This post is more for those of you who like old variety films. There's only a tiny bit of juggling in this, along with some unicycling, club swinging, slack wire, sway pole and teeterboard. Here's an American, musical-comedy film that was released in June 1944 called, Sensations of 1945. As with most of these variety films, the circus acts themselves are broken up with bits of acting and story-telling, so we hardly ever see them in their entirety. At 86 minutes long, you could watch the whole thing or you could skip to these bits:
19 – 26 minutes: we see two unicyclists (one is Mel Hall, the 'King of Unicycles'); a tumbler, a troupe of club swinging ladies; club jugglers and very fast passing by the Johnson Brothers (Duke & Harry); Mel Hall on unicycle, then he free-mounts a (6-foot?) giraffe unicycle followed by him riding it upside down, using hands on pedals. Next, we see The Four Copelands, a high octane roller skating act and at 23:45, Hubert Castle enters playing his drunk character on the slack wire. This is an awesome act with some expert pratfalls.
28 – 29:45: Teeterboard act by the Cristiani family (I think).
29:45 – 34:30: Olaf, The Great Gustafson (character played by Hubert Castle).
37:50 – 50:50: Cab Calloway and his band including Dorothy Donegan and Gene Rodgers duetting on piano in a jitterbug-swing number.
1.02:30 – 1.06:30: W C Fields in his last film role before his death the following year. Comedy sketch with two well-dressed drunks in a face-slapping, slapstick scene.
1.22:10: a peculiar tap dancing horse act (possibly the Cristiani family).
28 – 29:45: Teeterboard act by the Cristiani family (I think).
29:45 – 34:30: Olaf, The Great Gustafson (character played by Hubert Castle).
37:50 – 50:50: Cab Calloway and his band including Dorothy Donegan and Gene Rodgers duetting on piano in a jitterbug-swing number.
1.02:30 – 1.06:30: W C Fields in his last film role before his death the following year. Comedy sketch with two well-dressed drunks in a face-slapping, slapstick scene.
1.22:10: a peculiar tap dancing horse act (possibly the Cristiani family).
