Magic Castle 50th Anniversary Deck Set

[CBJ]

"This is an all new deck of cards printed the USPCC to celebrate 50 Years at The Magic Castle!

They have standard rounded corners, embossed finish and handle REALLY WELL!

Included is a great looking deck of 56 playing cards, custom Ace of Spades and
2 Custom Jokers plus a few ad cards."






CBJ

[Collector]

These are available on Magic Apple without any membership. $5 per one deck.
http://themagicapple.com/new-products/4 ... -decks-red
http://themagicapple.com/playing-decks/ ... decks-blue

[cosmicsecret]

The back design does not look great to me.Even as a 50th anniversary design. too bad,i liked the original magic castle back design.
for $5 a deck you can´t go wrong.

[MagikFingerz]

The backs look decent enough, but I can't justify a purchase before I've seen the actual decks. A mere picture of the back design is not enough.

[DelMagic]

I've ordered some. I'll post pics when I get them if no one else does.

[RSLancastr]

I would hope that the Castle has a nice presentation box for a pair of these.

Fifty years?

Let's see... the first time I went to the Castle was an office Christmas party (the boss was a member of the Castle) in around 1976 - 36 years ago.

[Sharpie]

Are we sure these are the official "50th" deck for the Magic Castle in Hollywood?
The site they're being sold on is also called the Magic Castle.

Can anyone confirm?

Although the Hollywood Castle's 50th anniversary IS this January.

[Sharpie]

Nevermind, I just confirmed with The Magic Apple that these are legit.
But they sell them for $5!

I loves me the Magic Apple

Blue - http://themagicapple.com/playing-decks/ ... decks-blue
Red - http://themagicapple.com/playing-decks/ ... -decks-red

Enjoy!

[MJF]

I love the Magic Apple as well. They always seem to get in decks that nobody ever has in stock and they always sell them for reasonable prices.

[DelMagic]

Some pics of the back and custom cards. Everything else is standard faces.

[DelMagic]

Here is a spread.

[RSLancastr]

Thanks for posting those, DelMagic!

By the way, shouldn't your avatar be THIS guy?

CLICK TO VIEW LISTING

[RSLancastr]

Thinking of the Magic Castle reminded me of a playing-card-related story of my involvement in a (minor) film.

Back when I had my playing-card web site, I got a few emails from people in the film and stage industries with questions about playing cards they wanted to use in a production.

=====[ AN 1800S STAGE SHOW ]=====

First was a stage production of a period piece which took place in 1800s America. There were several scenes where the characters played a specific type of card game (I forget which), and the show's Prop Master wanted to know what type of card deck would be appropriate, and where she could obtain one.

I told her that unless the audience was going to be extremely close to the actors, they would probably not be able to see the cards., And unless there were card collectors/afficianados in the front row, nobody who could see the cards would know or care if the cards were accurate to the show's period and locale.

She replied that she knew that, but felt that period-appropriate props would help the actors to "get into character" and so the right cards would be helpful.

I linked her to a page where some decent repro 1800s cards could be purchased, and she was happy with them.

=====[ FILM #1: ARMAGEDDON ]=====

I got an email from the prop Master for "The Next Bruce Willis Action Film". He said that the film had a scene where astronauts met a (Russian) cosmonaut in a space station, and the cosmonaut was to be shown doing magic tricks with a deck of playing cards in zero-gravity. They wanted to use a deck that looked Russian, or at least looked different from a standard deck American audiences would recognize.

I purchased an inexpensive Russian reproduction deck published by Fournier and sent it to the prop master. The director was pleased with it and the prop master said that I and my web site would be mentioned in the "Thanks/Acknowledgements to" section of the film's closing credits.

The film turned out to be Armageddon, that year's Summer blockbuster.

When the film came out, I took my wife and kids to see it, looking forward to seeing the cards - and my credit - in it.

The scene where they meet the cosmonaut came and went, but there were no cards in it. We kept an eye out for them for the rest of the film - nothing (and no mention of me or my site in the closing credits).

I emailed the propmaster, and he said rgat either the scene was never filmed, or had ended up on the cutting room floor, he wasn't sure which.

I intended to buy the film's DVD when it came out to see if the cards were in the "Deleted Scenes", but never did.

=====[ FILM #2: PLUTO NASH ]=====

I was contacted by someone associated with the yet-to-be-filmed Eddie Murphy film "Pluto Nash". The film was set in a casino on the moon in (I think) around the year 2100.

The correspondent wanted my theories on what playing cards might have evolved into by that time.

I said they would most likely be totally computerized, and theorized about holographic, animated cards which would seem to float in the air in front of the players.

He said he would run the ideas by the director and the special effects team.

I never saw the film (it got lousy reviews), so I have no idea if any of my ideas were incorporated into it.

=====[ FILM #3: DELIVERING MILO ]=====

Yet another propmaster contacted me regarding the film "Delivering Milo" that was starting filming soon.

The film's premise centered around young children waiting in an ethereal, heaven-like place where they were waiting to be born.

Each child was to have a toy that they treasured which was somehow connected with their future life down on Earth (a toy car might mean the child would grow up to be a mechanic or a racecar driver, that sort of thing.

The film's main character was a young boy named Milo, who throwws everything into chaos when he decides he does not want to be born. Since everyone must be boirn in the proper order, this meant nobody could be born until M‎ilo took his turn!

Milo's treasured toy was a deck of playing cards.

Since there were a few scenes where the cards would be seen in close-up, the director wanted the cards to have an other-worldly, almost heavenly look to them. Did I have any ideas for such a deck, and where it could be purchased?

I had one deck in mind, but brought five or six different decks to a meeting with the propmaster at my place of employment.

He picked the deck I recommended, the Dondorf Centennial deck.

Printed in 1933 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Dondorf, the deck was printed using an unprecedented 16 lithographic stones for the faces of the cards, and another twelve for the backs. The result was a gorgeous deck with highly-detailed and subtle coloring.

Here is a page where images of the court cards from the deck can be seen:

http://www.endebrock.de/coll/pages/d1128.html
http://www.pjmadsen.com/museum_010.htm

At the time, a reasonably-priced (around $15) reproduction of the deck was being sold by Fournier.

The prop master asked me if I could take the deck to the Magic Castle, where the magician who would be doing the close-up cardistry for the film could use the deck to see if it handled well enough.

I went to the Castle (one of four or five times I've been there) and the magician tried the cards and declared them useable.

While at the Castle, I met and spoke briefly with actor Carl Ballentine (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0050535/) - best known as Corporal Gruber on the 1960s TV show "McHale's Navy", Ballentine was also a highly-regarded comedy magician.

In the audience for the show of the magician who would be testing the cards, I sat two seats away from actor Robert Picardo (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000585/), well-known at the time for his role as The Doctor on Star Trek: Voyager.

Months later I bought the film's DVD (I don't know if it was ever released in theatres), and the cards ARE used in a couple of close-up scenes for a few seconds. I was NOT thanked in the credits, as far as I could tell.

...and THAT was the extent of my playing-card-related stage and film involvements.

[decksparadise]

The design just don't appeal to me. End of story.