Vaudeville Act – The Luster Brothers, Contortionists

1930

R.K.O.-Capitol — Unique and nearly unique in several respects, the Luster Brothers, the noted team of contortionists whose sensational feats are proving unusually entertaining to audiences at the R.K.O.-Capitol theatre this week, fully justify their billing of "Making Oddities in Art." These clean-cut, well-built young men are Americans, being natives of Birmingham, Ala. This in itself is enough to give distinction to any group of contortionists, considering that by far the great majority of such performers emanate from European or Asiatic lands. They are self-taught. Most contortionists were started out on their career by their parents, who began teaching them as soon as they were able to walk. This fact explains why most contortionists are foreigners, American parents being unwilling, generally, to spend the necessary time and effort to train their youngsters from infancy. The Lusters, who are brothers in professional life only, did not begin their training until they were ten and eleven years old, respectively; and then worked entirely without prompting from anyone. Using the barn owned by their father, they experimented and drilled with undying enthusiasm because they liked the work, and they did it without the approval of their mothers and fathers.

—Manitoba Free Press, Winnipeg, August 1, 1930, page 19, ad from July 30.