Sunday, April 05, 2009

Blue Show '78 #8


Scan11523, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Posted by Buckles at 4/05/2009 06:23:00 AM

3 comments:

Roger Smith said...

I was driving along I-30, the Turnpike, between Ft. Worth and Dallas, when the news of Karl's fall came on the radio. That night, film of his death was on the CBS Evening News. The footage was repeated so often, viewers were calling in to stations in protest, first of the presentation of the death itself, then of the relentless re-runs of Karl's fall. The attitude of the local CBS affiliate was, "There has been an influx of calls decrying our coverage of Karl Wallenda's death in a fall from his tightrope [so help me, they called it a tightrope], so for those of you who haven't seen this footage, here once again are details of the event in San Juan that many object to as being over-reported."

My first memories of Karl Wallenda stemmed from his visit to the Beatty show, in '64, when Ray Chitty was wanting to quit the act, which at the time consisted of Ray, Carla Wallenda, and her husband, Chico. Karl came to smooth the waters with Ray, who was not having any. I was Mr. Beatty's cagehand and chauffeur, just beginning to really break in on cats, after getting myself torn up trying get started alone. I always kept crummed up, I was trim and clean-cut, and had all my teeth, so here came Karl, intending to recruit me for his next wire-walker. "I can make you a star", he told me. "No more cleaning dirty lion cages for you, and you can be with my name." My first and only loyalty was to Mr. Beatty, and with all proper respect, I said so to Karl Wallenda. This, of course, was just two years after the tragic Detroit fall of the 7-person pyramid, but my committment to Mr. Beatty was solid. First, I was not an aerialist, and next, as it happened, a number of people were hurt and killed in association with the Wallenda acts, not the least of which was Karl's son-in-law, the late Chico himself.

05 April, 2009 18:26
Anonymous said...

I remember that one afternoon in July or August of 1964, Boom, Boom said to the band that we would have to watch it, that Carla was going on by herself because Ray was
drunk again.
Bob Kitto

05 April, 2009 19:14
Chic Silber said...

Slight correction Roger

Carla was then married to

Paul Jordan who was in the

act at the time & the act

was titled "The Paul Jordan

Troupe Featuring Carla Wallenda"

Chic

05 April, 2009 21:28

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