Comedy Catch
Two Plates Thrown - One Caught At Front - One At Back
Plate (Real One) Is Spun Swiftly On Edge, And Caught
On Second Plate And Continues To Spin.
Plate Made Of Wood. Jug Does Simple Move With Plate (Decorated)
And Drop It To Break Into The 3 Pieces Then Juggles Them!
For Big-Ball Juggling.
Ball Balance - A And B Are Then Thrown Up And Change Places.
Outer Balls Are Rolled Round Centre One.
HOW TO BECOME A JUGGLER by BEN BERI, Juggler?
There is an old adage credited to George Bernard Shaw as follows: "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach." My purpose in writing this article is to teach you how to juggle. Have you ever felt that urge to juggle something? If so why not give in?
Pick up the nearest thing at hand, start tossing it around. If you happen to be drying dishes, so much the better, especially if you don't like to dry dishes. Soon you won't have to dry any dishes. There won't be any. If while juggling, a plate seems to be coming towards your head it is advisable to duck. But the same time look around to see if your wife is there, as the plate may have come from a foreign source. Of course you know your wife better than I do. I don't even know your wife, I don't even know you. But, if you read this missive, watch out, I'll be in your hair - so will your wife. So will the plate. Unless you wear a toupee. If you don't like people in your toupee, put it in another room then people can get in your hair and still not bother you. It is advisable not to try juggling your toupee.
Now, suppose you live over someone - you're dropping things, making a lot of noise - don't let this worry you. When they come up to complain just look him in the eye and say, "Look what I can do!" Before you can say kronkiziecable he will be so interested he will want to learn too. Then, when he practices the party under him will complain, so on all the way down to the janitor who will be stuck as there is no one under him. So, he has to go next door and start throwing things against the ceiling and this time the same thing works in reverse all the way up to the roof. If you live in a one family home I suggest you go over to your next door neighbor and bounce things against the side of his house. This will create a neighborly feeling. One young man became so enthused he even tossed in bed. In fact he got his arms so twisted up one night he had to become a pretzel maker. He made a lot of dough but it drove him crazy - he's now donuts! Back to your neighbors. When enough of them have become interested in juggling instead of a community sing, you can have a community jug. A community jug is great to put people in the right spirit, especially if the spirits are in the jug. It will also serve as a good excuse to get out of the house. Under no circumstances carry your props in your pockets as this will give them a mumps effect. Also, there is danger of a fashion designer noticing the effect and creating a new design in men's clothes - although some mens' pockets already have this mumps effect. Beware of knives tearing large holes in the pockets. This can prove exceedingly embarrassing, especially if it happens to be the hip pocket - it also creates a draft.
Speaking of knives, this is the most dangerous period of an embryo juggler's life. It is a wise student who keeps a jar of glue handy to rejoin fingers that have been cut off. Extreme caution must be taken to glue fingers back in the right position. One poor fellow replaced his fingers upside down and being a piano player he has to play standing on his head, causing him no end of trouble as he gets many complaints from neurotic people who object to footprints on the ceiling. Personally, I think these people are very narrow minded. Now, what normal person in his right mind could possibly object to footprints on the ceiling as they could move the piano from place to place and create a very intriguing design on the ceiling. But, this is their problem - not mine - as I have my own ceiling footprints to contend with, which reminds me not to hire that particular piano player again.
Here's a little jingle to sing to yourself while practicing- Sailing, Sailing, over the bounding main What goes up Must go back up And then come down again
Now don't worry if where you put your hand the object that is coming down, isn't, because you have to train your props just as you would if you had a dog. Of course, you don't have to take your props for a walk. If you should become cross-eyed while practicing think nothing of it. It's only a matter of two or three weeks 'til they become normal again. I know one man who juggles three and sees six. Of course, when you juggle three it will seem like six to you too. Supposing you were tossing oranges around, when you get through just strain them through a sieve - it saves all the bother of cutting them in half and squeezing them. Juggling is the quickest way to make orange juice. Warning - I don't try to toss heavy cannon balls around. One youngster became so enthused he threw one way up in the air. It came down with such force it knocked him through the floor into a lady's bathroom. Fortunately, or should I say unfortunately, the lady was taking a bath at the time. If you ever see a man with a cannon ball in his head you will know that is the fellow I'm talking about. We call him ballhead. Then there is the fellow who juggled four things the first time he tried it - of course, he had four arms. I think this is a very unusual case though, don't you?
Now we come to music for your routine. I once walked out on the stage with three Indian clubs in my hand and some brilliant wit yelled, "Four Dumbels". So, ever since I have used very loud music. Let this experience guide you.
Now, it is also a very good idea for you to invent a machine that you can wear under your coat that will hand a match to someone, because just when you have your hands full some very funny person will always say, "Hey, you got a match?" You can readily see the necessity for a match handing machine.
