In March of 2023, I was contacted by David Cousin, a long-time professional juggler from the Los Angeles, California area. He told me that he had been collecting historical juggling props for a while and wanted to donate his collection to the Museum of Juggling History. When he told me what was in his collection, I was very excited, as it contained some items that have long been on the museum wish list and many other great items. David told me that he was planning on driving across country to visit family in Pennsylvania and wanted to bring everything in his truck on the way. We scheduled a day for him to visit and made plans to make a day of it. My twin brother Scott Cain, who co-owns and helps curate the museum, made arrangements to be at the museum for the visit as well.
David Cousin
On May 9th, 2023, David Cousin arrived in the early afternoon. I started the visit by giving him an in depth tour of the museum, during which my brother arrived. David enjoyed seeing the rooms filled floor to ceiling with props from history’s greatest jugglers. He recounted meeting Bobby May at the 1981 IJA Convention in Cleveland, OH. After the tour, we went out to dinner and then started to unload David’s truck, which was filled to the brim with boxes of props. Let’s take a look at some of what those boxes contained.
First is a long-term wish list item; a Renegade MX Missile club in perfect condition. These are extremely, extremely rare.
Next is a set of extremely rare Stu Raynolds-made fiberglass Massimiliano Truzzi teardrop clubs. These have also been on the museum’s wish list for a very long time.
Next is a set of axes made by Edward Van Wyck. These are most likely from the early 1900s.
Next are a set of three vintage juggling torches. The maker is unknown.
Next are Harry Lind hollow wooden clubs in very nice condition.
Below are a set of very rare set of Dube cork numbers clubs used by David Cousin in performance.
Next are David Cousin’s original short handled Dube clubs. They feature his nickname “Fuzzy” on them.
Below are a set of three Jugglebug “Asian” clubs. Only 600 were ever made. They are now on display in the museum’s hands-on corner.
Below are two sets of tape-wrapped wooden rings most likely made by either Harry Lind or Arthur Mann.
Next are another set of wooden Harry Lind clubs.
Below are five rare Arthur Mann clubs from the 1940s.
Next is one of 12 Dube Airflite clubs that David Cousin donated.
Below are some hollow wooden clubs made by either Harry Lind or those makers who copied him. Further study will be done on them.
Next are three Harry Lind clubs owned and used by old school vaudeville juggler Lew Henderson.
Among the most unique items are these two boxes on which Marko, the Juggling Chimp, balanced on a rola bola.
Marko
We knew about the majority of the above items before David arrived, but he had two extra treasures that he kept as surprises for us. They are Anthony Gatto’s pocket pole balance prop and ring catch balance prop, which were used by Anthony in his Cirque du Soleil shows. You can see David Cousin with them below and video of Anthony Gatto performing with them after that.
We at the Museum of Juggling History are grateful to David Cousin for his generosity in donating these wonderful treasures. If you want to see these items and thousands of others, you can schedule a visit to see the museum in Middletown, Ohio. You can visit www.jugglingmuseum.com to see the museum website.
David Cain
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).