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 here
Enjoy your visit and feel free to contact me if you have questions or comments
Leann
Cinquevalli on the right. (Authors collection)
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 had a brother, William and a sister, Blanche.
He started juggling in the local area, but when he was 19, according to Hal, he had a terrible accident while attempting Cinquevalli’s cannon ball trick.
Hal tried to catch a cannonball falling from above, on the back of his neck, but it fell in the wrong place, knocking him unconscious. He was stupefied for 14 days, but eventually recovered. Cinquevalli had popularised this trick using a fake cannonball, but perhaps the local jugglers did not realise this in 1909. Hal performed the trick throughout his career and had several mishaps, but he never gave it up..
Hal’s first notices are dated around 1913 when he performed under the name Hal Brash, or Hal Brasch, with the Swifts Company, a small troupe that toured regional areas. Before 1913 there are references to juggling brothers called Brasche, but there is no evidence that Hal was one of them.
Hal Brasch was the main attraction of the Swifst company. He was a very good juggler, who performed with ‘tennis rackets billiard balls and cues with graceful nonchalance.’ He also balanced ‘a 38 pound cannon ball on the end of a rod … afterwards catching it on his shoulders from a height.’ Hal was a hit with the audiences in country New South Wales, and soon The Swifts company was too small for a man with his recognized talent.
Hal could, at times, be a bit of a hot head. One night, he and the comedian of the company, Will Dyson argued with one of the locals whilst visiting the pub. One of the theatricals allegedly knocked an old man off his seat and then Hal threatened another using foul language. The victim drew a pistol and pointed it at Hal and Will. Both of the visitors were charged with menancing but the charges were dismissed.
Sometime in 1913 Hal met Alice Abrahams, a pianist from Queensland. The two fell in love and in April that year they married in Brisbane. Hal used the name ‘Alexander’ Magor. It was a quiet wedding as Alice was pregnant with their child, despite this the local papers recorded the event in their social pages.
Meanwhile Hal’s juggling career in Queensland continued. He left the Swifts and began performing in various regional areas . That year he was with the American Vaudeville company performing in a café setting, the climax of his act was when cannon balls rolled down the roof of the café and Hal caught them on the back of his neck. According to the papers, he caught five cannonballs in seven seconds.
In August 1914, Hal’s son, Alva Clarence Brasch Magor was born. Hal did not visit Alice that month and it soon became clear that he had no intention of living with her, or their son, again.
Later in 1914 Hal was touring the regions with a comedy singing and patter act and seemed to be actively avoiding Alice.
Alice, however, knew her rights, and in January 1915 she sued Hal for child support. The case was covered by the newspapers. Alice claimed that she and Hal married in April 1914, lived together in May and July that year, and then he disappeared. She estimated Hal’s income as 7 pounds a week. The court awarded Alice 1 pound a week maintenance and 7 shillings a week for Alva.
In 1915 there are few references to Hal Brasch the juggler. Throughout 1916 several jugglers with variations on the name Hal appeared in the theatres, primarily in Victoria, Hal’s home state. Hal Browne or Brown a ‘versatile fellow’ and comedy juggler appeared with the ‘Merry Madcaps’ in March, in June Hal the ‘pattering juggler’ popped up, and in July Hal Brasch, Australia’s only talking juggler reappeared. Hal Magor, also briefly performed on the circuit. These variously named jugglers were almost certainly Hal Brasch/Magor, and he maintained a steady career at this time performing with regional touring groups, Clay’s theatres and Fullers.
Whilst Hal was dexterously juggling names and locations throughout Victoria, Alice was working as a clerk in Queensland to support herself and her son. In May 1916 Alice took her employer to court regarding wages. Alice claimed that the employer was paying below award rates. She won the case.
In 1917 Hal travelled to New Zealand. It was there that he gained the name ‘Hal the jesting juggler’. By this time he was juggling clubs, tennis balls, racquets and concluding the act with the cannonball trick. In Hal’s version of the trick he dropped the cannon ball from a pole onto the upper part of his back. Hal was very successful and popular in New Zealand and it was his ‘quiet humour’ which made him so. He ‘gets there every time with his asides what time he is whirling his clubs in the air.’
