My brush with circus greatness - RIP: Lottie Brunn
During the 1983-84 school year, one of the parents at my hip little progressive private school got it in to his mind to start a circus. He wasn't planning on having kids as the acts, but as the crew.
He managed to get it up and running, and for about (a month?) during that summer, we toured that show.
The top was canvas; old and heavy - especially when wet! Said parent/impresario had built slides for the bases of the center poles, and we-the-crew, occasionally with a truck helping, but usually not, would have to raise the top, as well as previously laying it out, and then hanging the sidewall...
The bleachers were metal frames that took 2x(10? 12?)s and those on their own made for one hell of a load-in/out job.
I don't remember who most of the acts were, except for one.
I have no idea how he did it, but he got Lottie Brunn, one of the best jugglers in the world, and probably the most famous female juggler (ever? at least of much of 20th century...) to perform with us.
She was - it seems - about 58 at the time, and still a consummate professional, and just an amazingly nice person, especially to this horde of kids who was doing all the shit work to put this show on.
I never saw her again after that summer, but I've always remembered her.
Tonight, someone reminded me of the circus and I did a quick google.
It seems Lottie died in early August.
With all the circus surrounding me these days, I've always kept that little show (whose name I've currently forgotten) and Lottie (whose name I'll never forget) in my heart.
... And tomorrow, 42itous and I go to see the current Cirque show. Yay. :)
From The Times
August 20, 2008
Lottie Brunn
Photo Caption: Brunn initially assisted her brother, but by 14 could juggle eight rings
In the annals of circus and variety history, no family better deserved the description of “the royal family of juggling” than did the Brunns.
Francis Brunn proved to be one of the greatest jugglers of all time, following in the hallowed footsteps of the renowned Italian Enrico Rastelli. His sister Lottie Brunn became known as “the world’s fastest female juggler” and of her time was undoubtedly the world’s greatest woman juggler. Their half-brother, Ernest Montego, was also a celebrated artiste in this field, and Lottie’s son (by her husband Ted Chirrick), Michael Chirrick, followed in her footsteps, making his professional debut as a talented juggler in 1970. The Brunn dynasty has given the world four of the most important juggling stars, who all added a dynamic theatrical element to their art, which in turn has influenced those who entered this field after them.
Lottie Brunn was born at Aschaffenburg, Germany, in 1925. She and Francis were taught to juggle by their father who had spent time in a French prisoner of war camp during the First World War, and had imitated the work of a circus juggler he had watched practising. They became performers and in the 1940s worked extensively within Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia, their travelling restricted by the Nazis.
They became favourites of Hitler at the famous Wintergarten Theatre in Berlin where Franzl (Francis) topped the bill, assisted by his sister. However, she was talented in her own right, and one German newspaper asked: “Which juggler can afford an assistant who juggles eight rings?” They were well established on the European theatre circuit when the Italian circus booking agent Umberto Schlitzholz-Bedini, a former assistant to Rastelli, took them to America to star in the centre ring of the three-ring extravaganza, Ringling Bros and Barnum and Bailey Circus, “The Greatest Show on Earth”, in 1948.
Sidebar Box:
Related Internet Links
* Watch Lottie and her brother juggle
Their three-ring stint with Ringling set them up as international stars. At first Lottie assisted her brother, even though from the age of 14 she was adept at juggling eight rings. However, in 1951 she branched out with her own acclaimed solo act, and while Francis Brunn gained more fame in Europe, she chose to spend much of her 30-year career in America.
She made a rare return visit to Germany in 1967 in Elfi Althoff Jacobi’s Rudy Brothers’ Circus, with which she had appeared in America too. She was now an American citizen and was billed as the world’s leading lady juggler.
She also preformed at Cirque Rancy in France, in Las Vegas revues, at the 1960 Rome Olympics, Miami Beach nightclubs, the Cirque Medrano in Paris, Radio City Music Hall in New York, with Polack Brothers’ Circus in America, in Japan and China and at the London Palladium.
At the outset of her career she spent a year with the bandleader and satirist Spike Jones in the US, and later with the Harry James and Tommy Dorsey bands as a support act.
Later on she worked on cruise ships, which was a tougher market as the ceilings were so low that she would often have to work on her knees, and she found it difficult to juggle up to ten objects when the ship was rolling in a storm.
After retiring she was happy to see her son make spectacular use of the juggling skills she and her brother had imparted to him.
Francis Brunn died in 2004. Lottie’s husband Theodore Chirrick also predeceased her. She is survived by her son Michael.
