By David Cain
The IJA Newsletter was published from 1949 until 1981. The Newsletter contained mostly news of juggling sessions, visits among members, dates and places of working jugglers, notices of sick and convalescing members, address changes, obituaries, IJA business, announcements of conventions and officer reports. One of the most interesting parts of the IJA Newsletter were remembrances of members of jugglers from the past that they saw. Unfortunately, with the exception of the 1976-1978 Newsletters, they have not been digitized. I’ve spent the past decade or so hunting down and compiling a complete set of the Newsletter. Many are in horrible condition and barely readable. Nevertheless, I’m now reading through them to find new discoveries that would be of interest to the general juggling community, or at least to those with an interest in juggling history. Therefore, I’m going to start sharing those interesting tidbits here in a series of articles. I hope you enjoy my discoveries. These are all taken from 1965 IJA Newsletters.
I learned that both Selma Braatz, the first female international juggling star, and George W. Rowland, the top African-American Vaudeville juggler, attended the 1965 IJA Convention, where they reunited after 30 years. They had played father and daughter in a show called “The Three Generations ” three decades earlier and had not seen each other since. Throughout the convention, Selma referred to Rowland as “father”. You can click here and here to learn about Selma Braatz and here to learn about George W. Rowland.
Selma Braatz
George W. Rowland
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Speaking of Selma Braatz, she wrote in the May 1965 newsletter about her friendship with Paul Cinquevalli (the most famous juggler of all time) and Salerno, one of three most famous jugglers in the world in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Here’s what she wrote.
“I read in the Newsletter about Mr. Cinquevalli. I first met him at the Wintergarden in Berlin, when my uncle, who was my teacher, was on the same program with him. I was just 15 years old and started juggling. I called him Uncle Paul. He had great interest in my juggling. My folks and he were friends ever since they were very young. Cinquevalli was with an acrobatic troupe. I still have the card he sent to me showing him with his first automobile. This was at the time we were in South Africa, in 1907. He also became a great friend with Salerno. They even exchanged props. This was in 1905. In the summer of 1906, Salerno was at the Amsterdam Roof and we were at the Hammerstein. He was the first European performer with an automobile. Mr. and Mrs. Salerno, my folks and myself, went to the country for an outing. Afterward Mr. Salerno went back to Europe. He built his own airplane. Yes, he was a clever fellow. The last time I saw Cinquevalli was in London, after we came back home from our second world trip in 1914. He and I had our birthdays on the same day, and we had a party in his lovely home in London. The last time I saw Salerno was in Berlin, December, 1925. If anybody would like to know about these great men, I will be glad to tell them. They were great showmen.”
Imagine attending a double birthday party for the most famous male and female jugglers in the world! What an amazing time that must have been.
Selma Braatz
Paul Cinquevalli
Salerno
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Tommy Breen reported the following in a 1965 newsletter. “In the old vaudeville days, the music was supplied by a pianist. In later years, they added a few musicians, and they were generally led by the piano player. The only vaudeville theatre in New York City with an orchestra AND a conductor was Koster & Bials Continental Music Hall. Derenda and Breen played there and on their first show Derenda (who had never seen an orchestra with a leader before) opened the act; ran to the center of the stage; stopped; ……and then ran offstage again. Breen said, “What’s the matter?”….Derenda replied, “There’s a man down in the orchestra waving his hands at me to go back!””
Derenda and Breen
To learn more about Derenda and Breen, click here.
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In the April 1965 IJA Newsletter, Joe Marsh shared the following memory.
“Talking about unusual tricks, I have seen many over the years. One of the very best was that performed by Ronald, of the Masone and Ronald act many years ago. (Father and son act.) Ronald placed a top hat on his foot, a clay pipe on the hat, also a box of matches on the hat, a pair of gloves on his instep, also a walking stick. With one throw from the foot, he caught the hat on his head, the pipe in his mouth, the matches in his top pocket, the stick under his arm and a glove in each hand! And he was very sure of this feat.”
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Speaking of amazing juggling feats, Adrian Sullivan shared the following in the January 1965 newsletter.
