Hardy Family Chronicles – Li’l Tom’s Formation / FailureInside MagicMagic News Updated Daily for the Professional Magician

Li'l Tom Hardy's Puppet Theater Today

One of the questions we get often here at Inside Magic as well as during our lecture tours is: How Did You Get Your Start?

Well, unlike many of the popular magicians of today, we actually got our start in vitro. We were born into magic as a lifestyle, hobby, and profession.

As noted in earlier essays, the Hardy Family's career in Magic goes back almost a century and a half. In fact, we're kind of surprised the family's proud tradition has not been snatched up by one of the magic publishers — it would make a great seven volume set.

Tom Hardy IV, our Pop, is actually the seventh in the line of Tom Hardys and while his school auditorium show may have paled in grandeur to his grandfather's full-evening extravaganza, it was imbued with the same pride, tradition, and stolen tricks.

When we proposed the Hardy Family in Magic project to Mike Caveney, he demurred because of the common misconception that the Hardys are to magic as Milton Bearle was to jokes. This reputation, while true, is unfair. It is unfair in today's modern era to be held-back simply because you are a magician who appreciates other magicians.

One of the economic theories underlying the Sherman Anti-Trust Act is "in an efficient market, the superior product or method will be available because all other suppliers will either license or purchase the product." In other words, our capitalist economic system assumes no one will ever have to re-invent the wheel. That same policy has to hold true for even stage or close-up acts. If we would all concede Lance Burton's manipulation act is the best there is, we would also concede it would be foolish to try to invent one better.

This is the backdrop for today's essay on the Hardy Family's more recent magic history; specifically the famed Vegas Violence escapade for which Pop is known and apparently black-listed from reputable publications.

Tom Hardy IV was, as we noted, actually the seventh in the Tom Hardy line of magicians. His first loves was gambling (horse-racing), alcohol (Kentucky Bourbon), and mentalism. He spent 14 years pursuing these passions, spending the money accumulated by the Hardy dynasty, and avoiding working with his father's well-established traveling show.

In modern terms, he was the focus of an "intervention" by those who loved him and those who lent him funds (two entirely separate populations). It apparently took hold and he was on the straight and narrow. He recalled fondly the intervention in an essay for Drunk Magician Monthly:

It was my 17th birthday party. I thought maybe the folks had gotten together to throw a party. I knew my dad's show was on hiatus so it made sense for his Ford to be parked in the drive as I returned home from the track. But there were other cars in the driveway as well.

Li'l Tom Hardy's Puppet Theater Today

One of the questions we get often here at Inside Magic as well as during our lecture tours is: How Did You Get Your Start?

Well, unlike many of the popular magicians of today, we actually got our start in vitro. We were born into magic as a lifestyle, hobby, and profession.

I remember commenting to the kind officer who drove me home, "looks like they're throwing a party but if I didn't know better, I'd say some of those cars belong to bookies I know."
As it turned out, I was right. They were all there: the bookies, my pop, his stage crew, and two of the jockeys I had just assaulted at the track for their failure to show any determination or imagination in the stretch.

The choice was made clear to the man who would later become Thomas Hardy IV: stop drinking, carousing, and gambling at the track immediately; or be whipped into shape with the stubby but effective horsewhips carried by equally stubby but effective jockeys.

He chose to avoid pain and perhaps permanent facial disfigurement to carry on the family's proud tradition.

Magic Historian Milbourne Christopher once commented:

Li'lTom Hardy's choice to become a magician was not a choice at all. Most of the great magicians practice for the sake of perfecting their craft, their show. Li'lTom Hardy worked as an assistant for his father's under-whelming show to pay off gambling debts and bar tabs. That he learned to perform any magic is a miracle: his heart was not in it.

Milbourne Christopher, Not Worthy: Magicians Excluded from The Illustrated History of Magic, (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company 1973).

With such an ignoble start, all agreed Li'lTom Hardy a/k/a Thomas Hardy IV a/k/a Blotto-Lotto Hardy, had no where to go but up.

As Mr. Christopher noted, Pop's heart was not into magic originally. That organ, like his liver, had been calcified against the beauty of this world through his wild life.

Six years with his father's show, however, brought about a changed man with a new determination and high-placement on the Mayo Clinic's Organ Transplant Roster.

By the time the Tom Hardy III show was finishing its 30-year-run as one of the country's "Top 17 Favorite Variety Acts" (Variety Poll 1953-1954), Li'lTom was ready to take the reins.

A common misconception about Li'lTom Hardy suggests he was always into stealing rather than inventing his magic tricks. A review of his One-Man Parade in the June, 1957 Linking Ring puts the lie to this myth.

Consider the effects he taught in the publication:

Impromptu Levitation of Coffee Cup – few magicians actually took the time to master this classic of impromptu magic until it was performed by David Blaine in one of his first specials.