After New Zealand Hal travelled for five years. He visited South Africa and India amongst other places. Traces of Hal’s travels are difficult to find as it seems he was attempting to avoid detection and may have travelled the world under various aliases.
Alice moved to Sydney, she worked as a clerk during the day and as a pianist during the evenings. She continued to search for Hal. She asked his friends, she asked the theatre managers, she wrote to his mother, looking for her wayward husband. The friends said they had not seen him, the theatre managers denied knowing his location, and his mother refused to answer the letter. Alice was alone, earning three pounds a week and paying one pound 10 for rent, and 15 shillings a week for boarding school for her son. Alice said she had no assets except her clothes.
In 1920 she co organized a musical evening in the city and in June that year, finally giving up on Hal, she filed for divorce. For the case to progress, Alice and her lawyer had to make an attempt to find Hal. They spent three months searching for him. Alice visited Fuller's Theatre office in Sydney and the clerk there told her they had not seen Hal for years, she met one of his friends and received the same answer. Alice’s lawyer wrote to Hal’s mother in Melbourne and received a response . According to Mrs Magor, her son had disappeared two and a half years prior, around the time he went to New Zealand, and had told her that he was going to India. Alice made depositions, her lawyer swore oaths and finally in July 1921 the divorce was granted. She gained full custody of her son and Hal was gone from her life forever.
Soon afterwards, her negligent husband returned to Sydney. In September 1921 the trade newspaper announced that Hal Brasch, known as Hal the jesting juggler, was returning after a 5 year absence. His act, according to the announcement, was better than ever. In October he was performing for Fullers in Sydney
Between November 1921 to February in New Zealand. During this tour he was praised for combining amusing patter with very skilled juggling. The finale of his act continued to be his variation of the Cinquevalli cannonball trick.
In 1922 the Magor divorce was finalized. Hal with Tom Newall, known as Zeno the juggler, teamed up to form a duo called Kale and Coyle. They performed in South Australia, Victoria and Perth. In August that year, Hal had another accident while performing the cannonball trick. This time he injured his left arm, which was hanging limply in a sling as he wandered around Sydney. By September he was back at work and joined Percy Abbot, a magician, for an international tour. Abbott took Hal, Tom and a lady called Ivy Norton, amongst other Australians to India from Perth.
In India, according to Abbott, there was trouble in the combination and Tom and Hal with Ivy left the troupe. The trio formed their own show. They were still in India in 1923 and Hal wrote a letter to the trade paper saying ‘ I am doing comic songs in addition to my regular work and find that the English people over here take to them very kindly.’
They were doing well, but trouble was on the horizon.Percy Abbott, a regular corespondent to the trades, advised that Ivy had split from Hal and Tom and was promoting a show for ‘distressed lady artists’. Ivy claimed that she was left stranded by Hal Brasch and Tom Newall in India. Percy Abbott suggested politely that the lady was fabricating her tale..
Hal remained in India until 1925 but returned to Melbourne in November that year. Perhaps he had yet another accident with the cannonball. In 1927 he died at his mother’s house in Melbourne, the cause of death was general paralysis and exhaustion, he was 37 years old.
Alice remarried in 1924 and moved to England. Her son and her descendants remained there. Alice peacefully passed away in 1943, her son Alva married and had children and died in England in 1985.
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 information here is following up information provided on the excellent Ninjin website. The information about Glory’s early life in Australia comes from my own research.
Horace Lacy Numm
Glory Ishikawa, born Glory Numm, was the daughter of Horace Lacy Numm, a Chinese interpreter and prominent member of the Chinese community in Sydney. Horace's father came from Guangzhou, then known as Canton, and settled his family in Victoria, Australia.
As an adult, Horace lived in Launceston, Tasmania and married Mary Sing who bore a daughter, Glory, in 1900. Mary died shortly after Glory’s birth and Horace moved to Sydney. Whilst there he worked as a Chinese- English interpreter and the Sydney Morning Herald called him ‘the best interpreter in the state.’ Horace campaigned for the Chinese Republican cause in Sydney, and organised events for the community, such as the annual Confucius Birthday celebration. In 1903 Horace remarried and had a son, Darwin, in 1905. Tragically Darwin died in 1920 in Newtown. Horace died in 1942 in Sydney.
