The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-07-12
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From the Cleveland Plain Dealer.


 H makes him Wilson Pero. For \ over IT years Gone year over, to be exact) he has been dramatically ac- tive in the combination of Pero anG Wilson. But 1t is not a combination or names only. To make vaudeville team you have to have more than two names. You must have two people. Pero and Wilson are not only two names, but two people. Pero explained it.
 Eighteen years ago my wife and l started in the show game together" he said. My wife is Wilson. When we married we chose a team name, and so we took my own name. She became the Wilson and I became the Pero. All the name was kept in the family, and also in the billing"
 When two people elect to enter vaudeville there Is no limit to the fan ciful titu1ar flights they may essay. Naming an act is, really, much easier than finding and perfecting an act. Die tionaries and encyclopedias abound in all that is nifty in nomenclature l mind one time, here in Cleveland, years ago, when a big pageant was being promoted. The principal promoter and I had to find names for the partici- pants in the big events. We had to find titles for the ritual. The task occupied HIS a half hour. We went to the Gen. tury dictionary and simply availed our selves of words. They meant nothing. of course, but they served because they sounded.
 So it is in vaudeville. Titles are easy to find and high sounding names abound. Pero's simple expedient, there fore. of economizing his ingenuity aid taking one name, his own, and mak- Ing 1t go fifty-fifty with his partner. made an appeal to me. Pero devoted h1s major ingenuity to his work and not to the entitling of his work. I do not know what his wife's name was before she became the Wilson of the sketch.
 To explain title. the team of Pero and Wilson played an engagement at the Star theatre last week as a vaudt- vile addition to the regular pro sramme, and the act made a hit. People
 
 jugglers and pantomimists who are re- markable because they juggle and do not try to inject moth- eaten comedy in their sketch. as most jugglers think is the rule. Pero is the juggler and the hard worker of the team. Wilson is Mrs. Pero, as we have adroitly inti- mated above, and Wilson is the helper of Pero. She passes him the umbrellas or the plates or the candles or the billiard balls, as he requires them, and, though the audience doesn't appreciate it. perhaps, the act Is really one that requires a team, and the person who appears to be only helping works as hard and is as integral to the success. of the act as the more spectacular per son. Pero knows more about his act than the audience does, in all truth, and Pero says this, as he should.
 ''She is my wife" says Pero. We have lived and worked together in hap piness for IS years. When I make a mistake on the stage she is very ant to tell me about it afterward. And when she fumbles something, I fear that l bring the subject up in argu-
  rent That Is the way we correct the work we do. It is work that calls for the most exact and precise control of eye and muscle. My wife watches all that do, and helps me by her sue gestions. Her part is important, and so I tell her what I think she can .do to make my Juggling better
 For IS years Pero and Wilson have been in the show business together but only for the past nine years have they been a vaudeville team. Before Pero was in the circus His father and mother were members of the old Leon troupe that was feature of the Bar mum & Bailey show The Leon troupe was a combination of trapez perform CTS daring bareback riders. and all- around circus folks. One winter, in Bridgeport, Conn.,. while the show wa.; in winter quarters, Pero was born. The | next spring he went out with the BaI : mum & Bailey show
 T was raised with the circus" he said yesterday. T was taught the circus | business at the same time I learned to read and write. Tn those days. witl the show, going to school was learning to ride bareback and to spell As a matter of fact. those masters taught us both and taught us we'll"
 A hard school, you may think, but Pero says it wasn't any harder thar a regular school where the kids si' at desks and recite geography anc other mysterious things.
 'I never saw a school" said Pei o fin the ordinary meaning of the word was taught to juggle, to ride bare. back to ride two horses as well al one, which means that you must rid' Roman. and ride furiously with olt'