Jack McMillen

Jack McMillen
Born	April 19, 1911 Stockton,California
Died	February 14, 1993 (age 81)
Categories	Books by Jack McMillen

Jack McMillen (1911-1993), an amateur magician, specialized in gambling demos and cards and coins.

Biography

In the 1940s, he was employed as a railroad agent as an undercover detective whose job it was to patrol the line for cardsharps and cheats.

In 1936 when Genii began publishing, he contributed many of his card effects.

McMillen created the Plunger Principle for the Card Rise which along with other (credited and uncredited) items were published in Expert Card Technique.

He was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Fellowship from the Academy of Magical Arts in 1991.

Works

The Plunger Principle

McMillen is best known as the originator of the "Plunger Principle" for the Rising Cards.

Although there was some controversy surrounding the history of the idea, William Larsen introduced "The J. M. Rising Card" in 1936 in Genii like this:

However, we are certain that, although the method has been published elsewhere, and the effect is being used by several prominent club performers today, it is really the origination of Jack McMillen and the late T. Page Wright. We make the explanation merely in order that credit may go to those to whom credit is due. The basis of the idea was first conceived by Jack McMillen, who showed it to Page Wright and myself as early as 1928.

Larsen was probably referring to the simple version published in 1931 in Seven Circles Magazine, or the version published by Burling Hall in his Stage Magic, No. 3 in 1935.

Since that time, a new description has been uncovered from 1924. It's called "The Simplex Rising Cards," and was published under Walter B. Gibson's name in J. E. Pierce's The Magic World magazine.

"The J. M. Rising Card" has been published in various sources, among them:

• Genii, Vol. 1 No. 1, September 1936, p. 10
• Encyclopedia of Card Tricks by Jean Hugard, 1937, 328-329
• Greater Magic by John Northern Hilliard, 1938, pp. 400-402
• My Best by J. G. Thompson, 1945, pp. 64-66
• Genii, Vol. 50 No 1, July 1986, p. 50
• Page Wright's Manuscript by T. Page Wright, 1991, pp. 259-262

An elaboration by McMillen, using the same principle, was published as "The Obedient Rising Cards."

• Genii, Vol. 1 No. 1, September 1936, pp. 10-12
• Genii, Vol. 50 No 1, July 1986, pp. 50-52

Sleights & Swindles

Sleights & Swindles" is a set of lecture notes written by McMillen and self-published in 1981 for his lecture at The Magic Castle.

Contents:

• "The Barbary Coast Scam"
• "Shade Work"
• "The Old Gambler"
• "From Another Deck"
• "The Voodoo Card Rise"
• "Witchcraft Updated"
• "Quicksilver"
• "Coin, Ring, and Silk" (Senor Mardo)
• "The San Francisco Shuffle"
• "Don't Ever Bet On A Sure Thing" (Three Card Monte)

Take a Card

Take a Card was McMillen's first publication. It was a collaboration with Judson Brown, published in 1928 by Larsen and Wright.

Contents:

• "A Retrieved Error"
• "From Another Pack"
• "The Joker Location"
• "Another Joker Location"
• "A New Reverse Location"

Page Wright's Manuscript

Page Wright's Manuscript: Sixty Years of Lost Secrets, a collection of material from T. Page Wright, was published in 1991.

It contained several contributions by McMillen:

Title	Page(s)
Artistic touch for L.W. False Shuffle	91-92
"Spring Force"	98-99
"Improved Knife Force"	99-100
"McMillen Change"	109-112
"A Cut at Any Number Throughout The Deck"	167-168
"A Card Reversed At Any Number"	170-171
"A Quick Reverse"	204-205
"Instant Speller"	220-221
"J. M. Rising Card"	259-262
Psychological force	279-280
"A Simplified Five Card Problem"	292-293

Expert Card Technique

McMillen also contributed material to Hugard and Braue's Expert Card Technique, published in 1940:

Title	Page(s)
Double Lift (uncredited)	5-6
"The Middle Deal" (uncredited)	23-24
"Emergency Card Stabbing" (uncredited)	120-121
"The Witchcraft Card Rise"	212-213
"Mind Mirror"	223-225
"Lazy Man's Card To Pocket"	313-315
"The Psychic Stop!" (uncredited)	330-331
"A Quick Reversal" (uncredited)	341-342