Glory
Glory Mona Peal Numm was Horace’s first child and only daughter. After her mother’s death, Glory moved to Victoria where her grandparents and father’s relatives lived. Glory studied music in Melbourne and was a very good pianist, but by 1919 she was in Sydney working as a typist, probably for her father. There are no accounts of how Glory met Uno, but the 19 year old married the 29 year old Japanese juggler in Sydney. The pair stayed in Australia after the other member of Royal Togos, George, left the country and Uno worked as a solo act known as the ‘slick six stick juggler’. Glory had three children, two in Australia, Billy and June, and one, Peter, in England.
In 1942, on Horace’s death notice, Glory was described as Mrs Taro Togo. It was one of many names she used through the years.
Uno Togo Juggler
Unotaro Ishikawa, born in Japan, arrived in England in 1910 for the Japanese Exhibition. He teamed with George Togo, to become the Royal Togos and the pair arrived in Australia in 1916. George performed the slide for life and Uno juggled with sticks and umbrellas. (More here)
He branched out as a solo performer in the early 1920s. As a solo he had a long and successful career in Australia. Around 1926 he and Glory moved to England with their two children.
Uno was a skilled juggler and well liked in Australia. He received positive press wherever he performed and was on friendly terms with the theatrical community. He was also an astute businessman who vigorously protected his tricks. In 1924 Uno copyrighted his top spinning feats, in particular he copyrighted balancing a top on a board, a fan and on a sword. He claimed he had invented these feats in 1919, and advertised his ownership of them in the Australian newspapers.
Despite being unique, Togo faced the same problems that all performers in Australia faced. The Australian population was small and after a short time an act grew stale. It was necessary to constantly refresh the performance because audiences wanted novelty. In addition, overseas acts earned more than local performers, even if their quality was similar. Togo after 10 years in Australia was probably considered local. The family returned to England in 1926 probably for greater opportunities, Togo had connections there, and Glory was a British subject being born in Australia.
When Uno and Glory and their children left Australia they were an established partnership and Uno was a very successful professional performer.
England
When they arrived in England, Uno immediately obtained consistent work. He worked in music halls across the country and was constantly busy. In 1937 he was filmed by British Pathe and was an established part of the British music hall scene.
But in 1939, Togo, the Japanese juggler, disappeared.
In 1939, Glory and Uno were living in Islington and registered there, but the entry was corrected several times. Firstly both were listed under the name Ishikawa, this was crossed out and replaced with Togo, which was crossed out and replaced with ‘Sydney Lee’. A note at the side has a date, 1941. (See the first two entries below- probably needing enlargement)
It seems certain that Glory and Unotaro changed their name to ‘Lee’, probably in 1941, to avoid internment. 1941 was the year Japan entered the war. The choice of ‘Sydney’ for a name may have related to their association with the Australian city.
Was Uno Togo, Syd Amoy?
So what happened to Uno’s juggling career?
According to the theatre website Ninjin, Togo aka Uno Ishikawa aka Sydney Lee, became Syd Amoy, a juggler who performed with umbrellas and tops. Syd was billed variously as the ‘Siamese umbrella man’ or as a ‘Chinese ‘ juggler. He was steadily employed throughout the Second World War and up to the early 1950s.
There does not seem to be any direct evidence that Syd Amoy and Sydney Lee were the same person, but internal evidence suggests the possibility.
The last mention of Togo the Japanese Juggler was in December 1939. Syd Amoy started appearing in English theatrical newspapers in May 1939. Noticeably the names Togo and Amoy did not appear simultaneously in the trade papers.
Togo the juggler disappeared from the record from the end of 1939 and Syd Amoy was more frequently mentioned from that date.
The acts of Syd Amoy and Togo were also similar.
Syd Amoy was variously described as the ‘Siamese umbrella man’ or the ‘umbrella man’. In 1921 in Australia, The Adelaide Mail described Togo performing with an umbrella, saying that his ‘manipulation of various coins and discs on a Japanese umbrella is almost incredible.’
In addition Syd Amoy specialised in the feat of spinning a top on a sword. A feat that Uno had patented in Australia and performed in the Pathe film.
Finally, here are samples of the two men's handwriting 21 years apart, is there a similarity?
Below is part of Uno's application for copyright in 1924.
Of course, it cannot be proven that Unotaro Ishikawa was Syd Amoy, but the circumstantial evidence is suggestive.
