Admin: I'd like to add my thanks to Milt for taking time off his busy schedule and visiting these forums. I know that our members and myself are going to gain a great deal from this visit.

Thank you so much Milt.

Mike: Considering all of the things that you've done or contributed to over the years, what do you feel is your greatest achievement in the magic industry and what particular contribution do you hold most dear?

Kort: Well, Michael,

I’d have to say that I’m very pleased that I’ve been able help kids and adults alike learn magic, the greatest hobby in the world!

As far as achievement, I would say that would be lecturing at the Magic Circle in the late 1960’s and being told that I drew the largest attendance up to that time for a guest lecturer.

Mike: One of my favorite stories of you, Kort, is the one about the free ring with every purchase at Sterling's shop. Would you care to share your favorite practical joke with us?

Kort: Hey, Michael,

You might be interested in these…

In 1946 I was able to attend the Abbott’s convention in Michigan and we found out that Ed Marlo was going to be there. And, as Ed Marlo had never gone to an Abbott’s get together, this was a big event. So, Stewart James, Stewart’s cousin, myself, and a couple others decided to play a joke on Ed. We arranged between ourselves and other magicians that I was going to be the card star, as Ed had never seen me work. I was going to perform the greatest card tricks in the world, physically selected cards or mentally selected cards and no matter what card I turned over it was going to be the selected card (even though it wasn’t). Picture this, a ring of magicians and I was in the center. We were doing every day tricks. Someone said, Marlo’s here. He was standing in the rear of the outer ring. And then I started in. We did things such as this… I would ask for the loan of a normal deck, and I’d have someone think of a number and then ask him to look from the face of the deck or the back of the deck… count down to that number and remember the card at that position.. He would do this. And I would tell him to reshuffle the deck and to give it back to me. Then I would shuffle the deck myself and the first time I would ask for the number he thought of. When it was given to me I would count down very openly to that number and I would say “There Sir is your card!” This would be met by gasps of astonishments and words that can’t be used. We went on like this, for instance, I would ask someone to take the deck and allow someone else to select the card. He would then hand the deck to someone else and the person who selected the card would insert it into the deck. He would hand the deck to someone else to shuffle. Then I would take the deck back. I did not shuffle it. I would just riffle the end and say stop. I would pick up the top half and show the bottom card and say there sir, is that your card? Every time I would do this Marlo would work his way closer to the inner circle until he got to the very front. At that point I took the deck and said, “That’s it, fellows.. Whose deck?” I retruned the deck. I started to go and Marlo said “That’s nice work.” And I said “Thank you, Sir” and walked away.

Later on Marlo invited Stewart James and myself and Stewart’s cousin to his cottage. Marlo sat down and started doing the latest thing, riffle shuffle controls. For about half hour he sat there and I was trying to not let the green glow too much I was so jealous of what he was doing. Then finally he stopped and pushed the cards away from the table and leaned back in his chair and looked at me. I looked at him and I said, “Is that all?” Stewart though Ed was going to jump over the table and kill me!

Here’s another amusing thing that happened at that convention.. We approached a group of people. Stewart James said, “that’s Ross Bertram, you wanted to meet him.” I walked up to him and said, “Mr. Bertram, would you do me a trick?” He looked at me and smiled and said “later.” Every time I saw him, I would ask the same question and always the same answer, “later.” Comes the end of the convention and we were saying good bye to every body and Ross looked at me and said “Kort, how about doing a trick for me?” And I smiled nicely and said “later” and turned around and walked away, leaving his cohorts laughing.