| He may well have been dressed up as a clown just | | | | childhood bout of pleurisy and was encouraged to |
| like the guy who had guests spellbound at your young | | | | blow up balloons to exercise his lungs when a patient |
| son's recent birthday party, but Twisters, as these | | | | in a Milwaukee TB sanatorium. During his magic career, |
| balloon sculptors are known, come in many guises and | | | | Henry, a regular on Bozo's Circus and other children's |
| can be found creating shapes from special modeling | | | | TV favorites, decided the show must go on in Chicago |
| balloons in various fields of entertainment. | | | | with a Balloon Twisting act after his stage props were |
| Balloon Twisting or Modeling techniques have | | | | stolen from his car. |
| developed to feature a range of highly complex twists | | | | Another contender was Herman Bonnert, from |
| and turns as well as accompanying jargon to describe | | | | Pennsylvania, who was seen in action at a 1939 |
| the vital moves which are likely to have been learned | | | | magicians' convention and is hailed in a Balloon |
| from a video guide with easy-to-follow steps. But how | | | | Modeling manual as the "daddy of them all," while |
| did it all begin? Who were the early exponents of the | | | | Frank Zacone, of Ohio, perfected a balloon act that |
| Balloon Twisting arts? The origins, it seems, are hazy. | | | | was popular in the 1940s. It is likely that all these |
| Emmy Award-winning producer/director Joseph Maar | | | | gentlemen were pioneers of Balloon Twisting or |
| has been putting the case for his late father, Henry J | | | | Modeling - without the benefit of an instructional video - |
| Maar (1921-92), as the original Balloon Twister. He tells | | | | and the art has progressed to become an entertaining |
| how the former vaudeville magician, whose stage | | | | spectacle coloring the lives of young and old. |
| identities included the Sultan of Balloons, had a | | | | |