Tuesday, August 10, 2010

RBBB 1930s #6


RBBB 1930s-6, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

(Are these the Wallendas?)

Posted by Buckles at 8/10/2010 05:45:00 AM

12 comments:

Chic Silber said...

Yes (the sailor wardrobe)

10 August, 2010 08:28
Jackie LeClaire said...

That has to be, front Joe Geiger, rear Herman Wallenda, chair Carl Wallenda and top mounter Helen Wallenda. This is of course the original trick that made them famous. And, yes, Chic, they did work orignally in sailor outfits. Jackie LeClaire

10 August, 2010 15:53
Little John said...

Once upon a time at the Ringling Park in Florida we had an aerialist family perform this trick, but Papas pants leg got caught in the chain of the bicycle. I was a stage hand at that time and our duties were to spot the act – they were maybe thirty feet up at best. All of the family scaled the rig and removed poles, the other bike, and the pyramid neck thing, until Papa was left by himself. Ten minutes must have gone by and the seasoned clowns came out and I heard one of them say something about if we had a clown car we could dim the lights. Papa tried everything to get unstuck but it just wasn’t happening. Family folks were on each pedestal shouting in their unfamiliar language. Papa removed the bike and tried to hop on one foot toward to his family, he was holding the bike in one hand and maybe the pole behind his neck I suppose – sorry I don’t remember. This didn’t work and he was able to get enough strength to again sit back down on his bike. Time goes by and the band (orchestra at the early years at CW) that was just out of poles reach from this act, a few started to leave because they didn’t want to see the fall. Endless time goes by and finally I guess his son George free walks the wire with a pair of scissors and frees Papa who peddles to his crying family. I don’t remember an ovation from the audience; it was more a sigh of relief that was had by everyone. The shows started back again like power put back to a stalled record player. From then on the act put rubber bands around the pant legs that were next to their sprockets.

10 August, 2010 19:03
Chic Silber said...

Would that have been the Coronas

I recall George had a terrible

accident (I believe from a wheel)

during their tenure at the park

The family had their own thrill

show that booked fairs as well

as playing circus dates

Serge & Stevie still has a show

out called Circus Hollywood &

George & Jeanie have retired

Their sister is Ava Williams

10 August, 2010 23:28
Chic Silber said...

By the way Little John if indeed

they were the Coronas then the

language was Czechoslovakian

10 August, 2010 23:33
Little John said...

After reviewing what I wrote last night I must say that my story seems to have enhanced over the years. I remember Papa trying to remove the bike from the wire, but he never hopped. As soon as he was trying this – putting his foot off the peddle to the wire – his family screamed rather loudly in Czech that this was not a good idea. Here is another story that has enhanced in my mind. It was my fault that George fell off of the wheel of death. George added Alvin’s fake fall to his act. He would walk on the outside of the wheel blindfolded and when the wheel was at about ten o’clock he’d fall inside the wheel, then fall out, and slide down the uprights to the ground. The day he fell was my day off and I came and sat in the third row in front of the wheel to see him do this trick – the trick was getting better and better each show and I have always thought that George was trying to show me a good one. Jewel New who also was know to enhance a story told me that George’s eye popped out and that he popped it back in when he removed the blindfold. They say that the show must go on, well on that day at Circus World it didn’t. One thing that we learned that day was that I takes over an hour for the Haines City ambulance to drive the ten miles to Circus World. I hear that after a long recovery that George came back to the act.

11 August, 2010 16:23
Little John said...

Oh – how George fell. It’s all foggy, but I think he hit the inside of the wheel too hard and bounced off and unfortunately broke his fall with his head. The Circus arena ceiling was 65 feet, so I am guessing the top of the wheel was about fifty. So if the wheel was at 10 o’clock and he bounced off from the inside, George must have fallen at about a quarter till so that puts us at 25 feet. The floor had about a quarter inch of rubber over concrete. The outside wheel was a monster, and I have a great enhanced memory about a time out there.

11 August, 2010 17:38
Chic Silber said...

Little John that would have been

"Elvin" not Alvin

11 August, 2010 21:36
F. Stapleton said...

Little John, I too was in the audience the day George fell during the blindfold. He slipped and tried to grab the wheel but couldn't hold on and fell to the floor. His head hit the floor hard and he was bleeding from his ear. I never knew anything about his eye popping out, but I do remember Jewel and his "tall tail" stories. George's brother Charlie was his spotter and he did try to break his fall. I think he blamed himself after that. After George's recovery, I don't think he returned to the act. I believe he took care of the business part.

11 August, 2010 22:41
GaryHill said...

I remember I spotted George for a few weeks when Charlie was gone. I don't think I was there the day George fell tho?? I do remember Jewell going on about the eye thing? I was either working the ride elephants or might of been one of my rare days off?

12 August, 2010 08:00
Little John said...

The most that I remember was that the fall was fast, Charlie never had a chance. Sorry about the Alvin blooper, but after clowning I became a chipmunk in the expensive amusement park down the road.

12 August, 2010 15:56
Little John said...

The outside wheel: I will try to be as factual as I can given the 30 + years that have gone by that may have embellished the story in my mind. Charlie wasn’t there on this day, and Gary, I don’t know if you were the spotter – I doubt it was because you might have caught this, so to speak. George had a big green wheel; too big to fit in the arena and so he did the act outside. His families acts were the type of acts that we all were compelled to watch. The finally of course is George running on the outside faster and faster, falls on his tummy, shoot out of the wheel, and links arms with Charlie in a do si do kind of thing. Outside in Florida George would decide on the top of the wheel which way to spin the wheel because of the wind. The spotter may have been Jackal although he didn’t do the do si do thing – he had more like a crash pad style, anyway when George starts to spin the wheel, the spotter was on the wrong side of the wheel. But this wasn’t the most concerning thing – a crowd control stanchion was directly in George’s path, and he would have straddled it flying off of the wheel. I must have been the only one who noticed this, and I knew the George didn’t need to do the do si do thing – he was quite adept at these sorts of things and it was mostly a crowd pleaser. I watched this act all of the time, and I have always been lucky with my timing. As George falls to his tummy I casually walk out into his landing path and nonchalantly pull away the stanchion away just before George flies by with his feet trying to catch up with him.

12 August, 2010 17:15

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