I just got confirmation that Sol Stone passed away last night in his sleep. He was such a great guy, and I spent much time with him over the years talking coin magic. This has not been a good year for magicians, as another great magician has left us.

Sad.

He was 98 yrs old, and was doing well with a treatment for his cancer that had returned. He was a fixture on the NY magic scene. He knew everyone, and was an important part of Kaufman's Coinmagic. Every magician growing up in NY would benefit by his wisdom and constructive criticism. This is indeed a sad day for me, I still haven't gotten over the loss of David.

I think I remember meeting him once long ago in NYC. Another remarkable worker and influence on the art. 😔

RIP

The nicest guy I ever met and his magic was honed to the max. Always very practical stuff but with his own touch on what he did. I know many anecdotes about Sol. He used to say he needed someone to listen and nod every once in a while and he could tell these great stories. I offered to videotape myself nodding every once in a while, so he could put his stories on tape if I couldn't be there. A lot of his stories were about magic, but certainly not all were about magic. After this sinks in I'll try to remember some of his stories.

A story Sol told me puts him at the center of the NY scene when Slydini was in his prime, too. Murry Selwick, who I don't know and I hope I spelled right, had a car and would drive in to the city for the Saturday sessions at the restaurant. Well, Sol always brought Slydini's favorite tablecloth in the car. If Slydini found himself in the situation of talking with someone who might want to become a student of his, he would make a secret gesture to Sol who would go and get the tablecloth from the car and come back and put it on a table at the back of the restaurant where there were some empty tables. Then, Slydini would say to the person "Let's take a stroll to where it is more quiet." He would lead the guy to the back, where lo and behold, there was a table with a tablecloth on it. They'd sit down and Tony would do his 1-Coin routine for starters and pretty soon the guy would be hooked. Whether he could afford to take formal lessons at Tony's Studio nearby was still an issue, but the guy would be hooked. Slydini's 1-Coin routine was poetry in motion.

The reason for the tablecloth was for the surface, but mainly so his techniques sub-rosa couldn't be seen by waiters or staff or other customers. I love this story because it shows Sol to have been that connected to the NY scene in those interesting times. I laugh at the lengths they went to make a coin trick seem impromptu.

Great story!! I vaguely remember a story where Sol was shot down in enemy territory during WW2, and used magic to get back safely. Maybe someone could elaborate more on that story as I don't remember the details.

Sol was an incredible guy and as a fixture of the regular Saturday NYC magic hangout scene for decades he was a mentor to many magicians. I came on the scene somewhat late but once I did meet Sol I spent as much time with him as I could and learned a great deal from him. Sol was soft-spoken and gentle, but very wise and a great magician. He was working on new material and variations on his existing stuff up until recently. I was blown away the first time I saw him perform his dice routine and it never failed to feel like real magic. Sol also saw or knew just about every great magician since the 1930s and he was a great source of information about Vernon, Flosso, Leipzig etc. I once heard him recount a meticulously detailed description of a remarkable coin routine performed by Paul LePaul. The story of his experience in World War II is that as the navigator of a bomber he was shot down and crash-landed on the front lines. He and his crew were eventually rescued by a Russian patrol and then Sol was transported by train across Europe back to his base in Italy. When the train would stop to get water for its steam engine the passengers would disembark to stretch their legs and Sol would entertain refugee children with tricks, vanishing stones or whatever he could improvise with. Sol said that the mothers of the kids remarked that in response to Sol's tricks they were seeing their kids smile for the first time in two years. Sol used this example to talk about what magic meant to him - it was a way to help people temporarily get away from the stresses of their lives - I remember that he referred to it as a "mini-vacation." This very much tied into Sol's career as a Psychologist. I will miss Sol for his magic and his wisdom and I know that so many other folks in the NYC magic scene and the magic community at large feel the same way. An interview with Sol by Meir Yedid: https://vimeo.com/434208628. Also a longer interview on the Magic Newswire with Sol and David Roth. https://conjuringarts.org/2015/01/sol-stone-mnw338/

My Best To His Family! ): Never got to meet Him ! But I know he was a great guy !!! ):

Another legend gone. Deepest wishes to his family and friends.

Great stories thanks guys. The NY restaurant scene always fascinates me. It was a different time (and country) for me but I love hearing all those old stories. It would make a great book.

Sol told me this story many times. He was the navigator on a bomber that was shot down and crashed behind enemy lines in WWII. He had broken glass in his eyes. By extreme luck a Doctor driving a horse and wagon came by and he took the glass out of Sol's eyes and then Sol taught the crew various tricks so they could pretend to be a traveling small circus as they worked their way back to friendly territory. He might have been the bombardier but I'm pretty sure it was the navigator.

HerbS, do you remember the name of the video about the magicians who went to the Saturday Reubens Deli hangout in NY? I remember Sol being on that video.

Fingers crossed.... Would love to see that.

Not the video I was looking for, but here is an interview done with Meir Yedid from a year ago.
http://magictimes.com/stone-interview/

Michael, the video is called Saturday at Reubens. It looks as if it may be pretty hard to find now. Here’s the link from Amazon, although it says it is sold out. https://www.amazon.com/Saturday-Reubens-Magicians-Sharing-Stories/dp/B0030KU91W. The cover art is an illustration of Sol.

Thanks. Ahhh, I was hoping it would be a YouTube video. Oh well.

I first heard Sol's name from Jon Townsend at Tannen's in the early 70's. Then of course Sol's work appeared in Richard Kaufman's Coinmagic. I'm sure I saw him at Tannen's but didn't get to know him until I started going on Saturdays to Reuben's Deli on the east side. Then, not so much at Maui Tacos, but then again at Café Rustica.
One story Sol told me shows that he knew Vernon when he was Dave Vernon (earlier Verner) and then he shortened it to Dai but at first the pronunciation was like "day" and short for Dave, with the same vowel sound. It wasn't until he went to lecture in Japan that it became pronounced like "die". In Japanese that means "big" and the new pronunciation stuck. And at some point thereafter Vernon located on the west coast. I can almost hear Sol's voice as he used to tell me anecdotes. I was a good listener is all there was to it.

I was fortunate to meet Harvey Rosenthal soon after I became interested in magic. We lived in Maryland, but we drove to Tannen’s for my first and only visit in the mid 70’s. On that Saturday , the magicians met at a Japanese restaurant nearby after Tannen’s closed. Looking back, I hit the jackpot. Darwin Ortiz, Bill Broderson(a student of Francis Carlyle), Lenny Greenfader, Gerald Deutsch and Sol Stone were there among others.
Harvey introduced me to Sol, who saw me as fresh meat and began showing me the coin magic he was well known for at the time. I recall that he thought I was a layman because he was slightly taken aback when Harvey asked me to do a coin trick for him. He was very kind to me. I remember that day like it was yesterday.

Sol also loved the ring on stick, 3-ball trick (with 3 colors), and he had a thing with a cork - very funny, and his tricks all had well rehearsed stories. He never did cards at all, that I remember.

Found this article while searching around for the Reubens video -

'Reuben's Deli Is Magicians' Venue For Swapping Tricks of the Trade'

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB974071795533924090

Thanks Nev. A friend of mine in Detroit just reminded me Sol also did tricks with bills. This is in addition to the color balls for the 3-ball trick. He used blue for the boy, pink for the girl, and green for the chaperone and had a whole plot and story of the kids trying to get away from the chaperone. And of course not to forget coins.