Francis Brunn

OBITUARY - The Villager - Greenwich Village - New York USA

Volume 73, Number 6 | June 9 - 15, 2004
Obituary

Francis Brunn, 81, famed juggler, lived later years in the Village

Francis Brunn, a juggler who played The Palace in Times Sq. with Judy Garland and performed on Ed Sullivan’s television show and before the crowned heads of Britain and Sweden, died at the end of May in Frankfurt, Germany, at the age of 81.

Born in Aschaffenburg, Germany, near Frankfurt, he lived in Manhattan since 1948 and made his home in the Village since 1991, according to Nathalie Enterline, his stage manager and longtime companion.

He died of complications from heart surgery, according to Mary Tahmin, of the Village, a former juggling partner.

An avid sportsman in his youth, he took up juggling with his sister Lottie and both joined a traveling show in 1939, playing all over Europe, frequently in Spain. John Ringling North saw the Brunn siblings perform in Spain in 1947 and invited them to join his circus. Lottie Brunn left the show in 1951 and Francis Brunn continued to perform in various venues, including twice at the White House for President Eisenhower.

Brunn’s act ranged from the spectacular to the sublimely simple — from juggling 11 objects at once to juggling a single ball.

When he retired from juggling 10 years ago he organized a flamenco troupe, Incognito, with dancers, singers and his son, Raphael Brunn, a guitarist.

A memorial service was held Sat. June 5 and burial was in New Jersey. In addition to his son, a daughter, Christina Price, of New Jersey, survives. His sisters, Lottie Brunn Chirrick, of Las Vegas, Annie Weisshaupt, of New Jersey, and Jutta Mercado, of Connecticut, and a half-brother, Ernst Montego Kuhn, of Aschaffenburg, also survive.

FRANCIS BRUNN was one of the GREATEST juggling artists of all time, certainly, the most famous of my generation. Besides being a great professional inspiration, in recent years I was lucky enough to spend a good deal of personal time with him
and got to know him well. Francis was a warm man with a great sense of humor. We spent many hours together in Italy, practicing, talking and, of course, drinking beer.