Phantoms of the Card Table

Description

In 1930, Walter Irving Scott bamboozled a room full of New York's finest card manipulators by dealing himself winning poker hands from a shuffled deck. His skill was extraordinary and he was soon dubbed the Phantom of the Card Table. Sixty years later Gary Osborne, a magician from England, decided to track him down and, to his surprise, found him living in a retirement home in Rhode Island. The two became friends and Scott expressed an interest in publishing his closely kept secrets. This is the true story behind this elusive trickster.

David Britland has written books on magic for magicians and worked as a researcher, writer and producer in British television including Channel 4's alternative magic show, The Secret Cabaret and Granada's James Randi: Psychic Investigator. For HTV he developed two series of Something Strange and a long running Meridian/Anglia series The Magic & Mystery Show, this before The X-Files turned the paranormal into a bandwagon. He has also taken a more serious look at the paranormal in several science documentaries developed for Channel 4's Equinox series. These included Superpowers, The Big Sleep and Secrets of the Psychics. Later this year he'll be making a documentary for Radio 4 about mind readers, called Mystery Men. He lives in Hertfordshire and is available for interview

Thoroughly researched this book was clearly a work of love, and you will love it too. Excellent -- Duncan Trillo * Magic Week * Completely fascinating -- Steve Bryant * Little Egypt Magic *