Finding the Conway Cigarette Case is getting harder and harder these days which is a shame because they are perfect little switching boxes and do not work like any other card box you have seen as there are no flaps … yet you can do pretty much anything any other card box can do, but in a much more natural and clean way 🙂
The Conway Cigarette Case is based upon the effect The Card and Cigarette Case by American Close-up Magician Bert Allerton in his book The Close-up Magician c. 1958. However, Bert Allerton’s idea used an ungimmicked Cigarette Case.
Pat Conway created the perfect gaff to make the case still look normal, but also much easier and more convincing to perform. Although, a similar gimmicked cigarette case was released by Harry Stanley and attributed to Al Koran as The Unique Cigarette Case c. 1947. In fact, when The Conway was released Harry Stanley took out an ad in Abra commenting on the “Re-Invention”. And this was not the only predecessor. Edgar Ralston released an item called the Cig-Card Case c. 1948 which was a sturdy, smart looking polished plastic cigarette case that does everything a card box can do and carries your cigarette’s too.
Ken Brooke purchased the rights to Pat’s approach and produced this beautiful and innocent looking Cigarette Case. The early versions sold by Ken required an elastic band to be used but Fred Lowe suggested a modification which removed the need. This is the final version after all the improvements and suggestions and it is perfect and easily one of the best items produced by Ken Brooke 🙂
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