Frank Radtke clowns around in the workshop with the nine different size silicone balls and silicone egg he produces. Photo by Marion Brown. |
Page 17 Spring 1991
|
Follow the bouncing Silicone Ball ... Back to Where it All Began
Frank Radtke, an Unsuspecting Garage Toolmaker, Started a Juggling Revolution
By
Bill Giduz
It
hasn't taken long for silicone balls to
become the rage among jugglers. With their high-bounce resiliency,
available rainbow colors and resistance to dirt, they are a prized
and carefully guarded prop. Of course, with their price of $25-$35
each, it's small wonder jugglers consider them special.
But
there's something more to the relationship. There's something about
a silicone ball that makes it attractive like a precious stone.
While clubs and rings will get nicked and scarred, and bean bags
will quickly go limp and dirty, silicone balls remain lustrously
ageless.
Most
jugglers assume that silicone balls were invented by one of the two
manufacturers who produce them in the greatest volume - Todd Smith
of Cleveland, Ohio, or Brian Dube of New York City. But the person
to thank for delivering into the juggling community this new status
symbol of the trade is actually not a juggler at all.
Magic
was always his sideline passion, while toolmaking at a plastics
plant kept he, Joyce, and six children fed, clothed and sheltered.
Following Radtke's first-shift job at Modern Tools division of LOF,
he would come home to tinker in his cluttered garage workshop on
props for himself or other magicians.
On an occasion at Abbotts Magic Shop in about 1968, Radtke heard a friend despair that a certain type of sponge rubber golf ball used in a trick was no longer available. Radtke decided he was up to the challenge and started building molds in his shop and filling them with silicone, a material he was very familiar with from his day job. After two years he figured he had it right, and sent out his first set of dimpled silicone golf balls. The trick in question employed a ball that fit in an outer half-shell so that a single ball could become two with a skillful manipulation. Silicone turned out to be a good material for the prop because it was tacky and easy to handle.
The
first person to use silicone for the art of juggling was apparently
Eddie Rosto, a Dutch juggler who picked up a set of Radtke's
multiplying golf balls in a magic shop in Holland. On a visit to
America Rosto asked for a larger size version to juggle, and Radtke
made some new molds for shell-less, smooth balls. Rosto was so
pleased with the product that he dubbed them "fire
bouncers."
Radtke was utterly unaware of how far the ripples of his work would spread in the juggling
community. "I never realized the value of these balls for
jugglers because I'm not a juggler myself," he said.
But
Radtke's multiplying golf balls were appearing in magic stores, and
some began to find their way into the hands of jugglers. Gil Dova was
another early customer. While performing in Geneva, Switzerland, in
1976, Dova saw one of Radtke's bright orange silicone golf balls in a
magic store. He, too, liked the way it felt and wished he could have a
juggling ball of the same material. It had to be a perfect size to fit
through a hole in a rigged suitcase which shot balls up to Dova in his
act.
Dova
said, "So I wrote Frank and asked if he could make them larger
and white. He said it was possible, but he'd have to make a bigger
mold. I told him to go ahead, and sent him some money. They were
terribly expensive because I was paying for the molds and everything.
But I got them and they were terrific! I've never used lacrosse balls
in the act since. They bounce so much better, they don't get dirty and
they're so white. You could never get lacrosse balls to stay that
white." |
|
Frank Radtke clowns around in the workshop with the nine different size silicone balls and silicone egg he produces. Photo by Marion Brown. |