The tradition of the minstrel show, performed by people without the need of burnt cork makeup, digs deep into the roots of American family entertainment. Though black jugglers remain a rarity, it is important to remember the solid influence that blacks have played in the field.

On the front page of the premier issue of "Juggler's Bulletin," October, 1944, Joe Fleckenstein, one of the old veterans of show business asked for more details on black jugglers. His curiosity was piqued by a line in "The Linking Ring" stating that "a pair of Sepia Jugglers entertained amusingly." Fleckenstein wrote:

To one who has enjoyed jugglers and juggling for many years, for one who has traveled many miles to see a juggler, for one who is a nut about juggling, the line above has caused quite a bit of thought. After thinking about W.C. Fields, Fred Allen, Serge Flash, Bobby May, Boy Foy, Mel Odey, The Bamfields, Harry LaToi, Three Swifts, Ben Beri, and many,

many more whose names I cannot remember off­hand, I don't believe I have ever seen a colored juggler. Have you?

The answer, of course, is if you don't travel in the right circles you don't see the right people. At the time, there were black vaudeville circuits, black theaters, black clubs and black jugglers. But Fleckenstein's question was wholly sincere.

 

So Roger Montandon asked "Bulletin" readers to send in information on "such a phenomena." They responded with a wealth of information. One of the replies was from a 19 year-old juggler named Joe Taylor. Taylor signed up for the "Bulletin" membership list, ordered back issues, and added, "You may add my name to the list of colored jugglers."

Taylor lived on Wellington Street near the comer of Columbus and Mass Avenues in Boston's Back Bay area, a trolley ride away from the home of vaudeville. He attended Boston English High School and picked up juggling skills from Ed Ellis. He was later influenced by Francisco Alvarez, who remembers being impressed by Taylor 's gentlemanliness.

 

Alvarez also points out that other minority jugglers, such as Latinos, did not face the same sort of hardships a young black juggler faced. Central Americans, he says, were benefiting from the current "Good Neighbor" (or "Big Brother") policy of the administration. Indeed, all Spanish speaking and oriental performers - people who have often been lumped into the plight of blacks - shared a circus and entertainment tradition that gave them entree into American white society.

 

Black entertainers, on the other hand, although their minstrel show genre was flattered by imitation to the point of theft, were not welcomed in the better circuits. When they ventured outside their own circuits, they were generally limited to club dates, banquets and one-shot engagements in which the term "one-nighter" implied also "and then get out of town."

 

The problem wasn't so much that white audiences didn't appreciate good entertainment, particularly if it was amusing. The problem was that there was no place for the fellow to stay after he played the show.

 

For black jugglers, it was a case of always playing a party under the admonition, "but don't mingle."

 

And so it was that a talented man like Joe Taylor struck out for the black circuits. He toured for two years with the New York Broadway Clowns basketball club before being drafted and serving in postwar Germany. On his return, he played with the Harlem Magicians Basketball Show and later the Indianapolis Clowns Baseball Team. With the Indianapolis Clowns, he was the pitcher, tossing balls, clubs and dinner plates around the diamond and rolling a baseball around his body.

 

As he matured, he stayed in touch with other jugglers. He visited Montandon when he passed through Oklahoma and wrote a piece on comedy ball rolling for Montandon's "Juggler's Bulletin Annual. " While in Germany, he met with Max Koch and sent back an interview with this human Mecca of the juggling world for readers of the "Newsletter."

 

And that's about all we know of Taylor, the IJA's first black member. The 'Bulletin" and "Newsletter" can take a little pride in the fact that they publicized him. And Taylor can take pride in having left Wellington Street to take a run at having his skills, rather than his color, recognized by the world.