Items in Books

Title	Book Title	Author	Year	Page(s)
"Ghost Ring"	The L.W. Pocket and Parlor Mysteries	Larsen and Wright	1928	5
"The Prophesied Leaper"	The L.W. Card Mysteries	Larsen and Wright	1928	11-12
Card pushed through pack changes	Page Wright's Notebook	T. Page Wright	1933	9
"The Continuous Spelling Trick"	More Card Manipulations No. 1	Jean Hugard	1938	16-17
"The Triple Discovery" (with Charlie Miller)	More Card Manipulations No. 3	Jean Hugard	1941	29-30
"Ghost Ring" (uncredited)	The Tarbell Course in Magic, Vol. 3	Harlan Tarbell	1943	306-309
"The Key To The Draw" (with Charlie Miller)	Card Tricks Without Skill	Paul Clive	1946	145-146
"Mirror of the Mind"	The Royal Road to Card Magic	Jean Hugard and Frederick Braue	1951	34-35
Edge Work	The Secret of the Palmettos	Jeff Busby	1998	31-32	"One-Way Glass" (with Jeff Busby)	The Secret of the Palmettos	Jeff Busby	1998	64-64

Items in Magazines

Title	Magazine Title	Vol.	No.	Date	Page(s)
"The Mysterious Handkerchief"	The Sphinx	25	5	July 1926	140
Needles from Mouth on Thread	The Sphinx	27	4	June 1928	190
"X-Ray Vision"	The Sphinx	27	12	February 1929	577-578
"The Transformer Card"	The Sphinx	28	1	March 1929	25
"The Mystic Touch"	The Sphinx	28	2	April 1929	65-66
"The Futuristic Camera" (with Judson Brown)	The Sphinx	28	3	May 1929	97-98
"The Perplexing Penny"	The Sphinx	28	6	August 1929	210-211
"Fathom"	The Sphinx	28	7	September 1929	235
"Something For Slickers" (with Judson Brown)	The Sphinx	29	7	September 1930	275
"Controlled Cubes" (with Judson Brown)	The Sphinx	29	8	October 1930	308-309
"Typewriter Telepathy"	The Sphinx	30	1	March 1931	42
"Mental Photography"	The Sphinx	30	1	March 1931	42
"Sinister Vision"	The Sphinx	30	1	March 1931	42-43
"Ghost Eyes" (with Judson Brown)	The Sphinx	32	10	December 1933	297
"The Specter Envelope" (with Judson Brown)	The Sphinx	32	11	January 1934	339
"Telltale Color" (with Judson Brown)	The Sphinx	33	1	March 1934	12
"Poker Artistry"	Genii	1	3	November 1936	17
"Mind Mirror"	Genii	1	4	December 1936	12
"'Nth' Sense"	Genii	1	5	January 1937	11
Artistic touch for L.W. False Shuffle	Genii	1	6	February 1937	11-12
"Astral Vision"	Genii	1	7	March 1937	7-8
"Ghost Eyes" (with Judson Brown)	The Sphinx	36	1	March 1937	6
"The Spring Force"	Genii	1	8	April 1937	8
"The Improved Knife Force"	Genii	1	8	April 1937	8
"The McMillen Change"	Genii	1	10	June 1937	11
"A Cut at Any Number" (uncredited)	Genii	2	3	November 1937	80
"A Card Reversed At Any Number"	Genii	2	6	February 1938	198
"The Diving Card"	Genii	3	1	September 1938	12
"A Quick Reverse"	Genii	3	7	March 1939	222
"Turnover Reverse"	Genii	3	8	April 1939	254
"Tell Tale Color" (with Judson Brown)	The Sphinx	39	10	December 1940	247
"Mental Photography" (with Judson Brown)	The Sphinx	39	11	January 1941	292
"Tip-Over Change" (with Judson Brown)	The Sphinx	39	11	January 1941	293
"I'll Match You"	Genii	9	8	April 1945	290
"Impromptu Salt Vanish"	Genii	9	8	April 1945	290
"A Twist On The Color Change"	Genii	9	8	April 1945	290
"The Counterfeiter"	Genii	9	12	August 1945	427
"Easy Openers"	Genii	10	1	September 1945	12
"Spectral Envelope" (with Judson Brown)	The Conjurors' Magazine	1	8	September 1945	28
Coin vanish	Magicana (Woodfield)		2	June 1946	8
"The Ghost Ring" (uncredited)	Genii	11	6	February 1947	182
"Gambler's Coin Vanish"	The Conjurors' Magazine	3	7	September 1947	40
"The Inverted Aces" (with Charles Nyquist)	Genii	14	2	October 1949	43
"The San Francisco Shuffle" (with Charles Nyquist)	Genii	14	3	November 1949	12
"Slip Slide Sleight"	Genii	33	5	Jan 1969	204-205
"Karate Kontrol"	Genii	46	5	May 1982	308-309
Coin vanish	Genii	56	5	March 1993	310

McMillen's "mental" items from the first year of Genii were compiled in a book by

William Larsen in 1942 called Mental Mysteries with Cards:

• "Mind Mirror"
• "'Nth' Sense"
• "Astral Vision"