- In the days of King Arthur, they lived in Camelot, who entertain the royal court with miraculous feet south, magic high above the wall.

The ancient meet with members of the magic round table.

Come with us now to the secret room of, - Do you know what this is, this strange thing you're looking at?

Well, it's an umbrella, a 20th century umbrella, or some people call it a parasol or a, a sunshade.

I gave this to Queen G Guinevere not long ago, and she was very, very pleased with it.

She liked it a great deal, and when I, when I delivered it to her, I wrapped it in a piece of paper, not a 20th century newspaper like this that I got from my friend Mike Fox, but just a brown piece of wrapping paper.

And I knew that if I wrapped it very tightly that it would be protected.

So I put a little binding around it to keep the dust out and the sunlight to keep the material from fading.

And then, I didn't know this, but the evil Enc Chantis Morgan Lafe had Bewitched the castle that day.

And Queen Guinevere had a, a pocket book with red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, lovely silks in the pocketbook.

And when Morgan lafe, the, the Half-sister of King Arthur Bewitched, a castle, unbeknownst to me, she changed the handkerchiefs, believe it or not, into the top of the umbrella.

The hankies were gone.

I didn't know where and where in the world do you think those handkerchiefs went?

Have you any idea?

Well, queen Guinevere found out when she opened my present, she removed the parasol.

And lo and behold, it was a craziest looking parasol she had ever seen.

A different handkerchief was tied onto each rib of the umbrella.

Oh, I was very embarrassed.

And you can understand why.

After all, I'm the, I'm the royal magician here in King Arthur's court, and I'm supposed to know all there is to know about magic.

Well, there wasn't much left for me to do, so I put the parasol back in the package and I felt very ashamed and very embarrassed.

I didn't know what to do.

And then the magic words came to me.

You know what they are right.

The same words we say to make Excalibur rise, fiddly die.

Fiddly d magic handkerchiefs, transpose for me.

And this time when Queen g Guinevere opened her pocketbook, the hankies were right back where they belonged.

All of them beautiful silks from China back in the pocketbook.

And what about the parasol cover?

What do you think happened to that?

Well, when I undid the wrappings, lo and behold there was Queen g Guine vi's parasol, just as good as it ever was before.

Did you like that?

That trick?

It's called a mutilated parasol.

And the late in great Howard Thurston, delighted doing that trick for as many audiences.

Well, I'd like to do more tricks, but it's time for something.

You know what it's time for.

You're exactly right.

It's time to make the Mighty Sword Excalibur rise.

Will you help me today?

Good.

We'll have to say the magic words together.

I have just a little cold.

So you say them very loud.

Ready, fiddly, die fiddly.

D magic sword.

Rise for me.

And look what words, what words do you see on the blade today?

Two words.

Arthur's story.

You know what Arthur?

We're talking about King Arthur, right?

The story of King Arthur.

I thought you might like to know a little bit about it, but there's one person who knows so much more about that story than I do.

And that's of course King Arthur's beautiful wife, the the fair Queen g Guinevere.

She's not in the secret room today, but perhaps if we just look into the crystal ball and concentrate, we shall see her.

She might even tell us a story.

Look in the ball.

Concentrate.

Concentrate.

Ah, I see something.

Look, - I was just reading about the history of King Arthur's court here in Camelot, and it's a very interesting story.

Perhaps you'd like to hear it, would you?

Well, let's see, where shall I begin?

Before Arthur was chosen King and I was chosen to be his queen.

There was much unhappiness all through the land.

You see, the good King Luther Pendragon had no successor for 18 years.

No one to take the throne of England and lawlessness and robbery broke out all over the land.

Why?

It wasn't even safe for an armed man to travel the roads, let alone a helpless woman.

Something had to be done.

And quick.

Someone who was worthy to take the throne of England must be found.

But how was he to be chosen and how was he to be selected from all the men in the kingdom?

Well, one day, the Archbishop of Canterbury came to Merlin and said, Merlin, you are the wisest man in all of Camelot and some believe the wisest man in all the world.

You must help me, help me find someone worthy to wear the crown of England.

Well, Merlin pondered it for a few days, and he gazed into his crystal ball.

And about three days later, he returned to the Archbishop and said, I know that soon England will have a king as kind, and that equally as wise as a good king pen dragon was.

And what's more he will be of pen dragon's own royal blood.

You see, only Merlin knew that Arthur, the son of pen dragon, was still alive before the Good King had died.

Merlin had taken the child and hid him in the home of Sir Hector, a good friend of Merlin's, because if he hadn't, the enemies of King Arthur would've killed the young boy.

Sir Hector raised Arthur as his own son for 18 long years.

Well, the story about Arthur becoming king is a very exciting one, and I hope to be able to tell you about it soon.

In the meantime, don't forget your good deeds.

How many good deeds can you do every day, like help mother wash the dishes or picking up your own things?

Well, don't forget, for every good deed you do, write it into a letter and send it to Merlin.

And you know what he'll do?

He'll send you a magic wand and you'll become a member of the round table.

So until we meet again, I'm going to get back to my reading and stay happy and healthy.

And don't you forget those good deeds.

