Category Archives: Sunderland

Franco Piper at Sunderland Empire

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Franco Piper, “The Maestre of the spinning, tossing, juggling, and swinging banjos” was on the bill at the Sunderland Empire for the week of 26 September 1910:

Franco Piper at Sunderland Empire Poster - From the Tyne & Wear Archives
From the Tyne & Wear Archives

I described the Howard Brothers doing something similar a couple of weeks ago, so it appears there was a fad for this kind of act at the time – but fortunately the Royal Magazine ran a four page article on Franco Piper in 1901 – it’s a really interesting read.

We can see that Franco was performing at Hammerstein’s Roof Garden in New York from this June 1903 article in the New York Times – though he admits to still struggling with the 4-banjo part of his act. The 6 banjos shown in the Royal magazine article in 1901 must have been a little further away then he admitted back then.

There’s also a copy of his promo material from 1925 in both ‘Juggling the Art and its Artists’ and ‘4000 Years of Juggling’ by Karl-Heinz Ziethen:

Franco Piper - Promo from 1925 - Scan from K-H Zeithen's Juggling: The Art and its Artists
Scan from K-H Zeithen's Juggling: The Art and its Artists

Unfortunately his story doesn’t end well – his listing in Michael Kilgarriff ‘Grace Beauty and Banjos’ states rather baldly that in 1933 he, “depressed at wife’s illness and lack of bookings killed himself”.

RIP Franco.

Enzer at the Sunderland Empire

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For the week of 1 August 1910 Enzer “Late Sergt. Major Instructor H.M. Army Gymnastic Staff, the Soldier Juggler, Sword Expert, Etc.” appeared at Sunderland Empire “assisted by Miss Clarice the Lady Ju-Jitsu Expert”:

Enzer at Sunderland Empire Poster - From Tyne & Wear Archives
From Tyne & Wear Archives

There’s no other reference that I can find to Enzer apart from this (unfortunately undated) article from the Scarborough Evening News –  it seems that five boys were accused of breaking into a shop over the weekend and Enzer’s son Leonard was there for at least part of the time, helping himself to some chocolates.

Mr Whitfield for Enzer pointed out that he was a lad of some ability, having passed, although only 13 now, the 7th standard last summer. He was not the originator of the mischief, and that had to be considered. He was not in the shop till the Sunday. He was the son of respectable people, his father having been a sergeant major in the Army on the gymnastic training staff, and he was at present on the music hall stage, a brother of the defendant being with him. The father intended to take the defendant, who had been training as a juggler, with him, and although, unfortunately, the lad had been in some trouble before, he submitted that under his father’s control he would be all right, and that it would be better than sending him to a reformatory.

Unfortunately the magistrates seemed to think that handing a thief (with previous) over to the care of a music hall juggler wasn’t “suitable for the lad”, and sent him to reformatory for 5 years. Who can blame them?

The Great Weiland at Sunderland Empire

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The Great Weiland, “America’s Funniest Juggler” performed at the Sunderland Empire for the week of 15 March 1909:

The Great Weiland at Sunderland Empire Poster - From Tyne & Wear Archives
From Tyne & Wear Archives

My brain is playing tricks on me – I’m sure I’ve seen references to him all over the place, but all I can find is this 6 April 1912 article from the New York Clipper (towards the bottom of the final column) were we see The Great Weiland appearing in Birmingham at the Grand alongside the great magician Chung Ling Soo.

There are poster prints of a cartoon of Weiland available form lots of sources around the internet – you can see an example at art.com. Can you help my faulty memory?

 

 

 

Cornalla & Eddie at Sunderland Empire

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For the week of 5 June 1911 Cornalla and Eddie, “Toss ’em and Miss ’em”, perform “their funny and clever juggling and acrobatic act”:

Cornalla & Eddie at Sunderland Empire 5 June 1911 Poster - From the Tyne & Wear Archives
From the Tyne & Wear Archives

Before they appeared in Sunderland the only online references come from the USA – in 1906 they performed in Newark as described in the Cranford Chronicle of 9 August 1906 (third column, where the description says they are “a pair of comedy acrobats whose feats are unparalleled…and doubtless will be one of the hits of the bill”) and in 1909 in Washington DC as the Washington Times of  16 May 1909 (in the third column) shows.

