By David Cain
One of the most famous early juggling publications was America and Europe’s Greatest Jugglers, a compilation of promotional material paired with a small catalog of juggling props manufactured and sold by Edward Van Wyck of Cincinnati, Ohio, who published the book. The version of the book that we’ve known about for many years was published in 1900. It features some well-known jugglers about whom I’ve written in the past, such as Ollie Young, William Everhart, Louis Knetzger, Darmody, and Harry Craton, along with many lesser or unknown / unresearched jugglers. Below you can see the pages from this version of the publication, along with some commentary and links from me. It is a treasure trove of information, revealing what jugglers were performing at the turn of the century.
Edward Van Wyck was the first retail club manufacturer, starting in 1895. He also was a performer under the stage name of Eddie Evans, as you’ll see later.
I have written a great deal about Ollie Young, who is credited as the inventor of kick ups with clubs and who was an early hoop rolling juggler and diabolo and boomerang performer as well. Click here, here, and here to read about his interesting career. (EDITOR’S NOTE: A search for “Ollie Young” on the eJuggle site will bring you to more articles).
George Fielding was claimed by his contemporaries to be the first juggler to perform 6 balls. You can click here to learn more about him.
To learn more about the Tennis Trio, click here.
To learn more about Jessie Millar, click here. She was equally famous as a juggler and a musician.
To learn more about Darmody, one of the earliest five club jugglers, click here.
Note that baton twirling was considered juggling in 1900, which supports my long-held argument that the term “juggling” has always been a fairly broad term, encompassing a wide variety of object manipulation skills.
To learn more about Frank Gregory, click here. He was an important early hoop juggler.
To learn more about the Great Knetzger, click here.
William Everhart was the father of hoop rolling. Click here and here to learn more about this very important juggler.
Harry Kraton, spelled “Craton” here, was one of the first African-American Vaudeville stars and had what many consider to be the most unique hoop rolling act of all time. Click here to learn about it.
To learn more about tambourine spinning, click here.
Again, Eddie Evans is the stage name of Edward Van Wyck, the publisher of this publication and the manufacturer of the clubs shown on the final page, which is shown below. To learn more about Van Wyck’s props, click here. Note that he made at least three types of clubs that we don’t have any existing examples of – musical clubs, which we believe included bells, bounding clubs, made to bounce off of stages, and electric clubs, which included an early flashlight battery and light bulb.
In Part 2 of this series, we’ll examine and newly discovered and quite different version of this publication featuring different acts and an expanded catalog section.
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).