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Their first major engagement, in Vienna, is one of the few performances to survive on film, and Ms. Brunn reluctantly pulls out the tape. "Juggling on video - boring," she said. "You have to have been there. You have to have seen it."

Still, one can see the start of Ms. Brunn's development from a mild mannered assistant to a fiery stage presence. In the early years, Francis seems ready to burst out of his skin as he rushes forth to demonstrate the tricks that made him famous. Ms. Brunn seems more tentative, as if reluctant to draw attention away from her brother. Only at the end, when they take their final bow, do they seem to be true partners.

Though beloved by European audiences during the war, the Brunns always dreamed of continuing their career in America. In 1947 John Ringling saw their act in Spain and helped to arrange their immigration. Ms. Brunn still has a gold Statue of Liberty charm dated 3-23-62, the day she became a citizen.

The radio was playing, and "Honeysuckle Rose' came on "This is the music Lottie used," Mr. Chirrick recalls. "It's too slow. Just bring it up a bit and it's beautiful for juggling." He ought to know: Mr. Chirrick (who met his wife backstage at a circus where he was an assistant stage manager) crafted her special clubs and saw to it that her music was played correctly. Ms. Brunn practiced until the night before her son, Michael, was born in 1952 and resumed performing as a soloist six weeks later at the Big Top Sealtest Show in Camden.

Later, she hit the nightclub circuit. "I played the Savoy in London," she said. "I played every club in Reno, I played every number one club in this country. Every town had beautiful clubs, and newspapers came. Spokane, Portland, Montreal, Cleveland, Tommy Dorsey's show. Everything is gone. It's all finished now."

Ms. Brunn was such a hit in clubs that she almost rejected the chance of a lifetime. "In 1957 they asked me to come to Ringling," she recalled. "I said, 'Oh, no, only nightclubs. I can't work a circus alone.' Before that, I only performed solo when Francis was sick." In the end she accepted and stayed almost a year. To this day-she remains the only female juggler to have performed solo in the center ring for Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey.

Of all her solo performances, Ms. Brunn's opening night at Radio City in 1959 tested her confidence and skill most acutely. "I was standing there, feeling like a little needle. I tried to practice, but I could not juggle three clubs. I was paralyzed."

Her manager reassured her that every juggler who played Radio City felt that way, but Ms. Brunn was still sick with nerves. Lines stretched around the block for the opening of the feature film "North by Northwest." Finally, the Brunn moment arrived: "I went on stage. Curtain opens. Rockettes went on. There is a big draft when the curtains open. I went out. I felt I was in heaven. The spotlights were like clouds, the violins-I did the best performance I ever did. I was there for eight weeks. I went from 94 to 87 pounds."