This added mystique to the Montandon image and made him a bit of a legend in the IJA. But, as Montandon wryly puts it, "I like being the mystery man of the IJA."

It is ironic that one of his prime reasons for pushing for a juggler's association independent from the magicians organiza­tions was that he felt jugglers didn't enjoy meeting in the crowds of magicians. Success has now crowded the IJA conventions. Roger's dream of a little juggling privacy has come full circle, back to Snake Creek.

The Collector

Montandon has devoted a lifetime to collecting juggling souvenirs, from the priceless to the trivial. Here, reprinted from the February, 1973, "Newsletter," are his tips for the collector:

".. A recent most pleasant visit from Rosto, the Dutch Juggler who is currently working school assemblies and stopped off during the Christmas holidays on his way from Nebraska to Arkansas, gave me a chance to go through some of my collection and become reacquainted with the wide variety of collectibles of juggling interest.

"Usually when one thinks of Juggling collections one thinks primarily of books and photos, but there are some other fields of equal interest that can be less costly to collect and can even offer more of a challenge.

"One such field is the collecting of Christmas, birthday, and other greeting cards having some juggling theme. Of course, some jugglers make up an original card and these are the most prized.

"Still another type is a commercially available card doctored up to give it a juggling theme. A unique one of this type was sent to me by the late Tom Breen. The card showed a fireplace with a set of andirons whose front looked a bit like juggling clubs. Tom had an arrow pointing to them and wrote, 'Look what I did with my clubs!'  Over a period of years, the quantity of commercial cards having a juggling theme may surprise you.

"Another field is the collecting of cartoons. Again it is surprising to find how many cartoonists use juggling themes fairly often over the years. By watching the comic strips and magazine cartoons you can create a very interesting collection, and one which portrays the layman's view of jugglers.

"Most cartoonists draw a juggling club that more closely resembles a bowling pin. Exceptions are such juggler-artists as Phil Berube, Kirk Stiles, Joe Marsh, or George DeMott. If this field interests you and you get duplicates send them to me and I'll send back something you'll enjoy adding to your cartoon collection.

"Still another challenging field is the collection of similes, metaphors and humorous stories. In the case of stories one must often substitute the word juggler for 'actor' or 'magician.' To illustrate, the following is a story usually told about actors but could apply equally well to jugglers.

A troupe of jugglers was stranded and trying to reach the next river town but had no money or means of transportation. Finally they talked the captain of a river scow carrying a load of garbage into giving them a lift. As they passed a bend in the river a vice from shore called out, "Hey cap 'n, what're you carrying this trip?" "A load of garbage and a bunch of jugglers ", the captain yelled. One of the jugglers was        heard to exclaim, "Not even first billing!"

"The collecting of similes and metaphors is perhaps the most challenging since they appear in a wide variety of books, magazines and newspapers. Here are a few samples: From the book, 'Gus the Great' by Thomas W. Duncan - 'But she really felt more like a juggler that autumn, she was so busy not letting her left hand know what her right was doing.' Or from the same book - 'She had momentarily forgotten Barbara; she couldn't juggle more than one idea at a time."

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