Internment of enemy aliens in England began shortly after the declaration of war in 1939. After 1941, Uno was at high risk of being interned. He was the sole provider for Glory and his three dependent children and his loss would have been catastrophic for the family. Perhaps Uno’s pre-emptive solution to this dilemma was to become Syd Amoy, the ‘Chinese’ or ‘Siamese’ juggler.
Sydney and Glory Lee aka Uno and Glory Ishikawa, lived long lives in England. Sydney Lee died in 1981 and Glory Lee, died in 1986. Their descendants still thrive today.
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 juggled pot plants as a schoolboy and Arthur probably caught them.
In 1913 when both Bert and Jimmy were 18 years old, they debuted a juggling act for a week at the Tivoli in Perth. Listed as Collins and Beal, the pair were virtually ignored by reviewers.
Later that year they performed for a charity show at Gossells Hall. Their lack of employment led Jimmy to start a carpentry job. However, the pair received a big boost to their career in late 1914 when a comedian called Leonard Nelson decided to run a competition for amateur performers. It was a stunt, but in December, Jimmy and Bert entered the competition and won the most audience applause. They were rewarded with a week-long engagement at the Melrose Theatre under the management of Fullers. They performed with ‘their chests visibly swelled by their success’. Jimmy juggled and Bert provided the comedy.
In 1914 war came. Jimmy was working as a carpenter and Bert as a storeman. Jimmy tried to enlist but was refused due to a hernia. In 1915 he succeeded, citing carpentry as his profession and was sent to France. He was part of the signal corps and was awarded a medal for reattaching a telegraph wire under fire.
According to Jimmy’s later accounts, he remained in England after the war and performed as a juggler. When he returned to Australia in 1919, he and Bert reformed the act and began the long hard haul of a professional career.
As Collins and Beal, the pair performed primarily in Western Australia, but despite local success, they received no offers from the major vaudeville chains. Eventually Jimmy branched out alone as Colino and slowly became very well known in Australian variety circles.
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In September 1919, Colino performed at the Bijou in Melbourne. He twirled bayonets, juggled and performed Cinquevalli’s cannon ball trick, catching a cannon ball on the back of his neck. In October he did the same act at the Majestic in Adelaide receiving ‘roaring applause.’ He was billed as the ‘dexterous digger’ and his service in the AIF (Australian Infantry) was prominent in advertising.
After this success, he toured New Zealand for three months returning to Brisbane in February 1920 where he balanced a fair-sized table on his head, juggled tennis racquets and balls and continued with the cannon ball trick. In June he added knife juggling to the act and the parochial Perth papers were comparing him to Cinquevalli.
But Australia was too small for Jimmy, and by the end of 1920 he was on his way to the United States to try the American vaudeville circuit.
The Perth newspapers followed Jimmy’s juggling career closely. For over a decade they regularly updated their readers about his exploits at home and overseas. Jimmy sent them letters; they did interviews and at one stage published a poem praising his juggling prowess. They were Jimmy’s greatest supporters and fans. It’s probable that Jimmy knew many Perth reporters due to family’s ties to the Western Australian city.
According to an extensive interview with the Perth Mirror in August 1921, Jimmy headed from Sydney to Honolulu at Xmas 1920. He performed there and associated with Duke Kahanamoku. In San Francisco, he worked for Pantages where the week’s programme started on Sunday and each day required four or five shows. It was a gruelling schedule, but Jimmy seemed to enjoy it. He noted to the interviewer that in America, ‘pictures’ were intermixed with turns, and predicted that a similar system would soon come to Australia.
Jimmy returned home for ‘family reasons. He added pool cue manipulation to the act, joined with Beck’s company and toured New South Wales. But Jimmy always returned to Western Australia, he was, as the newspaper said, ‘a quiet, happy go lucky sort of a ‘real’ Westralian.’
Unfortunately, in 1921 Jimmy announced his retirement from the stage. The retirement did not last long and by December that year he was performing at the Tivoli in Perth. He remained in his home state for some time.
Most of Western Australia had probably seen Jimmy’s juggling act by March 1922, so he changed it. In fact, he retired Colino the juggler and reappeared at Dr Kena, an illusionist and magician. In Fremantle, Dr Kena performed the ‘sawing a woman in half act.’ It was a very brief sojourn in the world of magic, Dr Kena promptly disappeared after a month of shows at the Town Hall.
