39-2,p74

ENTERTAINERS

How They Got Started

Great as they became, they all started like everyone else:

Cinquavelli: As a school boy, he would toss his chalk and slate board into the air, catch the chalk and write "A" on the slate before it hit the ground.

W.C. Fields: Learned with three apples.

Rupert Ingalese (Paul Wingrave): As a child in England, he was inspired by a street juggler.

Bobby May: Inspired as a child by the tramp juggling act of Phil LaTosca.

Charles Carrer: Suffered eye strain while working in a factory in Europe and took up juggling on the advice of a doctor to strengthen his eye muscles. Later married Dell O'Dell, who was no strain on his eyes at all!

Doug Couden: In the third or fourth grade, he saw a performer do a shower and taught himself with three rocks in ten minutes. Never saw a cascade until years later.

Bert Hansen: Taught by his mother, who had learned in Denmark where it was a game among girls.

(Compiled by Charlton Chute from the Feb. 1947 "Juggler's Bulletin. ")

May's "Skating Vanities"

May presents his entire act on roller skates, beginning with a three club routine. He includes continuous back throws with both hands, then spins alternate ones on top of his head while balancing the other on his chin. He did kickups of a single club and closed with a four club juggle.

He threw a cigarette from behind his back over his shoulder and caught it in his mouth, then did the same with a match. He lit the cigarette from the match and smoked.

The three ball routine was exceptionally fine, with controlled bounces, off-rhythm work and a head roll with a single ball.

He did single hat manipulation, then place a lighted cigar on the brim of the hat held in his hand. He threw the hat in the air, caught the cigar in his mouth and caught the hat in a brim balance on the cigar. He kicked the hat from his foot and caught it in a balance on the cigar while he skated around the arena.

He did a headstand on a raised prop while juggling and then bounced three balls upside down to music.

At the close he juggled five electrically lit balls, spun a hoop on one leg and a large ball on his head simultaneously. All props are electricity lit in various colors and the trick is done in blackout.

(Bert Hansen in the Bulletin, 1945)

W. C. Fields Gets Help From His Friends

by H.M. Lorette - The Original Dancing Juggler

Claude William Dukenfield and I were teenagers when we first met. We had several sessions at my home at 15th and Cumberland Sts. in Philadelphia. Fields was born and lived around 9th and Cambria Sts. about 12 blocks from me.

He was a nondescript character, and we both profited from our association. We were both able to do about all that Harrigan did with cigar boxes, and we both had good routines with tennis balls and high hats. We had lots of ideas of our own, too.

He did not care anything about club juggling. I had some heavy clubs in the room. but he wouldn't even touch them. He said. "a single juggler can't get any comedy out of clubs and I'm not interested." I also tried to teach him a little tap dancing, but his sense of rhythm was very inadequate. I finally got him into doing a comedy break fairly well.

He dubbed around and got a week at an amusement park on the Delaware River and a week at Plymouth Park near Norristown. He worked there for $5 and transportation, which was 10-cents from Philadelphia.

Later on I was booked at Fortesque Pavilion in Atlantic City. I recommended Fields to the manager and he gave him two weeks following me. Fields wrote me asking where he could board. I told him to come to the Biscayne Hotel on Arkansas Ave. near the beach. Performers got a rate of $7 per week for a nice room and three swell meals.