I was reading an e-juggle article about a man called George Bale from Lambeth in London, who became a juggler known as George Zanetto of the Royal Zanetto Company. In February 1896, the Bristol Magpie newspaper wrote that Zanetto would catch on a small fork placed in his mouth, a turnip thrown from the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, UK. That’s a drop of 270 feet. Yes, that’s right, 270 feet!
You can read this excellent article here:
https://www.juggle.org/new-findings-on-the-turnip-challenge/
Here’s a Pathe film called, Noni and Partner. You can watch it here:
https://youtu.be/Mp8kXXL_zjo
I noticed that although Pathe had uploaded the video seven years ago, there are only two comments. However, they’re like gold dust to a researcher! The first comment reads:
“Bravo, British Pathé! — you have transported me 75 years into the past! The Swiss Clown Grock and Noni were the two predominant Clowns of the era. Noni is seen here with his partner, Barré Sparling Rockett (my uncle). These two toured the European capitals between the wars. Their act was multi-lingual (English, French, German, Italian, Spanish). Barré was a child prodigy: a maestro on the violin, he played most of the stringed instruments; a superb saxophonist and clarinetist. Beside being the “straight man,” he arranged all the musical scores for the act and ran the orchestra (which is heard in the background).”
As if that wasn’t enough to hear from the Partner’s nephew, the second comment reads:
“This is brilliant – Noni is a genius. I keep looking for films etc featuring him because my grandfather Ernest Johnson played bass in Noni’s dance band the Golden Serenaders, & I think was particularly friendly with the Rockett brothers. There is a film called Comets (1930) featuring Noni & the Golden Serenaders – & Charles Laughton! – but so far I haven’t found a copy. But I hadn’t seen this this clip before, so maybe that will turn up one day… Thank you for posting this.”
So armed with all this information, I start to delve.
I soon discover that I can’t find the film (yet), Comets but I read about it on IMDB and a few other sites. I also discovered that Noni was a Frenchman and was from the famous, Perezoff family, who were acrobats, musicians and jugglers. Among the various websites I looked at, I found this one, wonderful page that reads:
“One of the features of their entertainment was to throw a turnip up into the gallery, a turnip, which was again thrown from the gallery by anyone who could throw and Noni would do a flip flap somersault and catch the turnip on a fork which was inserted in his mouth. Years afterwards Noni became world known as a clown. “
You can read the whole article here:
http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/MemoriesOfShowBusiness/MemoriesOfShowBusinessChapter2A.htm
I then continued to research Noni and discovered that he performed in the Command Performance of 1928 (the original name for the Royal Variety Show). On the Royal Variety Charity website it reads:
“Noni the Clown received the highly unusual accolade of receiving a flower from the Queen. Her Majesty sent him a stem from her bouquet, saying how sorry she felt when he confided that ‘no one ever sent him flowers’.”
The whole article is here:
https://www.royalvarietycharity.org/royal-variety-performance/archive/detail/1928-london-coliseum
Having read the article, I noticed at the bottom of the page that the act was called, Noni and Horace. A little more digging.
I read about some of their performances and on IMDB, they’re listed as being in two films. The first is Comets, with Noni Perezoff and Billy DeHaven and the second is, Cavalcade of Variety (1940). Now in my experience, IMDB don’t have the most reliable information and on a quick search I was correct. It was made in 1941.
I thought, why not, let’s just have a quick look on YouTube. I can see one short clip, which I have a quick look through but don’t find anything of much interest. I also see some uploads of music from the film but then I notice that there’s a video of almost an hour long called, Cavalcade of Variety 1941 but it reads, Preview Only.
What a lovely surprise this is:
https://youtu.be/vkjmY7IkMMM
It’s only just over a minute long but it’s really funny and I’m guessing it’s Noni. Then, just over an hour later, I realise that it wasn’t Noni but in fact, a trick cyclist and clown, Sam Barton (1894-1941). The only known video that I could find of him was this same clip but in much worse quality:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ_IqmPpMU0
Then I start to think, what was that preview all about and why was it in such good quality.
So after a bit more digging, I’ve discovered that Cavalcade of Variety is available to watch for free on Amazon Prime. This may well only be in the UK but it’s also available to rent and/or buy, so it may be accessible worldwide. It’s fantastic news and having now watched it several times, I’m very tired and need to get some sleep!
Oh just one last thing. In the film, one of the acts is called, The Four Air Aces, an Australian, spinning motorcycle act, that is just the most brilliant act I’ve ever seen! I can’t find any photos online to show you but it is absolutely awesome!! As are the Arnaut Brothers (clowns) and, of course, Noni and Horace!!!
IMDB say that The Four Air Aces were also on The Mike Douglas Show in 1970, some thirty years later. On closer inspection, they actually meant the musical band, The Four Aces!
A good lesson I learnt from my research today is to remember to consult a couple of websites first, before just jumping straight into Google. Earlier, I was considering whether Noni Perezoff was French or Spanish. I’d read on a few different websites that the Perezoff circus family were Spanish and started by the brothers, Charles, Francisco and Jose Perez in 1904. However, I also read on several other websites that they were a French circus family. After lots of searching, I found a bit of the answer on Circopedia and the rest of the answer on Circus Parade (once I’d translated the page) but I went all around the houses to get there and it took a lot longer than it should have.
