- In the days of King Arthur, there lived a sorcerer who entertained the royal court of Camelot with miraculous fes of magic.

Come with us now to the secret room of Merle the - Welcome.

Welcome once more to my secret room here at at Camelot.

I'd like to show you a picture and I wonder if you can tell me what it is.

This is an old English drawing.

You see this man here at the table, he's writing long hand with a quill pen.

You know what he's writing?

He's writing a book.

Imagine how long it would be to write a book just with a pen and ink and writing it long hand.

Your hands would get pretty tired, wouldn't they?

Well, that's how it's done in King Arthur's Day.

It takes many, many, many years to build a library of big books like this.

Only the rich men in England can afford to have such a library.

In fact, right now there are perhaps only, only 400 books in all of England.

We're lucky those of us who have newspapers and modern means of communicating.

I have a little newspaper column I'd like to show you.

It's in George the Snake's Basket.

And if I can find my scissors, I'm going to use the newspaper column to explain a point.

And incidentally, this trick is dedicated to a young boy named Joel.

Yes, Joel will know who I mean.

Joel, I won't forget your last name.

Thank you.

Don't bite now.

George.

His name is Joel Welling.

This is a very tiny newspaper we have at Camelot and I produce it by magic.

We don't have printing presses you see here at Camelot.

It's much too early for that in history.

Here's a little item of interest in our Camelot newspaper, it says that Queen Guinevere is having a garden party.

Well, I've mentioned that.

So we don't need that information anymore.

So we'll just cut that piece of information out of the newspaper like that.

I wonder if there's anything else.

Maybe it'll come back together again.

Magically, shall we see Fiddly Die Fiddly D Magic newspaper.

Restore for me.

There it's back together again.

Oh, here's another item, another item of interest.

It says that King Arthur just returned from Northern England.

I'll cut that piece of paper out.

We don't need it anymore and we'll let it drop down.

And you see that is restored itself.

Write George.

It certainly has.

Here's another item of interest.

It says, sir Galahad and Sir Lancelot were out chasing the fire breathing dragon.

They finally did slay the dragon, but it scorched Lan lott's armor very badly.

He had to have it soldered together again.

As a matter of fact, well we'll throw that item away.

And again, the newspaper comes back together as do all magic newspapers under the influence of the magic spell.

Here's another one.

It says that a young traveling magician named I don't see too well at age 80, you know named Charles Lin, will return to this area and present a trick or two right here in my secret room.

It says, we're going to see him today.

We have a surprise guest, a young magician.

Won't that be interesting?

Well, now that you know the information, I'll just cut it right out of the newspaper and restore the newspaper again.

See, we're running out of newsprint Art me.

So I'll just make one last cut right here.

And this is going to spell a letter when I open the newspaper.

And you know what letter it's going to spell?

What letter is this?

Can you tell me?

Well, this is V for victory, V for victory.

And you will be victorious if you study hard each and every night.

Study your homework and remember that V for victory.

Turn it upside down and it'll be an A for good grades in English and spelling and all those other important courses.

Something else of I importance to us.

Of course, great importance is the mighty sword.

Excalibur.

It looks just like an ordinary sword.

But you and I know better, don't we?

Because if we say those magic words, fiddly die fiddly.

D, what happens?

Let's say them together.

Alright, here we go.

Fiddly, die fiddly D, magic sword rise.

For me, the magic word today is rather a long word, isn't it?

Can you spell that?

R-A-B-B-I-T-S. Rabbits and rabbits, you know, are always with magicians and always associated with magicians and rabbits is the modern magician's high silk hat.

This hat proves that seeing isn't always believing.

Do you know why?

Well, if I were to ask you the question, which is the greater distance, the distance from the top of the hat to the bottom or from the edge here of the brim of the hat over to this edge, which do you think would be the larger from here to here?

Is that the greater distance?

Or from here to here?

I beg your pardon.

You say it's longer From here to here, it looks that way.

But seeing is not believing.

This is called an optical illusion.

It's a principle that magicians use and it proves that you can't always believe what you see.

This is the same distance from here to here as it is from there to there.

Watch.

I'll measure with a ruler.

Now a ruler has 12 inches on it.

Here I have marked eight inches.

Look, the hat measures eight inches from here to here, top to bottom.

And it also measures eight inches from here to here.

I guess seeing isn't always believing, I'm going to take this hat and examine it more closely.

You know what we'll find if we examine it closely?

Well, if you look very closely at this hat right now, you'll see what every magician likes to produce from a hat.

What's peeking out of the hat?

Look, it is a rabbit.

Isn't it?

A real live looking rabbit?

