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Arthur Lloyd

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Arthur Lloyd
BornAlbert Arthur Lloyd
November 5, 1891
Medford, Massachusetts
Died?
NationalityAmerican

Arthur Lloyd (1891 - ?) was a Vaudeville performer known as the "The Human Card Index" and the "Humorous Card Index" for his any-card-called-for-from-pocket routine. Lloyd appeared at practically every vaudeville theater in the world. [1]

Lloyd moved to England where he spent his boyhood. By 1917 he had a twenty-minute act and was discovered by American vaudeville scouts in London.

When Lloyd arrived back to the United States, his act included his famous card-from-pocket routine. The finale was that as the audience called the names of cards, he told them not to limit their request to playing cards. No matter what was called (bingo card, army discharge card, for-rent card, membership card), it was immediately pulled from his pocket.

By 1925, he was doing only "any card called for". He carried on his person thousands of different cards and could instantly produce any one of them. [2]

In 1926, he added several novelties with giant cards to his act and by 1930, he performed his entire act with giant cards. In 1931, he was hired as technical adviser for a musical comedy, "Free for All" in one of the principal characters was an amateur magician. In 1943, after close to thirty years in vaudeville, he headed a USO unit. As World War II ended, Lloyd was completing a two-week run at the Mount Royal Hotel in Montreal. [3]

He was also one of the first magicians to perform aboard cruise ships. [4]

In the Genii 1963 April issue, a letter from Lloyd "Arthur Lloyd Reviews Himber's Miracles" was published and in the Genii 1966 September issue within the interview with Dai Vernon he states that "Lloyd was still living in New York".

References

  1. Cover Sphinx, May 1920
  2. Miscellaneous Magic-Related Vaudeville Acts, Linking Ring August, 2000
  3. Magic A Pictorial History History of Conjurers in the Theater by David Price (1985)
  4. Vernon Chronicles Vol. 4