Slip King - Sleight of Hand Master
By Brenda DeVore. Published in Wayne County Historical Newsletter March 2015
The 1969
Seymour High School Yearbook, The Tomahawk, was dedicated to Ernie Bryan also
known as Slip King. The dedication referred to Bryan as Seymour’s number one
booster. Ernie graduated from Seymour about 1936 and never forgot his hometown,
even while living in Oregon over 50 years.
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| Slip King performs a rope trick |
Slip King, as most Seymourites knew him, made his living as a representative of women’s fashion companies, selling merchandise to high end department stores and boutiques. But he was probably best known among magicians as one of the country’s best card handlers. More on that later.
Born
February 8, 1917 in Seymour to Thomas & Lillie Bryan, Earnest Carl Bryan
had three brothers and a sister. His
father died a few months before Ernie’s fourth birthday in 1921.
A widow
with several small children, Lillie probably had a difficult time. A woman
alone in that era had few options for support or income. In 1922 Lillie married Victor Lee King in a
small ceremony, presided over by Mayor W.S. Merritt, at her home on West Main
Street.
Lee King operated
a pool hall in Seymour on the north side of the square. He was also known to play cards for
money. Ernie Bryan learned a great deal
about playing cards from his stepfather.
He also learned con game techniques from the carnival workers his
parents would board during the off season.
At age
nine, Ernie saw Howard Thurston, a renowned magician and master of card tricks,
at the Iowa State Fair. During his magic
show, Thurston invited the young Ernie on stage to assist. That probably gave Ernie his first taste of
entertaining that became a lifelong passion.
Maurice
Stamps, Seymour’s resident historian, recalled that Ernie was a freshman when
he was a senior at Seymour High School. They
were both on the football team together.
In
those days a country kid attending high school had to find his or her own way
to town. The father of classmates
Leonard & Ray Noel had a building in the south part of town for his sons
and others to stay at night so they didn’t have to drive back and forth from home
each day. As a country boy, Maurice
Stamps sometimes stayed the night with the Noel boys. Ernie Bryan would drop by to visit the upper
class-men at night and practice his card tricks.
When World
War II broke out Lillie King’s four sons all joined the service. Oldest son Guy joined the army, his brothers
William, Victor, and Ernest all joined the navy. Ernie Bryan is pictured at right during World
War II in his Navy uniform. His fellow
sailors nicknamed Ernie Mandrake the Magician
after the well-known comic strip of that time. Ernie never forgot his time in the Navy and
performed magic shows for thousands of troops over the years.
After
leaving the Navy, Ernie Bryan moved to Portland, Oregon. He graduated from Utah State College in
Logan, Utah, where he wrote a paper on “The History of Cards.
Ernie’s day
job took him all over the western United States selling women’s clothing. As a
top notch salesman Ernie’s ability to entertain was usually an asset. If he couldn’t get an order, Ernie would do a
magic show and quite often the customer would soften and buy merchandise.
Ernie Bryan was a nationally recognized authority on counterfeiting devices and sleight of hand. He worked with numerous law enforcement agencies and many of the major casinos in Nevada exposing cheating methods. He taught classes to police departments and businesses on how to recognize con game techniques. Ernie was on the security board of Harold’s Club in Las Vegas for several years. He was past president of the Pacific Coast Association of Magicians and of the Portland Society of Magicians. Ernie was also an active member of Society of American Magicians and International Brotherhood of Magician
Genii
News, a magazine for magicians, featured Ernie Bryan several times and he
graced the cover in June 1968. At the time he was president of Pacific Coast Association of Magicians.
One thing
Ernie Bryan never did was gamble for money.
He told friends it just wouldn’t be fair.
He returned
to Seymour many times and became Slip King again as he entertained students at
Seymour School assemblies, homes of friends and celebrations. There are many fond memories of time spent in
his hometown as you can see from the following comments by students and friends
of Ernie (Slip King) Bryan.
Richard
Joiner, in January 1992, wrote a touching tribute to his friend and mentor that was
published in the Seymour Herald:
The past week I lost a friend who changed my
whole life (in a sense) and maybe the lives of a lot of others. I met Ernie
like a lot of others, at the school in the gym after one of his magic shows
that he put on for the school. I helped him with his tricks along with someone
else. I became interested in the rope tricks and asked to see how they were
done. Well, he
said, he
would show me if I would show him where to catch catfish. So we went fishing, I
never did learn the tricks but know how they are done.