It’s possible that they lady being in sawn in two was Henrietta Nicol. Henrietta was an English woman who was also a performer. Henrietta and Jimmy married in November 1921.
In July 1922, they started a long contract with Perry’s Circus, as The Colino Jugglers. Billed as American, the act included balancing billiard cues and was described as ‘amusing’ and ‘delighting’ the audience.
During their stint with Perry’s Henrietta gave birth to their first child. Eventually, they had three. When the contract finished, they returned to the hustle of stage performance, but usually with Jim as a solo. In 1924 he was performing with Fullers ‘dressed in evening clothes he juggled vicious looking daggers, cannonballs, cigarette paper, billiard cues and a Japanese umbrella.’
Jim announced his retirement several times, but the Perth newspapers were sceptical. They knew Jimmy was addicted to the stage.
In July 1924 Jimmy performed for his hometown at the Shaftesbury Theatre. He was ‘the best turn of the evening’. Jimmy juggled balls of various weights, sticks or billiard cues and various common objects. He also balanced them on his nose or forehead. The highlight of his act at this time was balancing, ‘a small table endways on his forehead, and then by a sharp motion caused it to glide down over his head and up to a balancing position again on its other end.’
Later that year, Jimmy and Henrietta left Australia and toured South Africa, Europe and the United States. They spent almost four years overseas before returning to Perth in 1928.
Jimmy played the Apollo in Paris and visited the Moulin Rouge where he stated, ‘the show centres on production’, and commented on the ‘undressed’ performers. He noted the late hours of the cabarets and theatres in Paris and was surprised his act was scheduled past 11pm. He also played at the Casino in Nice and the Alhambra in London.
Jimmy abandoned the Colino name whilst in England. He said that he was being mixed up with another performer named Colino, possibly Coleano the wire walker, another Australian. He returned home as J J Collins, master juggler and toured the country during 1928 and 1929, which were his last years as an active juggler. In 1929 he began filling in as a production manager for the Capitol theatre in Perth, which mixed live shows and movies. The next year he was appointed manager of the Regent Theatre in Sydney. Jimmy had seen the future in film and had altered his career accordingly.
He moved the family to Sydney so he could pursue his management aspirations. He was employed by Hoyts as an early theatre/cinema director and during the 1930s managed the Embassy Theatre and the State Theatre in Sydney.
In 1938, Jimmy was part of the organising committee for the sesquicentenary celebrations, (the 150th anniversary of the landing/invasion of the English in Australia). Jimmy received an MBE, a royal honour, for his work on the event.
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Jimmy and Henrietta lived in the eastern suburbs of Sydney during this time with many of the more successful members of the theatre community. It was an area of wealth and privilege, and their three children, Harry, Douglas and Beryl had a very comfortable middle-class lifestyle.
Jimmy continued managing the theatres of Sydney with their mix of live and filmed shows, until the beginning of World War 2, when he became involved in troop entertainment. He organised the Waratah touring group, which included a young Jimmy Wallace, and even designed a portable theatre for the troupe. He was also an official war photographer for the army and reached the rank of Major.
Shortly after the war’s end, Jimmy divorced Henrietta to marry the much younger Eugenie Bickhoff. The affair was probably rather scandalous within the tight knit Sydney theatrical community. Jimmy and Eugenie almost immediately moved to Melbourne where Jimmy worked as a superintendent, having finally given up all connections to the stage. The pair moved to the affluent suburb of Toorak and had a son, Philip.
In later years, the couple retired to the Gold Coast in Queensland where Jimmy died in 1983. Despite his service in the army in two wars, his MBE and his prominence in the juggling community, the Australian press did not note his passing.
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. His father James was a circus equestrian.
In 1882 the Jee family, including several children, were performing for Hengler’s circus. In 1883 Charles joined the family act which included his siblings, Virginia, Amalia and James jnr. Children at the time were trained early to be circus performers, and in Charles’ case it paid off, because 10 years later he juggled on horseback for Hengler’s circus in England, and was reviewed as’ much smarter than the ordinary performer in this particular line.’ He later discussed his time as a horseback juggler with Variety magazine. ( This could be an early photo of Charles in this article by David Cain, juggling historian)
In 1893, the Jee family consisted of ‘equestrians, jugglers
and equilibrists.’ Seven years later Charles branched out on his own and performed with the
Imperial Circus in South Africa as a juggler.
