Photo © Marilyn Sanders In 1935, W. C. Fields devised a brief series of juggling lessons for use in newspapers. Not necessarily indicative of how he himself learned to juggle, they reflect a late-century emphasis on balance and show how he probably would have been taught had he been able to afford lessons: FIELDS JUGGLED BALLS BEFORE HE PLAYED WITH LAUGHS! HE TELLS HOW! THREE-DAY SERIES BEGINS TODAY by W. C. Fields Next to the man on the flying trapeze--ahem!--no performer anywhere in the world draws as much admiration as the fellow who steps out, bows to the audience, and then proceeds to balance and juggle everything in sight, from billiard balls to the bald head of the cornetist in the orchestra pit. I've never known a kid who didn't want to be either a fireman, a locomotive engineer, or a juggler. I was fifteen years old when the juggling urge first asserted itself. I was watching a vaudeville performance from the top of the gallery and the juggler came out to do his stuff. A glow came over me--a glow that still lingers in the famous Fields nose. I went out and started practicing and, believe it or not, it wasn't long after that I managed to get a job juggling on the stage. I've been on the stage ever since, though juggling is no longer a part of my repertoire. But this isn't an autobiography--it's an article on how to learn to juggle. So suppose we get into it immediately. The first thing to learn in juggling is how to get a good sense of balance. To start off with, a plain broomstick will do. Get one about four feet long, and learn to balance it perfectly. Practice until you can balance the stick on the back of either hand with hardly any visible motion. Once you've mastered that, try balancing it first on the forehead, then on the nose (just where it meets the forehead), and then on the chin. When you're doing these, keep your eyes on the top of the stick--that way you can see it beginning to wobble sooner, and can correct it at once. The one thing to remember in learning to balance the stick, as in every other feat of juggling, is that it takes practice and practice. Don't be discouraged if you don't succeed immediately--keep on trying, and in a little while the coordination between your eyes and your muscles will begin to develop. When you've got that coordination, everything will be easy. In tomorrow's article, we'll get onto the problem of juggling balls. I know you're anxious to find out how to go about this, so be sure to get the paper and look for my story. Balancing a stick on various portions of your anatomy is great fun--mostly for the stick. In yesterday's article, I told you the rudiments of such balancing stunts. Now we're all ready to get to the matter of making balls fly through the air with the greatest of ease. There's practically no limit to the number of balls that can be juggled at one time except the skill of the guy juggling them. So, if you're just a beginner, don't worry at first about the number--start off with two, which are tough enough until you get the hang of it. Any kind of balls can be used--tennis balls or small rubber balls will do nicely. Start out by learning to juggle two balls with one hand. Try the right hand first. Hold both balls in the same hand. Toss one of them into the air--about five feet. Then, just when it's beginning to descend, toss the other one up. As the first ball gets back down, catch it and toss it right back. Keep this up as long as you can--soon, with a little patience, you'll be able to do it almost with your eyes closed. Then practice the same stunt with your left hand. When you get so that you can do it with both hands with equal skill, you'll be far on the road--because your coordination will already be fairly well developed. Well, once you can juggle two balls, the next step is to juggle three. There are a lot of ways to do this, but we'll take up just two of them--the "cascade" and the "shower," as we professionals call them. The cascade is shown in the diagram above. Start with two balls in your right hand and one in your left. Toss Ball No. 1 upward from the right hand, giving it a slight inward motion. As it begins to descend, toss Ball No. 2, from your left hand, into the air. Now, as ball No. 1 is reaching your left hand, toss Ball No. 3, from your right hand, into the air. The "shower" is a little tougher--so I'll let you master the "cascade" overnight and then go on tomorrow. FIELDS GIVES "SHOWER" TIP So you're still reading, huh? Well then, gather 'round and get a load of the latest lesson in juggling balls from an old master who has been behind the eight ball so long that juggling three or four is no problem at all. Overnight you've had the opportunity to learn how to "cascade" and today you will get the dope on how to "shower" the little white pellets. You start the "shower" effect just like the "cascade"--two balls in the right hand, and one in the left. In this case, however, the left hand is held a little higher than the right. First you toss up Ball No. 1 from the right hand. Throw it a little higher than the rest, because you'll need the extra time to get the movement underway. As soon as the first ball gets into the air, Ball No. 2, from the right hand, goes up after it. This leaves the right hand empty. Now, quickly, toss Ball No. 3, from your left hand, into the empty right hand, not in the arc-like path followed by the other balls, but straight down, as shown in the drawing above. You've got to keep them moving fast now. As you're catching Ball No. 1 in the left hand, you're throwing Ball No. 3 into the air from your right hand. You continue this with all the balls from now on--the right hand up through the air and down into the left hand--from left hand straight across to right. Once you've perfected the three-ball effect, you can go on to four, and then five, and then on and on. You can do as many as you like with the "cascade" and the "shower." Juggling's fascinating, both to perform and see performed. It develops the muscles and powers of coordination to a point almost impossible to achieve in any other manner. I hope these articles have been helpful in teaching some of you how to juggle. Go to photo gallery: 1. The earliest known photograph of W. C. Fields in his tramp juggler makeup 2. Formal studio portrait 3. The cover of a rare program for the"Ziegfeld Follies" during the week of May 10, 1920 4. Title lobby card for "Sally" (1925) 5. Window card from "Fools for Luck" -- all that remains from that film 7. One-sheet poster of Fields' performance as Micawber in "David Copperfield" -- a daily inspiration to me in writing this book. 8.The great Edgar Bergen, a soft-spoken Swede who was also America's most unlikely insult comic 9. A greeting card from Fields' had own line 10. A late masterpiece: "The Bank Dick." 11. Fields always made a priority of creating an annual holiday greeting (even though he hated Christmas)