Word: pocus
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...curiosity aroused, Gordon found out as much as he could about the rainmaker. The man insisted on remaining anonymous, but he was willing to talk a little, in a negative way, about his methods: "I don't use any machinery, chemicals or hocus-pocus...
Director Charles Walters has the sense to let all this seem exactly what it is: nonsense. He skillfully mingles cinemagic and circus-pocus, and he almost always gets the best out of his players-including Jumbo, portrayed with massive aplomb by an animal named Sydney, who wears a size 92 top hat and, in profile, looks rather like Durante. Day as usual is blindingly sunny, but in a circus the glare seems suitable. Boyd, for once, talks without sounding as if he were a species of Boyd that chews worms. And Martha Raye is hilarious as an unfortunate fortuneteller...
Brecht's sardonic point emerges with ferocious bitterness when the framework of theatrical hocus-pocus is followed firmly and thoroughly," Taubman summarized...
...Philadelphia a fortnight ago, the suffering who came forward to be healed-a retarded girl of about six, an old man with an ugly facial growth-received a blessing as dignified as the setting: 139-year-old St. Stephen's Episcopal Church. "This is no hocus-pocus," said St. Stephen's Rector Alfred Price from the pulpit. "This is a sacrament you are about to receive-the sacrament of healing...