If they’re American performers then they seem to have settled in Britain. The Bristol Hippodrome’s website shows them appearing there every year from 1912 to 1922 (although in 1921 it’s Knapp and Cornalla) and again in 1924, 1925 and 1928 and 1930, so we can assume that they’re regulars on the variety circuit.

We know from the poster above that they added juggling to their acrobatics by 1911 but unfortunately it’s rare to find a description of a juggling routine, and we’re in that situation again. We know that they were still concentrating on the comedy from the listings in Barcelona’s Mirador from 30 October 1930 (see the advert in column four at the bottom of page 5) La Vangardia for the next day, 31 October (half way down column 5) for their appearance at the Principal Palace Theatre. They’re described as “champions of laughter” in Catalan in the Mirador (“campions de riallo”) and promise “continuous laughter” in Spanish (“risa continua”) in La Vanguardia. Perhaps we can also assume that it was a non-verbal routine as they’d performed in the English speaking world for so long and then went to Spain towards the end of their careers?

The Gascoignes at Sunderland Empire

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I’ve just got a short article for you this week – during the week of 3 November 1913 The Gascoignes were at the Sunderland Empire:

The Gasgoignes at Sunderland Empire 3 November 1913 Poster - From the Tyne and Wear Archives
From the Tyne and Wear Archives

They weren’t very high on the bill and I can’t find many references to them elsewhere – but have a look at the detail of their bill matter:

The Gasgoignes at Sunderland Empire 3 November 1913 Poster (Close Up) - From the Tyne and Wear Archives
From the Tyne and Wear Archives

…they’ve got a dog that does double somersaults! Who could ask for more!

Seven Perezoffs at Sunderland Empire

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The Seven Perezoffs aren’t as renowned as they should be – although there’s a fantastic lithograph that appears in several books, their restaurant themed act isn’t well known these days. The Price Brothers and the Ramblers Troupe also did dining room routines, but they only had four members each.

They appeared at the Sunderland Empire for the week of 29 August 1910:

Seven Perezoffs at Sunderland Empire Poster - From the Tyne & Wear Archives
From the Tyne & Wear Archives

This poster from the circusmuseum.nl collection shows the members juggling plates, parasols, lamps and furniture amongst other things. There’s a more stylised poster from the same collection that shows similar feats. Have a Google to see them travelling the world – they were in New York in 1909 and Australia in 1911, and the family is still working in the circus to this day – Youtube has footage of their descendents’ unicycle act.

 

Morton Jewell Troupe at Sunderland Empire

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The Morton Jewell Troupe “American Novelty Club Jugglers, presenting “An Event in Clubdom”” appeared at Sunderland Empire on 8 December 1913:

Morton Jewell Troupe Poster - From the Tyne & Wear Archives
From the Tyne & Wear Archives

There are a couple of references on the web that note that the Morton Jewell troupe were the only act who combined singing with juggling. The Just Juggling Jottings article from the Vaudeville Missouri Breeze of 1 October 1915 is a real gem.

Kara at Sunderland Empire

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By 22 March of 1909 Kara was already so known that he could be highly billed without any flourish simply as a “juggler” when he appeared at the Sunderland Empire:

Kara at the Sunderland Empire Poster, March 22 1909
From the Tyne & Wear Archives

 As one of the originators of the Gentleman Juggler style he’s a hero of mine. Check out these links for more information on the great man: the JIS hall of fame entry has some good biography, the IJA newsletter of January 1957 had description of the routine by Horace Lerrette, who saw him live around the time of the poster above. No one who cares about the history of juggling should skip Francisco Alvarez’s book ‘Juggling – its history and greatest performers’ – check out parts 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 for Kara.  Finally there’s the article about the Salerno Ring from Juggle magazine that I linked from a previous entry of this blog about Salerno, which has the story of great rivals coperating in the aftermath of the Great War.

