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Back Palm

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Revision as of 17:23, 10 February 2011 by Jpecore (Talk | contribs) (Created page with ''''Back Palm''' is any sleight that conceals an object (like a card or coin) at the back of the hand. As used with cards, it first became popular in the late 1800s with [[Dr. Ja...')

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Back Palm is any sleight that conceals an object (like a card or coin) at the back of the hand.

As used with cards, it first became popular in the late 1800s with Dr. James W. Elliott and Harry Houdini.

According to Dai Vernon in his Vernon Touch column within Genii 1982 March, Elliott was the first to see the Back Palm performed by a Mexican gambler in Beadles' Magic Ship in New York and then went on to create his own version with a "reverse" so that both sides of the hand could be shown.

In The Magician's Handbook by P. T. Selbit, he states that Otto Maurer was the first to teach the Back Palm to American magicians, which he had learned from a Mexican gambler.

However, Elliott stated in June, 1900 issue of Mahatma: that he would present $500 to any living person who performed the back hand card palm and reverse prior to 1885. He claims to have originated this sleight, and submits the following statement:—" I first showed the sleight to Morrelliaux Berntz Cortelli, a Mexican who is now living in the suburbs of Toledo, Ohio. A few months later he visited Otto Maurer and showed him the sleight, without the reverse".

By 1895, it was being performed by publicly by T. Nelson Downs. It later also became a pet effect Imro Fox, Houdini, William E. Robinson, Ziska, and Howard Thurston.

See also: Coin Back Palm.

Publications for card back palm