Charles and Anna Glocker toured Australia and New Zealand in late 1915 and early 1916 with a unique water juggling act. They worked for the Fuller’s circuit and were applauded for their unusual and comedic abilities in the esoteric art form.
Charles Glocker was born in Germany around 1871. He immigrated to the United States in 1885 and married Anna, the Philadelphia born daughter of German migrants in 1894. In their early years the pair specialised in baton twirling and juggling. The started appearing in the American vaudeville halls in the early 1900s and in 1908 they were still polishing the act. That year trade papers described Anna as having ‘personal charm’ and ‘a good figure in tights’ , but criticised Charles’ banter as ‘low comedy’ without any ‘humor’.
The introduced water juggling and started receiving better reviews by the early 1910s.Their act’s humour came from the various purposeful spills that Charles made while juggling water in glasses, tubs, and buckets. It was a moderately successful act in the American circuit..
Australian theatre entrepreneur Ben Fuller on one of his trip to the United States saw Anna and Charles and booked them for an Australian tour. They arrived in December 1915 and immediately started work in Newcastle, a regional area in New South Wales. After a week of try out shows there, they quickly moved on to Sydney.
In that city they performed with a rose, black, white and silver colour scheme in front of a Coney Island back cloth and introduced Australian audiences to the fine art of water juggling.
From tumblers balanced on hoops one on each end of a rope, they went on to jars, then buckets and finally small tubs. Much of the entertainment of the turn consisted of the male partner’s way of failing to accomplish a feat, but both he and the lady showed on occasion that they could succeed when they wished.
They also included the manipulation of metal rods as part of the act.
The couple spent Christmas and New Year in Sydney before moving to Adelaide where they performed at the Kings Theatre. In Adelaide they were very popular and supported another American juggler George Murphy. An Adelaide critic noted that ‘Their comedy work is really funny and would cause the most dismal soul in Adelaide to laugh more than he ever did before.’
From Adelaide they moved to Perth where they were part of a long vaudeville show headlined by magician Herbert Brooks. The bill included head balancers and jugglers and the Western Australian critics applauded the Glockers for their ‘novel’ act. Brooks was the main attraction and garnered most of the reviews, but the Glockers were constantly praised for their unique and humorous turn of water juggling.
In March 1916, they were in Melbourne. The distances they travelled were immense and must have been exceedingly tiring when combined with the physicality of their act. At the Bijou in Melbourne they were considered an ‘amusing juggling act’, with critics particularly taken with ‘the masculine partner’ who juggled sometimes ‘with disastrous results to himself.’ In Melbourne, Anna’s photo was published in the newspapers although there were no accompanying comments from either her or Charles.
After a long journey in Australia the pair then travelled to New Zealand for a two month tour. Although not advertised at the top of the bill, they were popular and again noted for the uniqueness of their turn.
In June 1916 they departed New Zealand, travelled by boat to Sydney and then onto San Francisco where they arrived in July. They immediately continued working in the vaudeville halls .
That December the Glockers published an advertisement in the trade magazines which wished their friends in Australia and the United States a happy new year. It seems that they made friends and enjoyed their time in the Southern hemisphere. Perhaps the advertisement was a hint that they might have accepted another invitation to tour.
They continued performing the same act and in 1917 it was clear that the act was highly polished and professional.
Charles and Anna Glocker start their turn with baton swinging…it is however, in the juggling of water filled receptacles that the best work of this team is done. Charles’ first effort in this line is done with two glasses full of water each balanced on the inner side of a hoop fastened at either end with a short rope, He then swings the hoops around his head, He does the same thing with small vessels holding about a pint, with buckets and with small tubs, each of the latter holding about two buckets of water. The work is cleverly done and the act scored a hit.
In 1918 Anna was briefly admitted to a sanatorium for an unknown reason. During this period Charles worked solo, but she soon rejoined him on stage. The pair seem to have continued the act until the 1920s.
Both Charles and Anna passed away in the United States, Charles in 1951 and Anna possibly in 1965.