Jennier Family (From Richard Flint)

The apparent progenitor of three generations of Jenniers was George (wife Nina, also an entree-rider), who had a bar act and did Indian club-swinging and leaping (as would any performer in the 1880s). He had 3 or 4 children including George, Maud, and Walter, the youngest. The possible fourth was amusingly announced in an 1887 issue of the show trade paper Clipper with the brief squib “Geo. Jennier informs his friends that a nine-pound equilibrist was added to his family April 22." Walter, however, was born Aug 24, 1891, and died June 1974 in Gibsonton. The family played variety halls and small circuses such as Stowe Bros. (1889-90). By 1914, they had Jennier s Society Circus as one of the shows on the midway of the Johnny J. Jones carnival. In 1926 Billboard reported the retirement of George, by then clowning. Ethel was married to Walter by 1943 and their daughter Jo Anne was presenting a contortion routine by 1947. Son Walter was born before 1948. The family was on Hunt Bros. that season (and again in 1955 per a White Tops review) with Ethel “stopping the show with her ankle drops and traps.” In a review headed "Polack's 1958 Powerhouse," a Billboard reporter wrote "In a difficult position in the running order is the Jennier Seal Act, and meeting the challenge is Ethel Jennier. She not only succeeds in maintaining the pace and climb of the show but outdoes herself by stealing the show from her own seals. She's vivacious and her professional show abilities recall to mind her prowess as Miss Aerialetta. She discontinued the aerial act two seasons ago to step into the seal act, where Walter Jennier now assists. She surrenders the stage to the seals after preliminaries and show[s] off their balancing, including the carrying of a glass of water atop a stick. Fine training and timing that mark Walter's routine, with a seal reading music and needing glasses, is carried on by Ethel." And that youthful exuberance is what I remember when I saw her working sometime after her 1960s separation from second husband Jack Joyce. But I remember an elderly man assisting her in the single seal act.