But many American jugglers of that era spent their lives on the road traveling from school show to state fairs, making a little money but not getting much respect. Some of them viewed the plight of the art as desperate, and thus decided to form the International Jugglers Association in 1947 to help preserve it. Through a newsletter and annual conventions they communicated and commiserated, sharing juggling tricks and tips on what locales treated you right. They were largely ignored by variety television, but nonetheless applauded more popular European counterparts like Francis Brunn, who earned spots on the Ed Sullivan Show and in the center ring of Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus.

The IJA remained a small society of less than 200 professional jugglers for more than 20 years, until the California wave of the 1960s developed a whole new constituency for the art of juggling. The tired East Coast administration of the organization couldn't muster enough members for its 1968 convention, and was about to cancel it altogether when a California member named Roger Dollarhide who was back East on vacation said he'd like to pull together his friends for a get-together in San Mateo .

"I was shocked they would cancel the convention," he said. 'We had been having some very successful gatherings in California . There were a lot of retired jugglers in Los Angeles and they were still enjoying it and getting some younger people interested. They weren't really trying to keep the flame alive, they were just getting together and having a good time juggling."

About 40 people showed up for the one-day gathering in Bud Raymond's back yard - a stunning turnout compared to the 10 who had convened the previous year in Fallsburg, NY They elected officers and guaranteed the continuation of the organization. lt was so successful that the 1969 and 1970 conventions were also held in the Los Angeles area, with larger and younger turnouts.

At the same time, teenagers began taking to the streets in Los Angeles , Westwood, Venice Beach , San Diego 's Balboa Park, San Francisco 's wharf area and Berkeley. Some were politically motivated, but the jugglers were just young kids looking for a buck.

Peter Davison, now a member of the Boulder, Colo., based group Magnificent Movers (now Airjazz), remembered that he was about 14 and had been juggling a year when he first headed out to the Los Angeles County Art Museum in 1971 with a little bit of talent and a hat in his hand. The Art Museum never developed as a performing arena because crowds were sparse and periodic. But the colorful Venice Beach scene attracted jugglers early on, and still supports them.

Most jugglers get involved for the same reasons that motivated Davison, who said, "I went out on the street because it was a way to make money and I wanted to perform. But it was really scary at first ­ I always hoped it would rain!"

Davison found he liked it, stuck with it, found two fellow performers, formed the group "Airjazz," and has since played such respectable engagements as the Edinburgh Arts Festival, the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival and the Tonight Show. He feels like the street was a great place to start. "It helped me develop direct communication with an audience," he said," and that wouldn't have happened if I started on a stage with lights in my eyes. The group, Airjazz, also started on the street in Boulder , and that gave us a lot more spontaneity and awareness of the audience. lt also helps us stay pretty relaxed when we make mistakes on stage, because that was a part

of life on the streets."

 It was the era of young people in the streets, and the jugglers, mimes, musicians, and magicians who were busking were a natural part of that movement, according  to Patty Campbell of Fallbrook , Calif. , who wrote the book "Passing the Hat" in 1979. "Jugg ling is a quintessential street art, it's infinitely variable, visual, and you can stop and pass the hat at any point that looks like a good psychological moment," she said.

Campbell said the modern street performing renaissance began in 1969 with people who were "intensely individual" personalities. "They want to work when they want to work," she said. "Their fierce desire for individualism is part of the reason they decided to perform on the street."

In San Francisco, Ray Jason knows the exact date he first did a juggling street show - July17, 1971. He confirms her thesis about the street juggler's personality, saying "I was a Vietnam vet and didn't want anything to do with the mainstream when I returned. People were performing on street, but no one was juggling, so I decided to do that. And what started as a lark became a vocation."

Jason is also prototypical of another chapter in the California street juggling saga. His conflicts with the police over his right to perform on public property were well chronicled in the San Francisco press. He went so far as to build a flat-bed stage on his own truck so he could simply park it and perform without standing on public property. History would vindicate Jason, however, as San Francisco declared "Ray Jason Day" a decade later in 1981 to recognize his contributions to the arts in the city.

The most important thing street performance did for modern entertainment was to give people a place to start. They didn't have to practice in private at home or in a gym until they had an act good enough to take to an entertainment agent. They simply practiced on the street in public and measured their success by how many people stopped and how much cash they collected in their hats. The money they made kept them fed and housed as their act developed, and the exposure on the street led to more frequent private engagements that eventually allowed them to leave street

juggling behind altogether.