I'm doing some research for a journal article, and I have a question that I think is perfect for the Café. In fact, I can't think of a better place to ask it!

Here's the deal. In many older magic books, the "Cups and Balls" are described as being performed with cork balls.

Today, as we all know, it is conventional to perform the trick with crocheted balls. (Well, cork balls with a crocheted cover.)

So, the information that I'm missing for my article is, who was the first magician to cover their balls in such a matter? It sure caught on, for practical reasons I'm sure, but somebody had to be first. Who was it?

I think it was an Eskimo who first crocheted his own balls, one cold winter night. That's how I heard the story anyway. If you find something different to be true, let us know.

I think there was a discussion about this recently - either here or over on the Genii forum. As far as I recall, no definite conclusion (or consensus) was reached.

The history of the balls used in the Cups and Balls was the subject of a thread in the historical section about a year or so ago. It also came up on the Genii forum.

Eric Evans was convinced that Charles Bertram used them, from the photos in The Modern Conjurer; however, I have actually seen the cups and balls Bertram used, and the balls are definitely cork. In fact, I photographed them when I was in London in 2005. The photos in TMC are very grainy and cannot be resolved clearly with Photoshop.

Plain cork, flocked cork, or rubber balls were generally furnished with the Cups and Balls through the 1950s, when balls were furnished. The earliest photos I have found of anyone using crocheted balls are of Dai Vernon. But this doesn't prove that he was the first to use them.

There are photos of Vernon using what may be crocheted balls at a table performance at the Kit Kat Club in 1936. There was some conjecture expressed about this photo in the discussion at the Genii forum. You can draw your own conclusions from it.

However, the photos in the Dai Vernon Book of Magic definitely show crocheted balls. The publication date of the book is not given; however, since the silhouette in the front of the book was cut in 1956, then the book must have been published no earlier than the end of that year.

Fantastic. I knew you'd know, Bill!

Richard

In the mid '60s, I bought a set of P&L cups from Al Flosso that came with cork balls. A year or so later, I bought a chop cup that had crocheted balls. My sense was that the reason was crocheted were quieter when the ball landed. It also made an easy way to conceal the gaff.

I have no idea who used them first, but I suspect the chop cup is what made them popular. Am I wrong?

I'm guessing a search of some of the old (now digitized) magic publications might yield some ideas in an ad or article? I would guess their introduction would have yielded some reviews, or the like?

-todd

The chop cup would be a good source to consider. The first commercial chop cups hit the market about 1954, and they had crocheted balls. However, Vernon's photo in the Kit Kat Club predates that by 18 years. Checking the thread on the Genii Forum reveals that David Ben has the same set Vernon used in the photo, and there are crocheted balls with it. However, since balls are easily replaced, this does not mean that these are the same balls Vernon was using in 1936.

The thread is http://geniimagazine.com/forum/cgi-bin/u......5#000000

Thanks for the pointers and info.

I'm familiar with the chop cup, of course, but not enough to be able to guess why chop cup aficionados would have covered their balls. Is there something about that particular trick that give rise to that practice? Because of the special qualities of the ball, perhaps?

For chop cups, it may have been for noise abatement and to help hide the necessary gaffing of the ball. I suspect that the first covered set was made because a magician had a mother or wife who could crochet and thought it looked nice. I can imagine the guys down at the club going wild, and the word of them spreading like wild fire (pre-Internet wild fire might mean two decades, more or less!).

I doubt if you will ever find out who was first, or who, in fact, made the first covered balls. I have a set made in the early 1960s that are so much better quality than what comes “standard” today.

I have a complete set of Al Wheatley Chop Cups. These were the first chop cups that ever appeared on the market. The first run was in bamboo. They came with black crocheted balls. As Harry points out, the covering was necessary to conceal the gaffing. With technology as it was, the only practical gaff was the size of the hole in the core of the ball. So, it wasn't a matter of "chop cup aficionados covering the balls." They were manufactured that way. And, as is the case in most magic, the copyists followed suit.

Later versions had felt coverings, such as the balls supplied with the cups from Supreme and Magic, Inc. Mike Rogers' mini baseballs were the next step.

One recent improvement that I know of is the work that people like Eric Evans are doing, which includes monkey fist balls and balls covered with braided leather.

Also, the work Frank Starsini has done with felted balls is very nice.