If you have followed my instructions carefully, I absolutely guarantee that you can learn to juggle in exactly the time it takes you to learn.
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT by DOUG COUDEN
Juggling is a very fascinating pastime. The long hours of practice is not hard work but a lot of fun. However, to the beginner, looking ahead to a professional career, the other requirements may seem rather drab in comparison. If considerable time and thought are not given to these essentials tne juggler would be a lot better off remaining an amateur. Juggling is a lot of fun as a hobby but professionally it's a tough row to hoe, especially if one is poorly equipped from the start. After all, show business IS a business - one of the biggest. The picture business is one of the largest industries and when you add to that radio, theaters, night clubs, auditoriums, carnivals, and circuses it would be right up there at the top if not the leading industry in this country.
In other professions, especially in the leading ones of medicine, law, and the ministry, varying years of study in college are required. Many performers, however, barge into show business with little or no preliminary study aside from learning the act they perform. These performers, it goes without saying, are greatly handicapped. I have already pointed out in this publication, important subjects which jugglers, still in school, can avail themselves of. This bears repeating. Business subjects are very important, not only in conducting a career in a business-like way but for the opportunities which arise as one goes along. If the juggler is well grounded in the fundamentals of business he will be ready to step into well paying positions outside of actual performing.
One has only to observe the top performers in the business today to find that most of them wind up acting or yack-yacking. So to prepare for the eventuality of reaching the top, the student should take advantage of those subjects or activities which are available along this line. I mean dramatics, speech, debating, and the like.
Much of the general news in the trade papers may seem dry reading to the young jug, but a careful perusal of this type of material will give the student a broad knowledge of show business generally which is of vital importance to any performer. In this way the reader keeps informed of the constantly changing trends of the business.
>From my observation and experience I get the impression that many performers lack business ability and adequate education. So I'd say the stude should stay in school and take subjects which would be of real help to him in show business. In addition to business subjects the stude should give careful consideration also to advertising, publicity, music, singing, dancing, acrobatics, art and photography. All of them have a prominent place in show business. Something to think about!
THE JUGGLING SCENE as seen by VIN CAREY
Baltimore has been highly favored with a juggling treat this week. Bobby Jule has been currently at the Chanticlear - which is probably our swankiest night club. Saturday night Lou Meyer and myself paid him a visit and were well repaid for our time. We saw one of the finest exhibitions of precision juggling that has ever been our privilege to witness. His act is set to music which gives it a tempo that is hard to keep up with but Bobby does it without any apparent effort to the great delight of the audience. His appearance is immaculate and his props are decorated in fine taste which demand attention. During the week I saw him do three shows and not a miss. Not only no misses but everything was done with finesse that was literally poetry in motion at its best.
The I.J.A. once more had a chance to come into its own for on gathering up his props after the second show he had the misfortune to drop a piece of his equipment and a Lucite mouthpiece broke off the piece. Lou Meyer immediately volunteered to furnish a piece of Lucite and yours truly the use of his work shop. The piece was mended in time for the Sunday show and Bobby completed the week with fine thoughts for the I.J.A. Tuesday night Bobby came out to my home and had dinner with my wife and myself and viewed the many props that I have been making and gave them a try and a good time was had by all.
The first half of the week, the State Theater had an M.C. that did a three ball routine while telling a number of gags. Darn the State for not announcing the acts in its advertising. I didn't get a chance to go over there and have the information by hearsay and I believe that the young man's name was Brown, but what Brown I don't know.
Andy "Bo-Bo" Thumser is confined to his home with a severe case of Virus X. He is on the mend after a week in bed but still not able to be out and had to cancel a number of engagements.
The Baltimore Boys are waiting with some impatience the coming of the Circus season as Harry Lind promises to visit us again when he comes East to see the opening of R.B.-B & B. at Madison Square Garden. We all hope to be more proficient in club passing by the time he arrives so that he can add some more names to the long list that he has passed clubs with.
