Page 9                                                 October - November 1977

BILL BARR, Vice-President

 

I was born in Richland, Washington, in 1947. For no reason that I can recall I taught myself the basic cascade with baseballs in my backyard when I was eleven or twelve. During my teen years my juggling career was mostly confined to showing off for friends and terrorizing my mom by juggling eggs in her kitchen.

 

After high school I taught myself behind­the-back and other variations using potatoes while working in produce packing sheds in Texas. At college I taught fellow students to juggle and to do a five ball passing pattern.

 

Juggling was a constant yet peripheral part of my life until I graduated from nursing school in 1974 in Phoenix,

Arizona. At this point I began to meet other jugglers, and also taught myself to juggle pins, again in my backyard using light plastic bowling pins I'd played with as a child. Imagine my delight when I convinced the local bowling alley to give me a set of discarded Brunswick pins. Not long thereafter I moved to Berkeley, California, and slipped into an ecstatic obsession with juggling which has yet to subside.

 

Two years ago I began teaching a weekly juggling class in Berkeley through the Open Education Exchange. This Saturday gathering of jugglers continues to be a high point of my week. I have been performing sporadically in a variety of settings and am currently preparing to perform more frequently. This year's convention was the most inspiring experience I have had for some time (in or out of juggling) and I feel proud and enthusiastic to be a member of the IJA.

 

By profession I am a psychiatric R.N. working with inner city teenagers in San Francisco where I now live (yes, I use juggling with the kids). Teaching, performing, and talking about juggling all contribute to an increasingly satisfying avocation.

 

ART JENNINGS, Honorary Director

 

Art reports that he started juggling in his early twenties or late teens as an addition to magic: He juggled three oranges as part of a magic trick. He juggled solid Indian clubs until he was told about "Lind Clubs" by "The Three Swifts" around 1937. By then he had a short juggling act separate from the magic, just before World War II. Next Art put together "The Bum Juggler," a standard act, and he worked theaters arid fairs from Texas to Maine. Art managed to work as a professional juggler and work in industry at the same time until going full time into show business about 1950. "Happy Dayze," his present character, is a clown who juggles. Art has worked continually

for one Hollywood agency since 1961, working mainly in school circuits in all forty-eight states. He has many interests in addition to juggling -- from art and aviation to silver smithing, wood carving, and photography -- and he is an incurable tourist.

 

BILL BROWN, Honorary Director

 

I started juggling and rope spinning when I was about fifteen, and about two years later I developed my act which consisted of juggling, baton spinning, and rope spinning. I worked theaters and clubs throughout the East.

 

I enlisted in the Army during World War I, and served in the 11th U.S. Calvary. Upon my return from the Army I went into the construction business. I also worked wild west circus and carnival and ended up working parks, fairs, and clubs. I was a A.G.V.A. member for about twenty years.

 

At the age of sixty-five I broke my hip, and that was it. Now, once in a while, I do a little juggling or spinning for

exercise or fun.

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