A 20th Century Sydney Juggling Network or who knew who......

 Today many jugglers learn through watching youtube, instagram or facebook. Some learn through swapping ideas personally and attending juggling clubs. Before social media, the best way to learn new juggling tricks was through personal interaction, and there is an indication that many jugglers passed on their knowledge this way.

In 20th Century Sydney there was a group of jugglers who knew each other and through their connections, they probably did what jugglers do today. Swapped tricks, recommended each other for jobs, protected their skills, and promoted their art.

This brief discussion of the relationship between jugglers in Sydney is superficial. It focuses on who knew who rather than what particular tricks or styles were passed on. The latter is something that I will add later. For now, here is a network of jugglers who definitely knew each other.

This network starts with George Campbell. Campbell was an English juggler who came to Australia in 1906 with Wombwells circus. His partner in the circus was Charlie Jarvis. The duo split up.  Campbell remained in Australia and married Ella Airlie, who wrote the famous Australian Pantomime The Bunyip which featured a juggling trio, Frank, Lank and Alice.

After splitting with Campbell, Jarvis teamed up with a young Victor Martyn who married Maude Florence. The pair had two children, Decima and Topper. Both children became famous jugglers overseas, although Topper was better known as a magician. 

Returning to George Campbell ;  He wrote an interesting letter that outlined the conditions for jugglers in the USA in the early 20th Century.

Campbell and Airlie split up when Ella had an affair with the boss. George in the 1920s teamed up with Herbert Beaver in the Cockatoo Farm Company. Beaver was from New South Wales and was a juggler.

Herbert Beaver eventually became the manager of radio station 2KY where a young Jimmy Wallace, a juggler, won a talent competition. 

Jimmy Wallace was a child progeny. He had contact with many jugglers. He trained with Ossie Delroy and definitely knew Jimmy Creighton, who he regarded as Australia’s best juggler.

 

Moreover, Jimmy was involved in the Waratah Company. A World War 2 entertainment troupe put together by juggler J J Collins. In this company Wallace,juggled with Ossie Delroy and Jim Creighton. Both famous Australian jugglers who had started on the Tivoli Circuit in the early 1900s. J J Collins, of course, who organised this rabble of jugglers, was a Western Australian juggler. 

This is just a preliminary indication of who knew who in the early 20th Century, presumably there were many more jugglers in the network. The chart below is a visual representation of it.

Nabekichi and Theresa Mayeda- Risley artists- (foot jugglers)

Nabekichi Mayeda, with his wife Theresa toured Australia with Wirth's Circus for almost 3 years in the late 1930s. During that time, Nabekichi was the victim of an accident and almost lost his life.

Nabekichi Mayeda, Japanese foot juggler was born in Japan in either 1893 or 1894.

He started performing in England in 1918 as one of the Kobes Troupe. They were balancers, barrel jugglers, and risley artists- (foot jugglers). They performed consistently in England for almost 10 years. 

In 1928, Mayeda married Theresa Grinda. It was Theresa's second marriage. She was an English woman, her maiden name was Oakford,  born in 1901. Her first husband was an American actor, but the marriage was short lived.

Shortly after their marriage they travelled to Germany and toured Europe for a long period.

In March 1936, Theresa and Nabekichi arrived in Fremantle to start a tour of Australia with Wirth’s Circus. There were four them in the party, including Theresa. They toured under the name the four Kobes with Nabekichi as the spokesperson.

In an interview upon arrival, Mr Mayeda was described as standing less than 5 foot tall, with a wiry figure and an engaging personality. He told the interviewer that he had left Japan with a music hall troupe in 1901. They travelled to Russia and then to Europe arriving in England just before the start of World War One in 1914. Immediately before touring Australia, he and Theresa had been performing in  Germany.  During the interview , Nabekichi admitted that he had some trouble holding onto money and therefore had not revisited Japan since leaving. 

The other two men in the troupe were probably Charles Chinn and George Bradley. Theresa acted as an assistant in the act. The three men, being Asian, were closely watched by Australian authorities whilst touring.

Their act consisted of ladder balancing and foot juggling. They juggled parasols with their feet and balanced each other on the top of ladders.  The highlight was Nabekichi walking up a rope at a 90 degree angle and calmly sliding down backwards just attached by his toes holding an umbrella. 

They travelled all over the country from Western Australia to Victoria to New South Wales. They visited country towns and cities and everywhere they went, the Kobes were described as sensational, wonderful and brilliant. They were obviously a very professional, well drilled troupe.

Theresa and Nabekichi stayed with Wirths when they travelled to New Zealand and by 1938 they were in South Australia.

On their first day in Clare, Nabekichi was out with other members of the circus troupe, they were crossing the road, when suddenly, from nowhere, a car, driven by James Colin Maynard, a local man sped by and ran over Nabekichi.

He was seriously injured with a fractured skull and rushed to hospital. He was there for six weeks.

In December 1938 he took Maynard to court stating that he was familiar with English courts and was a Catholic so could swear on the bible and give truthful testimony. Nabekichi said that the troupe of three earned 27 pounds a week and of this, 21 pounds was his wage. He was described as well dressed and using perfect English by the reporter.

Maynard contended that he had sounded his horn when he saw Nabekichi step out onto the street, his mother supported this contention. 

The judge believed the local boy and Nabekichi lost the case and therefore had no hope of any compensation for his lost wages. 

By early 1939 Nabekichi had returned to Wirths and was performing as part of the ‘oriental’ Mayedas- by this time the relationship between Japan and the Commonwealth was deteriorating rapidly so Wirth's was not billing the troupe as Japanese.  

Nabekichi and Theresa left Australia in June 1939.

They stayed in England, but Nabekichi left for Japan in 1940 probably to avoid internment.

Theresa remained in her homeland until her death in 1980.

Nabekichi Mayeda was never heard from again. 

Sydney Jugglers in the early years....training grounds and meeting places.

     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.

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......