- Well, that was very interesting, very interesting, wasn't it?

I hope that we can see the good Queen Guinevere again in the near future, and she'll be kind enough to tell us about the forming of the round table, how Arthur became king, about the mighty sort of caliber and the stone.

Oh, many, many more exciting adventures.

But in the meantime, I have just, just a letter too.

I'd like you to read from members, you know, to join the round table.

You, you tell me about your good deed right to Merlin in care of this station.

Tell me the good deed that you have done, and then I'll send you your magic wand and your membership card.

Either Patty, the Pixie will send it or or Mike the page, or I will send it to you.

This is from the Triad Elementary School and from the teacher and Dear Merlin, the children were so excited when we heard from you this morning, and they were most pleased with everything.

They were amazed at the little magic wand and decided to tape it to the membership cards so they wouldn't, wouldn't lose it.

Our classes have all been hit hard by the flu.

Two of my children were absent for quite a while, but they're back now.

So they're enclosing their papers with the good deeds recorded, and there are 25 of them right here.

We wish you continued success with your TV program.

All of us here at Triad School, enjoy it.

Thank you.

Your sincerely, Mrs. Dorothy Morrow, I don't have time to read all the letters we do have.

I do wanna mention one.

Many youngsters asked me to do tricks, and if possible I'll do them for them.

This particular youngster asked me to do a trick and then didn't sign his or her name, so I don't know for whom I'll be doing the trick.

It's called Deep Freeze, and I'll do it next time.

We meet a trick where a glass full of water turns into ice, freezes, and then liquefies at the command.

Another question that comes up frequently is, do you have any more magic sky hooks or can you tell us how to make one?

You know, the magic sky hook looks like a question mark.

And if you put your daddy's belt in it like that, the belt won't fall.

It seems to defy gravity.

Now, I can't send you the sky hook, but if you write to Merlin care of this station, I'll send you the plans for the magic sky hook.

Just put this little magic question mark on your finger.

You can make it out of Masonite or plywood.

Put a belt in there and you see it will not fall to the floor.

It looks like it defies gravity, but it really, really doesn't.

These are my 20th century glasses and I have to use them to, to read very fine writing.

You know, we haven't talked to our good friend, sir Echo for a long time.

He's a little fellow that lives in the vase.

He's only, oh, he's only about that tall, about an eighth of an inch tall.

And do you know how I tell if he's in the vase?

I use a magic wand, put it down in the vase.

This is Grandpa Merlin's wand.

Put it in the vase.

And if he's in there, he holds onto it like that.

He's strong.

You see that?

Hold right onto the wand.

I wonder if he's down there.

Let's see.

Hello down there.

Hello up there.

Say Sir.

Echo.

Queen Guinevere has been studying history and I wonder if you've been doing any studying or reading lately.

- Oh, oh, yes.

Merlin, I've been studying all about animals, you know, cows and ducks and, and well, everything.

- Well, I know what cows and ducks are.

Yes.

- Well, - Would you like, can you tell me?

No, I wanna see how smart you are.

- Okay.

- Can you tell me, could you define, for example, what?

Well, just tell us.

I don't think he can do it.

Tell us what is a A cow.

- A cow.

Let me see.

You really want to know Merlin?

- Yeah.

Think hard.

- Oh, I think you're gonna be sorry.

- Well, go ahead.

I'll take a chance.

- Okay.

A a cow is a camel turned inside out.

- How?

How, how can you be so silly?

Saraco?

- Marlon, don't you get it?

- I get it, but I don't wanna get it.

That's the most ridiculous thing I ever heard a cow is a camel turned inside out.

Now let's be serious on this one.

Promise.

Oh, - Okay.

Merlin - Be serious, - Rick.

Right?

- What is a, you said you knew about a duck too.

What is a duck?

- A duck.

Well, Merlin, A duck is a chicken with snow shoes.

- Oh, now listen, that's a very, very old - Joke.

I know, but it was also a very old duck Stop that say Merlin.

Wait a minute.

Something's, what's that?

That - Funny sound there?

Merlin?

I don't know, but it sounds Oh, got away.

I don't know.

I think mosquito maybe.

No, it's, it is, I think it's a, it's a, it's a fly.

Yeah.

What kind of a fly Merlin?

Well, it looks to me like it's a, a horse fly.

The kind you find around stables and horses.

- But did you know Merlin, that they, they also fly around donkeys too.

- Wait a minute, wait a minute.

You saying I look like a donkey?

- No, but bend over the face and let me get a good look at your face.

Merlin, look at me.

You see, I don't look like a donkey.

Well, I must admit you don't look like a donkey to me, but, you know, thank you very much for that.

You can't fool horse flies.

What that - I'll fix that.

Raco.

You can't fool.

Horse flies eyes.

I must apologize for the, for the conduct of, of Sir Echo.

He, he's really a very nice boy, but sometimes, sometimes he gets out of hand.

I'll look forward to seeing you the next time we meet in the Secret Room.

Perhaps Sir Echo will be better, better behaved at that time.

Bye now.

I'll see you soon.

Bye.

- Queen Guinevere was portrayed by Prudence Falconer.

Soko was Joe Berman.

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