Cheese's Worst Nightmare – the resuscitation of a "dead" mouse was also overlooked until Mr. Blaine performed essentially the same effect on his Vertigo special using a "dead" pigeon in a park.

Card at Any Number – one of the most incredible variations on this classic ever. Few of our fold was willing to learn a new deck stack and so this minor miracle remains unknown to the general public. Unlike the Stebbins or Aaronson stack, Pop's card order could be achieved with five cuts and one Faro shuffle — regardless of the deck's original order.

Run Nose Run – this delightful kids' show idea was used by Li'lTom in his charity shows for years. It was later "improved" by others by replacing the mischievous snoz with a rabbit, and the two boxes of Kleenex with rabbit hutches. We personally think it makes much more sense that a detached nose would run between Kleenex boxes than a rabbit would run between houses.

Balloon-less Balloon Animal Sculpting – though later pooh-poohed by public health officials, this intriguing use of the ever-plentiful natural resource known as saliva was a tremendous break-through for kids' shows. "The kids love to make things and not every kid can afford latex balloons. This has been a huge success in building party bookings," wrote the author of the classic treatise, Kidz Biz Buzz, Guy Tussle. (New York: Dover Reprint of 1959 Edition).

Pull My Finger – though not a magic trick per se, this classic stunt has been used by thousands of dads and uncles over the years. It started with Li'lTom Hardy's One-Man Parade. A variation of the prank was developed by Li'lTom but not taught (because of overly restrictive fire code ordinances, Push My Finger.

With the exception of the Card at Any Number, you'll note there is very little mentalism in the One Man Parade. Li'lTom's trademarked tag-line, "America's Foremost Psychic Entertainer," was not even on the horizon as he began his career. He used to joke, "I could never have predicted I would become a psychic." Page 24, Mumbling to Myself: A Self-Published Autobiography (Chicago: Pity Party Press 1983).

Unfortunately, the response to Li'lTom Hardy's One-Man Parade "was between under-whelming and just whelming." He saw no increase in bookings, he did not receive an invitation to the prestigious Magic Circle (although by legacy rules, he should have been automatically included as the sole heir to the Hardy magic tradition), he was not invited to lecture, and his books remained unpublished.

A tenant of the Hardy family oral tradition is best described in a poem first written by Tom "The Elder" Hardy, the first American-Born of the Hardy magicians:

There once was a magician named 'Tom'

Who performed with wonderful aplomb.

He read ladies' minds

With his hand on behinds

And that's how he met your mom.

In other words, when life hands you butter, make butterflies.

Li'lTom refused to drop from the magic scene after his initial failures. His literal understanding of the Hardy Family Poem led to an unfortunate respite from his work while he sat-out a six-month sentence. He used the time in the "Klink" to consider whether the Family Poem had a "higher meaning." At the conclusion of his sentence, he felt he was led to become a mentalist.

Las Vegas in 1967 bore no resemblance to the modern-day city. There were no super-hotels, no families, very few pirates, but plenty of chances for a young magician with a criminal record.

Li'lTom's prison stretch allowed him to perfect several techniques for performing previously impossible mentalism. Bob Cassidy's The Art of Mentalism 2 notes the significant advancement made possible through Li'lTom's innovations.

Forget what you think you know about Li'lTom Hardy based on what you have heard. When he first started out in mentalism, we were all amazed at his "stuff." It was like watching a new Ted Anneman . He was bold, inventive, and fearless. His Live or Dead routine was one no one could repeat or forget. He did away with the old standards and so-called psychic props. No more billets, no cards, no clipboards, no nothing. Just stand-up and knock-em dead mentalism.

It was a pity he felt the need to conform to what he thought the public wanted.

Li'lTom auditioned for work at the major casinos, hoping to be hired as an opening act. Ironically, his innovative shedding of the traditional props associated with magicians or mentalists was his undoing. Booking agents and theater managers expected magicians to use tubes, boxes, and pretty girls. Mentalists were defined by their use of billets, chalk boards, and thick-rimmed black eyeglasses.

Prophetically, after his seventh audition, on July 7th, for Lucky 7 Casino, he dined at the infamous 7th Heaven Chinese Restaurant, ordered No. 7 (Chop Suey), received his check for $7.77, and opened a fortune cookie. The fortune read:

Those who break the mold, get covered with pieces of mold.

Li'lTom resigned himself to staying within the mainstream. He watched the acts against whom he had been judged. He copied their methods, their patter, their staging, and even their names. He was variously known as Blackstone, Blackstone, Jr., Kreskin, Mark Wilson, and even in a moment of gender confusion from his total despair, Nani Darnell.

Next Time: Success and Failure in the Desert of Broken Dreams.
The author wishes to thank the U.S. Library of Congress (Paperback Collection), The John D. and Catherine T. Macarthur Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, and several private donors.