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About the Presenter:

R.W. Bacon as "The Last Living Vaudevillian"

R.W. Bacon closed the book several years ago on a 35-year career as a nationally-touring acrobatic juggler, comic dancer, and jazz banjoist/vocalist. Today he is a not-yet-retired museum professional, historian, researcher, and author.

A graduate of Syracuse (N.Y.) University and the Harvard Museum Studies graduate program, Bacon was a journalist, editor and publication designer before embarking on a 35-year career to tour nationally with his wife, the sensational and speedy club-juggler L.J. Newton, in their now-retired theatrical shows, The Goodtime Ragtime Vaudeville Revival (a panorama of music, song, dance, & comic/acrobatic juggling), and Mr. Slim & L.J.: Classic Comedy Juggling. Decades of shows at theatres, colleges, museums, and special events were spiced with performances for circuses, revues, television, and film. Through the years, venues ranged from the most palatial theatres to the most rickety fairgrounds stages. Career highlights included national tours with the Riverboat Ragtime Revue, multiple editions of the International Cavalcade of Stars all-star circus, engagements at America's finest theatres and resorts, and roles in New York stage and Hollywood movie productions.

R.W. Bacon enjoyed early exposure to the world of entertainment --- his father was a sleight-of-hand artist in the nightclubs of the 1940s, and his grandmother was a pianist for the silent movies of the 1920s. In his early travels he was fortunate to learn from veteran performers with roots in Jazz Age vaudeville. Special mentors included comic juggler Albert Sahlstrom of the Royal Danish Circus (a ptotege of Bela Kremo and Bobby May); "Huberto" (Herbie Weber), the ageless, show-stopping tight-wire acrobat; and Sammy Lyman, the well-traveled eccentric tap dancer. Since those early years Bacon's broad study of American vaudeville and European music hall and circus entertainment has contributed to the development of a repertoire of rarely-seen juggling, manipulative, and acrobatic skills.

In a teaching role, the author's courses, workshops, and individual coaching have informed a generation of professional performers --- his proteges have performed on every continent except Antarctica. Since the 1980s, books on his juggling and manipulative specialties have become "best-sellers" in the worldwide community of recreational jugglers and professional performers.

In the museum field, Bacon is an independent professional with specialties in editorial services, graphic design, and interpretation --- and also serves on the interpretive staff of a large regional preservation organization. He is the researcher and author of more than a dozen books on varied under-the-radar history topics, early New England architecture, writing and editing, and typography and design. His 2018 book on research methodology, The Micro-Historian's Guide to Research, Evidence, & Conclusions, was republished for global and e-book distribution by Rowman & Littlefield, and is now in use at more than 50 colleges worldwide.

He is a member of the American Historical Association (AHA), National Council on Public History (NPC), American Alliance of Museums (AAM), American Association for State and Local History (AASLH), Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), New England Museum Association (NEMA), New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS), the Circus Historical Society (CHS), Unicycling Society of America (USA), International Jugglers Association (IJA), and numerous local/regional historical societies.

The current museum presentation was conceived after Bacon completed the Harvard graduate program in Museum Studies in 2006, began work for a regional preservation organization, and closed the book on his showbusiness career. Several years in preparation, "A Vaudeville Retrospective" is a culmination of his parallel careers in performance, research, and museum interpretation --- all driven by the firm belief that public understanding of "big picture" history enhances the quality of our lives.

Is R.W. Bacon really "The Last Living Vaudevillian"???

No, not literally, but in some segments during "A Vaudeville Retrospective" he assumes the character of "The Last Living Vaudevillian." Strictly speaking, there are 90-year-olds still with us who in the 1930s were children working with their family's act in vaudeville's declining years. In fact, vaudeville's last gasps extended for decades as the genre morphed into post-WWII nightclub variety. Many sage veterans of 1950s-60s circus and variety survive, and indeed number among your presenter's cherished friends and mentors. Your presenter chose the identity of "The Last Living Vaudevillian" for this museum program because it is clearly a role he can grow into. With health and good fortune, he may eventually attain the title's literal status and ultimately be rolled into a museum display case.

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