Magic on a Stick

Over the course of more than sixty entries in THE PASSING PARADE, his long-running series of shorts for MGM, John Nesbitt often celebrated the ordinary, the commonplace and the forgotten. Here he turns his talents to the matter of the ordinary friction match, and the man who first figured out how to make something like one..

It was Joseph Walker, and ordinary English pharmacist, who did it, and Nesbitt tells the story in his usual way, narrating it while the actors performed silently. The format arose because before it was a movie series, it was a radio feature. This is literally radio with pictures.

Magic on a Stick (1946)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

The fifty-seventh Passing Parade short takes a look at chemist John Walker, a man who found it difficult to use flint to start a fire. After a personal tragedy Walker sets up to try and develop and easier way to create fire and ends up making what would become known as a match. MGM produced countless short series back in the day but John Nesbitt's Passing Parade is without question one of their best. I think it's also safe to say that the budget allowed this series was very low but they didn't let that stop them as they used great or interesting stories to make their name. I'm not sure how many people are interested in the history of fire but when you can get it in nine-minutes it makes for something very interesting and entertaining. We see how fire was created before the match and we even get some light humor as to the trouble it would often take just to get it going. The reasons behind Walker's obsession were quite interesting and how he actually ended up coming to find what was needed also made for a great story.