One of my all time favorites and a great performance piece!

Reprint from The Magic Collector:

As an impressionable youngster watching the old Western movies, I remember in particular the scenes where the Cowboys were involved in the action packed shootouts. It seems as though the individuals on the receiving end of the gunfire had bright sparks popping all around as the bullets found their mark. Come to think of it, cartoon characters too had sparks flying all around while being targets of their adversaries. If old movies and cartoons could become reality it would look a lot like the Miracle Missiles in action.

The curtain opens and sitting center stage is a single undraped table, which is adorned with a pot of flowers alongside a draped mystery and a magician’s wand. The magician for the evening show walks from the wings, making his first appearance, and is greeted with the customary polite applause to which he acknowledges with a slight bow. Asking for someone to assist with his first effect, a spectator is selected to join the magician on stage. A deck of cards is fanned for the assistant to select one, which he is told to remember, and it is returned to the deck and shuffled in.

The magician says, “In order for it to be an effect which everyone may see, larger cards must be used”. With this he walks toward the table at center stage and removes the silk, which has been covering a large houlette with a jumbo deck of cards. He walks back to the assistant and says, “The chosen card will be found in a spectacular way”. He also says, “My assistant will cause the selected card to jump from the houlette on the table”.

By now the assistant has a rather puzzled look on his face and even more so when the magician says they will have to use an imaginary ray gun since he forgot to pack his before the show. The magician reaches inside his breast coat pocket and removes ??? the ray gun and hands it to the helper, showing the proper hold and grip for accuracy. Once instructed in the proper technique of ray gunning, the magician offers one more bit of help and walks over to the table and turns the front card around showing a bull’s-eye.

Walking away from the table he says, “Aim and shoot now!” The spectator points with his forefinger with his thumb held in a vertical position and suddenly a spark flies at the same time one of the flowers shoots off, dropping a few feet away to the floor! The magician is quick to point out that the aim was too high and to aim a little lower. Once again, another spark flies and there goes another flower!

Again, instructions are given to aim a little lower. After a bright spark and another flower loss the magician is shaking his head in disbelief, almost begging that the aim be lower, and sure enough, it must have been as the wand which had the silk draped over, flies off the table and onto the floor. Yet another flower flies off followed by the last one leaving its stalk bare.

At this point the magician is left to just giving the command, “Aim, shoot!” As he knows the helper can do nothing but miss the target. Another spark flies and one of the ornamental rope braids falls down from a corner of the table followed by another shot which brings another section of the rope braid hanging down limp from the table.

When all seems hopeless and a total loss, the assistant comes through for the magician and hits the target, sending a card high in the air and if the magician is on cue, is caught on its descent and shown to the assistant. Asking if this was his card, the assistant verifies that it was and the magician asks he take a bow, as he must be congratulated for his efforts and successful outcome.

Miracle Missiles is a marvelous piece of manufacture, which makes you wonder how long it took Mr. George Cook to figure all the workings and details to have the functions and sequence play into this marvelous piece of Theatre. Overall height is 56” to the top of the flowers. Very few of these units were ever made which is understandable as each was custom built with 90% of the parts having to be practically made by hand. The upright table base was a Petrie Lewis as no expenses were spared in making this a first rate item, even having its own wood case on casters. This isn’t one of those items that fall into the category of “re-sets in seconds” but rather takes a few minutes of finessing to get ready. So go shoot ’em up Cowboys and let the sparks begin.

Includes Custom Fitted Wood Carry Case on Casters and instructions. It would take thousands of dollars to replicate this piece if you could even find someone skilled enough to do so. Condition very fine and rare.