Book Review – Jugglers Galore

PIC_0096Paul Bachman, the very well-known juggling performer, historian, and collector, has recently published a wonderful book that anyone interested in juggling history should own.  Jugglers Galore is a hard cover pictorial collection that documents jugglers from the days of vaudeville up to the present time.  It contains 515 pictures from Paul’s personal collection, most of which have never been seen by the general public before. The incredible collection of photographs show most of the well-known jugglers from the past hundred years and many that not even a juggling historian like myself was aware of. The tricks pictured could inspire dozens and dozens of routines that haven’t been seen in half a century or more. While most of the photos are in black and white, a number are presented in full color. Although the photos make up the vast majority of the book, the author does include text for clarification, especially in the “Jugglers Personified” and “100 Years of Bramsons’ Hoops” sections.  Mr. Bachman even includes a section showing pictures of various juggling statues, most of which are in his personal collection.

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Paul’s decision to write the book stems from an incident that occurred several years ago.  He was attending an IJA festival and introduced Joan Nichols to a couple of talented jugglers. He informed them that she was the niece of legendary hoop rolling juggler Howard Nichols. They had never heard of him. Paul says, “According to Bobby May, Nichols was the best juggler from the United States from the 1920s through the 1960s. This gave me the idea of writing a book on jugglers so they would not be forgotten.”  It took Paul three years to finish the book.  He had scanned over 1150 pictures from his personal collection and chose 515 of them for the book.  He wanted to create a book that would compare to the quality of the best juggling history books already published.

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Jugglers Galore was finished in 2008, but then Paul was told that he had cancer. He put the book on hold, but when he was asked to participate in the 2013 IJA History Lounge, he thought it was about time to have it printed. Paul did the final polishing of the book and obtained a printer to get it published quickly. Over a ton of books arrived in Chicago two weeks before the 2013 IJA Festival in Bowling Green, Ohio. Paul sold quite a number of copies of the book at the festival, but he has stacks and stacks of them still available. Paul has already started a second book.

To order Jugglers Galore, click here.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of our art form. You can email Paul at juggle1934@gmail.com for more information.

David Cain is a professional juggler, juggling historian, and the owner of the world's only juggling museum, the Museum of Juggling History. He is a Guinness world record holder and 16 time IJA gold medalist. In addition to his juggling pursuits, David is a successful composer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and singer as well as the author of twenty-six books. He and his children live in Middletown, OH (USA).

Comments 0

  1. Great stuff, Paul. I got my copy yesterday (signed – thanks!) and ploughed through it at a sitting. Lots of new names to me. I’ll revisit this often, I’m sure. A must have for any juggling history buffs out there!

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