Dai Vernon
Portrait of Dai Vernon (right), along with Larry Jennings (left). Image drawn in 1989 by Sylvester the Jester
Born	David Frederick Wingfield Verner June 11, 1894 Ottawa, Canada
Died	August 21, 1992 Hollywood, California
Occupation	Magician

Dai Vernon (11 June 1894 – August 21, 1992) was a Canadian magician. ^[1] Image File history File links ProfessorandLarryJennings. ... Sylvester the Jester, 2006 Daniel Sylvester Battagline, also known as Sylvester The Jester (b. ... is the 162nd day of the year (163rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1894 (MDCCCXCIV) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... This article is about the capital city of Canada. ... is the 233rd day of the year (234th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1992 Gregorian calendar). ... Greetings from Hollywood Hollywood is a district of the city of Los Angeles, California, U.S.A., that extends from Vermont Avenue on the east to just beyond Laurel Canyon Boulevard above Sunset and Crescent Heights Boulevards on the west; the north to south boundary east of La Brea Avenue... is the 162nd day of the year (163rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1894 (MDCCCXCIV) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... is the 233rd day of the year (234th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1992 Gregorian calendar). ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

Name

A misconception is that he began to use the first name "Dai" after a newspaper mistyped "David", the paper actually was using the Welsh nickname for David (he was happy for it to be pronounced Day or Die). When Verner first moved to the United States, the male member of a popular ice-skating pair had the surname Vernon; Americans continually mistook Verner's last name to be the same as the popular ice skater, and eventually the magician became fed up with correcting people and simply adopted "Vernon" as well.

Birth

He was born in Ottawa as David Frederick Wingfield Verner. He learned his first tricks at age 7 from his father. His father was a government worker and an amateur magician. He studied mechanical engineering but by World War I he had moved to New York City. ^[1] This article is about the capital city of Canada. ... Mechanical engineering is an engineering discipline that involves the application of principles of physics for analysis, design, manufacturing, and maintenance of mechanical systems. ... “The Great War ” redirects here. ... New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ...

Biography

Due to his extraordinary skill at sleight of hand, Dai Vernon is affectionately called The Professor. Harry Houdini (who in his early years billed himself as "The King of Kards") often boasted that if he saw a card trick performed three times in a row he would be able to figure it out. Vernon then showed Houdini a trick, where he removed the top card of the deck and placed it in the middle, and then turned over the top card to again reveal the original card. Houdini watched Vernon do the trick seven times, each time insisting that Vernon "do it again". Finally Houdini's wife, and Vernon's friends said, "Face it Houdini, you're fooled." For years afterward, Vernon used the title "The Man Who Fooled Houdini" in his advertisements. Harry Houdini (March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926), whose real name was Ehrich Weiss (which was changed from Erich Weisz when he emigrated to America), was a Hungarian-born American magician, escapologist (widely regarded as one of the greatest ever), stunt performer, as well as an investigator of spiritualists, film...

Vernon first fell in love with magic when he was eight years old after his father took him to see a magic show. The first real magic book he ever owned was an early edition of perhaps the most famous card book of them all, "Expert at the Card Table", by S. W. Erdnase. By the time he was 13 he had completely memorized the contents of the book. He also had a famous encounter with another up-and-coming young magician from his town who asked Vernon, "What kind of magic do you do?" Vernon responded by asking the boy to name a card. Upon pulling a pack of cards from his pocket, Vernon turned over the top card of the deck to reveal the named card and replied to the speechless boy, "That's the kind of magic I do. What kind of magic do you do?" S. W. Erdnase is the author of The Expert at the Card Table, a book detailing sleight of hand and cheating techniques using playing cards and in continual publication since 1902. ...