Later, he told Australian reporters that he had been in South Africa
during the Boer War.
Charles returned to England in 1901 and changed his name to
Charlene. As Charlene ‘ his marvellous manipulation with a lighted cigar and a
tall hat elicited continuous applause.’
He continued to juggle as an individual until around 1904,
and it was at this time that Fred Priest, later known as Mozetto and Rupert
Ingalese, saw his solo act.
At an early age I had
the good fortune to witness an exhibition by Charlene, a really marvellous
juggler, who manipulated a great number of balls; did astonishing tricks with
hats, cigars, plates and bottles; and concluded by dexterously juggling with
lighted torches….the fiery brands about him and around him mingled and
intermingled with each other until nothing could be seen of the performer who had
gradually disappeared from view. A restless mass of fire circled in his place.
Charles was obviously a skilled juggler but did not become a tremendously popular one until he teamed up with his wife, Lily.
Born in Liverpool in 1879, a date she rarely used, Fannie
Lily Jee was the daughter of Henry and Fannie Jee , another branch of the
extended Jee family. Her father was Charles’ cousin.
Almost always referred to as Lily, she was part of the
famous Musical Jees group. Her father, better known as Harry, led the group for
many years. A description of the act in 1889 shows some influence on her later
work with Charles.
The curtain rises on a
drawing room and after the pantomimic fooling that accompanies the introduction
of various musical properties we are treated to…some clever xylophone playing…
Lily spent a large part of her childhood influenced by the
troupe and when she was 17 she took ship with her father and accompanied them
for a two week tour of the United States.
She was small, just over 5 feet tall, with brown hair and brown eyes.
Lily and Charles
married in Lambeth in 1901. Lily was a talented musician, and they developed a
duo act that took them around the world.
In 1904 as Charlene and Charlene they performed a drawing
room turn where the expert juggling of Charles was complemented by a musical
performance by Lily. Described as ‘remarkable entertainers’, in December that
year they were performing specialties in pantomime.
In 1905 they were a
‘refined and pleasing entertainment’ .Charles juggled plates, champagne
bottles, umbrellas and hats, whilst Lily, dressed in a sparkly dress
accompanied him on a xylophone. The act had a surprising finale when Charles
juggled torches to the sound of Lily’s music in a spectacular crescendo.
Lily Charlene in one of her famous dresses
This was the act they took to Australia two years later. It
combined the act that Fred Priest described with musical accompaniment by
Lily.
In 1907 after a tour of Europe, Lily and Charles headed to Australia.
They arrived in Adelaide in early January and later that month appeared for
Harry Rickards at the Opera House in Melbourne.
Both appeared in evening dress to the backdrop of a drawing
room. Charles began by juggling his top hat, coat and an umbrella and then
started to juggle other items in the room. He then borrowed a violin from the
band, much to the dismay of its owner, juggled it, the bow and a hat and then
after catching all three, the hat on his head, played a tune on the violin.
Afterwards Lily played the xylophone. Her dexterity on the
instrument was described as brilliant, and her costume, a blue dress sprinkled
with sparkling sequins, was a highlight. The finale was Charles juggling
torches as Lily accompanied the feat with music. The whole turn was rapturously
welcomed by the Melbourne audience.
The pair stayed in Melbourne until March, when they
travelled to Sydney. Whilst there they performed the same act, they then
travelled to New Zealand, where a photo of Lily adorned a major newspaper. Lily was very popular with photographers and
the local Melbourne photography studio Talma, issued a postcard of her.
They left New Zealand in September and travelled to the
United States. Both used the name Charlene on their travel documents. They
stayed about two years alternating between the American and British music halls
and then returned to Australia in 1910.
By this time, they had changed their act and the critics
considered it improved. They toured Sydney and Melbourne and added Adelaide to
their agenda.
Firstly, Charles had changed his costume. He no longer
dressed in evening clothes and his new motorist costume was ‘loud’ and ‘Yankee’.
