tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55915345463352554462026-03-22T21:44:25.769+11:00A History of Juggling in AustraliaLeannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01343913433501351601noreply@blogger.comBlogger167125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5591534546335255446.post-41423559036133788522026-03-22T21:44:00.000+11:002026-03-22T21:44:25.691+11:00

 Welcome to Threw the Hat,  a blog about Australian Juggling History.Here you will find links to photos and articles/stories about Australian Jugglers and those who visited Australia..You can search the site or browse the tags on the right hand side if you are looking for a particular juggler.Please credit the site if you are using any information you find hereEnjoy your visit and feel

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 Hugo Lear was one of the most talented jugglers and balancers to grace the Australian stage, but his juggling ambitions were cut short by a series of illnesses. Later in his career he joined with his wife , Olga,  to form a highly regarded juggling duo, the Wonderful Lears.Hugo Lear’s birth date was around 1883 and his real name was Samuel Arthur Johnson.His marriage certificate

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 Freda Cuthbert was one of the most versatile performers to entertain in Australia, and at one time was ‘Australia’s only lady juggler.’Freda’s birth date was, according to her mother, around 1889-1890. Freda once told a newspaper that she arrived in Australia with her parents with Bostock and Wombwell’s Circus, and her daughter, Cleo, later repeated this. An oral tradition in the circus

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Archie Onri was a well known and respected American juggler who toured Australia briefly in 1917.Archie aka Archibald O Brien, Archie O Brien or Archie Hanley was the son of Rosa Lee . Rosa was an equestrienne juggler who toured Australia with her family in Chiranis circus in 1880. After Australia the circus travelled to India.  Archie Onri’s death certificate gives a date of birth of

Leannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01343913433501351601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5591534546335255446.post-56364391758388452312026-01-23T18:24:00.002+11:002026-01-23T18:24:41.308+11:00

   Harry Tsuda was an exceptional equilibrist and balancer who toured Australia in 1916-1917, as one of many American performers who came during the early years of the war.  Harry seemed assured and confident in all he did. This was necessary due to the incredible balancing feats he performed. He gave candid and probably not quite candid interviews to the press and certainly

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 Cestria or Carlo Cavalli, the Italian acrobatic waiter, was one of many jugglers who came to Australia during World War 1. He was in the country for over 10 years and in that time worked for all the major vaudeville chains and circuses.The diminutive Carlo was born in Torino Italy in 1883. By 1906 he was working in English music halls as a juggler and acrobat. When he arrived in Australia

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 Lew Hoffman, American hat juggler toured Australia and New Zealand for eight months in the early years of World War 1.Lew was Russian and born in 1888 to Israel and Hannah Hoffman. The family, including at least one sister,  arrived in the United States via New York from England in 1893 when Lew was 5. He remained an ‘alien’ according to US authorities until he applied for

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Juggler Wilfrid Dubois arrived in Australia in July 1916 and spent almost a year performing on the Fuller circuit in Australia and New Zealand.Wilfrid was born in Quebec Canada in January 1892. Later that year, his father Joseph moved to New Hampshire in the United States taking Wilfrid with him. The family remained in New Hampshire and Dubois senior became a US citizen in 1898.Wilfrid was

Leannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01343913433501351601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5591534546335255446.post-28186271648581838122025-12-19T21:23:00.001+11:002025-12-19T21:46:42.636+11:00

 The Great Henri French, described as the handsomest man in vaudeville by an Australian reviewer, spent over 10 years performing in Australia and New Zealand in the early 20th Century. He was a juggler, a magician, a unicyclist and a heart breaker.According to Henri, (sorry), Great Henri French, the name he gave to US authorities, he was born in Belgium on Christmas Day in 1876. He grew up

Leannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01343913433501351601noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5591534546335255446.post-61772017892396446962025-11-09T11:10:00.000+11:002025-11-09T11:10:16.233+11:00

 Charles Ancaster, best known as a plate spinner, came to Australia and New Zealand in 1922, with plates, bottles, hats and clubs.Charles, it seems, was born in Brussels around 1896, and his birth name was Charles Alfonso Ancaster Harson (see endnotes) . He later told Australian newspapers that he ran away to the circus as a young man,  a story that was often told by jugglers at the

Leannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01343913433501351601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5591534546335255446.post-79426032345178244532025-10-26T10:37:00.001+11:002025-10-26T10:37:17.724+11:00

 Some of the earliest jugglers in Australia were circus jugglers. In the 19th Century, the circus jugglers, many of them women, juggled props on horseback. The horse galloped around the ring, and the juggler, precariously balanced on the bareback horse, juggled various props to the delight of the audience.The English Lee family, which was internationally famous, were noted exponents of

Leannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01343913433501351601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5591534546335255446.post-92207201322412740142025-10-15T19:43:00.000+11:002025-10-15T19:44:45.668+11:00

 This is just a very brief discussion about club juggling in Australia and an opportunity to look at the evolution of props and style between 1890s-1940s.A brief overview of club juggling in Australia (a work in progress)It seems that club juggling came to Australia around the late 1800s andSouth Australians were some of its earliest exponents. Most of thesedisplays were in small

