Years ago, here in Colorado, there was a magic shop (full sized ;) ) called Mago's. I LOVED Mago's and I spent a lot of time (and money) there. They always had what I wanted, even when I didn't know what that was. :)
I miss that shop so much, and I think that feeling of wonder it always gave me when I would wander in is a part of what's behind making Mini Mountain Magic. But I digress.
So Mago's had a GREAT "used" section full of magic books, and props but also playing cards. I LOVE playing cards. I mean it's like a "thing". Do I do any card magic? No, no I do not. Do I have enough decks of playing cards to open my own shop? Absolutely. So I would always look through their used cards, and one day I stumbled across this deck. Custom backs featuring a dapper fellow pulling a stuffed bunny out of a hat. I looked at them, went "Ooh, neat", put them in my playing card stash and immediately forgot about them.
This isn't even all of them.....
Years passed.
Sorting through my stash one day, I found them again. A beautiful custom deck in a velvet box. Gorgeous. But mysterious. Who was this Jay B. Smith, offering "Best Wishes" on the back of every card?
I didn't recall ever hearing his name, so I suspected he might not be local. And I was right. Some investigating on the internet and I found this:
(Article from the pages of Doug Houser's Maplewood History book, Volume One)
- Wendy
https://40southnews.com/maplewood-history-being-made-or-at-least-re-lived/
Seems that J.B. Smith was an undertaker for the town of Maplewood, Missouri (just a bit outside of St. Louis) in the 1930s, and he was also a magician!
How a deck of his custom playing cards made it all the way to Colorado, I can't say. They were in terrific shape for their age, and they didn't even feel like they'd been shuffled!
I reached out to the historian of Maplewood, Missouri, Doug Houser, to see if he'd like me to send him these Jay B. Smith custom backed playing cards and I received an enthusiastic and joyful reply.
Doug has done a blog entry about the cards arriving and taking their place in the Maplewood history collection. You can read all about it here if you like - https://40southnews.com/maplewood-history-a-historic-deck-of-cards-magically-reappears/
Seems that J.B. Smith was an undertaker for the town of Maplewood, Missouri (just a bit outside of St. Louis) in the 1930s, and he was also a magician!
How a deck of his custom playing cards made it all the way to Colorado, I can't say. They were in terrific shape for their age, and they didn't even feel like they'd been shuffled!
I reached out to the historian of Maplewood, Missouri, Doug Houser, to see if he'd like me to send him these Jay B. Smith custom backed playing cards and I received an enthusiastic and joyful reply.
Doug has done a blog entry about the cards arriving and taking their place in the Maplewood history collection. You can read all about it here if you like - https://40southnews.com/maplewood-history-a-historic-deck-of-cards-magically-reappears/
These kinds of cards were quite popular with magicians back in the day (they were plastic coated, making them easy to clean. It was revolutionary at the time!) I imagine that Magician Jay B. Smith was very proud of these beautiful custom cards, and their little velvet box. They really are just gorgeous. And I imagine he'd be happy to have them back too. :)
The internet is such a funny thing sometimes. There can be such negativity here, but then you find someone like Doug who just loves his town, writes articles about history, and wrote the blog entry that solved for me the mystery of the magician on the custom cards. From Doug's writings, it sounds like J.B. Smith was quite a guy: much loved, and a very magical fixture of Maplewood. I am so glad these could return and be part of his memory and legacy.
I thought about making a teeny tiny deck of these cards, and I still might. But for now, I've taken the back and made it into one of the autographed photos hanging around in Mini Mountain Magic.
And I hope that would make Jay B. Smith happy too. It's an honor to have you hanging around my shop, sir. Thanks for making it just a bit more magical.
The internet is such a funny thing sometimes. There can be such negativity here, but then you find someone like Doug who just loves his town, writes articles about history, and wrote the blog entry that solved for me the mystery of the magician on the custom cards. From Doug's writings, it sounds like J.B. Smith was quite a guy: much loved, and a very magical fixture of Maplewood. I am so glad these could return and be part of his memory and legacy.
I thought about making a teeny tiny deck of these cards, and I still might. But for now, I've taken the back and made it into one of the autographed photos hanging around in Mini Mountain Magic.
And I hope that would make Jay B. Smith happy too. It's an honor to have you hanging around my shop, sir. Thanks for making it just a bit more magical.
- Wendy