The turn began when Charles entered the stage accompanied by a chauffeur, a new
addition. Charles juggled everyday objects such as plates and eggs and
umbrellas whilst the chauffeur reacted with wry commentary. Charles also joked
as he juggled. He repeated the act with the violin and added revolvers. Lily
played the xylophone and performed a step dance, an addition to her repertoire.
Reviewers were enthusiastic about her musical skill.
The reaction was warm in each city. Lily’s dresses were the
subject of much admiration, and she was dubbed the best dressed performer on
the stage.
They stayed in Australia from June to October that year.
Then travelled back to the Northern Hemisphere where they continued to perform
in the US, Europe, including the
Alhambra in Paris, and England.
The First World War did not stop their constant touring.
Charles was too old to serve so they continued their grueling pace. They
travelled everywhere and before they returned to the southern hemisphere in
1917, they had completed a tour of the US, Mexico and Argentina.
They began in New
Zealand, spending September and October there. In November they arrived in
Australia and visited Adelaide, Brisbane and Sydney, finally landing in
Melbourne in December where they joined the cast of Australia’s most popular
pantomime, Bunyip. The act was the same
as the one they presented seven years earlier. Their new assistant was a showstopper
and amused audiences and reviewers with his antics as Charles juggled. They were
a popular couple, labelled ‘travel whales’,
and seemed well regarded by the press and public.
They departed Melbourne in 1918 and returned to America for
a short tour. From that time their popularity waned. By 1924 they had retired
to South Africa and were the proprietors of a hotel. In 1927, they, with other
members of the Jee family, inherited a portion of the estate of Amy Howes the
widow of a millionaire who was the owner of the Howes and Cushing circus. The
Jees according to several articles at the time, had a habit of using different
surnames. Included in the will were the families of the Egberts, Bert Jee of
the Burnell’s, Fred Jee of the Maples, Harry Jee of the musical Smithy act, and
Charles and Lily Jee known as Charlene and Charlene, jugglers.
The pair remained in South Africa until Charles’ death in
February 1948. At his bedside was his friend J V Cooke. In May that year, 63-year-old Fanny Lily Jee
(born Jee as stated on the certificate) married Jesse Vince Cooke. Lily died 12
years later, in 1960, in South Africa.
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, and Richard was the second born.
When the boys reached adulthood, they all followed a trade. One was a plumber, another was a bricklayer. Richard worked as a stockman, and this was his profession when he volunteered for army service in World War 1
All the Davey brothers signed up for the war, one, Claude, was killed in action and another, Philip was awarded the Victoria Cross (the highest award for bravery). They fought at Gallipoli and in France and were wounded and redeployed constantly.
Richard joined up when he was 22. His army papers described him as 5 foot 6 inches tall, weighing 146 pounds and having grey eyes and brown hair. He was almost immediately sent to Gallipoli and remained there for three months before being transferred to France. During his three years of service, he was wounded several times, including twice in the head which left him with a permanent scar. Late in 1918 he was shot in the chest and shoulder, which left him with broken ribs and permanent limitations of movement in his right arm. These injuries resulted in his discharge from the army.
There is no indication that Richard was a juggler before the war, but by 1918 he identified as one. In his discharge papers the doctor wrote;
‘Loss of muscular tissue right upper arm, limitation of movement little finger will interfere with his occupation as a juggler.’
Somehow the vicissitudes of war had turned the South Australian stockman into a juggler.
Richard in uniform.
Richard later said that he had amused his comrades on the front lines by juggling various objects as they came to hand and that he performed with entertainment troupes whilst in the army. According to the newspapers, even as his comrades rallied to go over the top at Gallipoli, Richard was juggling to the sounds of shellfire and gun shots. Regardless, by the time he came home in 1918, he was a juggler.
His first Australian performance was amateur. In November 1918, a local fair had a talent competition as part of the fun, and Richard won the prize with juggling.
Later that month he made his first recorded professional appearance for Fullers at the Majestic Theatre in Adelaide.
His juggling was ‘clean, quick and full of surprises’ according to reviews. He wore his uniform as a stage costume with a medal on his beret, and was billed as ‘The ANZAC juggler. Part of the act was a trick where Richard balanced a cannon ball on a billiard cue and then tossed it and caught it on his back. .
This seems to be the only recorded performance of Richard in Australia before he went to the United States.