Emerson and Baldwin

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Emerson and Baldwin appeared at the Pavilion Theatre in Newcastle in 1909 as this article from the Newcastle Weekly Journal & Courant, 30 January 1909 shows:

Emerson and Baldwin Article for the Newcastle Weekly Journal & Courant, 30 January 1909
From Newcastle City Library

Not only are they considered “clever comedians” but they performed “some wonderfully smart and unique juggling feats”.

There’s some good biography of Eddie Emerson with some description of his act and relationship with Jerry Baldwin in this miracle factory article. It’s not explicit, but it appears that they’re Americans – so their appearances in North East England are obviously part of trips abroad.

It seems that they were no strangers to travel – while there are internet resources that show them in the USA in New York in 1907 (The Evening Telegram article, 16 February 1907), 1912 (New York Times article, 29 December 1912) and 1913 (New York Times, 8 April 1913), they also show up in Perth, Australia in 1912 as this article in The Western Australian from 12 April shows.

After all of that they were back in the UK, at Sunderland Empire on  21 July 1913:

Emerson and Baldwin at Sunderland Empire Poster, 21 July 1913
From the Tyne & Wear Archives

WC Fields at the Sunderland Empire

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This week I’ve got another of the multi-coloured posters from the Sunderland Empire featuring a big star, W.C. Fields who appeared in the week of October 12 1908:

WC Fields at the Sunderland Empire Poster - From the Tyne & Wear Archives
From the Tyne & Wear Archives

Of course Fields was a well known star of the Vaudeville stage before he went on to find success in films. A lot of his stage routine can be seen in his film ‘The Old Fashioned Way’.

There were some other treats on the bill that night though – I’d love to see what Conway & Leland “the Cheerful Monopedes” did. I’ve seen them billed elsewhere as “one-legged acrobats” – that’s a fairly specialist gimmick! Also notice that Glee isn’t the new phenomenon that some people might have you believe.

William Claude may have headlined in Sunderland, but  he’s certainly not the big hit at the Newcastle Empire the following year, as this article from the Newcastle Journal and Courant of August 21 1909 shows:

WC Fields at the Newcastle Empire - Newcastle Weekly Journal and Courant August 21 1909 Article - From Newcastle City Library
From Newcastle City Library

While the “programme has a bright star in Mr W. C. Fields, a very clever and original eccentric juggler” they’re much more interested in the antics of “Consul, the anthropoid ape”. Fields was well known for his short temper; imagine his reaction to being upstaged by a monkey!

The Frank L Gregory Troupe at the Sunderland Empire

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The Frank L Gregory Troupe appeared at the Sunderland Empire for the week of 21 September 1906 “in a marvellous exhibition of hoop rolling and juggling” where there are “hoops made to act like human beings”:

Frank L Gregory Troupe Poster - From the Tyne & Wear Archives
From the Tyne & Wear Archives

This article from the Newcastle Weekly Journal and Courant, published on 23 January 1909 mentions the troupe a few months later when they appeared at the Pavilion Theatre, Newcastle:

Frank L Gregory Troupe Article in Newcastle Weekly Journal and Courant Jan 23 1909 - From Newcastle City Library
From Newcastle City Library

Unfortunately the journalist is reduced to the stock description of “novel and clever” with no details of the routine. However we do know that they were still working in 1914 as this article in the New York Times on 29 December 1914 mention them as the “Marvellous Gregory Troupe, hoop rollers and jugglers” performing at Keith Alhambra Theatre.

There is some more information looking back on the heyday of hoop performers in this article from the Juggler’s Bulletin on September 1947 – scroll down to the “Out of my Scrapbook” column by Jack Greene. He describes how Frank Gregory “tossed a hoop in the air and made it light on a string held by his partner several feet away from him, then roll back to the tosser”.

