Henri Agoust

By David Cain

(Author’s note: Thanks to Erik Åberg for generously sharing some of his research on Agoust for this article.)

Paul Cinquevalli (1859 – 1918) was the first juggling superstar and changed public perception of the art form, but he certainly wasn’t the first famous juggler. We know a decent amount about various jugglers before Cinquevalli, such as Old Malabar, Signor Vivalla, Carl Rappo, and Ramo Samee. One juggler who preceded Cinquevalli was French juggler Henri Agoust.

We know almost nothing about Agoust’s background other than that he was born June 22nd, 1840 and had a background in ballet and pantomime to go along with his juggling skill. He was married to Rosita Zanfretta, who was descended from a long line of circus performers and became famous as a flying trapeze artist under the name of Azella. Henri Agoust had five children; Alex, with his first wife Azella, and Emeli, Alfred, Emmanuel, and Louise, with his second wife, Louise Bridges.

Henri Agoust

Mrs. Agoust, Rosita Zanfretta, aka Azella

During the 1860s and 1870s, it appears that Henri was a well-known juggler, performing in street shows and in circuses. He performed feats such as the horn and rings routine and a toss juggle of a wad of paper, a wine bottle, and a cannonball.

An illustration of Henri Agoust performing the horn and rings routine

Unconfirmed, but probable illustration of Agoust

Circus poster from 1872 featuring Henri Agoust

Close up of Agoust’s mention on poster

By 1878, Henri Agoust had teamed up with the Hanlon Brothers of the Hanlon-Lees troupe of acrobats. The Hanlon-Lees were successful performers but simply did stunts on stage. Agoust persuaded them to stage their performances in a more theatrical setting. The eventual result was a production called A Trip To Switzerland, which has been called “perhaps one of the most significant productions in the history of popular entertainment, for in it a wide range of circus techniques, stage music, and dazzling scenic work was incorporated into a dramatic context and performed by a group of the world’s most talented acrobats, jugglers, and clowns.” This almost sounds like a modern description of a Cirque Du Soleil production! The production had three acts, with the third act being more or less a copy of the Price Brothers’ “A Dinner At Maxim’s” sketch, which featured a restaurant setting where the patrons and servers eventually all start juggling the plates, lamps, tables, and chairs. The Price Brothers had originated the art of “Restaurant Juggling” in the 1850s. The Hanlon-Lees’ production was a huge hit everywhere it was performed, and Henri Agoust was given much praise for both his insistence that the troupe become more theatrical in their presentations and as the star juggler in the famous restaurant scene. Unfortunately, he also took or was given credit for the creation of the restaurant juggling act, leaving the Price Brothers, who were obviously his inspiration, as merely a footnote that was almost completely forgotten until recently.

Henri Agoust helped the Hanlon-Lees develop other shows and productions. In one, he acted as a conductor of an orchestra. You can see him pictured in this roll in the following poster.

Henri Agoust

In 1881, Henri Agoust left the Hanlon-Lees troupe and eventually became the ringmaster of the Nouveau Cirque in 1886. While the Hanlon-Lees Troupe continued to perform the act, it wasn’t as successful without Agoust. Around 1890, Agoust formed the Agoust Troupe with his sons Alfred and Emmanuel and his daughter Louise. In 1897, they recreated the restaurant scene from “A Trip to Switzerland” and had great success with it. Below are three pictures, a poster, and an illustration of the original Agoust Troupe.

 

Amazingly, a short film of the Agoust Troupe from 1898 still exists. It’s one of the oldest films of juggling still in existence. See it below.

Henri Agoust passed away on September 5th, 1901. The Agoust Troupe continued in various forms for another 14 years, eventually having no actual Agoust family members in the act. Some of these troupe members included Mr. and Mrs. Wallace Havelock and Bill Talent. You can see photos of one of these later incarnations below.

Henri Agoust, while not the originator of the Restaurant Juggling genre, did more than anyone else to bring it to popularity. The genre was an important predecessor of the Gentleman Juggler genre that would come afterward.

Henri Agoust