- In the days of King Arthur, there lived a sorcerer who entertained the royal court of Camelot with miraculous fes of matching.

Come with us now to the secret room of Merle The Magic.

- Welcome, once more to my secret room at Camelot.

Watch.

Watch very carefully, just a piece of paper.

But watch that piece of paper.

I don't know what's happening, but I feel that that paper is getting larger and larger and larger.

Does it look like something you've seen before?

Oh, and dropping it on the floor.

Do you know what happened?

It made it even bigger.

What do you think that is?

What do you think that really is?

Well, if you don't know, I think that I shall have to tell you, you know what that object is.

It's something that everyone has in their own home.

Have you seen one of those in your home lately?

Well, this particular object is, I beg your pardon.

That's right.

It's an egg, but it's no good because it's just, just a magic egg.

It does look pretty real though, doesn't it?

Sounds real.

Let's try.

Let's break it.

It's a real honest to goodness egg.

Believe it or not.

I don't know how that works.

And I've been doing magic a long, long time.

We had a young, a young round table member visit our show recently, and he brought me these, he calls 'em glasses.

His name was Tony Turnbull and he said, if I put these on my eyes, I can read the letters from our round table members better.

Excuse me.

Shall we try it once?

Dear Merlin, I'm six years old.

My brother is four.

We watch you every time that you are on television, and we like you a lot.

Stevie helped mommy clean our room today.

I went to store for mommy and her girlfriend, and we are good sometimes.

Sometimes we are good.

Please send Stevie and me a magic stick.

I'm sure you mean magic wand and we just see you.

I don't know quite what they mean by that.

Will you tell us how to make a sky hook?

A sky hook is a little hook that fits on your finger, and if you place a belt in it, it will not fall down.

It looks like a question mark.

And anyone who wants to know how to do this, this anti-gravity trick, just write to me and I will send you the plans for the magic sky hook.

We will keep watching you.

Mommy sits with us when we watch your show sign.

Stevie and Ricky Seman.

Oh, here's a ps.

We have a baby brother and he is too.

He wants a magic stick, also.

Magic wand.

Also, if you have any extra ones, please send it.

He's good too.

Sometimes.

Well, Stevie Ricky and baby brother two, you'll get your membership cards and also the magic wand.

Here's one that starts a little differently.

Dear Mr. Wizard, I would like a membership card and a magic wand with a tricks.

I'm eight years old and soon will be nine, March the 25th.

I enjoy watching your show every time that you're on television.

And he said, every time that I have time, I see it after I get my homework done.

That's a good idea.

Get that homework done first, my friend told me about your wonderful club, and I want to join it.

May I join your club?

Yours sincerely, Cindy Sue McAfee.

Well, Cindy Sue Mc, no, that's McAfee.

M-C-F-O-O-E-S, Cindy Sue McAfee.

You'll get your membership also, and we'll send the the wand and the and the magic membership card today.

Now, new members and old, please, please help me make this wand rise.

Will you?

Those are the words, but let's say them together.

All right, fiddly, die fiddly.

D, magic wand rise for me.

And the magic word again is magic.

We've had that word more than any other word.

M-A-G-I-C.

The last time we, we talked about magic.

We discussed certain kinds of, of ancient magicians.

Primitive magicians.

Remember we talked about primitive caveman who discovered fire.

There was magic to fire.

And we also talked about the African witch doctor.

Do you remember?

Well, let me refresh your memory.

We talked about this fellow right here, the caveman who first discovered fire and how it protected him from all wild animals about him.

Here's a, here's a dinosaur down here.

It also gave him warmth in the, in the wintertime, and it was a source of light.

And then we talked about the African witch doctor who used to have a magic wand shaped like a rattle in which he carried powdered dust from the mighty line in the rhinoceros.

And this gave him strength and magical powers.

He would also drop special powders in this stew and do very strange and miraculous things.

Well, I like to talk now just very briefly about this type of magician.

Maybe you can recognize this type of magician.

Maybe you might even know who this fellow is right here.

