Showing posts with label Kremo Family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kremo Family. Show all posts

Sunday, November 13, 2022

Odds and ends and Ads...Kremo Family, Morris Cronin, Long Tack Sam, Melba Littlejohn, Rhodesia, Selbo, The Brunins..W C Fields.

 Many years ago I purchased about 10-20 scrap books from an old collector. Sometimes I look through them and discover some interesting things. Some I've shown before, but it's nice to have them together.



Advertisement for the Kremos, the greatest of all Risley Acrobats, in Theatre Magazine


The Brunins in Theatre Magazine


A tiny ad for Selbo- The King of Clubs in Theatre Magazine.



WC Fields as a juggler..

Melba Littlejohn in a 1920s Australian newspaper


and here she is again



Morris Cronin and his complete London Company in Mr Cronin's world famed Juggling Act.


A 1900 matinee to support the distressed actors fund. Mdme Rhodesia is performing in this. Ferry the human frog is also performing under the auspices of the Tivoli.

Look on the right hand side under Fitzgerald brother's circus and Tivoli.


Long Tack Sam 1923















Saturday, April 30, 2022

The Kremo Family in Australia.

 

Between June and October 1910 the most accomplished Risley act in the world, The Kremo family, visited Australia.

It was Harry Rickards, the legendary owner of the Tivoli who brought them to Australia, and it was Cinquevalli, the equally legendary juggler, who persuaded him to do so.

Rickards was in Blackpool England, chatting to his good friend and reliable money maker, Paul Cinquevalli when the juggler introduced him to Silvester Kremo. Rickards checked out the act and invited Silvester and his family to Australia. It took 5 years for them to get here, because they were so popular.

10 members of the Kremo family arrived in Sydney in June 1910 including Silvester, the leader, his wife, Victor and  Leon, who were twins, Eugenie, Ella, Emma, Frances and an infant.



The Kremos were experts in Risley work,  acrobatics with the feet. Their specialty was tossing a human being from one person lying on their back to another lying on their back . The youngster who was tossed like a football during the Australian tour was not a relative, because, as Silvester told a reporter, ‘even the most obliging of parents cannot be expected to keep up a supply of light youngsters.’

The four sisters were interviewed in Sydney, and were full participants in the show. They practised every day, but they told reporters that practice was like play to them. Eugenie, the eldest, was the only woman in the world who laid on the cushion and juggled people




They played in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide and were greeted with wild applause in every city.

In Melbourne the performance was described as;

A stage filled with whirling, bounding, spinning figures whose gold spangled vestments are a blaze of light

The turn included a bit where three Kremos laid on their back and tossed three other Kremos from one to the other. A small boy, dressed in a checkered costume was a highlight, as he was thrown from Kremo to Kremo like a rubber ball .

The Kremos stayed in Australia until October when they sailed away for another 6 years of solid bookings.


The poor quality photos are from contemporary newspapers.