By David Cain
Salerno was one of the “Big Three” jugglers at the end of the 1800s and beginning of the 20th century, along with Paul Cinquevalli and Kara. All three specialized in using common household objects rather than prop made specifically for jugging. One of the most famous of Salerno’s tricks is also one that he is rarely given credit for inventing. This is the Picture Frame Trick. Perhaps it is because we have no pictures or illustrations of him performing it. Or perhaps it is overshadowed by the trick / prop named after him, the Salerno Ring. Nevertheless, the Picture Frame Trick is a feat that is still performed today. The Picture Frame Trick features a large, framed picture that is balanced on the juggler’s forehead on one of its corners. The juggler bends his head slightly forward and then up, causing the picture frame to slide so as to be caught in a balance just beyond the next corner. If you’re having trouble picturing this in your mind, don’t worry, as video will be provided below. Either way, it was a very impressive and seemingly impossible trick. It was so impressive, that it didn’t take long for it to be copied.
Below is picture of the trick being done by Chinko, a contemporary of Salerno who copied many of his tricks.
Chinko, performing Salerno’s Picture Frame Trick
After Salerno and Chinko, the next juggler known to have performed the trick was Adanos, who copied many of Salerno’s tricks. You can learn more about Adanos by clicking here and here.
Below are some photos and videos that show Felix Adanos performing the Picture Frame Trick.
Seeing video of the trick highlights how impressive and difficult it is.
After Adanos, I’m not aware of anyone performing the trick until modern times, when Jeton started performing it with a mirror, as you can see in the following video.
Thom Wall included a novel version of it in his video 29 Tricks for a 29-Year-Old, using a pizza box. It is trick number 17.
Not much has been written about the trick, but one book, Juggling Secrets by Will Goldston (1911), did include the following illustration, which shows that you want a very lightweight frame and picture and a frame with a large grove in the side for your forehead to slide along.
Illustration from Juggling Secrets by Will Goldston, 1911
A note to those who want to learn the trick is that repeated practicing and performing of the trick will cause a callus on your forehead. If you do want to perform the trick, I think a box for a flat screen TV might be the perfect size and shape and weight to learn with, although its lack of a groove on the edge might be difficult to deal with. Then again, you could modify the box slightly to make the edge a bit concave.
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).