CULTURE VANNIN – CANNON AUDIO TAPES
All tapes are available on Culture Vannin site. Clicking the individual titles below, will play the tape described by Mike Clague.
Culture Vannin 1
Lewis Ganson lectured to the Magicians of Mann on Friday 17th April 1958, and included the showing of a film on a TV in the lounge at Laureston, so the recording may have been made on that occasion.
Dr. Cannon describing magic by Lewis Ganson
• coin productions, coins across
• anti-gravity glasses
• milk vanish
• cigarette and candle productions
• dancing cane
Lewis Ganson (1913-1980) produced a series of films, teaching magic. Cannan may well be describing the films, which could have been showing during the music segments of the tape. He compares the candle production to one by magician Harry Francis.
NOTE
Ganson was a professional close-up magician, except for his time in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps 1939-1958. Colonel Lewis Ganson visited the Island in April 1958 and 1959.
Culture Vannin 2
19th or 20th April 1958
Arthur Culpin – compere of a show at Laureston, on stage of The Enchanted Hall.
Mentions The Piddingtons, Chan Cansata and Al Koran.
Performs a lengthy mind reading psychometry effect with a number of audience members.
Newspaper torn up – possibly restored at the finish.
Brings the show acts back onto stage:
• Tom Hardy (Doctor and local magician)
• Reginaldo (Reg Parkinson – a member of Blackpool Magicians Club)
• Mystic Ray (Ray Harper – local magician)
• Clifford Hough
• Salamander (Percy Cowley, local magician)
• Mary Kinson
• Alistair
• Lewis Ganson , “our new President”
Thanks are given by a member of the Magicians of Mann – sounds like it could be Alan Gill.
Arthur Culpin, Lewis Ganson, Mary Kinson, Eric Williams, Reg Parkinson and Clifford Hough
are listed on the programme for magic Gala Shows at Laureston on 19th and 20th April 1958.
NOTE
At a monthly meeting of the Magicians of Mann held on 13th May 1958, it was noted that the cost of recording tapes had been £32. The shows , for which 193 tickets were sold, at 5s each, made a loss of £2 0s 8d.
Culture Vannin 3
Dr. Cannon introduces a recording of one of his demonstrations.
“Your Excellency, My Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen, tonight I present to you my wonder atomic lights.”
“H. G. Wells in one of my houses”
“…you have seen the great wonder of the Atomic Lights – the shape of things to come.”
Culture Vannin 4
“And now, so far as the tape will allow, I am putting on the recording taken of my demonstration of Thoughts in the Air.”
Culture Vannin 5
19th or 20th April 1958
Clifford Hough – comedy magic act
“I don’t want you to clap this evening too loud – it’s an old building.”
Mentions Reginaldo, see Tape 1 Side 1 B
“Why not call for Clifford Hough – that’s me, you see.”
Mentions his local newspaper as the Winsford Chronicle.
“We call him Isaiah, as one eye’s ‘igher than the other.”
Interval
Culture Vannin 6
Salamander (Percy Cowley, local magician)
Silent act (performed to music.)
NOTE
His acts would often include fire-eating, lying on a small bed of nails, and walking up a ladder of swords. His costume, and some of his props, are now in the Manx Museum. Other tape recordings made by Dr. Cannon, and an 8mm film, were saved by Percy Cowley. When Cowley died, they were loaned to the Manx Museum by the executor. Three of the tapes have been digitised so far, but contain little of local interest, though some very interesting content for magic historians.
Compere Arthur Culpin starts talking
Introduces Mary Kinson
Silent act (performed to music) Mary, and her husband Jack were both well known magicians of the era.
Compere Arthur Culpin talking – performing a cut and restored rope trick
Culpin explains a change to the programme; Eric (Williams) from Ledbury was unable to travel to IOM.
Introduces Alistair (from Scotland)
Ventriloquism with doll called Joy. “You’re not speaking distinctly … well, that’s your bloody fault, not mine”
End of act, Compere
Culture Vannin 7
Cannon talking “Now you watch President Ganson…”
Cards produced from the air.
Probably describing a Lewis Ganson film that was being viewed.
Coins produced – Miser’s Dream trick (repeat of first section of Tape 1 Side 1 A)
Culture Vannin 8
Cannon talking very dramatically over loud music for nearly 30 mins.
“The set-up for this little episode is to have a big white sheet, laid on the centre of the stage, about 6ft by 6 as near as possible, with four stakes of wood at each corner, or even, er, 3 feet apart, which would mean 8 stakes in all… and the rope attached to these, roughly about 2 ft high, and a small little tablecloth in the centre of this sheeting, on which a young man, black haired, with apparently nothing on but a sheet over his left shoulder, like – like a loin cloth, wearing, and he’s facing East. There is also an imitation log fire, behind which some incense is smouldering. I have a roller blind, fixed to the floor, upside down, so that you pull it up, instead of, as you would in a window, pull it down, and you simply have an invisible thread, or it doesn’t matter if it’s visible for that matter, to pull it up, just through the eye, or a small pulley, either in the ceiling or somewhere suspended, quite easily, and on this blue/black blind I have in fluorescent paint, a most atrocious chimera in riding position, with its evil rider thereon, and a sword, and the flames coming out of the nostrils, and this appears to come from the earth, as the blind rises, using black [ultraviolet] light. And when you give the blind just a slight little jerk to let it down again, it appears that the chimera goes into the earth again.
