What a very clean and impressive effect by Hathaway. The Abbott’s version is quite different and a lot larger than the Haenchen version here.
I do really like this effect but it has one major problem – every time you perform this you need to destroy the handkerchief. This is not a problem if you can get them cheaply but when I worked with this I needed a 17″ handkerchief to cover the space, and those are harder to find. In addition the handkerchiefs that work best are silk not cotton – cotton can get too bulky.
Also, of course, if you use silk handkerchiefs good luck borrowing one from a spectator. I think these days you can rarely assume someone has a white handkerchief readily available anyway. So I would not even attempt to borrow the hanky. So now you just need to find cheap silks for repeat performances, which I think is possible. For my tests I was paying $15 per silk so I could not do many live tests.
But I think if you use the correct handkerchief’s this is quite an amazing illusion. But it takes work, sourcing, and practice to get it right.
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