It turns out that Noni was in fact French, born in Nice in 1893. His maternal grandmother was Coralie Ducos, who performed as a ballerina on horseback at Cirque des Champs-Elysees and when Noni’s aunt married Francisco Perez, the French and Spanish families adjoined. You can read more about Noni here and it also clears up the question of his act being a replica of Grock’s.
https://www-circus–parade-com.translate.goog/2018/01/06/noni-clown-fleuri-de-reine/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp
You can read this excellent article here:
https://www.juggle.org/new-findings-on-the-turnip-challenge/
Here’s a Pathe film called, Noni and Partner. You can watch it here:
https://youtu.be/Mp8kXXL_zjo
I noticed that although Pathe had uploaded the video seven years ago, there are only two comments. However, they’re like gold dust to a researcher! The first comment reads:
“Bravo, British Pathé! — you have transported me 75 years into the past! The Swiss Clown Grock and Noni were the two predominant Clowns of the era. Noni is seen here with his partner, Barré Sparling Rockett (my uncle). These two toured the European capitals between the wars. Their act was multi-lingual (English, French, German, Italian, Spanish). Barré was a child prodigy: a maestro on the violin, he played most of the stringed instruments; a superb saxophonist and clarinetist. Beside being the “straight man,” he arranged all the musical scores for the act and ran the orchestra (which is heard in the background).”
As if that wasn’t enough to hear from the Partner’s nephew, the second comment reads:
“This is brilliant – Noni is a genius. I keep looking for films etc featuring him because my grandfather Ernest Johnson played bass in Noni’s dance band the Golden Serenaders, & I think was particularly friendly with the Rockett brothers. There is a film called Comets (1930) featuring Noni & the Golden Serenaders – & Charles Laughton! – but so far I haven’t found a copy. But I hadn’t seen this this clip before, so maybe that will turn up one day… Thank you for posting this.”
So armed with all this information, I start to delve.
I soon discover that I can’t find the film (yet), Comets but I read about it on IMDB and a few other sites. I also discovered that Noni was a Frenchman and was from the famous, Perezoff family, who were acrobats, musicians and jugglers. Among the various websites I looked at, I found this one, wonderful page that reads:
“One of the features of their entertainment was to throw a turnip up into the gallery, a turnip, which was again thrown from the gallery by anyone who could throw and Noni would do a flip flap somersault and catch the turnip on a fork which was inserted in his mouth. Years afterwards Noni became world known as a clown. “
You can read the whole article here:
http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/MemoriesOfShowBusiness/MemoriesOfShowBusinessChapter2A.htm
I then continued to research Noni and discovered that he performed in the Command Performance of 1928 (the original name for the Royal Variety Show). On the Royal Variety Charity website it reads:
“Noni the Clown received the highly unusual accolade of receiving a flower from the Queen. Her Majesty sent him a stem from her bouquet, saying how sorry she felt when he confided that ‘no one ever sent him flowers’.”
The whole article is here:
https://www.royalvarietycharity.org/royal-variety-performance/archive/detail/1928-london-coliseum
Having read the article, I noticed at the bottom of the page that the act was called, Noni and Horace. A little more digging.
I read about some of their performances and on IMDB, they’re listed as being in two films. The first is Comets, with Noni Perezoff and Billy DeHaven and the second is, Cavalcade of Variety (1940). Now in my experience, IMDB don’t have the most reliable information and on a quick search I was correct. It was made in 1941.
I thought, why not, let’s just have a quick look on YouTube. I can see one short clip, which I have a quick look through but don’t find anything of much interest. I also see some uploads of music from the film but then I notice that there’s a video of almost an hour long called, Cavalcade of Variety 1941 but it reads, Preview Only.
What a lovely surprise this is:
https://youtu.be/vkjmY7IkMMM
It’s only just over a minute long but it’s really funny and I’m guessing it’s Noni. Then, just over an hour later, I realise that it wasn’t Noni but in fact, a trick cyclist and clown, Sam Barton (1894-1941). The only known video that I could find of him was this same clip but in much worse quality:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ_IqmPpMU0
Then I start to think, what was that preview all about and why was it in such good quality.
So after a bit more digging, I’ve discovered that Cavalcade of Variety is available to watch for free on Amazon Prime. This may well only be in the UK but it’s also available to rent and/or buy, so it may be accessible worldwide. It’s fantastic news and having now watched it several times, I’m very tired and need to get some sleep!
Oh just one last thing. In the film, one of the acts is called, The Four Air Aces, an Australian, spinning motorcycle act, that is just the most brilliant act I’ve ever seen! I can’t find any photos online to show you but it is absolutely awesome!! As are the Arnaut Brothers (clowns) and, of course, Noni and Horace!!!
IMDB say that The Four Air Aces were also on The Mike Douglas Show in 1970, some thirty years later. On closer inspection, they actually meant the musical band, The Four Aces!
A good lesson I learnt from my research today is to remember to consult a couple of websites first, before just jumping straight into Google. Earlier, I was considering whether Noni Perezoff was French or Spanish. I’d read on a few different websites that the Perezoff circus family were Spanish and started by the brothers, Charles, Francisco and Jose Perez in 1904. However, I also read on several other websites that they were a French circus family. After lots of searching, I found a bit of the answer on Circopedia and the rest of the answer on Circus Parade (once I’d translated the page) but I went all around the houses to get there and it took a lot longer than it should have.
It turns out that Noni was in fact French, born in Nice in 1893. His maternal grandmother was Coralie Ducos, who performed as a ballerina on horseback at Cirque des Champs-Elysees and when Noni’s aunt married Francisco Perez, the French and Spanish families adjoined. You can read more about Noni here and it also clears up the question of his act being a replica of Grock’s.
https://www-circus–parade-com.translate.goog/2018/01/06/noni-clown-fleuri-de-reine/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp
