By David Cain
The day after the 2026 IJA Festival ended, Barry Friedman, Arthur Lewbel, and Mardine LeBliss came to visit the Museum of Juggling History. Less than an hour after they left, I received an email from my twin brother Scott, who co-owns the museum with me. He excitedly told me that he had just found an estate sale in Jamestown, New York that was selling some old juggling props, including something very interesting. He sent me the following photos showing me some of the props.
If you’re not sure what you’re looking at in this second photo, it is, indeed, a pregnant club. One of these clubs opens up to reveal two miniature clubs in its body. I immediately knew what I was looking at, for I had a photo of this very club that was taken over 50 years ago. Here is the photo.
The photo is from 1975 and shows its maker, William “Doc” Crosby, holding it. Doc Crosby was an early IJA leader and the chairman of the first IJA Convention in his hometown of Jamestown, NY, the location of the estate sale. Doc Crosby was a close friend of famed propmaker Harry Lind, who was the primary juggling club maker in the USA from 1920 to 1960, making hollow wooden clubs. Like Doc Crosby, Harry Lind lived in Jamestown. The demand for Harry Lind clubs was so great that others, including Doc Crosby, made clubs that were very similar to Harry Lind’s, just not quite as nice. The Museum of Juggling History already had one of these on display, which you can see below.
A Doc Crosby club donated by Mick Lunzer
The photo of Doc Crosby holding the pregnant club appeared in an IJA Newsletter from 1975. It had the caption of “Doc Crosby shows onlookers where clubs come from”. In the same newsletter, one of the items listed as Convention highlights was “Doc Crosby’s mother-and-babies Indian club ala Stan Kavanaugh”. This is a reference to an earlier pregnant club that Harry Lind had made for comedy juggler Stan Kavanaugh. Kavanaugh would swing two clubs, occasionally knocking the two together. Then he would press a hidden button on one club to make it open and expel a “baby” club. Stan didn’t get the reaction out of this bit that he wanted, so he sold the custom-made props to Larry Weeks. Weeks had more success with the routine by adding the line, “I didn’t even know they were married!” while holding up the two parent clubs after one “gave birth.” Weeks also had fellow New Yorker Jay Green redecorate these clubs. You can see these props in the photo below, courtesy of Erik Aberg.
So, similarly to how Doc Crosby made copies of Harry Lind’s normal clubs, he also decided to copy Lind’s pregnant club idea, but decided to put two babies in the mother club instead of one. Doc Crosby passed away in October of 1975, just months after showing off his pregnant club at the IJA Convention. It’s not known when he made the club.
It’s also not known how the club and other props came to be a part of the estate sale. William Crosby and his wife had no children, but his props apparently stayed in Jamestown for the next 51 years. So, we learned of the estate sale on the Monday after the IJA fest. The sale was only two days away, so we had to quickly find a way to acquire the clubs. I remembered that Jon Wee of the Passing Zone had just mentioned to me during the IJA Festival that he was headed to Jamestown after the fest for the Lucille Ball Comedy Festival. I contacted Jon and asked him if he could help us out. He informed us that he could barely fit it into his schedule, but that he would make it happen.
Jon got to the estate sale early and was in the first group of ten people let in. He found the 7 clubs, including the pregnant club, and six rings and bought them all for $100. On the way out, someone in the next group going in saw Jon with the props and said that he was there to try to get them. I’m very thankful that Jon got there early enough to be in the first group!
Here are some photos of the props.
Jon Wee with the Doc Crosby props
The following week, the Passing Zone was performing in Columbus, Ohio, just 90 minutes from the juggling museum. I drove to Columbus to see the show and retrieve the props.
Jonathan Wee, David Cain, and Owen Morse
Upon getting back to the museum with the props, I examined the non-pregnant clubs carefully and confirmed that they were not made by Harry Lind, but by Doc Crosby. The Doc Crosby Mother and Babies Club is now on display in the Museum of Juggling History, located in Middletown, Ohio.
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).