Soldier's Prayer Book

Soldier's Prayer Book is a classic plot on card magic in which the cards are used to tell a story.

The original patter story related the various characteristics of a deck of playing cards to both God and the calendar by a soldier in the field to justify carrying a deck of cards with him.

It was published in London hundreds of years ago but was revived in 1937 by Hugard as "The Perpetual Almanac or Gentleman Soldier's Prayer Book".

It has evolved into telling other stories from a pre-arranged sequence of cards with one of the most popular being "Sam the Bellhop" by Bill Malone.

Some story effects use the complete deck, while others use just part.

The famous British comedy magician Bob Read made a specialty of this, using different newspaper hats while reciting the patter and showing the cards.

Versions

• The Soldier Almanak in Old and Curious Playing Cards written by H.T. Morley (1790)

• The Adventures of Diamond Jack - Herman L. Weber (ad April 1926 in The Sphinx)

• The Shooting of Dan McGrew in 25 Tricks and Ideas Part One (item 25) by U.F. Grant (1931) (partial deck and giant cards).

• The Perpetual Almanac or Gentleman Soldier's Prayer Book in Jean Hugard's Encyclopedia of Card Tricks (1937)

• The Adventures of Diamond Jack (original version) - Namreh - Reprint in Encyclopedia of Card Tricks (1937) (Hugard)

• A Story and A Deck of Cards in Genii 1937 April, Vol. 1, No. 8, p. 6, by Robert Nellar (1937)

• Silas and the Slickers in Hugard's More Card Manipulations N° 2 (1939)

• Jack Hart in the Army in Tops Vol. 5, No. 4, p. 32, by Monte Harris (1940)

• Love Conquers All in Jinx, No. 109, p. 650, by Jack Vosburgh (1940)

• Sermon with a Deck of Cards by Roy Wallace in Linking Ring, Vol. 28, No. 10, p. 72, 1948.

• Jack Goes To Town in Scarne on Card Tricks by John Scarne (1950).

• Sam and Moe in The Last Word On Cards by Rufus Steele (1952)

• Saga of Sam the Bellhop by Frank Everhart (1961).

• A Fish Story in New Tops Vol. 4, No. 12, December 1964, p. 48, by Herb Runge.

• Treasure Trail, and is a tale of adventurers hunting for diamonds.It doesn't quite use the entire deck (just 32 cards). John Fisher's Magic Book (1968)

• Clever Dick in The Ganson Book, p. 108, by Lewis Ganson (1983).

• The Fleeting Queen - Murry A. Sumner - Linking Ring, Sept. 1988

• Sam the Bellhop by Bill Malone in The Linking Ring, Vol. 68, N° 8, August 1988.

• Joe Kerr's Love - Robert E. Neale - Book: Tricks of the Imagination (1991)
• The Journey of Joe Kerr by Robert E. Neale in Tricks of the Imagination

• Wide Boy in Ken Brook's Magic Place, p. 288 by Anthony Brahams (1994).

• Who Killed Lilly Longlegs by Simon Lovell in Simon Says (1997)

• Dental Surgery in IBM convention note Little Rock from 1999 by Doc Dixon.

• After Hours in Constant Fooling, Vol. 2 by David Regal (2002)

• Juan Tamariz has two story-tricks in his Mnemonica (p.189) (2004) titled as "First story" and "Second story". Both use only half of the deck.

• Hopping Henry - Tim Sutton, The Magic Circular, January 2009, p. 8-9.

• Monty The Spiv by Harry Stanley's Unique Magic Studios in the 1950's
• Chip and a Chair from the Underground Collective by Scott Grossberg a story effect based around texas hold 'em. http://www.underground-collective.com
• Risen - Michael Paul - Web: http://www.michaelpaulmagic.com
• The Adventures of Diamond Jack - Eugene Burger - Book: Secrets of Magic
• The Adventures of Diamond Jack - Diamond Jim Tyler - Book: Precious Gems Lecture Book
• After Hours - David Regal - DVD: Power, Premise, Participation Vol. 4
• A Night at the Improv - Eric Mead - DVD: ETMCM, Vol. 1 or Magical Arts Journal - Paul Harris Issue
• A Detective Story - Al D'Alfonso - Web: http://www.online-visions.com/effects/0512al.html also in September 2005 issue of Magic Magazine under the title of Private Ace.
• Aristocrats by Eric Mead performed on the DVD Aristocrats - Web: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztBZcfAIqXM
• An Englishman in New York by Wayne Dobson in Dobson's Choice
• Elliot "The Hawk" - Vid: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=oyV7n4WstMY&feature=related (based on Night at the Improv?)

• Why Dan McGrew Was Shot by Frank Lane.

• Apologies to Dickens by Ron Giesecke.
• Joe the Bartender by Ed Watkins.
• Sam the Call Girl by Whiskey Fletcher.
• Shawn Farquhar performs an ambitious card routine to Sting's song Shape of my Heart, displaying cards to the appropriate words in the song.
• Diamonds on the Islands - unknown - Doesn't use full deck
• Mark Phillips does one with giant cards based on visiting the department of motor vehicles

References

• http://www.newtscards.com/history_biblestory.asp
• Frank Garcia & Ed Newman in Magic Manuscript (Jul/Aug 1989)