Thanks for the very kind mention, Bill.

I don't know that you could track with any accuracy who indeed used crochet-covered cork balls, as I think of it much like case with the monkey-fist balls. It was an idea that popped up in various places at various times, sometimes concurrently in different parts of the world. Complicating matters is that there were a lot more women that knew how to crochet buttons and the like than there are men who know a monkey's fist when they see it.

At one time, I thought the monkey's fist was original with me, until several years ago our own Harry Murphy corrected me by stating he'd used a monkey's fist set for his Cups and Balls at least a few years before I came up with the idea. Later, Bill Palmer, sage historian of all things "Cup-ish", informed me of a video sporting monkey's fist balls in the '70s, if memory serves. Double-Drat!

As an aside, and in regards to my own work, I've noticed a few fellows stating that the balls I make, using turk's heads, are "just" tubes. This approach, I developed after seeing antique glass floats, used in maritime days long passed, for nets. The technique employed there was closer to a crochet, however; a series of knots that extended in a spiral around the diameter. Not in anyway approaching what I believe is the beauty and perfect symmetry of a turk's head. So whether you're looking at crochet or turk's heads, you're looking at basically the same thing; tubes of varying design.

I have those exquisite photos in Mr. Bertram's book to thank for spurring me onward in my quest for the perfect ball, grainy and therefore misinterpreted or not. For without them, I'd have not imagined what I could do to replicate what I thought was already.

The monkey fist has been around for a couple hundred years for nautical use, and I wouldn't be surprised if they have been used by magicians for years due to their not rolling away and soundless use.

Aha! Interesting. So what y'all seem to be saying is that, in the beginning, crochet coverings were used to hide what people had done to their balls (re: the gaff). The sound dampening the covering provided may have been the impetus for it crossing it over to more general use (with standard cups).

If you look at the balls Eric makes (In the Cups and Balls Museum) you would agree that they are beautiful.

Not at all. Check the Genii Forum thread. David Ben is positive that Vernon was using crocheted balls in 1936. These were covered with fine silk crochet.

They became more common after the Chop Cup came into vogue.

To most of us, the feel of the balls is as important as the sound deadening qualities. If sound deadening were all that we were concerned with, we would probably be using the Japanese style silk balls, sponge balls or those dratted pompons that come with the Adams cups.

Crocheted balls are easy to handle and they feel good in the hands. The crochet does not necessarily deaden the sound of the balls.

Any thoughts connecting this and the tomatoes from the Rezvani book?

Yes, I've absolutely read the Genii thread. It's a good reference for anyone interested in this, I'm doing my "due diligence" as best I can. Thanks again, all, for your help.

Now that I think about it, I was probably emphasizing "sound dampening" based on my most recent experience with the cups and balls (which was a couple of years ago, I think). I was at a party and asked to perform something for the group, prior to the showing of a family video. There wasn't a deck of cards in the house, and I needed something visible for a medium-sized group. (No rope, either, which would have been my first choice for this situation.)

I scoured our hosts' kitchen and found some paper cups! Aha! I hid in the bathroom and fashioned myself some balls from aluminum foil. Long story short, about 30 seconds into the very simple routine I realized that everyone nearby could probably hear my balls rattling. Ugh, I'd tested them a bit during the prep, mostly to get the size right, but didn't hear the noise due to the bathroom's fan, I guess. I should have used something softer. A lesson learned.

Awesome comment Josh, Thanks!

If Mr. Palmer will indulge wizardly curiosity and fascination, I'm sure that quite a few users here would enjoy seeing the photo (mentioned in an earlier post in this thread) of Bertram's equipment, however fuzzy and indistinct it is! Would it be possible to post a jpg or a link? Many here would be grateful!

I have some questions regarding the development of Cups and Balls prior to the twentieth century that might (or might not, I'm not sure) lend a new wrinkle to this interesting subject: I've been under the impression that in the old, old days the Standard Set of cups did not include balls, because the effect was originally performed not with cork balls but with nutmegs. It's easy to imagine that nutmegs or nuts were appealing because they were plentiful, close to hand and ready to use, as well as being unlikely to roll off a table, so then why would magicians have shifted their focus to balls, which roll away easily and had to be purpose-made into that shape? And at what point did this shift occur; when did balls come to be part of the Standard Set we know today?