Piddington's Secrets
By Martin T Hart: ( Piddington''s Secrets ) Released 29/01/15

It has been believed for many decades that Telepathist Sydney Piddington took his secrets to the grave. The methods behind creating the illusion he could transmit his thoughts to his wife Lesley, (in complete silence, thus kicking-to-one-side any notion a spoken code was in use, and while she was somewhere else in the country, squashing any idea that a visual code was at work), were gone forever, leaving future generations of magicians, from all genres of the craft, baffled and disappointed. This is not true! Sydney Piddington's amazing methods are indeed known - and for the very first time – they are detailed in a long awaited book titled "Piddington's Secrets".  Sydney Piddington did share his secrets with others under the condition they did not share them forward. At the time of his act this was essential for obvious reasons. The BBC producers who worked on his broadcasts knew of his methods. Meanwhile, away from the media engine and more secreted in his private life were those others who also knew of his methods, obviously his wife Lesley but also there was another family of folks called the Harts who were 'privileged' to knowledge of Piddington's secrets. And there are more people who hid his secrets too, related to the Harts, the Daye family - all of whom were nothing to do with 'show business', in fact here were a family of hard working London taxi drivers.

Now at this point I can use a little of my own mind-reading abilities and see that you are asking another question, how do I know all this? The answer to quench your inquisitional thirst is simply this; the Harts are my Grandparents and my father grew up all-knowing and all seeing, Apart from this he still has many of the old jottings from the 'Piddington' days - and before I confuse you any more, I will pause, take a breath of excitement and start at the one place all incredible stories start; the beginning!
Far away from London, England,in an Australian city called Sydney, a little off to the side in the suburb of Randwick in New South Wales, Sydney Piddington was born a boy on Tuesday the 14 May 1918. On this day, somewhere in the world, the German and Lithuanian governments signed a Treaty of Alliance, which effectively placed Lithuania under German control.

Sydney Piddington began his career in magic and mentalism in 1935 when, as a 17 year old amateur hobbyist, he joined the Independent Magical Performers of Sydney, the IMPS.

In those, his nursery years of magic, Sydney performed off-the-shelf magic tricks, usually with cards, he had not yet invented any methods of his own. And on the 1st of August 1936 his first real audience was seated at 'A Night Of Magic' at the St James Hall in Sydney. He performed the sleight of hand classic Cards To Pocket, brilliantly demonstrated by American conjurer Pop Hydn on his 'You Tube' channel. 

Sydney also demonstrated the wonders of the Silk Jap Box, an empty wooden hand-held box where silks would appear inside of it, and vanish from within its timbers. He performed a variety of classic magician's effects that he had learned from books and magazines and of course the inserted instruction sheets that came with each purchase.

Sydney Piddington had a fascination with 'mind-magic' and the art of mind reading effects, mind control methods and, in particular, thought transference. Studying the work of American magician and inventor of mental and psychic conjurers' effects, Theodore Annemann, who had the real name of Theordore John Squires but liked to be called Ted, Piddington found his magical calling. This branch of magic had already been around for a long time in the 1930s. Among magicians, the mentalism performance that was cited as one of the earliest on record, was by diplomat and pioneering, sleight-of-hand magician, Girolamo Scotto back in 1572.