JUG JUGGLESON'S LETTER by DOUG COUDEN illustrated by JOE MARSH
Dear Roger. A funny thing happened in the Silver Cow. A guy called me over to his table and said he heard about my act but didn't believe it. Well, Roger he turns out to be Williams the scout from the Hamid office and asks how about us working some real spots with our act with the plate juggling over the customers craniums. I said we was doing swell here but he said he'd top our salary and he just laughed when we told him our take and he asks how about 1/2 G per week. You could of knocked me over with a feather and he has a contract and I signed in a daze. Well, he left and when I done the plates over the domes business I was thinking of the big dough and dropped a plate on the konk of a guy who looks like a wrestler. He don't think it's funny and comes out of his chair at me. I side stepped thinking he's just playful and he smashes into a couple and knocks over a table so when he gets up you can see fire in his eyes. He comes boring in with both arms flailing. I just stood solid and gets him right over the bread basket with a solid jolt with my right. This riles him plenty. He grabs a chair and lets it go but I ducked and it crashes right through the glass door. I rushes in and caught him off balance with my famous 1-2 to the button but this don't even faze him. He lets loose a wild haymaker with his right and gets me right under the left ear and it feels like it's tore off. This burns me and I lets him have with plenty plenty of steam with a left and right to the kisser. He folds like an accordion and kerplunks flat on the floor. He's out cold. By now it's a free for all with everybody in it so I grabs Marie by the wrist and we ducks out the back. I hooked up the trailer and swings out on the highway and heads north. We was just in time as we could hear the cops sireens screeching as they're pulling into the Silver Cow. Roger, it was the most fun I had since Kelly's Cellar. So long, pal, Jug.
STUFF & THINGS by ARTHUR MANN
I have been in show business over 60 years starting when I was 4 years old. Back in those days there were not many theaters so my father started with his children in little towns and villages in Germany. Most of the time we had to walk from one place to another and carry our paraphernalia including a rolling globe, little juggling things, carpets, costumes, etc. We often worked in big barns. In addition to the cows, we had the farmers and their families, the farm hands, etc. for an audience!
Later, my oldest brother started a risley act under the name of The Dayton Family, 12 people. We worked all over the European continent, in Russia and England. We stayed in England until the start of the first World War. Part of the family came to the States but I remained in Europe for awhile but eventually came over with my wife. Conditions in Europe were not so good at that time nor were they good here either. Acrobatic troupes were coming in from all over the world. The big act was then dissolved and I made my own act with my son Arthur, The Mann Brothers, Two Jolly Sailors on the Bounding Rope. With this act we got more work than we could play on the better vaudeville circuits and twelve years for Barnes-Caruther and other fair bookers.
When my son married he went on his own and I had three other boys in the act at different times. The last was my nephew, Bernard. The story of how he was killed in action in the last war has already appeared in the Bulletin. If he had returned, perhaps I would still be active in the business. (Photo shows The Dayton Family doing their risley act at the Allentown (Pa.) Fair in 1915. There were 12 people in that act at that time. For those of you who came in late, Arthur Mann is now located at 3278 Wabansia Ave., Chicago-47, Ill making props for jugglers -- Doug)
While convention time is a few months off and the details haven't been released yet it's not too early to start planning on attending the first I.J.A. convention. From advance compilation of response to the form letter sent out by Art Jennings it looks like Jamestown, N.Y. is the place and late June or July the time. If you have not replied giving your ideas drop Art a letter at once. This will be a great convention, the first all Juggler meet in history and you'll kick yourself if you don't make every effort possible to attend. As any of the Jugs who made the Pittsburgh get-together if they didn't have the time of their lives. In the next issue we'll give you the official convention releases. And there are some very special sessions, prizes, etc. being cooked up.
Just as we go to press we have the pleasure of a visit from Roy Henderson, Winfield Kansas, and his lady fair. Roy is a Jug enthusiast if there ever was one and he'll be at the convention if at all possible to meet all the Jugs he's been corresponding with in person. Roy, remember what I said about working on Al and Buster Barnard so all of you will be at the big doings.
JUGGLER'S JUNCTION by BETTY GORHAM
Here and there - The Two Mustafas, with Polack Bros. Western Unit, were pictured in the Chicago Tribune entertaining at the Shriner Hospital for Crippled Children in the Windy City -- While in des Moines, Glen Phillips met Carl Thorson, the all-time cannonball jug -- Brenda Marsh is now learning club juggling with papier mache clubs, an innovation in lighter props.-- Tesper Martyn, England's ice skating jug is coming to visit Brenda and her dad soon -- Boy Foy now appearing at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago.-- The Juggling Jewels currently captivating Canada -- Francis Brunn, sensational Scandinavian jug, reportedly contracted for Ringlings this season by John Ringling North, who found Brunn in Spain. A Des Moines high school is now pioneering in the field of juggling as an extra-curricular activity. Although still in the experimental stages the tossing art is making a hit with the students. At present only one gym class has taken it up, however, practicing to music, some of them have learned to pass balls and rings. In 2 1/2 weeks 32 of the students could juggle 3 balls 10 or more times.
We extend our sincerest sympathy to Bobby Winters (Raymond Pike Jr) whose father Raymond H. Pike, former jug and acrobat, passed away last month. Other jugs who have passed away recently are Amy Lou Boyle of the vaude jug act Eddie and Amy Doyle, and Edward F. Shattuck, former actor and vaude jug on the Orpheus, Pantages and Keith circuits.
