hey what do you got here uh i have an antique magic prop for you guys actually
a what this is a thurston sawing in half box an original antique piece
of magic what are you gonna do saw me in half i can no i'm okay one chum's enough
i came to the pawn shop today to sell my antique magic sawing in half box it's taken
up a lot of space and i could use the money i'd like to get somewhere around
two or three grand for it so where'd you get this uh this was actually given to me by a friend who
passed away and he told me that it was owned by thurston who at the turn of the century was one
of the biggest magicians oh yeah howard thurston was a huge star back then he was one of the first
magicians to actually bring magic into uh like a proper theater yeah thurston was one of the
guys who pretty much made magic a big business god didn't he have like eight train cars or something
that he would take into a town massive show there was you know a couple hundred people involved with
it it's a big deal absolutely i just think it's a really cool piece because before thurston no one
had ever seen a woman sawn in half this is the original sawing in half prototype i don't know
if howard thurston invented this trick but he's the one who brought it to the u.s and actually
made it really popular i mean it's probably one of the big you know magician staples out there this
thing can be pretty dangerous yeah most definitely i mean people definitely got hurt the first time
around using this stuff does that dried up blood on those blades uh that's probably a little bit
of everything dried up but the girl or sometimes even a spectator would lay down and you can see
where there's a hole for their hands up here and then their head would come out through here
and then their feet would come down at the other end so they could actually the audience could see
their feet their hands and their head the entire time they were being saunted that's crazy so chum
you want to get inside here and see if it works hell no i don't think you guys are professionals
if corey thinks i'm gonna get into this death trap he's got another thing coming
it would definitely be cool if it actually belonged to thurston do we have anything
backing up that it actually belonged to him i've got nothing i mean there's some pictures on the
internet that look very similar okay um what do you want to do with it pawn it or sell it i'd like
to sell it any idea how much you want to get two or three grand i think if it is something that's
collectible we could probably do some business let me give my buddy a call and have him come
down here he's a magician here in town and might be able to shed some light on it perfect if this
turns out to be a box that thurston actually owned it'd be a piece of magic history and
it can be big-time money murray what's happening guys what's up look you got some furniture in here
thinks it may have belonged to thurston at one point wow not everybody can become a magician it's
one of those things where you really got to have a lot of love for the art because those beginning
years you don't get paid thurston was the greatest and the biggest magician in american history in
the early 1900s but the first person to invent the song in half box was a guy named pt salbot
an english magician in london okay um so should we test this thing out before we go any further
you know i think we should test this thing out to see if it actually works and uh i mean but we
do need someone to go in the box i mean we got to cut something in half should i get the old man how
about you who i'll cut you in half me yeah what do you think you gonna buy me lunch done done shake
on it as a magician i never reveal my secrets but a lot of people have a lot of speculation on how
things are done and i think that's what keeps the mystery uh going on i don't know about this guys
corey mm-hmm grab the saw we're gonna cut him in half ready smell going back right now here we go
all right let's try the blades you want to uh pull his head a little bit
that's it let's just try this
hang on chum we'll just turn it here oh yeah trump wiggle your feet i can't feel my feet
sean we're putting you back together all right man here we go is it lined up
awesome you're good oh there he is one piece i think chum could be an amazing assistant could be
an understudy for any of my dancers in the show so did this actually belong to thurston or not
if this is really thurston's this would be worth between 16 and 21 000
it looks very similar to thurston's you know with the design this kind of stained glass effect
uh the verdict on this box it's
definitely not thurston's box these latches here nothing opens up here okay couldn't have been
thurson's because this would unlock so this whole wall didn't actually drop forward so you can
actually see the person in here you can tell these are actually added on here as decorations okay
so what do you think it might be worth honestly it's probably worth its weight in wood
well my man uh if it was thurston's i would have been happy to buy it off you but
i'm not even gonna make you an offer man thanks take care everybody appreciate it
appreciate it a lot of fun guys you want to go grab that lunch money all right let's do it
it sucks that it's not real i mean i think i'm gonna take the box home i might even
cut it down and make it into a coffee table because it's still a really cool looking prop