He grew up in the New Jersey communities of Fairview and Guttenberg. When he left school after the eighth grade, he learned from a local card sharp how to perform such swindles as The Three Card Monte, and how to cheat in gambling card games by manipulating the cards. Scarne began practicing sleight of hand with the goal of becoming a card sharp, but his Roman Catholic mother dissuaded her son from gambling in general, and cheating others in particular. She persuaded him to practice magic instead. Scarne soon extended his skill at handling cards to learning—and devising—magical effects with cards. He spent a few months learning about crooked gambling devices (including marked cards and loaded dice) at a nearby novelty store. Thanks to his endless practice, Scarne began making money as a magician.
Scarne's most famous card trick was appropriately titled "Scarne's Aces". The trick involved taking a spectator's shuffled deck of cards, performing a series of riffle shuffles himself and then cutting to all four aces.
I have gotten to hear some "first hand" accounts of his prowess. Many years ago Scarne was hired by someone to be the entertainment at a private party. He would take a new deck, shuffle it, ripple it, etc., and then ............. cut down ..... to all four Aces. "Scarne's Aces." In attendance was one of he Rothschilds, who was impressed and asked him to perform at at upcoming party he was having,
Scarney obligated and did the trick at his party. After the party, reportedly, Rothschild offered him a large sum of money to show him the "trick." His reply, "No trick, just practice for many hours a day and many days, until you can ....... while shuffling, count down how many cards between the Aces, and then, have sensitive enough finger tips to count those cards, no trick, just many hours of practice.
He was the first of the "Steuenville Boys," Dean Martin and many I knew in Nevada who had gotten their start there. During the war, the government hired Scarney to travel around the various bases and teach the troops what to look for in "cheaters." The gambling procession tagged him as a "fink," he was not well liked in the industry.