In 1920 Richard departed from Liverpool in England to New York and from that date it seems that he toured the vaudeville halls of America, occasionally gaining work in reputable and disreputable places.
In 1920 he was listed in Variety Magazine as;
A ten minute act where Davey in Summer attire juggles cane, hat. plates Cigarettes, cannon ball and four knives with sharp points, all the while ad libbing with an Australian accent. He was described as ‘a good opener for the smaller halls’ .
However, it was not until he met his future wife Rose Ritchie, that Richard’s juggling fortunes improved.
Rose was Canadian, born in 1902 in Nova Scotia. When she was 19 she left home to travel to the United States. In 1922 she and Richard paired up for a juggling act they called Davey and Ritchie.
They came to Australia that year under engagement to Fuller's theatres, which was the second most popular vaudeville circuit in Australia. Fullers had extensive theatrical links in New Zealand and in rural towns in Australia. However, Davey and Ritchie played mostly in the major cities.
In February that year they were in Richard’s home town of Adelaide. His juggling was judged as accomplished, but it was his comedic quips that gained the most attention. They visited Melbourne and performed at the Bijou and in April they were in Brisbane appearing as ‘comedy jugglers.’
They travelled to New Zealand in July where Richard performed,;
Some delicate work with a cigarette, a top hat and a walking stick… followed by an amusing and successful attempt to balance a feather on his nose, completing his turn with the hazardous feats of juggling with bayonets and an iron cannon ball.
They returned to Adelaide in August where Richard’s
Dexterity of wit …is fully appreciated when he has a solid iron cannon ball balanced on the end of a steel rod which in turn is swaying on his chin.
The couple were variously described as being ‘American’ or ’ English; but eventually Richard was identified as an Australian with a respectable war record and a war hero as a relative.
They remained in Australia for almost the full year and then returned to North America together,
In 1923 they visited Canada and continued juggling. They performed around North America until 1925 when they returned to Australia and Fullers. This time they carried a new name, The Two Daveys, which celebrated their marriage in the United States that year.
They began in Adelaide where Richard received rave reviews for his juggling prowess and his patter.
One review said ‘He is a wonder.’ His startling feats move one to highest admiration of his skill, and his breezy manner, freshened by a running commentary of really smart, original patter, add much to the attractiveness and merit of the act.’
The act as described by the paper was almost the same as the one they presented two years before. It included a series with a stick, billiard balls and an apple, ‘in which the various objects appear bewitched by reason of the perfect muscular adjustment Davey applies to their handling.’
In March that year the Adelaide newspapers reported that Davey juggled 8 balls as part of the act. This is an early recorded example of an Australian juggling eight balls.
Overall Adelaide provided a warm welcome home for the local lad.
They proceeded to Melbourne and from there to New Zealand for two months. In no other place did they receive the same rave reviews as they did in Adelaide.
Rose and Richard considered working conditions in Australia far better than those in the United States. They cited the lower working hours in the antipodes and better opportunities for vaudevillians. Work was decreasing in America due to the influx of moving pictures which occupied most of the bill.
They left Auckland in July and arrived in San Francisco in August that year.
Between that time and their return to Australia in 1929, the couple continued touring the American circuit with occasional stops in the English halls. In 1926 they received ‘glowing notices’ in Chicago according to Australian reports.
In early 1929 they returned to Melbourne and started a short tour on the Tivoli circuit. Reviewers praised Richard’s comedic work and Rose’s role was described for the first time.
Smooth juggling and comedy at the double and both A grade at that. The lady does little but hand ironmongery and a few swords to her lord, but she does give a liberal display of silk ‘all the way up.’
Obviously, Rose’s role was to provide titillation in a typical roaring ‘20s racy display.
This tour was short, only 2-3 months and limited to Melbourne and Sydney, however, it was with the well paying and prestigious Tivoli circuit, which indicated that they were a highly regarded act.
Richard and Rose separated shortly after their return to the United States in 1929, and in 1931 Rose remarried.
Richard became a theatrical producer and died in 1937 in the United States, whilst Rose became an American citizen and worked as a housewife until she passed away in the 1970s
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.
They started in Western Australia in September that year and then moved to Sydney in December. McAdoo rented the Palace Theatre in that city and the group performed daily.
