Si Stebbins

Si Stebbins
Born	William Henry Coffrin May 4, 1867 Claremont, New Hampshire
Died	October 12, 1950 (age 83) Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Known for	Si Stebbins Stack
Categories	Books by Si Stebbins

Si Stebbins (1867 - 1950) performed as a acrobat and clown in circuses, billed as "Vino". He published some books under the name "Vino" too.

He became known as Si Stebbins in 1892. He is the creator of the card stack called the Si Stebbins Stack. The version he published was actually a bit different then how he performed it. The cards he used were four numbers apart, not the familiar three, and there was a different rotation of suits.

Stebbins was one of the first to do trade shows and toured with the Willys Overland Company auto agencies. He also lined up some baker's alliance and went from town to town sponsored by the local bakery.

Stebbins died of a heart attack in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Si Stebbins System

Horacio Galasso described the progression in Giochi de Carte (1593) which was translated to French and possibly the source for Gaspar Cardozo de Sequeira's Portuguese book Thesouro de Prudents" (1612).

In the winter of 1895-1896, Si Stebbins was traveling through New England giving "store shows." Another member of the show was a Syrian magician named Selim Cid, a card manipulator who performed a routine with a stacked deck which Stebbins learned from him. This is what is now known as the Si Stebbins Stack.

Si Stebbins publishes his version in William Vino's Card Tricks (1898). This booklet was reprinted in the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch on December 18, 1898 (a reprint of the article appeared in the July 1945 issue of The Linking Ring, vol. 25, no. 5.).

Howard Thurston publishes his version as "The Thurston System" in Howard Thurston's Card Tricks (1901).

Books

• William Vino's Card Tricks (1898)
• Cover Magicol No. 137 November 2000

References

• http://www.joyalstack.com/Pages/Milestones/Main_A.html