According to multiple sources in Los Angeles, David Eldridge released a book based on Jules Lenier’s material. This is all fine and good as Jules was one of the greatest minds of magic as well as one of the greatest smokers – ever. Turns out, Eldridge may not have the rights to republish the material. Apparently, he used to work for a magic shop and was supposed to make a product out of it. Sounds like he conveniently waited for someone to die before striking out on his own. And they’re not his publishing rights! Hey Kaufman, you’ve got Jules Big Book on the table, don’t you? Get on this guy.
More to come as this debacle moves forward.
Anonymous tips may be sent to powell@hush.ai
UPDATE #1 – 7/10/07
Latest information says David Eldridge was assigned to pull material from Jules books to put together. After some time passed, Jules Lenier asked for his material back. No one was able to get the material back from David.
UPDATE #2 – 7/11/07
Verified from multiple sources close to the live Jules Lenier and someone close to the situation, the books were given to a shop, not to David. This is quite funny as David Eldridge (dpe666) appears to describe a situation where he was a friend of Jules and is releasing these books on his request. I cannot help but wonder if he ever met the man, or if he could pick Jules Lenier out of a lineup of two.
UPDATE #3 – 7/12/07
This is not a bad Max Maven impersonator. This is David Eldridge (Slow down, ladies, not all at once!). This photograph is taken from the ShopForMagic.com website and can be seen in all of its contextual glory. Shout-out to Las Vegas for the link.
UPDATE #4 – 7/12/07
The man has responded.
I spoke to Jules directly on the telephone and he told me that I could do as I wanted with the material. So if some magicians have a problem with it I really don’t care. The material was given to me directly and not to a shop that I worked in.
Is it me or is this just a standard excuse in magic for graverobbing? You can put any words you want in the mouth of a dead magician. Did I ever mention that Dai Vernon, Billy McComb, and Larry Jennings wanted me to do whatever I wanted to do with their material? It’s true! Ask them.
UPDATE #6 – 7/13/07
Quite a scathing reply from a magiccafe forum user named Pebkac. Here is a snippet:
Some of us actually knew Jules as opposed to pretending to know Jules. If you were on such good terms with him that he would give you his livelihood, why did he spend more than the last year of his life trying to get his books back from you?
His whole reply is quite revealing.
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I knew Jules very well for about the last 10 years of his life. He mentioned to me several times that he was “waiting for a book to be published”, but it wasn’t being done on time.
Jules was not well off financially and he needed the money from the sales of “the book”.
I doubt he would have cavalierly given away his work to someone to do whatever they wanted with it while in the meantime Jules was starving.
I don’t know if this is it, or not, but it seems like it.