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 Today many jugglers learn through watching youtube, instagram or facebook. Some learn through swapping ideas personally and attending juggling clubs. Before social media, the best way to learn new juggling tricks was through personal interaction, and there is an indication that many jugglers passed on their knowledge this way.In 20th Century Sydney there was a group of jugglers who knew

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Nabekichi Mayeda, with his wife Theresa toured Australia with Wirth's Circus for almost 3 years in the late 1930s. During that time, Nabekichi was the victim of an accident and almost lost his life.Nabekichi Mayeda, Japanese foot juggler was born in Japan in either 1893 or 1894.He started performing in England in 1918 as one of the Kobes Troupe. They were balancers, barrel jugglers, and risley

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     In the early years, Sydney jugglers would train at a place called the sandhills which was located near the current site of Moore Park. The area was used for many years as a place for informal sports, circus activities and informal play. Apparently when the vaudeville acrobats and jugglers would practice, the locals would turn up for some free entertainment, particularly on

Leannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01343913433501351601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5591534546335255446.post-84464811795979849512025-03-02T21:05:00.003+11:002025-03-02T21:05:33.656+11:00

 Hal Brash was a prominent juggler in Australia in the early 20th Century. Everybody knew Hal, said the papers,but they never printed his picture. Hal used several names and travelled widely, he had many juggler friends but died unmourned at an early age.Hal’s mother named him Almond, but his nickname was Hal. Almond Magor was born to Marie and William Magor in Ballarat Victoria in 1890. He

Leannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01343913433501351601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5591534546335255446.post-85146080327358779132025-01-19T19:54:00.002+11:002025-01-19T19:57:16.546+11:00

 Uno Ishikawa, a Japanese juggler born in 1889, came to Australia in 1916 as one of the juggling Royal Togos. The Togos toured the country for several years and I have written about their exploits before. In 1919 Uno married Australian woman Glory Numm. Uno performed in Australia for almost a decade until he and Glory settled in England with their three children. Much of the

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 Jimmy Collins, juggler, cinema manager, MBE and war time photographer was a Western Australian whose birth name was James Jones. Mrs James Jones senior, Elizabeth, gave birth to Jimmy in May 1895 in Perth. He went to school at James Street public school and while there probably met his future juggling partner. Arthur Beal/e known as Bert. According to later newspaper reports Jimmy

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 Charlene and Charlene, Charles and Lily, a drawing room juggling act visited Australia three times between 1907 and 1918. Charles was an expert juggler and Lily a virtuoso musician. The act was known for its comedy, energy and flamboyance. Charles was born Charles Mayol Jee in London in 1875. The Jee family was prominent in vaudeville and circus circles, and he performed from a young age.

Leannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01343913433501351601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5591534546335255446.post-68871625898051294792024-10-12T14:22:00.001+11:002024-10-20T09:38:01.698+11:00

 The two Daveys, Richard and Rose, were well known  jugglers in the United States during the 1920s but one of them, Richard, was an Australian Gallipoli veteran..Richard Davey was born in South Australia in 1894. He was the second son of Elizabeth (nee O Neil) and William Davey, a carpenter. The family was Catholic and very large. There were eight children, five boys and three girls,

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 This article was inspired by David Cain's article on Joe Jalvan. I wanted to concentrate on the Australian connection, in particular Catherine. Warning for offensive language. In 1899 American juggler, Joseph O Bryan, known professionally as Jalvan married an Australian woman, Catherine Webb at a small church in Paddington in Sydney’s eastern suburbs. They remained married until her

Leannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01343913433501351601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5591534546335255446.post-77214762964398548402024-06-11T13:17:00.001+10:002024-06-11T13:17:20.523+10:00

These photos come from the Grace Gorman collection at the State Library of NSW in Sydney. The collection has not been digitised yet, and there are more photos than are listed on the catalogue. Mozetto toured Australia in 1912. I have covered the tour hereEugene Cottin, Mozetto's assistantEugene and MozettoMozetto postcard

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 The Australian Creightons found Australia too small and travelled to the United States, only to have the love of a woman break up the pair. The Creightons, juggling acrobats were two young Victorian men who met in a gymnasium in the Victorian suburbs around 1909. Fred Creighton, was the shortest and the eldest of the two. His partner, Jim Howell, known almost always as Jim Creighton, was a

Leannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01343913433501351601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5591534546335255446.post-17607013025491583582024-04-27T13:40:00.001+10:002024-04-27T13:40:09.324+10:00

 Around 1935 two young women dressed in long skirts and short sleeved blouses and accompanied by a cameraman, began juggling clubs in Brisbane’s Botanic Gardens. The result was a beautiful souvenir of Australian juggling.The young women were the McIvor sisters, one was Bessie, the other was probably Susette. They had been juggling since they were children and had performed in pantomimes,

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 These jugglers performed at the Tivoli Theatre in Sydney between 1905-1907.All comments from Charles Waller- Magical Nights at the Theatre, pictures from Sydney Tivoli Theatre programmes. Kara 1905 ' Kara was always among the few conceded to be in the Cinquevalli class.' (1905)Les Brunins (1905) A billiard table featured. The act consisted largely in driving the balls up

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