The Tarbell Course in Magic

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Today’s topic: Harlan Tarbell and the Tarbell Course in Magic
1890
Harlan Eugene Tarbell (February 23, 1890 – June 16, 1960)
1902
Created cartoons for newspapers when he was 12 years old.
Hiked five miles to watch magician Harry August Jansen, aka Dante, perform at the Morton Town Hall.
1911
Moved to Chicago to pursue a professional career in illustration.
Read and Covert hired Tarbell to work on their Illustrated Catalogue of Superior Magical Apparatus. Tarbell continued to produce illustrations for Read and Covert until 1941
1914 – 1918
During World War I, Tarbell served with the 24th Air Company in France, working with the medical department. He illustrated a military atlas and studied with French impressionist Claude Monet.
1926
Publishers T. Grant Cooke and Walter A. Jordan developed an interest in producing a correspondence course in magic.
A few months before his death, Harry Houdini was approached to author the course; Houdini declined but recommended Tarbell.
Cook and Jordan hired Tarbell and Walter Baker, another Chicago-area magician, to work on the project. Baker dropped out of the project in its early stages to concentrate on his performances.
The publishers allotted Tarbell $50,000 for the course.
60 correspondence lessons 3,100 illustrations.
Each lesson was mailed out as a correspondence course from 1926 to 1928 – first five volume via correspondence
1931
After selling 10,000 complete courses, Cooke and Jordan discontinued marketing the Tarbell Course in Magic in 1931, blaming the Great Depression for slumping sales.
1934
Directed "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century"
Starred as Doctor Huer.
1941
Louis Tannen purchased the rights to the course, working with Tarbell and Ralph W. Read (of Read and Covert) to convert the correspondence lessons into book form.
1954
Volume 6 was produced by Tarbell
1962
D. Robbins and Co./ E-Z Magic purchased all rights from Tannens. Robbins is the current publisher and distributor of the Tarbell Course in Magic.
1972
Volume 7 was written by Harry Lorayne and compiled from contributions by other magicians; it is valued largely for its comprehensive index, subdivided by title, contributor, and properties, to the first seven volumes.
1993
Volume 8 1993 of the series was compiled and edited by Richard J. Kaufman and Steve Burton. It collected Tarbell's widely scattered and previously uncollected writings on magic, which Kaufman then fashioned into something resembling the first six volumes of the course. Most of the book was written and illustrated by Tarbell.
2016
From 2016 onward, Penguin Magic adapted the Tarbell Course for online video, with each trick and technique taught in order by magician Dan Harlan
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