Arthur Buckley

Arthur H. Buckley (December 15, 1890- February 20, 1953) was born in Sydney, Australia.

He started out in 1908 as 'Young Dante, King of Kards' and 'Kind of Koins'. Then as 'Mysto' in Australia and New Zealand.

He came to USA in 1918. He became well known in America on the major vaudeville circuits of the 1920s. He was schooled by the great sleight-of-hand artists he met in the entertainment business and by professional gamblers he met in his early years touring Australia.

By 1925, he was working as a two-person mind-reading with his partner/wife Helen.

By 1934, Buckley came back to the US to settle in Chicago to work as an electronics engineer for Reliable Electric in a creative and consulting capacity. He developed a number of commercially successful patents. In Chicago, he became close friends with Alton Sharpe.

He developed one of his most well-known coin sleights the Muscle Pass sometime before 1948 as well as originated and developed the card production known today as the "split fan" production.

Just before his death, he made a TV appearance on the Don Alan Show, then flew at once to the Coast where he appeared on "You Asked For It" with his coin manipulations. The day he returned to work in Chicago, he suffered a heart attack.

Books

• New and improved Effects with Cards, Series 1 & 2 (1924)
• Improved and Original Card Problems (1930)
• Card Control : Practical Methods and Forty Original Card Experiments (1946)
• Gems of Mental Magic with John Cook(1947)
• Principles and Deceptions (1948)

References

• Cover Genii 1948 September