Francis Brunn

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Juggler

By Dominique Jando


Francis Brunn (1922-2004) is justly considered one of the greatest jugglers of the twentieth century. In 1950, the legendary New York Times theater critic Brooks Atkinson said that he was "the greatest juggler of the ages," adding with his usual humor: "Not many people in the world are as perfectly adjusted as Mr. Brunn is. He will never have to visit a psychiatrist." What characterized Francis Brunn was not so much the tricks he performed (although they were spectacular) as the speed, precision and balletic quality of his act.

Beginnings

He was born Franz Josef Brunn on November 15, 1922, in Aschaffenburg, southwest of Frankfurt, in Bavaria (Germany). His parents were not in show business: his father, Michael Aloysius Brunn (1898-1980) was a restaurant owner, but he was also a three-time champion diver; his mother Pauline, née Schobert, was a homemaker. Francis (as he would later be known) had three sisters, Lotti (1925-2008), Jutta, and Anni. He also had a half-brother, Ernst Kuhn, later known as Ernest Montego (1936-2016), who would also become a great juggler. (All siblings and their parents would eventually resettle in the U.S.)

Juggling entered the family during WWI, when Michael Brunn was interned in a prisoner camp in France. Through the barbed wires, he observed a man who was juggling three balls. Out of boredom, Michael decided to teach himself to do the same with three stones. Later, he taught his children the basics of juggling using three oranges: Under his guidance, Francis and Lotti acquired the basics of the craft, but didn't yet seriously consider developing their skills.

Like his champion-diver father, Francis was very physical. Michael trained him in gymnastics, diving, and acrobatics, which gave his son a strong base. Franz then attended Berlin's University of the Arts, which had an important performing arts section. It is in 1936, in the Menschen, Tiere, Sensationen show at Berlin's Deutschlandhalle, that Franz saw an artist who truly inspired him, the great Italian juggler Angelo Picinelli (1921-2004). Picinelli worked mainly in variety theaters, which were numerous and very popular then in Germany, and this charismatic and gifted juggler was a major variety star.

Franz was hooked: he already knew the basics, and then, a friend took him to watch a juggler rehearsing; he saw what could be done with training, and he liked it. He heard of the legendary Enrico Rastelli (1896-1931), the greatest juggler of all times who died untimely at age thirty-five, and he watched the films that had recorded his work. He also read Das Wunder der tanzenden Bälle ("The Miracle of the Dancing Balls", 1938) by the great circus chronicler and novelist A.H. Kober, which became another source of inspiration.

Ball manipulation, which was one of Rastelli's many talents and became a Francis Brunn trademark, was not completely unknown to him thanks to his practice of football (soccer). Then, to pure juggling, Francis added his acrobatic and dancing abilities. (He developed in time a passion for Flamenco, which eventually defined his style.) His sister Lotti also entered the game, and became his partner—although she developed impressive skills of her own, sometimes comparable to her brother's.

Headliner in America

Franz's family was well off, and he was not in urgent need of work, so he took time to develop a well-honed act, with his sister Lotti. Lotti's role didn't just consist in being graceful while passing props to her brother, as many juggling female partners are: Speed was the essence of Franzs's act, and the passing of props was done with extreme velocity—which required strong juggling skills. Lotti was, in that respect, a true juggling partner to her brother, and a talented one!

They performed their act locally, more for pleasure than for money, but it was a good act, and, in 1939, their father took them to perform at the legendary Scala variety theater in Berlin for its 75th anniversary; Franz was just seventeen, and Lotti was fifteen. This led to their first contract with a traveling circus. If their presentation hadn't yet reached the perfection that it would achieve later (thanks to endless practice and rehearsals), it was nonetheless spectacular enough, and they could be put in the category of children prodigies!

Franz's skills, even at that time, were impressive; later, he became able to juggle ten rings, but he would say later in an interview: "Juggling is an art form. It is not a thing of doing tricks or juggling so many. (…) It is a way of saying something and being involved in what you are doing." (Interview with the International Juggler's Association, July 17, 2023.) Indeed, Francis Brunn spoke as the true artist he was. He also said to the New York Times in 1983: "I do not consider myself doing tricks. There is one movement for eight minutes. It's supposed to be, let's say, like a ballet. (…) I would love if the audience is so fascinated, nobody applauds in the end."

Yet, he was applauded, and his career quickly took off. WWII started, but he continued working, mostly in varieté(German, from the French: ''variété'') A German variety show whose acts are mostly circus acts, performed in a cabaret atmosphere. Very popular in Germany before WWII, Varieté shows have experienced a renaissance since the 1980s. (Germany's specific variety shows), in Germany and Axis or neutral countries, and somehow managed to avoid the Nazis' military conscription. The war over, he was working in Spain when John Ringling North saw him and offered Franz and Lotti a contract to join Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus for its 1947 season. Franz and Lotti packed their clubs, rings and balls, and crossed the Atlantic; they became in the process Francis and Lottie (German-sounding names were not very popular in the U.S. after WWII!) and would eventually make the United States their home.

With Lottie, Francis Brunn worked in the center ring of what was still truly then The Greatest Show on Earth. Francis Brunn was billed as "The World's Greatest Juggler" in 1947, "The Greatest Juggler of All Time – Greater than the Great Rastelli" in 1948, "The Greatest Juggler of the Ages – Greater than the Great Rastelli—And Ten Times Faster" in 1949, and still "The Greatest Juggler of the Ages" in 1950. Needless to say, after four center-ring seasons with the Ringling show, which was still extremely popular, and all the press they generated, Francis Brunn had become a true circus and variety star in America, much sought after by agents and impresarios!

