Gaston Palmer was born on March 4, 1886 in Marseille, France. His father, George Palmer, was a British juggler advertised as “The Greatest Equestrian Juggler In The World.” His mother, Adele Blanche Emilie Rancy, was a French equestrian rider in circuses. Gaston had both British and French citizenship. As a child, he was part of a juggling act with his …
The Bobby Jule Video Collection – Coming Soon To IJA Members
Bobby Jule (real name Joe Pegnato) was there at the beginning of the IJA. He was a charter member of the organization and was the 2015 recipient of the IJA 2015 Historical Achievement Award. Click here to read an interview I did with Bobby previously. David Cain and Bobby Jule Bobby took home movies of jugglers from the 1940s to …
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The Indian Brothers Medua and Mooty Samme
The first time I read about the brothers Medua and Mooty Samme, I was looking for the obscure Chinese origin of devilsticks and one of the oldest sources I could find was an article from Mary Saucier (1) where she wrote that: “Ricky Jay, a Hollywood magician/juggler and collector of juggling information, dug up from his fills some valuable historical …
Cobra Coin Catching – A Skill You Can Learn In A Day
The first time I saw the skill now known as cobra coin catching was in the 1980s, when famed comedy juggler Michael Davis performed it in his television special. However, the trick is more than 100 years old. It was included in the book Juggling Secrets by Will Goldston, which was published in 1911. Here is an illustration of the …
Museum of Juggling History Adds The Paul Bachman Collection
In late October of 2016, juggling historians David Cain (me) and Scott Cain traveled to a suburb of Chicago, IL (USA) to acquire the late Paul Bachman’s enormous historical juggling collection to add to the Museum of Juggling History, which is located just north of Cincinnati, OH. The Bachman Collection contained hundreds of amazing props, about 250 posters, 150 books, …
Franco Piper – The Banjo Juggler
One of the most unique juggling acts of all time was performed by juggler and musician Frank Bamber “Franco” Piper. Piper was born in 1877 in Redbourn, Hertfordshire, England, but moved to South Africa in his late teens and lived there for many years. He was a child prodigy at playing the banjo, but wasn’t content to simply play the …
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Mikhail Rudenko, Inventor of Russian Balls
Article by Stanislav Vysotskyi. Mikhail (Michael) Kuzmich Rudenko (rus.: Михаил Кузмич Руденко) is the Ukrainian juggler who invented the semi-filled juggling stage balls that became known as Russian balls. He is a great juggler, who when he was young, practiced very hard with no mercy on himself. He has been an inspiration to many other jugglers, but has never been …
The Rudenko Brothers
The Rudenko Brothers were one of the top juggling duos of the middle of the twentieth century. Their career started in the 1930s and ended in the 1970s. Igor and George Rudenko started out as a silent act doing tempo / flash / technical juggling in the style of Rastelli, but transitioned over time to a talking comedy act with …
EJC 2016 HLGCBS as organiser
This is my HLGCBS from the EJC 2016, from an organisers point of view. EJC of course stands for the European Juggling Convention, which was held for this summer from the 30th of July until the 7th of August in Almere, the Netherlands! HLGCBS stands for High, Low, Goal, Crush, Bane, Surprise, a structure commonly used to review juggling conventions. …