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 Sundays.
.tif)
The sandhills- c1900, City of Sydney Archives
This training ground was used until just after the First World War.
When jugglers were unemployed they would hang around Poverty Point on the corner of Pitt and Park Streets near the Criterion Theatre (near the current Criterion Hotel). The theatre agents would pass by in their cars and the vaudeville performers tumbled or juggled on the street trying to capture their attention for a gig.
Pitt and Park Streets in the 1930s- City of Sydney Archives
Poverty Point was a meeting place for vaudevillians until the 1940s. Across the road was the School of Arts and Andrade's Magic shop which would sell props and gadgets and all sorts of weird things.
Above was an agency run by a man called Percy Lodge- Once the best known female impersonator in Australia he was later known for his 'colourful waistcoats'. Percy would occasionally send performers up to Queensland to work for his sister Minna. Unfortunately, Minna wasn't very good with paying wages.
Percy at his retirement in 1951
Poverty Point was well known for decades as a meeting place for vaudevillians and out of work performers. Next time you walk on the corner of Pitt and Park, spare a thought for those people, juggling, tumbling, laughing and gossiping, waiting for the next gig to come along......