It isn't live because it's made of paper.

You know the rabbit from the hat trip originated in England.

The trick was first done in Great Britain and since then it's been one of the most popular of all tricks.

And those of you who have rabbits, those of you who have pets, please remember one thing and do me one favor, please feed your rabbit daily, clean his cage regularly, and please do not pick him up by his ears.

You wouldn't like to be picked up by your ears, would you?

The ears are very easily damaged.

So when you pick up your pet rabbit, do it by the back of a neck right back here because the hair there is very, very soft and there's a good place you can grab.

There's a lot of hide there and it works very easily.

Yes.

Alright, speaking of rabbits, we have a young man who is going to do a trick with a rabbit.

And the young man of whom I speak is Charles Lin.

And here is Charles Lin, the young magician presenting hippity hop rabbit, Charles Lin.

- Thank you.

I'm very glad I could be here with you.

And I wanna present for you two tricks.

The first one involves two rabbits.

We have here a black rabbit, pardon me, a black rabbit and a white rabbit.

Now we have two houses for the rabbits.

This one goes over the white rabbit.

And this house has a white top hat here and a white top hat over here.

This house, which goes over the black rabbit, has a black top hat here and a black top hat here.

Now that's very important because you see what happens now is when these rabbits are changed, they're going to change places you see, because this is a black one here and a black one over here.

Now, do you know what's happened to them?

Well, let's look.

There they are.

They've changed places.

You see white and black.

Black and white.

Now let's try it one more time.

We put the tops on.

Now remember there's a white wrap, white top hat here, and a white top hat here.

There's a black top hat here.

And a black top hat here.

And here they are.

They've changed places once more.

Isn't that amazing?

Now let's watch it just one more time.

'cause I think you think you know what I'm doing, don't you?

Well just watch.

Now you see, remember there's a black top hat here and a black top hat here.

And there's a white top hat here and a white top hat here.

And once more, the rabbits are going to change places.

See?

Black and white.

White and black.

Oh, you think that on the back of this black rabbit?

No, it isn't white.

No.

He ate too much peppermint candy.

And on the back of the white rabbit.

No, it isn't black.

He has the measles.

Thank you.

- And thank you.

Thank you very much.

Charles Lin and I.

What?

Chauncey.

You are no rabbit.

Oh, you're going to do a rabbit trick.

This would be interesting.

Maybe Chauncey's going to make a a rabbit puppet.

There's an ear right there.

Oh, that's going to be cute.

And that looks just like a real rabbit.

Is that, that's his nose.

Can I pet his nose?

You suppose he'd like that.

Be very kind to rabbits and pet them gently.

Not too hard.

I God.

Oh, I hope they have serums to cure bites.

Oh, he does bite hard.

That rabbit.

Is he hungry?

That's the problem.

He's hungry.

He's going to eat a little cracker right now.

Yes.

Oh, he took quite a bite, didn't he?

Oh, yes, yes.

There you go.

I'll let you keep the, the rabbit and the cracker.

Thank you, Chauncey.

That was a cute trick, wasn't it?

And now Charles Lin with his concluding trick, it concerns a silk and it's called Silk and sorcery.

Here he is, young Charles Lin.

- Thank you.

I'm very glad that I could be back with you again.

And this time I wanna show you a trick Using a tube, a solid tube plastic tube.

My hand goes into it.

And I have three handkerchiefs here.

One of them's yellow, one of them's brown, and one of them is a little yellow and a little brown.

Now we place them in here, and then I place the top on.

Now follow carefully because I'm going to make them disappear.

Oh my.

They didn't disappear.

Oh, well, perhaps the next time I can do it right.

Thank you.

- And thank you Charles Lynn.

That was a very unusual and mystifying trick.

I hope that we'll have other magician visits in the near.

Oh, you have a trick too, with a handkerchief.

Yes.

Oh, yes.

Chauncey's going to do something with a handkerchief here.

And Chauncey, you had a rubber band tied on that hanky.

That was a very, very sneaky trick.

Don't you think?

That's all right.

Chauncey.

Your rabbit trick was very clever.

And we like that.

Incidentally, any young magicians who would like to come to the secret room, don't hesitate to write me.

And as did Charles Lynn, we'll see to it that you can present your particular performance.

I like to have visiting magicians.

Come to our magic room, just send your name to Merlin in care of this station and we'll see to it that you have a chance to present your trick.

I look forward to that.

Bye now.

See you soon.

- Chauncey was played by Joe Berman, young Charles Lin of Richmond, portrayed by Chuck Lin.

Merlin was produced in the studios of Ohio University Television in Athens, Ohio.