identical to the streamer headline of the Buffalo Evening News on the day of the performance. James added, “I would not do a newspaper prediction again. So many people become convinced that you have psychic powers and have absolute faith that you can help them. Some of the pathetic pleas I received distressed me, knowing there was nothing I could do to help.”