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George Sands

George Sands (b.1920-d.2006) began practicing magic at the age of 17 and was an active member of New York City magic scene with the guidance of Dr. Abe Hurwitz, the father of Shari Lewis.

Biography

Sands joined the Legerdemainiacs, with notable peers such as George Schindler, Frank Garcia, Howard Schwarzman, and Ken Krenzel.

He worked for Tannen 's Magic with Lou and Mike Tannen and at Royal Magic for Morris Fox.

Just before World War II, George developed his highly successful "Sandsational Rope" routine; then, during WW2, he developed Sands' Ropesational. This variation used no scissors and didn't cut up the rope, among other great magical mysteries, to entertain his buddies in the trenches. Sands' publication of his routine "Super Optical Illusion" in Hugard's Magic Monthly in June 1946 was an inspiration for many packet tricks that followed where faces and backs change numerous times.

Jean Hugard published his card masterpiece "A Poker Nightmare" in 1949, and George first published his now classic rope routines "SandSational Rope" (first published in 1949) and "RopeSational" (published 1961) have been performed by thousands of magicians including Jeff McBride, Mac King, David Copperfield and Dick Cavett, who performed it on the Johnny Carson Show. Daryl & Michael Finney used it as the base of his rope routine, as did many others. He was republished in 2009 by his son, Alan Sands, under the title "George Sands Ropes" as a book and accompanying DVD.

Sands, with over 800 pages of original magic routines, moves, and tricks in a total of 17 booklets, was the first person to publish a substantial book on balloon sculpture, "The Encyclopedic Balloon Modeling Courses, Volumes 1 and 2" (in 1972 and 1973). His culmination of material can be found in his seven booklets, "50 Years Of Magic."

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