Lottie Brunn, juggler, was born on October 12, 1925. She died on August 5, 2008, aged 82
He managed to get it up and running, and for about (a month?) during that summer, we toured that show.
The top was canvas; old and heavy - especially when wet! Said parent/impresario had built slides for the bases of the center poles, and we-the-crew, occasionally with a truck helping, but usually not, would have to raise the top, as well as previously laying it out, and then hanging the sidewall...
The bleachers were metal frames that took 2x(10? 12?)s and those on their own made for one hell of a load-in/out job.
I don't remember who most of the acts were, except for one.
I have no idea how he did it, but he got Lottie Brunn, one of the best jugglers in the world, and probably the most famous female juggler (ever? at least of much of 20th century...) to perform with us.
She was - it seems - about 58 at the time, and still a consummate professional, and just an amazingly nice person, especially to this horde of kids who was doing all the shit work to put this show on.
I never saw her again after that summer, but I've always remembered her.
Tonight, someone reminded me of the circus and I did a quick google.
It seems Lottie died in early August.
With all the circus surrounding me these days, I've always kept that little show (whose name I've currently forgotten) and Lottie (whose name I'll never forget) in my heart.
... And tomorrow, 42itous and I go to see the current Cirque show. Yay. :)
From The Times
August 20, 2008
Lottie Brunn
Photo Caption: Brunn initially assisted her brother, but by 14 could juggle eight rings
In the annals of circus and variety history, no family better deserved the description of “the royal family of juggling” than did the Brunns.
Francis Brunn proved to be one of the greatest jugglers of all time, following in the hallowed footsteps of the renowned Italian Enrico Rastelli. His sister Lottie Brunn became known as “the world’s fastest female juggler” and of her time was undoubtedly the world’s greatest woman juggler. Their half-brother, Ernest Montego, was also a celebrated artiste in this field, and Lottie’s son (by her husband Ted Chirrick), Michael Chirrick, followed in her footsteps, making his professional debut as a talented juggler in 1970. The Brunn dynasty has given the world four of the most important juggling stars, who all added a dynamic theatrical element to their art, which in turn has influenced those who entered this field after them.
Lottie Brunn was born at Aschaffenburg, Germany, in 1925. She and Francis were taught to juggle by their father who had spent time in a French prisoner of war camp during the First World War, and had imitated the work of a circus juggler he had watched practising. They became performers and in the 1940s worked extensively within Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia, their travelling restricted by the Nazis.
They became favourites of Hitler at the famous Wintergarten Theatre in Berlin where Franzl (Francis) topped the bill, assisted by his sister. However, she was talented in her own right, and one German newspaper asked: “Which juggler can afford an assistant who juggles eight rings?” They were well established on the European theatre circuit when the Italian circus booking agent Umberto Schlitzholz-Bedini, a former assistant to Rastelli, took them to America to star in the centre ring of the three-ring extravaganza, Ringling Bros and Barnum and Bailey Circus, “The Greatest Show on Earth”, in 1948.
Sidebar Box:
Related Internet Links
* Watch Lottie and her brother juggle
Their three-ring stint with Ringling set them up as international stars. At first Lottie assisted her brother, even though from the age of 14 she was adept at juggling eight rings. However, in 1951 she branched out with her own acclaimed solo act, and while Francis Brunn gained more fame in Europe, she chose to spend much of her 30-year career in America.
She made a rare return visit to Germany in 1967 in Elfi Althoff Jacobi’s Rudy Brothers’ Circus, with which she had appeared in America too. She was now an American citizen and was billed as the world’s leading lady juggler.
She also preformed at Cirque Rancy in France, in Las Vegas revues, at the 1960 Rome Olympics, Miami Beach nightclubs, the Cirque Medrano in Paris, Radio City Music Hall in New York, with Polack Brothers’ Circus in America, in Japan and China and at the London Palladium.
At the outset of her career she spent a year with the bandleader and satirist Spike Jones in the US, and later with the Harry James and Tommy Dorsey bands as a support act.
Later on she worked on cruise ships, which was a tougher market as the ceilings were so low that she would often have to work on her knees, and she found it difficult to juggle up to ten objects when the ship was rolling in a storm.
After retiring she was happy to see her son make spectacular use of the juggling skills she and her brother had imparted to him.
Francis Brunn died in 2004. Lottie’s husband Theodore Chirrick also predeceased her. She is survived by her son Michael.
Lottie Brunn, juggler, was born on October 12, 1925. She died on August 5, 2008, aged 82