On This Day in Magic History: Stanley Collins Was Born — August 31, 1881

 On August 31, 1881, a magician was born in London whose ideas would continue to find their way into the hands of magicians more than a century later.

His name was Stanley Martin Collins.

Collins may not be as familiar to the general public as Harry Houdini or Howard Thurston, but among serious students of magic—particularly card magicians—his contributions earned him an important place in magic history.

He was a performer, inventor, author and passionate collector of magic literature.

And there's a good chance you've encountered at least one of his ideas.

From Watching Magic to Performing It

Stanley Collins was born in Rotherhithe, London, England, on August 31, 1881.

Like so many future magicians, Collins became fascinated with the art after seeing other performers.

One particularly important influence was the legendary Chung Ling Soo.

Collins eventually began performing under the stage name “Loo Sing” around 1905 before establishing himself as a successful society conjurer.

But Collins wasn't simply interested in performing existing tricks.

He wanted to create them.

That desire would produce several ideas that became part of the larger vocabulary of magic.

Have You Ever Performed the Jumping Rubber Band?

Here's where Stanley Collins' influence becomes especially interesting.

Take an ordinary rubber band.

Place it around two fingers.

Close your hand.

Open it again—and suddenly the rubber band has apparently jumped to the other two fingers.

It's one of those wonderfully simple pieces of impromptu magic that generations of young magicians have learned.

Stanley Collins is credited with inventing the Jumping Rubber Band in 1911.

Think about that for a moment.

More than a century later, magicians are still performing a trick Collins created using an object that can be found in almost any home or office.

Sometimes the simplest magical ideas have the greatest longevity.

Collins' Aces Becomes a Card-Magic Classic

Collins was particularly innovative with playing cards.

His work with the four Aces led to what eventually became known simply as “Collins' Aces.”

In the routine, the four Aces apparently vanish under remarkably fair conditions.

The underlying concept proved so strong that generations of card magicians developed their own approaches and variations.

Collins' work attracted the attention of some of the greatest magicians of his era.

Legendary card magician Nate Leipzig reportedly described Collins' approach as the finest four-Ace trick in existence.

More than 100 years later, variations of Collins' Aces continue to be studied and performed.

That's a remarkable legacy for any magical creation.

Working Alongside Houdini

Collins also had an interesting connection to another magician whose name remains known around the world.

Harry Houdini.

In 1911, the Magicians' Club of London was established.

Houdini became its president.

Stanley Collins served as secretary.

The organization brought together prominent figures from the magic community during an extraordinary period in the history of the art.

For Collins, it was another indication of the position he had achieved within British magic.

An Inventor With an Unusual Mind

Cards weren't Collins' only area of experimentation.

He developed magical effects based on mechanical and hydraulic principles, constantly searching for unusual ways to create impossible-looking phenomena.

His creations included ideas involving cards, coins, rubber bands and larger pieces of apparatus.

Collins seemed particularly interested in approaching magical problems differently.

That's an important distinction.

Some magicians become remembered primarily for how beautifully they performed.

Others leave their mark through the ideas they give to future magicians.

Collins did both, but his creative thinking became an especially important part of his legacy.

Stanley Collins the Author

Fortunately, Collins didn't keep all of those ideas to himself.

He wrote extensively about magic.

His books included:

Original Magical Creations
Deceptive Conceptions in Magic
Collins' Card Conceits
A Conjuring Mélange

He also contributed material to one of the most famous books in the history of coin magic: J.B. Bobo's Modern Coin Magic.

Collins' articles appeared in numerous influential magic publications, including The Sphinx, The Jinx, Hugard's Magic Monthly, The Pentagram and The Linking Ring.

Through those writings, his ideas could travel much farther than Collins himself ever could.

A Collector Preserving Magic's Past

There was another side to Stanley Collins that deserves recognition.

He was an avid collector of rare and antique magic books.

That may sound like a small detail, but collectors have played an enormously important role in preserving the history of magic.

Long before information could be digitally archived, rare books, programs, correspondence and other materials could easily disappear when a magician died.

Collectors preserved those pieces of history.

Collins became known not only for creating new magic but also for appreciating and preserving the magic that had come before him.

It's a fitting combination:

Inventor and historian.

He looked backward while simultaneously pushing magic forward.

A Legacy That Still Jumps From Finger to Finger

Stanley Collins died on May 22, 1966, at the age of 84.

But his ideas didn't disappear with him.

Card magicians still discuss Collins' Aces.

Collectors still seek his books.

Students of magic history still encounter his name.

And somewhere today, there's probably a beginning magician putting a rubber band around two fingers, closing their hand and watching it mysteriously jump to the other side.

That magician may have absolutely no idea who Stanley Collins was.

But they're helping keep his magic alive.

On this day, August 31, we remember the birth of Stanley Collins—a magician whose clever ideas have survived for well over a century and continue to influence the art of magic today.