Vernon made his home in the magic circle in New York, which was basically the back of an old magic shop, and had perhaps the best and most famous card magicians in the world at the time as its residents. It was here that the extremely famous incident involving Walter Scott occurred. In 1930, Walter Scott, then an unknown card hustler, was brought in to do a demonstration. After Scott was blindfolded, one of the men watching shuffled and cut a pack of cards and handed it to Scott. The blindfolded man proceeded to deal out six hands of five-card draw poker, and in his hand were four aces and a king. None of the magicians present saw how it had been done, earning Scott the nickname "The Phantom of the Card table", and many believed that his skills rivaled that of Dai Vernon. However the only magician not present that night was Dai Vernon. More information on this and other magicians can be found in The Phantoms of the Card Table by David Britland. Draw poker is any poker variant in which each player is dealt a complete hand before the first betting round, and then develops the hand for later rounds by replacing cards. ...

Dai Vernon spent most of his life traveling all over the United States of America looking for card cheats and anyone who might know anything about sleight of hand with cards. He was famously under-credited for much of the work published in Jean Hugard and Frederick Braue's Expert Card Technique, though a later edition included an extra chapter which acknowledges Dai Vernon's contributions. In fact, a huge portion of the sleight of hand had been discovered by Vernon over years of searching.

Vernon was perhaps the most skillful sleight of hand artist that ever lived and, with Ed Marlo, possibly the most influential card magician of the 20th century. Among magicians, he is credited with inventing or improving many standard close-up effects with cards, coins, and other small items. The "standard" Cups and balls routine is his, and his 6-ring "Symphony of the Rings" remains one of the most popular Chinese linking rings routines in use to this day. Ed Marlo (born Edward Malkowski in Chicago, Illinois, October 10, 1913 - November 7, 1991) was a legendary cardician. ... The cups and balls trick is an old magic effect that has spawned a variety of adaptations. ... The Chinese Linking Rings is considered to be a classic of illusion magic. ...

Vernon spent the last thirty years of his life as Magician-in-Residence at [[The Magic Castle] in Los Angeles, California. There he mentored numerous well-known magicians including Ricky Jay, Persi Diaconis, Doug Henning, Bruce Cervon, Larry Jennings, Chuck Fayne, Michael Ammar and John Carney.Michael Skinner who was a student of Vernon. Michael shared Dai's love and search for magic. All mentioned have become some of the best close up magicians in the world. Flag Seal Nickname: City of Angels Location Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates , Government State County California Los Angeles County Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) Geographical characteristics Area     City 1,290. ... Ricky Jay Ricky Jay (b. ... Persi Diaconis at Stanford (Summer 2004). ... Doug James Henning (born May 3, 1947 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, died February 7, 2000 of liver disease) was a Canadian magician, illusionist, and escape artist. ... Michael Ammar (b. ... Born January 23, 1958 in Des Moines, Iowa. ...

Death

He died on August 21, 1992. ^[1] is the 233rd day of the year (234th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1992 Gregorian calendar). ...

Legacy

In November of 2005, Karl Johnson wrote The Magician And The Cardsharp about Vernon's early days of tracking down card cheats to learn new tricks.

In June of 2006, the first in-depth biography of Vernon was released by Squash Publishing entitled Dai Vernon: A Biography, *Artist * Magician * Muse 1894-1941 (first of planned two volumes) written by Canadian magician David Ben.

Trivia

The character of "The Professor" (played by Hal Holbrook) from the movie Shade was based on Dai Vernon, and the character Vernon (Stuart Townsend) was named for him. Holbrook as Twain, 1957. ... Shade is a 2003 neo-noir crime drama starring Stuart Townsend, Gabriel Byrne, Thandie Newton, Jamie Foxx, Roger Guenveur Smith, Melanie Griffith and Sylvester Stallone. ... Stuart Townsend (born on December 15, 1972 in Howth, County Dublin, Ireland) is an Irish actor. ...

References

The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ... is the 241st day of the year (242nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1992 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ... is the 233rd day of the year (234th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• Short biography on Vernon
• A Magician's Quest for the Perfect Card Cheat, NPR Morning Edition, August 18, 2006
• The Phantoms of the Card Table, David Britland
• Tyler Wilson's article on one of Dai Vernon's theories