The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-07-19
BY EARL SPARKLING
Times stan Writer

THE great millionaires of the
Il country know Eugene M.
Homer of 1440 Broadway, as an
expert appraiser-a man who can
estimate the value of a vault full
of bonds and a house full of
paintings and jewels to the last
penny.
The children Of the poor, hun
dreds of thousands of them in or
phan homes, squalid settlement
house neighborhoods and the hos
pitals, know him as Remoh the
Wizard, a man who can pick pen
MES out of the air, who can take
little white rabbit and change
it into a little gray squirrel and
then give the squirrel to the little
crippled boy in the first row for
a pet.
Appraiser Homer, president of
the Actual Appraisal Company, is
a busy man. Magician Remoh
(Which is Homer backwards) is
CNCn d UuSlGI OIl6.
There is hardly a night of the
year he is not wanted somewhere
to make unhappy children happy
for the hour He answers an
incredible number of those pleas.
He gave something like 200 per-
formances last year-free, of
course.
For some of them he travelled
long distances and paid his own
expenses. Calls come to him from
as far away as Milwaukee, st.
Louis and Omaha.
Last Easter week he performed
twenty-five times in and around
New York. During the last Christ
mas holidays he gave two to four
shows every day. Last week he
entertained eight different groups
of children.
NTOW there is more magic in
~ all that than a layman
might realize. Professional magi-
clans will tell you that doing
tricks for children is a nerve
wracking business.
In his book quicker Than the
Eye" John Mulholland asserts, for
example: THE most difficult
audience to play to is one COM
posed entirely of children, and
the younger they are the more
difficult is the magician's task.
Children are hard to perform
for, because it is almost imposs-
ible to fool them. They have so
little knowledge of cause and eff
feet that they are apt to fail to
know that. the orange is in the
hat because the magician put
it in
So, how does Homer do it? He
laughs and gives very modest
explanation.
I'm the clumsiest magician
you ever saw. I can do almost
any Of the tricks the professionals
can do, but you ought to see me
do them.
THE others make a few grace
full gestures and the trick is done.
I have to tumble around. I real
lied a long time ago I never could
be as fast with my hands as the
others.
80 I capitalized my clumsi-
ness. BY being more awkward
than have to be, I misdirect
attention and get the trick done.
L guess that's how I get by
with the youngsters. I entertained
$4,000 to $4,000 of them last year,
and fooled them all right.
you can't take yourself seri-
ously in front of kids. You've got
to be one of them, and the
clumsier the better. The more
you clown the better they like it.
That's an old principle, too. In
ancient days may of the magicions
carried clowns with them. The
clowns attracted attention from
the magicians at the right mo-
ment.
II DO my own Glowing and get
Il an immense kick out of it.
Sometimes I wear funny celluloid
teeth. Sometimes 1 wear eve
glasses that have mechanical eyes
behind them. When I blow. the
eyes swirl around.
And you ought to hear the
kids laugh! Why, say, it's worth