The Madness of the Die Box

With Die Boxes From the Collection of Donald Summer

For most of the 20th century, if you wanted to know what magic looked like, and you stepped into a magic shop or studied a catalog, you would have been left with one indelible impression: Magic looks like a little two-compartment wooden box with shiny brass hinges and knobs on the door, and a painted die inside of it.

There’s no competition. It was all about the Sliding Die Box.

Ever since that damned bifurcated wooden box was invented, the madness of the Die Box has gripped magicians. It single-handedly defined the sucker trick, one of the most ignominious staples of our art. Few magicians seemed to love it. But few magicians ever left for a show without it.