JOE COOK

Beloved Juggler of Evansville 

by Jack Greene (From the IJA Newsletter) 

To begin with, Joe Cook is the only living person who has a monument erected in his honor. This monument has been erected in Evansville, Ind., where he spent his early childhood and started his career as a juggler, acrobat, wire walker, magician, dancer and comedian. And that isn't all, he is an old master of many other branches of stagecraft. 

This monument has a tablet attached to it with carvings of Joe - a bust, one where he is standing on top of a rolling globe, also doing a foot juggling act, a sharp shooting trick while balanced on a wire, and tooting a trumpet. The inscription says: "America's most versatile stage and movie comedian lived on this corner from 1893 to 1906. Here in the the yard and barn he acquired the rudiments 8f the many feats and stunts he has performed for years. Erected 1931 by his friends. 

Also off to one side it says: "At every stage performance and in the movies he mentions Evansville, Ind." Joe's friends gave him that heartwarming tribute in 1931, when a hospital was built on the site of his old home. 

As a boy, Joe went to the country fair near Evansville every year. He'd concentrate on some act he saw there, and go home and practice it all winter. In that way he built up quite a repertoire. In fact he did a juggling act at the fair when he was 12. When Joe was 16, he and his brother, Leo, and his mother moved to New York. Joe went through the usual trials and tribulations of the beginner. He did an act with his brother, Leo, called, if memory serves me right, "Fun In A Railroad Station." After a while he did a single, and was headlined all over the country. From there he went into musical comedy where his talents were really appreciated. 

From the time Joe was a kid he was determined to get into show business, and from the information I have at hand, he would have been successful even if he never saw a juggler. He not only organized kid shows when he was a tyke himself, but produced, directed and wrote many contributions to show business. He has starred in such comedies as: "Rain or Shine," four editions of Earl Carrol's "Vanities," "Fine and Dandy," "Hold Your Horses" and, "It Happens On Ice." It was with the latter show that Joe became ill and had to retire from show business in 1941. Since then, Joe and his wife live at Clinton Hollow, Staatsburg, N.Y. 

When one talks of jugglers, there is one name that stands out in front, and I mean way out in front, as any of the old timers could verify.

He was one of the few five club jugglers, and could throw a shoulder slapover farther than anyone I ever encountered, and I have thrown shoulders with a great many club jugglers. That fellow was Joe Joe Cook. I cannot go through the many tricks of his unless I were to write a book about it. So, we will just say he was one of the greatest. 

One time when Joe was a kid he went to a photographers and had a picture of himself juggling 17 balls. Of course, in those days there were no cameras fast enough to catch motion. So, to make a picture of objects being juggled, one had to string them up with thread, either hanging from the ceiling or a stout stick stretched across the room. It didn't matter much how many objects one hg going in the air in those pictures, just so they showed some objects in the air. The photographer would block out the thread, which would leave the impression that the objects were really in motion when taken. This procedure was practiced by most jugglers in the old days. With the present day fast cameras it's not necessary. 

One item in Joe's life reminded me of a similar incident in my own. It was when Joe and his partners were returning from an amateur night - they were walking - when a cop stopped them and asked what they had in the suitcase. It was late at night and the cop was suspicious and had to be convinced there were no monkey shines going on. To convince him that everything was on the up-and-up they got out the clubs and went to work. My own experience was somewhat similar only that instead of coming from an amateur night. Joe Piche and I were returning home from a practice session at the YMCA. We had a date the next night and needed the clubs at home so we could take off from there, so we had packed our clubs in a suitcase and started home. We went via an alley back of the business district when, without warning, out pops this cop and nabbed us. We had some explaining to do and showed him what was in the suitcase; it satisfied him and he let us go. It gave us quite a jolt at first. 

Joe Cook originated many zany inventions for laughs, and some of the contraptions he used in his shows were really hilarious... May the rest of your years on earth, Joe, be as happy as those whom you've made happy through your years as a comedian and juggler.

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