500 Tricks, Douglas 
Magicland 1943
As if by magic, a young fellow suddenly finds fame and admiration, thanks to a few card tricks made possible by a deck of cards. Life changing? According to the copywriter, yes!
The Douglas brothers opened a store in Dallas about 1911, and Magicland became a destination for nearly 95 years – operating mostly in a old downtown storefront. But even more than the store, it was the Douglas Magicland catalog of “500 Tricks” which achieved iconic status among professional magicians — and kids who dreamed of becoming magicians — for decades. That cover artwork remained unchanged for decades, and why should it? It was exotic as hell, promising all sorts of fantasies fulfilled inside.
— including the fantasy of becoming popular. The promotion of the trick on Page 43 was directly inspired by a famous 1927 magazine ad “They Laughed When I Sat Down at the Piano – But When I Started to Play! –“ by legendary advertising copywriter John Caples, which convinced thousands of people to take piano lessons. Perhaps a trick card deck card could start you a path to popularity just as easily. With a dollar and some practice you’d make new friends; impress the girls. (Click to zoom in and read the compelling copy.)
Perhaps you could even turn it into a career. You might become a fancy nightclub magician, with a sophisticated and lovely assistant whom you could vanish in an instant, from a table that had “no space to conceal even a pigeon!”
Such were the fantasies promised in the Douglas Magicland catalog. They hooked this author as well as many other young boys.
One lad who visited Douglas Magicland in the 1940s was dedicated enough to end up working there, indeed impressing the customers with his quick patter and clever conjuring. He wooed and won a local airline stewardess who then became his assistant; and went on to fame and fortune hosting magic on national television; and inspired countless other young men to work on their card tricks. His name was Mark Wilson; his assistant, the lovely Nani Darnell.
The great Mark Wilson passed away last month at age 91.
Hi, I work as a film archivist and am trying to identify a bunch of films that were distributed by Cine-Art, whose catalog you feature here: http://www.thecatalogblog.com/2018/08/13/in-the-days-before-netflix/
I cannot track down any copy of this catalog besides what you posted. Do you, by any chance, have access to the complete catalog (or more than what you featured)?
Sorry for leaving this on the wrong post, but comments aren’t enabled for the Cine-Art one.
Douglas Magicland was my favorite spot as a young boy growing up in Dallas in the 1950’s and 60’s. I had the catalogue and whenever I had the chance to go downtown with my dad, I would beg him to take me to the Douglas Magicland store. On top of that, Mark Wilson came to my elementary school, Arthur Kramer, and put on a show when I was in the fifth or sixth grade. I am still keeping his book by my bedside and read parts of it two or three nights a week. It helps me relive my youth. I am now 75. I would love to have a copy of the original yellow and black catalogue.
Terry Wood
Ebay often has copies of the Douglas Magicland catalog for sale, depending on the year you want. You should be able to relive that much of your youth….I can boast thamt Mark Wilson actually came to my HOUSE, because of a business connection with my father. He was a true gentleman who was delighted to educate young fellows who also liked magic – he sat in the den with me and we tried to work out the basics of an old vanishing-block-type trick from the 40s or 50s which I’d inherited without any instructions. Needless to say, he figured out how it was supposed to be done…and he took me seriously even though I was maybe 13 years old.
That is a great story. Did you live in Dallas at the time? Thanks for the reply. I did look at some for sale on Ebay, but they wanted much more than I am willing to pay. For me, it is a memory, not a collectable, and would be fun to read again and experience the same “magical” feeling I felt as a kid. By the way, I agree, Mark Wilson was a magician who always transferred the fun of magic and not the ego. I would say he was a true gentleman too.
Yes, I was in Dallas, and Mark Wilson was at that time providing magical consulting services for corporations, which is why he and my father had connected. Mark also go us into the Magic Castle during a trip to Las Angeles – another dream for this boy and his father.