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The IJA in Cleveland viewed through a lens

By Roger Dollarhide Official IJA Photographer Hartford, CT

As your IJA photographer, my job is to wander around and record convention happenings on film. I told myself before the Cleveland convention that I was going to shoot fewer than the 34 rolls of film I did in Fargo. But with over 650 people juggling like crazy and doing greater stuff than ever before... well, I ended up with 33 rolls of black and white and 6 of color!

I'm not going to list all 1,400 photos. but here is a photographer' s narrative of a camera safari in juggling wonderland. To save space, I've abbreviated balls as simply, B, clubs as, C, rings as. R, and color photos as (C).

It was nice to have the balcony at one end of the gym from which I got several overall shots of hundreds of jugs jammed into the space. I haven't tried to count all the people in the posed group photo or in the "Big Throw Up" shot, but it is certainly the largest group of jugglers ever.

I have three fast lenses for my Canon cameras. which allowed me to shoot without using flash and still stop the action. I used a 24 mm f2, a 55 mm f2 and an 85 mm f2. Using Tri-X film, I shot at 1 /25Oth of a second and faster, even at the championships and public show.

Here are the scenes that caught my eye:

First is little 8-year-old Anthony Gatto, our newest juggling prodigy. I arranged with his dad, Nick Gatto, to take some nice pix outside, then never made it. I did get some pix of Anthony practicing his combination juggling and balancing tricks in the gym, and of him in the competition and with Bobby May on stage there.

Kit Summers passing 9C with Frank Olivier, and Michael Weisser passing 6C with 10-year-old Michael Kunis. There's Larry Vaksman doing his crazy stuff. I got Bill Dietrich doing with 7B and 5C. There's a new gimmick this year demonstrated by Troy Gustafson and Jason Robertson, twirling large round cloths on sticks.

Here is our Jugglers World art director, Karen Hardin, drawing a picture of... what else? a juggler! And speaking of girls, there were lots of them around. I have pictures of Barbara Canazzi as seen from the front this year - correcting an oversight made in Fargo. Here she's passing clubs with some of the guys from Buffalo while taking a much-deserved break from working the registration desk.

I asked Amy Adams to demonstrate three Jugglebug clubs against a plain background and with a big, pretty smile. There's Joyce Rice learning the fundamentals of club swinging with another milliondollar smile. I also caught Joyce's daughter Rhonda doing some fancy ball spinning, including behind the backs and curls.

Ken Benge brought two lady friends, Mary Ellen Ziegler and Diane Biksaky who had lots of fun learning juggling fundamentals and meeting new friends. Take a look at Susan Kelly doing 7B or Sandy Brown swinging clubs or doing fancy moves with 3C or Ginnette Groome twirling batons and you'll see some gals who are no beginners!

Other young ladies include Kathy Doutt 4B, and 12-year-old Laela Kilbourn 3C. And back in the old gym was Chrysta Rypins practicing club swinging and four ball juggling. I got a picture or two of each of the commercial booths - Jugglebug seemingly doing a land office business, the Raynolds family, Brian Dube, Juggling Magazine, etc.

I took some shots at the workshops to show the excellent turnouts. Speakers include Dave Finnigan, Geno, Randy Judkins, John Luker and Ian Kelly from England. Ian didn't teach a workshop, but was discussing the juggling scene in Europe.

Between the workshops, the small gym in the back seemed to draw a few unusually earnest jugglers intent on polishing their best tricks far from the maddening crowd in the main gym. Few people probably saw Ed Jackman practicing his terrific club balance on the chin with 3C juggle, from which he dropped it into a 4C. Or his great devil stick routine, which he performed recently on the Merv Griffin show.

And I was very lucky to happen upon Jim Strinka juggling 9B. Not to mention 7B while kneeling on the floor! Also in the back room was Craig Barnes doing his 3 and 4B catch on the fingers ball routine and his devil sticks. Judkins was there rolling five on the floor as well.