Triumphs and Mishaps

Lotti quit the act in 1951 to marry Ted Chirrick, a circus ringmaster(American, English) The name given today to the old position of Equestrian Director, and by extension, to the presenter of the show., and started her own brilliant career with a fast-paced act under her Americanized maiden name, Lottie Brunn. Ted and Lottie had a son, Michael Chirrik, who also became a talented juggler; Lottie became a U.S. citizen in 1962. Meanwhile, Francis Brunn was in high demand in Las Vegas, where he worked all the main casinos, along with such stars as Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., Danny Kaye and Elvis Presley, among many others. He was also featured at the Palace, in New York, with Judy Garland.

Francis also performed in Europe, in nightclubs, variety theaters, and circuses. In 1963, he appeared with The Beatles (it was the beginning of the "Beatlemania") and Marlene Dietrich at a Royal Variety Performance in presence of Queen Elizabeth II in London. A reporter of the Evening Standard described Francis's act as "painfully exciting"—not in a negative way, though: Francis's extremely fast-paced act and the rapid succession of amazing feats of juggling mixed with dance and acrobatics kept you on the edge of your seat, holding to it in complete awe…

Meanwhile, he had married in 1957 Alejandra Malomusch, known as Sascha, an Argentinean performer who had arrived in the US the previous year. He had two children with her, Christina (b.1961) and Raphael (b. 1973). Sascha took over the difficult role of Francis's partner in the act. Francis continued his stellar career, and his national fame got an extra boost through several appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show, one of the most popular shows on American television, at a time when there were only three networks.

Despite the physical difficulty of his act, Francis Brunn had an exceptionally long career, thanks to endless practice and rehearsals. In 1970 however, he began to have problems. He was working at the legendary Lido in Paris, when the stage manager forgot to lower the hydraulic stage before the beginning of the act. He did so too late, which caused Francis a hip injury, and left him incapacitated for ten days. He was approaching fifty then, not a young age for an acrobat. As a result, he performed in pain for the next six years, until he decided to have surgery.

He was out of commission for the following eighteen months, not knowing if he could work again. Unable to put his leg down, he nonetheless continued practicing sitting on a chair! When Francis returned to the stage (too early in his own opinion), he realized something was still wrong. He returned to France to have another operation, which put him again out of work for a couple of months. Then he had two wrist operations "for pinched nerves from walking on crutches." Nonetheless, he continued to work, and physical problems and surgeries continued to accumulate. But nothing could stop him.

A Living Legend

He and his wife had separated, and later, in 1980 in Montreal, Francis met Nathalie Enterline, a champion baton-twirler thirty-seven years her junior, whose act he helped build, and who became his partner, on stage and in life. In 1983, Francis and Nathalie were both featured with their respective acts at the Big Apple Circus in New York; Francis was sixty-one then, and still going strong! After the Lincoln Center run, Nathalie went to participate in the Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain in Paris: Her fast-paced, flamenco-oriented, and very precise moves displayed Francis's influence (in the best possible way), and she won a well-deserved Gold Medal.

By then, Francis Brunn had become a living legend in the world of show business, and especially in the juggling community. In 1983, during the Big Apple Circus season —which was by then a relatively rare American appearance—young jugglers didn't hesitate to travel hundreds of miles to see him perform. In 1989, he celebrated his fifty years as a professional juggler on the stage of the Tiger Palast in Frankfurt, Germany's premier varieté(German, from the French: ''variété'') A German variety show whose acts are mostly circus acts, performed in a cabaret atmosphere. Very popular in Germany before WWII, Varieté shows have experienced a renaissance since the 1980s. of the post-war era. He would maintain close ties with Margareta Dillinger and Johnny Klinke, the founders of this legendary cabaret-theater.

Even when age forced Francis Brunn into a semi-retirement (he continued to appear regularly at the Tiger Palast), he never stopped training and rehearsing his act—which by then had become totally immersed into the flamenco tradition and was performed with the accompaniment of a single flamenco guitarist: Francis was forever refining his artistic vision of juggling as a form of art. After his passing, Nathalie mused in an interview with the New York Times: "I know he's up there now rehearsing."

Francis Brunn passed away on May 28, 2004, in Frankfurt-am-Main in Germany, from complications after heart surgery. He was eighty-one. A celebration of his life was held a few days later at the Tiger Palast, in presence of his many friends and fans. Johnny Klinke did the eulogy. His body then returned to the United States, and he was buried on June 5 at the George Washington Memorial Park in Paramus, New Jersey, the resting place of his parents.

Francis Brunn remains one of the greatest jugglers of the twentieth century, and although he was often wrongly compared to Enrico Rastelli, certainly one of the most original, unique, and to be sure, one of the most artistically creative. In his book Juggling: Its History and Greatest Performers (1984), Francisco Alvarez thus summarized Francis Brunn's artistry: Trying to describe Brunn's act is like trying to describe the flight of a swallow.

Suggested Reading

  • Karl-Heinz Ziethen, Enrico Rastelli und die besten Jongleure der Welt, Francis Brunn, Sergei Ignatow, Anthony Gatto (Berlin, Die Jonglerie Lüft KG, 1996) — ISBN 3-9801140-9-0
  • Karl-Heinz Ziethen & Alessandro Serena, Virtuosos of Juggling (Santa Cruz, CA, Renegade Juggling, 2003) — ISBN 0-9741848-0-2

See Also


Image Gallery

  • Francis Brunn (1948)

  • Francis Brunn (c.1970)

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