By David Cain
(Author’s Note: Some of the information in this article is taken from Everhart’s Autobiography, Facts, Fame, and Fortune. In this book, Everhart’s massive ego is obvious. Thus, some of the “facts” from that volume need to be taken with a grain of salt.)
At the height of his career, Willaim Everhart performed all over Europe and America and was a favorite of European royalty. He commanded $500.00 a week plus expenses at a time when the average American worker made just over $400 a year. This allowed him to buy a large home in Columbus, Ohio (USA) and real estate in suburban New York City.
William Everhart was born in 1868 in Columbus, Ohio. His real name is believed to have been William Eberhart. Growing up just outside of Columbus, he was a precocious boy who taught himself to juggle with marbles at a very young age. He devoted countless hours to practicing and could supposedly juggle five slate pencils by the age of 7. As a young teen he was offered a chance to work as a juggler in a minstrel show but was thwarted in this endeavor by his parents, who instead started him as a blacksmith’s apprentice at the Columbus Buggy Company. During this time, in 1894, he partnered with another young juggler from Columbus, Ollie Young. This is a new discovery that came out of the Museum of Juggling History’s recent acquisition of Ollie Young’s personal scrapbooks.
New York Clipper, June 2, 1894
New York Clipper, June 7, 1894
Ollie Young later gave a more detailed description of this discovery, as you can read below.
At the age of 19, Everhart began performing professionally as a solo juggler, although he had trouble selling his “trained hoops” act to agents. They wanted a more traditional juggling act, which Everhart grudgingly performed while continuing to develop his hoop tricks. Below are five very rare photos of Everhart, still calling himself Eberhart, performing prior to performing his hoop act professionally.
Everhart with one of the earliest examples of ball bounce juggling
It wasn’t until minstrel show owner Al G. Field saw William’s hoop act that anyone in charge recognized the novelty of this new art form. Field made Everhart the star of his minstrel shows, where his highly original act was very well received. Meanwhile, William dreamed of performing on the vaudeville stages of New York City. Much to his dismay, this goal eluded him for two years while working with Field. Finally well-known vaudeville manager B. F. Keith saw Everhart’s show and made him an offer to perform on the circuit. William accepted the offer, at a sizable raise of salary, and headed for greener pastures.
From his opening performance with Keith’s in New York City, Everhart was an instant hit with critics and audiences alike. He was compared very favorably by critics to Kara and Cinquevalli, the two juggling stars of the day, and was praised for the originality of his hoop rolling act. When Everhart’s contract with Keith expired, there was a war among promoters to book him. The end result of this was a very unique arrangement overseen by his new agent, Ted D. Marks, who had brought Kara and Cinquevalli to America a few years earlier. Everhart was booked for seventeen weeks at two competing Broadway theaters, appearing at one each night at 10pm and the other each night at 11:30pm.
After those seventeen weeks of doing two shows a day, Everhart took long engagements in Chicago and San Francisco before heading to Europe. Before he even left to go overseas, others began to copy his act or at least attempted to. Several of these were former assistants who knew his act very well and had studied and learned his technique as part of their assisting duties. Everhart once complained that three assistants who were barely more than dressers for him and whom he had paid 2 pounds a week were now making 800 pounds a year copying his tricks. Another was a female pupil of Everhart, an orphan on whom he took pity, who apparently did quite well. This was the start of what eventually became a very popular form of juggling for quite some time. The only act that copied Everhart’s hoop rolling with his permission was his former performing partner Ollie Young, who performed the skill with his brother Dewitt Young as Ollie Young and Brother. They paid Everhart a fee for performing Everhart’s invention.
In 1900, Everhart traveled to Berlin to perform at the Wintergarden Theater. This was followed by engagements in Paris and London. In all three cities, Everhart was a sensation and commanded almost unheard of salaries. He followed up these contracts with a three year tour of Germany, France, and England, playing off his initial success in their capitals. He was often billed as the “World’s Wonder” and was known as the Great Everhart rather than William.
In Part 2 of this article, we’ll examine more of Everhart’s career, see more amazing photos, and even see film of him performing with his hoops.
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).