I met William Fallon, recently back from Katmandu, Nepal. I snapped him juggling 3C while listening to his headset radio. Also I had a nice visit with Ola Sundberg, who came from Sweden to attend his second IJA convention. I got pictures of him doing 5C, and of a TV crew filming him. He's practiced hard since Fargo, and it shows.

Mary Wisser brought her 10-year-old student, Steven Young from California. She had me take a bunch of color slides of him doing 3C, 3R and 4B to show his classmates back home.

I happened upon Randy Pryor and buddy Greg Coleman outside passing 7C and each doing 5B. Randy was also doing a fun routine with a felt top hat. Got a lot of good color and black and white shots of that. Who else did I see... Well, there's 14-year-old Ryder Schwartz 5C; Carlo passing clubs with Alan Butts and Richard Aaron; Daniel Holzman finger catching balls; Larry KIuger with diabolo; Barry McKay 5B; Anthony Allen 3C; Andrew Head balancing a cane and hat; Tony Duncan 3C on a slack rope. A lot of people gave the old slack rope a try. It's like those bull-riding machines, though you don't stay on long, and you can break your neck!

A fellow whose name I didn't get was on stilts passing clubs with Tony on the slack wire. Also outside were Margaret Lemon and Miz Tilley passing 6C and Fred Stempel and Paul Smith teaching Steve Tillman to ride a uni. Then there's Ginger Brand twirling a Chinese ribbon, Wayne Haines riding a 48-inch wheeled uni with Sue Shireman on his shoulders.

I asked The Enthusiasts group of youngsters to do a couple of their group juggling tricks, and also got a nice shot of them posed together. There is Renee Crosby, a college student and photographer from Omaha inspecting a Dube fire torch. Alexis Lee was outside one evening twirling a fire baton and Martin Smith was there, too, juggling three torches. I got Matt Sitter, George Shoebotham and Jim Thompson showering 9B. That's a fun trick you don't see too many people doing.

It was great to see my oId friend Tommy Curtin, I got a few candid shots of Tommy talking to people. Another dear and longtime friend, Ken Benge, was doing some great club work.

Did you see the photo in the papers around the country of Bob Nickerson juggling four hatchets? I was standing right beside the AP photographer when he took the pix. Gee! Maybe my picture will appear in Jugglers World.. (By the way, did you see my photo of Ignatov in the August Omni magazine? They promised me a photo credit, but it's not there.)

As for the championships, I had one camera with the 85 mm lens on a tripod and hand-held two other cameras. I took a lot of pictures, both black and white and color. I think I got at least one shot of each entrant, just for the record. Many of the entrants I didn't know, so if you wish to inquire about these photos you'll have to send a description of what you did and wore and a stamped, self-addressed envelope. That goes for the public show as well. I think I got pix of everyone performing there.

I missed the joggling races, but got lots of nice shots of Bobby May and his wife, Emily, when they appeared at the championships. We'll treasure having those in the archives. His last appearance was at the Youngstown convention in 1975.

A couple of other old-timers I'm happy to have pix of are Art Jennings and Johnny Lux. I hope many of you had a chance to meet these fine gentlemen.

At the banquet you probably saw me flashing away as the speakers spoke and the champions received their prizes. I got a shot of each group of award winners. Finally, each of the new officers has a head-and-shoulders potrait for whenever the need arises.

Well, I guess that covers all 39 rolls of film. If you would like to order prints, the prices for black and white are: 3x5 - $2,25; 5x7 . $3.25; 8x10. $5, For color prints, send: 3xS - $2.25; 5x7 - $4; 8x10 - $7. .

Add $1 for postage and handling on orders of 5x7s or smaller, and $1.75 if you order any 8x10s. Include full payment with your order. For inquiries, always send a stamped, self-addressed envelope.

Write to: Roger Dollarhide, Hartford, CT.