The blind is actually the one used here, seven feet long by four and a half feet wide. Just an ordinary blind, and it’s very easy to fix to the floor temporarily, and use it very effectively wherever you like to travel. A very simple [???]. Of course if you don’t want to fix the pole to the ceiling, you can actually have, er, an upright behind, and it won’t spoil the effect, and the upright can be painted in black, to which the eye [???]
Because no-one will see in the black light, as the blind is pulled up quite quickly at the sign of twelve o’clock, and it is let down quickly at three o’clock., in accordance with the play.
It is a very effective little playlet, and I’m sure that if you try it out, really properly, then you will enjoy it to the full.”
Culture Vannin 9
Cannon describes the set-up for his levitating Egyptian Mummy sketch.
“This…is one where we levitate the Egyptian mummy, from the floor of, er, what is known as a coffin or tomb [??], rise up to the ceiling , where it appears to disappear, into the sky. Now the essentials are, if you haven’t got…to go round it by black to cover the, er, view of the audience of the sarcophagus, you want to have some black cloth, just a matter of two feet high, and in a semi circular fashion, about eight feet long. Of course it will only be six feet or less when you have made a [??]. And the sarcophagus will remain in there. The sarcophagus is made by the simple method of using Plaster of Paris bandages, er, just on a skeletal cane or wire frame, as light as possible. And, er, when you’ve got the [??] the sarcophagus, you can get some drawings if you haven’t a model, using er, let it dry, and when it’s dry, in a few minutes, the paint with old gold, or any gold, or yellow fluorescent material, and also put black lines to make the marks that you have on the, er, mummy, with a black phosphorescent paint. It’s all to give you a glorified exaggeration of the [??].
Now, from the left ear, you have a thread, a number 10 linen, that has been made completely dull black, by dipping it in, er, a quarter [??] wax and three quarters beeswax, while I think we’re on the boil, and you take the thread out afterwards, and it’s quite invisible. And you want that to go to the ceiling from there, er, with a pulley that’s, er, in the ceiling, and then across to another[??] parallel pulley, that will then go out of sight [??] to the wings. And you have another one from the right ankle, that goes up to a pulley that’s, er, parallel to the last pulley. You have three pulleys in all, two for the head ones…………….pulley details……black cloth in front of the pulleys….
We also have black light, [ultraviolet lamps] I have four black lights, one goes on first, and builds up…………..gives a wonderful effect to the sarcophagus as it goes up. “
Cannon goes on to talk about the lighting and the music he used.
Culture Vannin 10
Performance by Cannon of his levitating mummy.
Culture Vannin 11
Short clip of a Cannon lecture.
Culture Vannin 12
April 7th 1957
Sunday night performance
Cannon –”Tonight the Magicians of Mann have great pleasure in welcoming their Patron, His Excellency Lieutenant Governor , Sir Ambrose Flux Dundas, and Lady Dundas, and their party…”
Reads a message for the Magicians of Mann from the club President, Dr. Zina Bennett (USA), in which he mentions the presidential medallion being passed to Arthur Culpin.
Dr Cannon Introduces Arthur Culpin… John Hayward…Thomas Lee…John Sands…and Elizabeth.
19m30s Installation of Culpin as President for 1957.
24m 53s Cannon introduces someone “who has performed before Kings, Queens, The Prince of Wales, and other pubs in Ramsey – no other than Gus Alligan.”
25m 30s Compere Gus Alligan performs the Chinese Sticks
27m 30s Introduces Tom Lee, who performs.
Culture Vannin 13 and 14
April 7th 1957
Continuation of performance by Tom Lee.
John Hayward – “Magic in Waltz Time”
Manipulation act – silent performance, to music.
Gus Alligan – compere item
Gus Alligan
Mentions Bert Russell – newspaper headline prediction
Gus Alligan introduces [???] The Wonder Dog Magician, assisted by Tom Hardy
NOTE
At a meeting of the Magicians of Mann on 14th May 1957, it was recorded that “A statement from Dr. Cannan revealed the cost of the recording tapes for the shows were £15 plus a further £2 (approx) for postage to the recipients:
Mr. T, Harris (2)
Dr. Zina Bennett (2)
Mr. Arthur Culpin (1)
S.A.M.S. (1)
Charles Wicks Australia A.M.S.”
Culture Vannin 15
Unknown act
Unknown act
Introduces Dr Cannon
Dr Cannon – Thoughts in the Air ‘experiment’
Culture Vannin 16
Dr.Cannon – “and now we come to the Sunday night performance, in which I demonstrate the Great Coffin Mystery.”
Culture Vannin 17
Great Coffin Mystery performance.
“As most of you know, during the war I was a boffin, and although I’m in the medical profession I was actually employed as a scientific. And, er, in fact, the work I was doing was so secret that, er, Lord Granville, the Governor, thought I was a spy. Of course, it was the Home Office who ordered it. They wouldn’t tell you, but they knew.”
Not on Culture Vannin site
Eva Kane, being interviewed by David Callister.