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NEWS IJA
Receives Copies of
Harry Lind's Poster Collection
The
IJA has been given a collection of 300 photographic negatives of
juggling photos and posters formerly owned by founding member Harry
Lind.
Violet
Carlson Beahan of Carmel, Calif., step-daughter of Lind and the
IJA's first secretary, donated the collection to the IJA archives
"to make sure it's kept safe to share with jugglers in
perpetuity:
The
4"x5" high-quality negatives were made in the late 1960s
by Louis Lind of Warren, N.Y., Harry Lind's cousin. They include
photos and posters of jugglers and other performers doting back
before the turn of the century. About 2/3 of them include captions
that identify the performers, but the IJA will have to work to
identify performers in the other 100. Contact sheets will be made of
all negatives for archival purposes, and to circulate to try to
identify unknown performers. The negatives depict jugglers both
famous and obscure, ranging from W.C. Fields and Selma Braatz to the
Kiralfo Brothers, whose poster brags, "No lamp tricks, no plate
breaking, no cigar box comedy, no monotonous ball tossing... but a
new departure in comedy juggling."
Beahan's
mother, the widow Claro Corlson, married Harry Lind in Jamestown,
N.Y., when Violet was about 22. Lind, a vaudeville performer
himself, gained greater fame as a manufacturer of light wooden clubs
for most jugglers from the 1920s until his death in 1967. Beahan
remembers, "Our back yard was often crowded with jugglers, and
most performers passing through town at least stopped to have a cup
of coffee with us." Lind was on IJA founder and hosted the
first two IJA conventions in Jamestown. Beahan was right there all
the while serving as secretary of the organization and its first
newsletter editor.
The
IJA also owns a fine collection of at least as many negatives from a
later era taken by its longtime official photographer, Lone
Blumenthal. Taken together, these two collections comprise an
excellent archive of American juggling from the turn of the century
until almost 1970.
Several
IJA members are involved in a New Vaudeville Light Circus tour of
America, sponsored by Ben & Jerry's Light Ice Cream. The tour
began in Washington, D.C., in April and will travel throughout the
country before ending in Miami in December.
The
performers travel and live in a 40-foot bus outfitted with living
quarters, galley, entertainment and communications gear and a 12'x14'
fold-down performance stage. It also contains freezers that hold Ben
& Jerry's Light ice cream to give away to audiences at the end of
each show. The sound system, lights and freezer run on solar power
generated by a 188-square-foot solar power array on the top of the
bus.
The
producer-director of the tour is Benny Reehl, a well-known Maine
performer and instructor of vaudeville skills. Three separate threeperson
troupes have signed on for the tour, and will travel with one other
person who serves as a technician and bus driver.
The
first group, which will tour through July 21 in an area from North
Carolina north through New England and west to Chicago, includes IJA
members Waldo (Paul Burke) and Lenny Deluxe (Roger
French), and Boston street magician Peter Sosna. This trio
plans to include the IJA Festival in St. Louis on its itinerary,
probably on Wednesday, July 17.
Reehl
said the 40 minute show they perform features the individual strengths
of each performer, but does include a three-person, nine club passing
pattern finale.
The
second troupe takes over July 21 in Chicago, and will travel across
the top states to Seattle, then down the West Coast into California.
It includes Jody Scalise and Lenny Zarcone, jugglers, clowns and mimes
from Greenfield, Mass., and IJAjuggler Bart Landenberger from Hastingson-Hudson,
N.Y. They
will yield the stage Oct. 7 in San Francisco to three more IJA
performers, who will travel back across the lower part of the country
toward Miami. That group includes juggler and Renaissance jester
Michael Frith, balancing artist Dan Looker and juggler and movement
artist Michael Menes.
Reehl
said the tour is a natural idea for Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield,
the two principals in the Vermont-based company. "They used to
have a sort of act between them, and definitely appreciate this type
of entertainment," said Reehl. He has also been teaching them to
juggle as they worked out details of the tour.
Reehl said the bus will stop for a week or two in most big cities to play parks, festivals and even super market parking lots. The performers do two shows in one day in most small towns before moving on. Reehl said the schedule is flexible and can be changed to accommodate local festivals or special requests. To talk about scheduling or find out if the tour is passing near you, call Sue Dacey at Ben & Jerry's.
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