Rudy Cardenas received a swell bit of publicity in the "Tops among Teens" column of the March Chicago Sunday Tribune. He is only 18 now, and started juggling in Argentinean circuses at 5! He has been in the United States 8 months. Something novel in a publicity card was sent out by Art Jennings, our I.J.A. prezy. A caricature of a man on the card, with a chain which can be shaped to form his face catches interest immediately. Unusual ideas like this should help to a great degree in the public's recognition of talented jugs.
ABOUT TRAMP JUGGLERS by H.M. LORETTE
In the past, the Tramp Character was very popular, and well liked by audiences. There were quite a number of tramp jugglers in Vaudeville and elsewhere. James (Jim) Harrigan was the first juggler to impersonate a tramp, I believe, and he put it over with tremendous success. He was really a good a talking comedian and could have made good as a tramp without the juggling.
Here is Harrigan's own story about his debut as a tramp juggler. "I was getting a small salary, doing an ordinary juggling act. One day I received an invitation from the Baltimore Press Club to spend a day at their camp on the Ohio river. I was greatly troubled in mind, as to how I could raise a little money for a contribution of fruit, cigars or some other gift that was customary for visitors to offer. An appeal to the manager of my company for salary in advance did not meet with success so I pawned my stage dress suit to get a little money. When I returned at night, the situation was decidedly awkward. The manager stormed and I hastily borrowed odd garments from the other performers, mussed my smooth hair into a tangle, put on a half-inch beard with a handful of burnt paper and rushed on the stage as a tramp. My turn made such a hit that I was greeted with the emphatic words of the manager "If you ever get that dress suit out of pawn, I'll shoot you!" So I remained a tramp behind the footlights ever after."
Charles T. Aldrich, a clever all-round performer, was doing a tramp act about the same time. He also played the leading part, a tramp, in a Melo-drama entitled "The Streets of New York" (or a very similar title), He afterward did a diversified novelty feature act, and always had some clever comedy juggling in it.
W.C. Fields wore the Bald-Wig and Whiskers with "The Monte Carlo Girls" and "Fred Irwins" Burlesque Shows, but discarded them for an eccentric make-up after returning from Europe. He always worked silent, being an excellent pantomimist, until he talked with McIntyre and Heath in the "Hamtree". His first real speaking part was in the play "Poppy" in which he was the Star.
H.M. Lorette, (myself) was feature specialty with the Bennet-Moulton Repertoire Co. for four years, billed as "Lorette, the Original Dancing Juggler". Most of my specialties were done in the tramp character. I afterward played two seasons with Stair and Havlin's Musical Comedy, "Busy Izzie's Boodle". I did the comedy role of "Moth Ball Jake" a tramp, with much success playing opposite the star George Sidney, the Jewish Character Comedian.
A few of the single tramp jugglers I remember were - Paul La Croix, the originator of Bouncing High Hats, Sparrow, O.K. Sato, A.J. Rebla, Alvan, Hoover, Phil La Tosca, James La Clare, General Ed La Vine, Herbert Lloyd, Lou Hoffman, Harry La Toy, Chas D. Weber, Johnny Reilly, Dave Wellington, Art Jennings and Lou Meyer.
Double acts with one member doing Tramp were - O'Neil and Torp, DeHollis and Valora, Christy and Willis, Tossing Austins, Radford and Winchester, The LaBelles, Kip and Kippy, Saunders and Cameron, and Ozav and Delmo.
This by no means exhausts the list, and some readers may be able to add to it. That's all for now. Au Revoir.
The Bulletin pays respect to these jugglers who in past years have done their bit toward the advancement of Juggling as an Art and Profession.
GRACE WEBB FRANK Comedy, Juggling, and Magic
WEBB-Mrs. Grace, 59, of the former vaude team, Frank and Grace Webb, comedy juggling and magic act, February 10 in Jackson, Miss. The act had played the leading vaude circuits and had been with the Clyde Beatty and King Bros. circuses. She and her husband also operated the Great Lakes Booking Office in Buffalo for eight years. Survived by her husband, Frank and brother, Charles Ingles, Buffalo. Burial in Cedar Lawn Cemetery, Jackson.
EVERHART-William, 80, former juggler and vaude performer known as the Great Everhart, February 12 at his home in Wildwood, N. J., of a heart attack. Everhart started in show business at the age of 19 and toured Europe for three years where he gave a number of command performances.
PIKE - Raymond H., 55, juggler and acrobat, February 14 in Montreal. Survived by his widow and two sons, one of whom, Bobby, is also a juggler.
SHATTUCK-Edward F., 38, actor and former vaude performer, in Los Angeles recently. For many years he was a juggler on the Orpheus, Pantages and Keith circuits. Survived by his widow. Services in Holly- wood February 4.