He had learned to juggle in college and was searching for "various ways to reenter the Real World," as the Klutz corporate history blurb says. They invested eight dollars in scissors and cut up an old pair of Levis, filled the swatches with lima beans (which tended to sprout, and were replaced with crushed walnut shells later) and sewed their first bags. They raised $34 giving lessons in the street and thought "the sky's the limit!"

 

The book was originally sold in the Palo Alto, Calif., area out of the back of Cassidy's scooter. "The standard humble beginnings," he says. By 1980, sales were astronomical. Klutz became Enterprises and Press and branched out into boomerangs, aerobies, jump ropes, harmonicas, rola-bolas and even bubbles.

Dave Finnigan

With the IJA having righted itself after running aground in the 60s, with manuals like Klutz and spiritual guides like Carlo's "The Juggling Book," with props just beginning to become easily accessible, there remained one final step. Juggling needed one person to bring it all together - business, teaching, preaching and fun.

 

Dave Finnigan was that person, and perhaps the very best man for the job. He didn't learn to juggle until he was 34. At the time, he had degrees from Cornell and Berkeley, with to years of experience as an international consultant on health and development planning.

 

He was a globe-trotter around a half­dozen Asian nations. He was about to get his doctorate, was considering multiple job offers and undoubtedly had the kind of career ahead of him that pops up every now and again in "The New York Times. "

But his son, Davey, made him learn to juggle. Finnigan spent two days in the woods, taking eight hours to learn a cascade.

 

Bang! He ditched his doctoral dissertation, said good-bye to advising governments and took his message to the streets, parks and gyms.

 

In formulating his plan to take the Word of Juggling to the masses, he says it was "a program that people didn't see they needed or wanted. There was a supply side, to get a product or service into their hands, and a demand side, to stimulate the

desire to use the product or service. Latent demand for juggling equipment would not in itself be sufficient to create a juggling movement.  Instruction  was necessary."