This newspaper hat design is almost as old as newspapers, but
Lu Brent was the first to recognize the value of this paper
folding novelty for entertaining children and made a magic trick
out of showing the hat getting bigger and bigger, which was first
put on the market by Supreme Magic of the UK. Then in the 1960's,
British comedy magician Ali Bongo added the various color
patterns and a giant monster face for the finale, and The Ali
Bongo Growing Hat was born.
The advantage to making your own Growing Hat
Trick is that you can control what colors you want to use for the
various smaller hats, and you can add your own faces to the
finale (like the ones shown above - but not limited to those), to
fit in with the season. I describe some other advantages in the
More Ideas section at the end of this article. If you really want
to make your Growing Hat last a long time, you should use Tyvek
(plastic reinforced) paper.
