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All our Yesterdays...

THE CIRCUS QUEEN WAS A JUGGLER

The Queen of the Circus, 97-year-old Catherine "Nana" Hanneford, died

in October. She was in the Hanneford Circus center ring every performance until the weekend of her death. A bare 4' 11" and weighing but 80 pounds, she stood sheathed in golden sequins, glittering top hat and silver pumps, wielding a long riding crop and putting the horses through their paces.

She died on the road because retirement never interested her. She once said, "I never want to go home, I'm afraid I'll miss something. I've been at it so long. I couldn't sit home with four walls."

The first 16 years of her show business career were spent as a juggler and dancer under her maiden name of Breen. That's a good start, because the Breen family was the top American juggling routine for many years at the beginning of this century.

Her father, Tom Breen Sr., of Lawrence, Massachusetts, pulled together a family act consisting of himself, Nana and her two brothers, Tom Jr. and John, John's juggling prowess earned him the spotlight. Before he died in Belgium in 1912 at age 21 of tuberculosis, John had juggled six clubs on stage and seven clubs for up to 35 throws in practice.

Nana said in a Juggler's World interview a year before her death that she practiced juggling hard in her teenage years. "I was the fastest female juggler with double spins, " she said proudly. She flashed four clubs and did five balls while balancing a chair on her forehead. Club passing was the Breen family specialty and Nana took her place alongside the males, learning shoulder throws, under the leg and behind the back tosses.

She claimed she could have learned a lot more, but that her father didn't want to push her too hard. "I'm not bragging or anything, but I was good looking," she laughed. "My father thought if he made it too tough for me I'd run away and get married! ' ,

The Breen family act grew to contain seven of Tom Breen Sr.'s nine children at one time. After traveling all over the world juggling and performing comedy for 14 years, Nana got married at age 30 to George Hanneford. She never juggled on stage again, but played a number of roles in the circus during her 50 year marriage to Hanneford. She said the last time she had juggled at all was during a party several years previously at age 91.

One of the Breen's juggling innovations was the use of "Breenos," a racket fitted with a pouch that was used to juggle and pass balls. Nana remembered the idea for these unique instruments arose in Paris, where the family saw some carpet beaters. Always on the lookout for a novelty item, Tom Sr. bought some to try to figure out how they could be used.

They first used them in performance in 1910, covering their drab exterior with colorful cloth and foil. Later the family learned to custom-make their own out of shaped cane. They juggled balls of about 5-inch diameter, and made sure the canvas cup at the heart of the racket was only about half that deep. They said any normal three ball trick could be done with Breenos.

An article in the September 1963 IJA Newsletter details construction and use of this unique prop.

The Breen family continued to be a major force in juggling for many years after Nana left the act in 1922. Tom Breen Sr. formed the Elgins with Rose Sheldon Baggett, James Baggett and Cal Kenyon. The family patriarch died in 1972. Now Nana Hanneford, a circus matriarch, has passed away as well. Energetic and active to the end of her days, she should be remembered gratefully by jugglers as a leader and example.