As to the Willys, the act looks great with just the five, and between stroblited hoop juggling, club juggling, passing etc., plus a few cute comedy bits, it's still the fine act that I saw featured with the Ed Wynn show on Broadway when they first came to this country five years ago." Though this Bulletin will reach you too late to convey the Christmas greetings, we want to thank all of you for the swell cards and wish you all a healthy New Year. A Juggler in the Stix by Doug Couden Arcadia, Louisiana: Jack Taylor sends over copies of "The Stage", "The World's Fair", and "The Performer", English theatrical sheets. Just received school adv. cards from printer so if you want one, or a copy of above, let us know. Bill Ruesskamp mails old copy of Phoenix showing knife throwing technique. Purchased Earl Gotberg's "You, too, can be a Ventriloquist" and it's A-1. Eric Johnson sends pics and green felt- who'll send a pool table? Roger types a few lines (that's hotter news than if he bit a dog) on preview Bulletin letterhead. Out soon and you'll like it. Hugh Shepley sends more sketches of tricks. Also sends Bert reviews of acts. "Spud" Roberts sends miniature business card and springs an idea, "I believe that jugglers don't have to search for new material but just use the old stuff, it being new to the present generation." There's a lot in that, plenty of tricks from the old days can be revived to advantage. However, this writer also believes that juggling has lagged behind in the use of modern materials in props and applying modern inventions to juggling. Also there is too much copying of the other fellow's routines. To stimulate invention read, "Heed that Hunch" in Dec. American Mag. In the same issue we find, "Want a Job At a Million a Year?
The exact length will have to be based on a trial. Take a pair of gloves and to each finger of each glove sew or glue a short length of thread. The book also describes the act of Heros, Bavarian heavy juggler; has a full page picture of a Chinese girl spinning two plates on sticks; and a short description of some Japanese foot jugglers. It doesn't work with mirror-plastic because it's too heavy & inertia takes charge. It is very forgiving & will work no matter how badly made. If the cup is made from thin plastic you can cut it with your finger & thumbnail, for thicker plastic you will need a pair of scissors. You can do it surprisingly consistantly, for best results hold near a wall in a dark room, for truly spectacular patterns whirl it round horizontally in an (empty) bath. Because it rotates away from your eyes as you blow on it you can use it to make a simple animation, although creating an animation which is convincing is surprisingly difficult. This is a good way of making puppets move because it's very simple and almost soundless.
Jack Parker and Valentine & Evelyn making the train trip from East to West preparatory to USOing. It can be made without sellotape even but you must have a drinking straw and some means of making a hole in it. The string is pulled by means of a cardboard ring. It is made of a drinking straw with diamond-shaped cutouts to enable it to hinge & spring back; it is operated by a string passing through it attached to the finger tip. You have to break a cheap felt tip to get the ink tube and the tip. You blow in the bendy straw, slide the other one to get 'music'. Now you can make several on one straw, different types, different directions etc. Attach one to a hat with a bendy straw to blow through. Tom Breen says in reply to our article on audience participation, " We have been using the audience participation idea now for about four years and it really does go over nicely. We were playing at Alpine Village in Cleveland and one night went over extra well and Herman Pirchener who is M.C. as well as owner of the place insisted on an encore. So we asked the audience if they would like to see Herman try to Juggle. The new gag went over well and we kept it in after that. December 15th Collier's breaks the story on Lew Folds. The article is replete with errors. It is too bad the article wasn't written better because such publicity on a national scale has been scarce and should be valuable to all Jugglers by increasing public interest in the art. Larry Weeks types, "While en route to New York from Oakland, Calif., the train stopped in Chicago for four hours, so after buying a paper and finding The Five Willys listed at the Oriental, taxied right over, and spent a very pleasant couple of hours with them.
The sixth Willy who is in the army, was on furlough from his camp in Texas, so went into the audience to catch the act with him and his wife. Catch on back of neck. If the hands are held fairly closely together you get a semblance of unusual juggling. Try to get the tips close together but not touching. Add more plates. Raise cannon balls. To the other end of each thread glue ping-pong balls. Thread the cotton, bent paperclip or whatever through the middle of the square then blow on it tangentially through a straw. If you blow in the middle the bits of straw rotate in opposite directions. If you make a small indentation in the middle with a ballpoint pen you can balance it on the pen point and make it spin by blowing at it gently. If you make them one-ended they sound like a steam train. There's a Rainbow in the sky"--- and there you are. If you like Bert Hansen's reviews how about one of you being the official movie photographer for our group? The Nov. Reader's Digest has something on this, "Pioneer of Home Movies". To film present day acts for our own pleasure and Instruction as well as for posterity would do a lot for the advancement of juggling. Along this line, the staff of J.B. has been cooking up an idea to stimulate more interest among the juggling gentry. Plan is to give an annual award, outside the staff, for those working for the good of the order. It's Bert Hansen's idea to give a pocket piece as this can be carried easily and others would then be able to see it. However, we find that a die for this solid gold "medal" is quite expensive and we would like to hear from those who would be willing to contribute for the initial cost. Also someone to dig down each year for the prize itself. Have we any affluent readers who would come across? Contact Roger or his emissaries on this please. All donations will be acknowledged through this page. Jim Conway submits some odd pantomime stuff, juggling without props as follows. "Toss Imaginary balls, heroic attitudes.
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