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SIGHT AND SOUND By Leo Mishkin 1 NEW YORK, N. Y., May 31. That "Festival of Magic" that NBC put on the air the other night, with conjurers, prestidigi tators, and sleight-of-hand artists, recruited from all over the world, had one obstacle to face that apparently nobody paid very much attention to, since by now it is usually taken for granted. That obstacle was found in the simple fact that television itself is one of the greatest, one of the most startling, and one of the most astounding acts of magic ever created by the mind of man. And when you have such things as a man stopping a bullet with his teeth, or an Indian sawing a lady in half, or a dextrous-fingered gentleman picking cigarettes and playing cards out of thin air, all these somehow pale into insignificance before the astonishing realization that although the performance took place in the city of New York, it was being watched by people in their own homes in Chicago, Kansas City, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Portland, Maine, New Orleans, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, all at the very same time. No vaudeville magician, no matter how ingenious, how clever, or how many tricks he has up his sleeve, can match the formidable wonder of TV itself. AAA Not that NBC didnt bend every effort to make this "Festival of Magic" as awe-inspiring and eye-popping a show as it could possibly conceive. There was, for instance, that Chinese magician who had a crystal ball floating through space apparently defying every known law of gravity. There was a blonde Irish colleen who transformed little white bunnies into full length mink wraps. There was that Indian, Sor-car, who ran his buzz-saw right through the midriff of a dark-eyed Indian maiden. There are Cardini, the card sharp and cigarette cmoker, gulling his cards out of space, lighting his cigarettes out of his mouth, finding cards, and cigarettes, and even cigars and pipes, all streaming from his sleeves at one time. There was a man from South Africa, dressed in the costume of the Great White Hunter, who hung upside down by his heels in a strait-jacket, tied up with a rope, and who got himself free, and back down on his feet again, right side up, in the space of about two minutes. And finally, there was Milbourne Christopher, the man who thought up this "Festival of Magic" in the first place, in that act that has already killed several magicians before him, and which he said would now "attempt" on TV for the first time. Stopping that bullet, fired from high powered rifle, in his own dentures. AAA Even more than, this, however, NBCs "Festival of Magic. had a couple of added fillips for those who may have seen these acts before. In between the appearances the magicians, there was Ernie Kovaes, all people, complete with his own cigar which he kept in his mouth all the time, instead of plucking it out of the air and all dressed up in white tie and tails, Continued on Page Fifty-One s. i- l- it he 5t a , s :d se of of lr not at SIGHT AND SOUND By LEO MISHKIN Continued from Page Two only introducing the magic act that was to follow, but trying his own brand of magic on the air as well. Such as having his own white rabbit, and a couple of white mice, talking to each other about what experiences they had had with Ernie Kovacs before. Or having a little white man, also in a Great White Hunter costume, come into view, standing about two feet high. With Kovacs explaining that this was a man who had once laughed at an African witch doctor. AAA Or, again, Ernie experimenting with some of the standard vaudeville magic acts, with a row of alleged NBC vice presidents helping him out. One vice president taking a position beneath a guillotine, another moving into a closet and having Ernie stick a sword through the side. A third lying down on a table, getting himself also enclosed in a box and then having Ernie saw through the middle. You never actually saw on the screen what happened tor these vice-presidents when. Ernie got through with them, but if you- find some new appointments in the executive ranks of the network one of these days, youll know whom the appointed gentlemen are replacing. AAA The point to be made here is that television creates its own magic, and its a much better, and infinitely more ingenious brand, than the old-time vaudeville prestidigitators ever conceived. Youve seen dozens of ladies getting themselves sawed in half on the stage, youve seen hundreds of magicians pulling rabbits out of hats. It takes TV, however, to give you an actual picture of a man two feet high, dressed in the costume of a Great White Hunter, who had an unfortunate experience with an African witch doctor. Not even Harry Hou-dini or Thurston the Great could have matched that one.