“Incidentally, who do you think the best stick juggler of all time is? A guy whose name, until today, has probably never been mentioned in the I.J.A. Newsletter: A contemporary from Estonia by the name of Gene Silla (pronounced “Seela”). Mr. Silla, and I say that reverently, is better with sticks – or wands, batons, whatever you wish to call them than was even the one and only Great Rastelli and believe you me, brother, that is going some. I know for a fact that Rastelli could do 6. But Silla can do seven! And 5 while keeping a ball bouncing on his head! And like nothing! Nothing at all!
Eduardo Raspini does a nice trick of juggling 7 rings and throwing one out, so that it falls behind his back to be caught with his foot, which spears it. Without stopping the other 6, he then starts that 7th one rotating on his ankle.
The greatest club juggler in history would have been a young man by the name of John Breen, who tragically, is no longer with us. He departed from us just as he reached legal maturity. He was like Ricton in one respect: he, too, practiced inside a funnel-shaped net so’s to save time and energy re prop drops. Ricton mastered 11 balls using such a technique, and wrote a book about himself which he called, in part, “The World’s Greatest Ball Juggler.” But Breen never lived to see his own billing, but all the same, perfected 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 clubs.
There was once an Asian foot juggler who could lay on his back and juggle 6 medium-sized inflated rubber balls: 3 with the palms of his open hands, and the other 3 with the soles of his bare feet. Think about that one for a while!
Yes, indeed, that which the human race has achieved collectively is truly mind- staggering. A compilation of the seemingly impossible tricks alone would fill a book.
The only other juggler in the world who can do Rudy Cardenas’ roll-over trick where a ball spins on either forefinger and a third spins on the tip of a mouth stick — is none other than our I.J.A. colleague and friend, master Eddie Morgan. Eddie Morgan is also the only juggler who can do Francis Brunn’s ball-on-ball trick where one ball is balanced on the forehead and a second is spun on the forefinger; the forehead ball is rolled to the nape, dropped to the heel, and bounced back up over his head to land on top of the spinning ball.
Rudy Cardenas is the only juggler who can roll a ball over the chest and a ball over the shoulders at the same time. The balls begin on the backs of his hands and exchange hands by rolling on his arms.
Rudy Horn is the only juggler who can make a teaspoon somersault on his forehead. The hardest thing in his act and which took 15 yrs. of rehearsal — his teaspoon routine, is the very thing he gets the least appreciation for. For two reasons: (1) the object (tea- spoon) is so small that no one beyond the second or third row can really see what is going on; and (2) the trick is so fantastically difficult that no one believes he really does it anyway: everyone is convinced there is some sort of gimmick.
Rudy’s “teaspoon routine” is in four parts: (a) he lays the spoon on his shoe, kicks it into balance on his forehead; (b) keeping it balanced, lays all the way down and gets up; (c) makes it do a half-somersault, catching it back into balance; (d) makes it fall behind his ear, like the pencil of an accountant.
Rudy Horn
Francis Brunn is the only living juggler who can do a real routine with just a tennis ball: catch it on the head, neck or foot; spin it on the finger (it stays up there for about 2 seconds); bounce it on the head, from the heel, or between the knees; throw it back and forth between the feet, from one foot to the other; roll it up the leg, or over the arms; catch it between his feet at the floor, throw it from there over his head; or roll it all crazy ways around his head. That little devil sure comes to life.
One day in the studio, when it was balanced on his foot, his baby daughter, Christina, waddled over and tried to pick it off. It seemed humorous that the gravity of the work completely escaped her.
To my knowledge, the only juggler to bounce 3 balls on the head (in rehearsal) was Maximilian Truzzi. And the only (living) juggler who according to his own admission has not practiced since 1935 is Larry Weeks. Says Larry, “I go out and do the act good, bad or indifferent — but mostly indifferent.” Yet, he seems to keep working.”
I’ve never heard of Gene Silla. Regarding Dick Ricton juggling 11 balls, I think Adrian might have been mistaken. Ricton was famed for juggling 8 and 9 balls, and for being a strong self-promoter. If he had done 11 balls, even in practice, I believe he would have written about it.
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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).