Cinquevalli at the Sunderland Empire

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Some of the big stars of the juggling world passed through North East England. Paul Cinquevalli appeared at the Sunderland Empire in 1911, topping the bill in the week of 23 January:

Cinquevalli at the Sunderland Empire Poster - from the Tyne and Wear Archive
From the Tyne and Wear Archive

Unfortunately I’ve not been able to find any contemporary reviews of his appearances – but there’s a fantastic article from the Strand Magazine of  1897 which describes his routine. The article is reproduced in Charlie Holland’s book, ‘Strange Feats and Clever Turns’ (it should be available from your favourite juggling shop); and the text and some of the pictures are online at the Juggling Hall of Fame.

Frank Sylvo

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I’ve not been researching for this blog for very long but one name keeps popping up. Frank Sylvo isn’t well known today, but he was clearly well respected by the promoters of his era.The earliest appearance that I’ve found isn’t from North East England but the Palace, Greenwich, London – strangely enough the article is in the New York Clipper and the date isn’t made clear, but it seems to be April 1901 or 1902. He also appeared in Empire Palace Theatre, Dublin in 1904, as advertised in the Evening Telegraph; and at the opening of the Grand Theatre of Varieties, Birmingham and is listed on the special silk commemorative programme for this event, which is held in the Victoria and Albert museum.

I’ve first found him in the North East on 25 January 1909 at the Sunderland Empire:

Frank Sylvo at the Sunderland Empire Poster - From the Tyne & Wear Archive
From the Tyne & Wear Archive

All these venues have one thing in common – they were all owned by Moss Empires. This was the largest chain of variety theatres in the UK, and they clearly liked what Frank had to offer, despite the rather lukewarm review that he received in the Newcastle Journal and Courant of 23 January 1909 after he’d appeared at the Newcastle Empire. All they could manage to say was that he was “quite acceptable”:

Frank Sylvo at the Newcastle Empire review - From Newcastle City Library
From Newcastle City Library

Despite that faint praise he was still working in the Empires empire 14 years later; he was back at the Sunderland Empire on 2 July 1923:

Frank Sylvo at the Sunderland Empire Poster 1923 - From the Tyne & Wear Archive
From the Tyne & Wear Archive

I look forward to seeing where else he shows up!

Tom Hearn and Paul’s Juggling Girls

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The week of Monday October 11 1909 was a good one for the audiences at the Sunderland Empire as they were treated to two juggling acts on the programme that week:   

Tom Hearn & Paul's Juggling Girls at the Sunderland Empire Poster - From the Tyne & Wear Archive
From the Tyne & Wear Archive

Paul’s Juggling Girls present “The Swells at Practice”, which is  “A dainty juggling act, introducing a wonderful exhibition of club manipulation, with original effects”. Unfortunately I’ve not been able to find any description of their routine, but they travelled as far as New York with their performances; the New York Times records them arriving in New York to perform on the Morris Vaudeville Circuit on 30 January 1910 (see the pdf article, linked from this page at the New York Times. We can assume that their first performance was at the American Music Hall, as this pdf article, also dated 30 January (linked from this page at the New York Times) mentions them performing in that venue.   

Tom Hearn & Paul's Juggling Girls at the Sunderland Empire Poster (Detail) - From the Tyne & Wear Archive
From the Tyne & Wear Archive

 I have found more information about Tom Hearn’s act. He’s billed as “the Laziest Juggler on Earth” and this description from the Newcastle Weekly Journal and Courant, from earlier in the year, on 6 February 1909 explains why:  

Tom Hearn at the Newcastle Empire - article from the Newcastle Weekly Journal and Courant - from Newcastle City Library
From Newcastle City Library

Mr Tom Hearn has fairly earned his title of the “laziest juggler on earth”. He is also the funniest. From start to finish of his entertainment he is too lazy to complete any of his tricks. He is discovered in bed as the curtain rises, in a comfortably furnished bedroom. He emerges from bed, and practices in a meek-and-mild manner with little dumb-bells and punching a diminutive ball. Other tricks follow, with lamps and articles of furniture and vertu, all of which get broken owing to Tom’s inborn laziness to properly negotiate his different tricks. He every now and then returns to bed in complete exhaustion. The turn caused roars of laughter, and is better than ever.  

An interesting gimmick for sure – and he had a high billing at the Sunderland Empire so he must have been well received.