Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Zig Zag Girl Early 1970s

I have mentioned this illusion in another post. The original concept came from Robert Harbin the English Magician. A Girl is placed into this cabinet, and then two blades are forced through the cabinet from front to back. The section in the middle is forced to the side and the girl appears to have been dismembered in three sections.

I first saw the illusion performed by Jim Sommers, in a late 1960's convention show in Beverly Hills/Hollywood. As I recall, there was quite a stir because the illusion was not widely available and there were proprietary claims being made by a number of people. The paint job on the Sommers built illusion was white and red. This orange and yellow combination is very indicative of the times that it was built.

One of the novel elements of the trick is that you see the girls face, one foot, and both hands through the whole procedure. It is simple to perform and has a great visual effect for the audience. Again, my Dad added a few improvements, there is a special panel that makes the mid section appear even further over than in the basic design. There were far superior rollers built into the prop he constructed. Also, the whole thing basically collapsed flat for transportation.

He built two or three at least. We kept one to use in our act when we were not doing a sawing in half routine. By the time I was out of High School, I had stopped working in the show on a regular basis. I have no memory of being on stage while the illusion was done by my Dad. I did see him do it a couple of times including a performance at the annual Knott's Berry Farm Halloween Haunt.

If you look closely at the pictures here, you can see subtle differences in the paint job and the frame on the shelf that the girl's middle moves to. This is another one of the props that just looks like a museum quality art piece. I do remember helping with the paint job on one of these, but not much else. My Dad was a stickler about the way the paint needed to look. Lots of layers, very shiny. This last shot is of one of the props in my Dad's library at their apartment.

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