Lottie Brunn; world's fastest female juggler
Hyfler/Rosner
August 20, 2008
Lottie Brunn
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.obituaries/browse_thread/thread/b8b00f80123c849d/5fb08d70a1e6eafc?lnk=st&q=lottie+brunn#5fb08d70a1e6eafc
(her brother Francis' obit from 2004, posted on AO by B.
Schenley.)
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.
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