He has rather a long face.

He lives in the seventh century in a cave.

This man does, and he has a little mustache, not a very big or important one.

And he looks something like this.

And he has very, very long, long robes.

He has a table also just like mine, sort of round in shape.

And on the table you will always find a certain thing or you'll always find a crystal ball on a little pedestal, bright and shiny.

Me evil magicians always had a crystal ball that was supposed to be good in telling the future, the magic crystal ball.

And they also had a magic wand just as I do like that.

And many magicians.

Heckle.

The hermit used to be a specialist at this, you know, heckle.

The hermit was banished from court.

We recently reinstated him and said that he can do some tricks here and prove his worth again as a magician.

But heckle, the hermit when he was at court, used to do a trick with a little cornucopia.

It's a piece of paper made into a funnel shape.

And from that magic, it looked like a pointed hat.

And from that magic cornucopia, he could produce flowers or silks or anything in the world that he wanted.

Rather than talk about this type of magician.

We're going to meet him in just a moment.

I'm going to introduce him to you in this medieval period I might mention before we introduce heckle, the hermit people were superstitious.

Do you know what that means?

It means they believed in things that weren't true.

They believed in the number 13, for example.

They thought that was an unlucky number.

Friday the 13th was unlucky, and number seven was a lucky number.

And they were superstitious.

They never walked under ladders or let black cats cross in front of them.

Now, I would like to introduce to you a former black magic exponent who has reformed.

He's back here at Camelot, and I'd like to introduce at this time a medieval magician who is on probation.

I hope he, he is good and proves out to be a good magician.

I present now.

Here he is.

Heckle the hermit.

- Oh, Merlin your boob.

Now what's wrong is said.

Any anyway to introduce me.

Please be more.

I've been away for years and I come back to perform for you and the round table members.

And then you introduce me like that.

I could, yes.

I need an introduction commensurate with my - Searcher.

You want a bigger introduction?

Yes.

Say please.

I don't want to Merlin.

You must.

Oh, all right.

Please, please.

That's better.

And now it gives me great pleasure to introduce that peerless prince of press, the digitization, the devout doctor of deception, the world renowned heckle.

The hermit.

- No, no Merlin.

That'll never do.

I've got to have something more magnificent.

- How about a little music?

- Fine.

- We'll do it with music.

That should do, alright, fine.

And now we present the one, the only that Natty Nera answer, that devout doctor of deception.

That peerless prince of Presta.

Digitation heckle.

The hermit.

- Ch chancy.

You little.

You've ruined my trick.

You've ruined.

And it's my last chance.

I just thought properly merna.

Let me do one more trick.

One more trick.

Just one.

One more.

Let me get myself arranged very well.

Thank you.

Brace yourselves, round table members.

This is going to be magnificence ch.

You've done it again.

You little idiot.

- Oh my.

I, that ended very tragically.

I'm sorry that Chauncey exposed his tricks.

I hope he doesn't catch Chauncey, but I think, I think he's gaining on Chauncey.

Here they come again.

Ch won.

Well, as I was saying, I hope he doesn't catch Chauncey, but, but here, here they come back and he's gaining on Chauncey.

Don't strike that pound.

Don't do that.

Oh, well at last they've gone.

I'm certainly glad of that.

Oh my gracious.

Oh, what a terrible thing.

Here.

Here they come.

One more time.

That will fix him.

Oh, that, that was terrible.

I'm sorry.

Now that I gave heckle a hermit, another chance to come back to King Arthur's court.

I thought he was going to do some real, some genuine magic, but actually he didn't.

He tried to cheat and deceive Chauncey.

And Chauncey exposed him.

In fact, he embarrassed him quite a bit.

He embarrassed me too.

But I'm sure that the Chauncey will get away from heckle the hermit.

And the next time we meet in our secret room, all will be happy.

And well again, I'm sure.

Thanks for visiting us.

See you again real soon.

Goodbye.

- Truancy was played by Joe Bermans, her Humphrey Heckle.

The hermit portrayed by Rick Houser.

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