30-6,p6

BOOK REVIEW

by Dave Walden

BIG APPLE CIRCUS, photographs and text by Peter Angelo Simon. Penguin Books, 625 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10022. 1978. $5.95, paperback.

With a lot of pictures and little text, this book records the founding and first season (1977) of the Big Apple Circus.

The book will be intriguing to those interested in the rebirth of traditional circus in the U.S., to those who appreciate good photography, and to IJA members who will enjoy reading about and seeing pictures of a number of their friends who participated in the circus.

The Big Apple Circus was conceived and created in late 1976 and 1977 by a group of individuals, led by Paul Binder, who for a variety of reasons believed there was a place for a one-ring, permanent circus in New York City. With great effort, the show was mounted and played for a number of weeks during the summer of 1977. The circus was nicely done and received some good publicity during its season.

The book begins with eighteen pages of text in which author Simon describes the founding of the Big Apple Circus, the backgrounds of some of the individuals involved, and their reasons for performing and participating in the Big Apple Circus. These first pages are fascination reading and one wishes there were more of them. The next sixty-five or so pages contain black-and-white photographs, many candid, of the circus participants rehearsing, performing, and otherwise working on the circus. The photos are all fine, and some are stunning. The photographs are accompanied by quotations from the pictured participants. The book also contains a glossary of circus terms and a list of all individuals who helped create the circus. A terrific color photo decorates the front cover; the book designer, Bea Feitler, has done an elegant job.

IJA members will be pleased with the photos and text on a number of present and former IJA members and associates, including Paul Binder, Michael Christensen, Karen Gersch, Jessica Hentoff, and Michael Moschen.

While the book is generally pleasing, it is unfortunate that there is not more text, no discussion of the circus's activities since 1977, and not more insight into why the author "had to" write the book and his methods of going about it.

The book is not primarily about juggling, although jugglers playa substantial part. I expect many jugglers will forego buying BIG APPLE CIRCUS, which is essentially a reasonably priced "art book". However, I also expect those copies which are purchased to be widely circulated among jugglers who are always anxious to see pictures and read about other jugglers and individuals attempting to make their lives in the circus arts.

BRIEF NOTES

BERLIN - Kit Summers,John Fox, and Karl-Heinz Ziethen sent a group postcard to the IJA. Karl-Heinz thanks everyone for the good time he had while visiting the USA . Kit and John are enjoying Karl-Heinz's tremendous juggling paraphernalia collection while they are staying in Berlin .

BOSTON - Bobby Sandler appeared on "The Comedy Shop", shown on Channel 7, WNAC - TV, in Boston on September 23, doing his juggling and comedy act. Bobby appeared on several network shows three or four years ago and inspired a number of us to take up juggling. Many of us met him at the L.A. Convention in 76. He was highly amusing, as usual, in his Comedy Shop appearance. Also appearing on network

TV this September was Kris Kremo. He performed his wonderful three ball and cigar box routines on the Mark Wilson Magic Show on the 30th. Dieter Tasso has also performed on the Mark Wilson Show.

NEW YORK - Jerry Greenberg, alias Jay Green, writes to notify everyone of his change of address. He can now be reached at Brooklyn , N.Y.

MILORD , CONNECTICUT - From Lew Carrol: I participated at the New Haven , Conn. Oyster Festival on Sept. 9, along with IJA stalwarts Lew Bell and Larry Forsburg. It's too bad that this fete was not as large as the Milford Festival, but, regardless, we regaled the crowd with our juggling and they loved it. Lew and Larry, besides being fine jugglers, are wonderful comedians, and the spectators received many fine chuckles. My special forte, which always gets the viewers, are my back-hand variations. (Anybody out there do back-hand routines?)

NUKU' AlOFA, TONGA - An article in the August 30, 1978,Los Angeles Times states that "there are more jugglers per square mile in this small South Seas island kingdom than anywhere else on earth. And all the jugglers are girls." The story, written by Charles Hillinger, goes on to state that juggling is a Tongan tradition. The girls juggle limes and green tui tui nuts, a kind of chestnut. Some of the girls juggle seven limes or nuts, and contests on the island sometimes must be declared a tie, because several girls will go on for hours without dropping!

SAN FRANCISCO - Fred Anderson writes of a world - record size club passing pattern to take place in San Francisco on October 21. The pattern will be a large interlocking feed involving fifty to seventy-five jugglers. The accomplishment may be recorded in the Guiness Book of World Records.

OHIO - Carol Haines and Steve Mills were married on August 5, 1978, and followed their wedding ceremony with a juggling performance atop six foot unicycles, accompanied by friends and members of the wedding party. The couple will be performing at school assemblies throughout New York and Pennsylvania in the future.