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An introduction to the winners

Tommy Curtin was surprised to earn the highest score of 29 U.S. Nationals competitors, since this was the first IJA convention he had attended in nine years. But, Curtin accepted his honor with the poise of a veteran performer, which he is.

The 40-year-old Curtin, 1960 IJA president and winner of the championships in 1963 at the Hartford IJA convention, said he was pleased to be back at another IJA gathering. However, he pointed out, things have changed during the time he was away.

"I was amazed at all the originality and cute stuff saw here," he said. "When I won in 1963, the competitions were completely different. It was divided into three ball, four ball, auxiliary equipment, etc. It was really just a contest to see how many tricks you could do in the allotted time."

He continued, "I like the way it's done now. Jugglers have to be entertaining to the public to make it anywhere, and the competition reflects that."

Curtin's style entertained the audience as well as impressing the judges. "I try to look like a guy who's having fun, but always in trouble," he explained. Impishly he mimed his way through some very difficult feats, always responding to success with a big grin of mock surprise.

His winning combination of controlled clumsiness and juggling skin flowed through balancing tricks with a bottle and plate, manipulation of three Scotch bottle clubs and a wide range of ball tricks. To finish his championship act, he directed five antique Harry Moll balls out of a cascade floor bounce and back into the open top of his prop can.

Curtin owns and manages two movie theatres in Bristol, TN, for most of the year now, but travels during three months performing in a shopping mall plastic ice show he also manages.

He taught himself to juggle at age 12 out of a book, and practiced like mad. By age 14 he could keep six balls aloft. "I knew when I was 12 I wanted to be a pro," he remembered.

At age 22, he was booked in New York for five weeks in the Radio City Music Hall Thanksgiving show. Seeing a movie of Bobby May juggling on ice piqued his interest, and he learned to do the same thing.

An ice juggling friend, Gil Dova, encouraged him to try out for the Holiday On Ice show, and between 1962 and 1973 he traveled worldwide with that troupe. "There aren't too many ice jugglers," Curtin mentioned, and recalled the few he knows from the past and present, including Trixie, Kay Farelli, Lou Folds, Albert Lucas, David Lee and Bob Welz.

When his first son, Tommy III, was born in 1972, Curtin decided to leave the ice show and settle down in Bristol. He and Mary Curtin have another son, Bill, who is six years old. Neither shows dad's early juggling passion, but Curtin said their interest picked up at the convention where they could see boys their own age juggling.

Anthony Gatto is chasing the legend of Enrico Rastelli, thought by many to be the greatest juggler ever. Just eight years old now, Gatto certainly seems to be gaining on him. The list of tricks Gatto can accomplish at this early age is envied by jugglers in their prime, and those he performed in the Juniors competition were good enough to win.

Anthony's father and instructor, Nick Gatto, said that Anthony determined three years ago to learn to juggle after an older brother took up the unicycle. He showed such an ability and desire that dad soon gave him a part in the shows he performs around their Ellicott City, MD, home.

The elder Gatto has had a long and successful performing career, principally as a member of the Los Gattos troupe along with Albert Moreira and Tom Kraft.

He and Anthony practice at least two hours daily. It has paid off to the point that Anthony can now juggle six rings and balls, as well as five rings while spinning another on one leg. He juggles four while bouncing a fifth on his forehead, and can bounce one off his forehead while skipping rope. His final trick in the competitions was to juggle four rings while spinning another on one leg and balancing a long pole on his forehead and ball and pedestal on a mouthstick.

Nick explained, "Anthony can duplicate tricks almost immediately. When asked if he could do the head bounce with one ball and four ball juggle simultaneously, he did it the first time he tried."

Though he is not yet a showman on stage, Barbara, his mother, pointed out Anthony's great sensitivity for a child his age. She said, "When everyone crowded around Bobby May at the end of the competitions, Anthony pushed his way through to bring Bobby a glass of water."

After watching Anthony's performance, May told the crowd, "This young man win be the next Enrico Rastelli!"

Few who saw him perform in Cleveland will deny that he stands a better chance than most.

Gravity's Last Stand has been entertaining crowds on the streets of St. Louis for two years now. That's when Bill Fry and Jim Gagnepain decided to put together a two-man act. But their friend John Carvill was becoming such a good club passer that they decided to make it a trio.

Gagnepain reasoned, "There's so much more you can do with a three person routine in the way of comedy." They demonstrated some of it in winning the Team competition, with Fry carrying on antics in the middle of club passing patterns between the other two.

Fry and Gagnepain do most of the comedy writing for the group's shows, which are marked by nonstop patter. For street shows in St. Louis, Fry does a ball and unicycle routine, and there is a two-person cigar box routine that was not used in the competition. Gagnepain confessed that the group was surprised to win the competition. "We felt the comedy was good, but we didn't do any juggling tricks that anyone else couldn't have done," he said.

He did concede, however, that it takes much practice to develop the coordination and precision necessary for an outsider to extract and replace clubs from a passing pattern, and to walk through that pattern without getting clobbered.

They plan to continue performing in St. Louis, where they can be seen most weekend nights juggling and passing their hats at Laclede' s Landing near the Arch.