Dear Walter: (Zaney Blaney)
 
                                Of course it's true!  Lou, who was the resident magi at the Newport Beach 
                                Magic Island during its early years, suggested this to just about every comedy
                                magician that ever worked there. Pam and I headlined there in eighty-three and
                                Lou touted us onto his idea at that time and I thought it was a great idea.
                                In method it's based on the Head Twister and the Sphinx principle a la the
                               Sword Cabinet, but his idea of hiding the mirror with the twisted body and
                               exposed  hands was really quite brilliant. It's a shame that Lou has never
                               gotten credit for coming up with the idea, let alone that someone else is
                               receiving a rather heavy license fee from the various builders for Lou's
                               comedy illusion concept.
                            
                                I know that Mark Kornhauser was the first one to actually build the illusion,
                                but I also know, as do Fielding West and Ed Alonzo, that it was not Mark's
                                concept.

                                In fact I happen to know that Fielding West was the one who had passed the
                                information about Lou's illusion idea to Mark when he was staying at my
                                house in Glendale, CA.



                                He had previously mentioned that Lou had  given him the idea
                                and I retorted by saying that he had touted the illusion to just about every
                                comedy magician that worked the Island.

                               Fielding, during his stay at my place, mentioned in passing that he had
                               decided not to do the trick and instead, sketched it out for Mark while he was
                               at the Castle.  I have no particulars, since Fielding covered the entire incident
                               and correctly identified Lou Lancaster as the inventor in a cover story 
                               for the Linking Ring.

                               As far as Franz is concerned, I have know idea why he thinks he has any
                               claim to it at all, especially since he claims to have come up with it in 1989,
                              at least eight years after Lou began trying to get one of us comedy magicians
                              working the Island in the early eighties to build the thing.

                              I respect both Mark and Franz as performers, but can't for the life of me
                              understand why one wants credit for inventing it and he wants the same and
                              collects money for it. I don't know why Mark doesn't do the right thing
                              and acknowledge that it wasn't his idea and, perhaps it wouldn't be a
                              bad  idea for Mark to take care of Lou in some way financially, as well.

                              I'm sure Mark didn't do this with malice, perhaps he's just forgot that the info
                              was passed onto him  by Fielding. I know I was around Lou during the early
                              eighties and I certainly can remember that it was his concept and idea.
 
                              Nuff sed!
 
                             Please send a copy of this to Bill Smith. By the way, he's (Lou's) not an
                             old codger with a pipe dream,  he did come up with the "Twister" and he's
                             rightfully upset and angered.
 
                             John  Thompson (Tomsoni)


                               During 1981 and 1982 I was a resident magician at Magic Island in Newport
                               Beach, California. I no longer wanted to do illusions and since I had come up
                               with an illusion that was not only funny to watch, but could be done surrounded
                                and required only one girl assistant , I told just about every comedy magician
                                about the Twister Illusion and even drew its plans for them.
                                I told  Fielding West, Ed Alonzo,Mark Kornhauser, Mark Hendrickson and
                                Johnny Thompson about the Twister Illusion.

                                      In 1995 Fielding West phoned me in NYC and told me that people were
                               complaining to him because he had correctly credited the Twister Illusion to me. 
                               Apparently these people had seen ads in the IBM Linking Ring and elsewhere
                               with Mark Kornhauser and Franz Harary's name in the ads. I wrote a letter
                               to Philip Reed Willmarth (editor of the Linking Ring magazine) and NEVER
                               received a reply.

                              Mark Kornhauser and Franz Harary have as much to do with any part of 
                              the invention of the Twister Illusion as they do with the invention of the
                              light bulb!

                              Bill Smiths Magic Ventures in Long Beach, CA had been building the Twister
                              and charging money for its plans as has Gerry Frenette. and performance rights
                              (and in their ads crediting it to Kornhauser and Harary). I know that its been
                              built and performed all over the world.

                               Recently I contacted Walter "Zaney" Blaney (former President of the World
                               Alliance of Magicians) who wrote Johnny Thompson (Tomsoni) about my
                               claim to the Twister. 

                               Tomsoni's reply is reproduced above.