In
1954 I drove him on his spring run selling ladies clothes to Utah, Idaho,
Oregon, Washington, and Nevada. I was
introduced to a lot of people as Ernie did his magic to entertain when we
weren’t working.
He loved putting on a show. I met a man in
Laketown, Utah, I liked and he offered me a job the next summer so I went back.
Ernie had me drive him till the middle of May and then I went to work for
Parnell Johnson in Laketown, Utah. I stayed in the west for 36 years and was
privileged to become acquainted with a lot of Ernie’s friends, who became my
friends. I never met anyone who didn’t like him. He overwhelmed them with his
showmanship and personality. Ernie was the best salesman I ever knew.
One of the things he always told me was to
respect people for what they are and always be presentable. He dressed
impeccably. His magic shows opened a lot of doors for him and thrilled
thousands from governors, senators, CEO’s, cowboys, ranchers, loggers, truck
drivers and others.
Ernie
Bryan filled a room when he walked in with his personality and his girth. He had a great dislike for flying because of
his size and cramped quarters in an airplane. For this reason he would hire
young people, many Seymour grads, to drive him on his sales route through the
northwest. Ken Davis, Seymour graduate and son of longtime Seymour Herald
publisher Wayne Davis was one of those chauffeurs.
In the summer
of 1968, Kenneth Davis had just finished his master’s degree and would be
reporting for Army duty in August. Ernie Bryan asked if Ken would drive for him
that summer over his sales territory, which was everything approximately north
and west of Denver. Ken agreed, and recalls that as being one of the greatest
summers of his life.
A
highlight for Ken was flying to Edmonton, Alberta to help Ernie serve as
security for the Canadian Mounted Police, who were running a casino for charity
during Klondike Days (similar to Iowa State Fair). Ernie is pictured at right during Klondike
Days.
A favorite Ernie
story recalled by Ken Davis: While in
Edmonton, Alberta, he and I were walking along the midway and stopped to watch
a young man do card tricks, then sell “magic” decks. The deck was what’s called
a Svengali deck: 26 cards were normal, but the other 26 were identical to each
other and trimmed about 1/16” shorter than the others. The deck is set up with
every other card being a special one. So when you riffled the deck, all the
cards looked different, but when you cut it, or stuck your finger in it while
it’s ruffling, you always get the same card, say the 8 of clubs.
This kid on the midway did 8 or 10
different tricks with the deck, with spectators always selecting the 8 of clubs.
That evening, Ernie and I were having supper
with two plainclothes Mounties at a Chinese restaurant. Across the room, we saw
the kid from the midway, with some friends. So Ernie got up, walked over to the
kid’s table, and with his best southern Iowa drawl, said, “I was just telling
my friends about how great you are. If I bought you a drink would you come over
and do some tricks for us?” “Sure,” the kid said. So he came to our table, sat
down, and proceeded to do his routine, 8 or 10 tricks which all came up with
the 8 of clubs.
Ernie
watched admiringly, and then said, “Do you suppose I could learn to do card
tricks like that?” “Sure,” he said, “I’d be glad to sell you this deck.”
Ernie
said, “But I wonder if I could learn to do them with a regular deck.” He asked
me for a new deck (I always carried his cards for him: he said they made him
look bulgy.”) Ernie opened the seal on the deck, gave it to one of us to
shuffle and cut, and proceeded to duplicate the kid’s routine, trick by trick,
always coming up with the 8 of clubs. Then he turned the cards face up and
fanned them, saying, “But mine are all different.”
The kid’s jaw dropped. Then he looked at
Ernie, and the kid was just enough of a magician to know there was only one man
that size in the world who could do what Ernie had just done. He said,” You’re
Ernie Bryan,” Ernie said, “Yes, I am.”
The kid said, “Sir, it’s an honor being had
by you.” In more ways than one, it was
like seeing a young pool hustler realize that he’d just been hustled by
Minnesota Fats.
When Ernie
(Slip King) Bryan performed at Seymour School he also brought along examples of
the ladies fashions he sold. Women of the community and high school girls (now
adults) recall modeling the beautiful clothing.
Ernie Bryan
died December 27, 1991 from complications of diabetes at age 74. Left to morn was his wife Jean, sons Douglas
& Robert Bryan, granddaughter Alanna Bryan and a large group of friends who
still remember him fondly.
Ernie (Slip King) Bryan was cremated and his ashes scatter over his favorite fishing spot, the Seymour Reservoir in Seymour, Iowa.
