Word: pocus
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...Little Hocus-Pocus." The self-styled "Wizard of Clubs," Paul Hahn, 46, is the world's acknowledged expert at "devious ways of hitting the ball." A teaching pro since he was 18, Hahn took a fling at the P.G.A. tournament circuit after World War II, quit after two years ("I wasn't making any money"), and went back to telling duffers the difference between a mashie and a niblick. To keep himself amused, he tried "a little hocuspocus" on the practice tee, and club members started showing up to applaud such antics as hitting two balls simultaneously...
...best of plays; and certainly the Loeb Drama Center is capable of providing it in immense amounts. But CRIMSON reviewers must also realize that the process of making a play "come alive," as Mr. Gordon says Sophocles' works "honorably" do, is absolutely dependent upon a certain amount of hocus-pocus. Sets are gimmicks; so are theatrical lights; so are costumes and made-up faces. And they have a certain amount of validity: they began to be used even before theatre moved out of the cathedral. The problem is not whether or not gimmicks should be employed in the theatre...
...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...