Yes he does, and still goes in for stunt work in his 80s. He consults more now than performs.
The bandage on Fay's left shoulder is covering the badly festering reactions from vaccinations everyone on the Ringling had to take before entering Mexico, which dates this photo as 1957. This was my first time to meet Fay and Rosie. He was freshly returned from filming TRAPEZE, at the D'Hiver, in Paris, and the movie made him a lasting and influential hero to all flying act fans.
Doubt I could count the flyers who told me they took to the rigging after seeing Fay doubling for Tony Curtis in TRAPEZE. After cutting the film and getting it into distribution, Burt Lancaster wrote a letter to Fay, saying whatever success coming from the film would be owed to him. Some film folks, including TCM's late Robert Osbourne, credited the flying work to Eddie Ward. No, Ward wad decked out in drag, doubling Gina Lollobrigida--who, incidentally, felt poor Eddie was "too ug-lee to play me!" Willie Krause doubled Burt Lancaster in the catch trap. It was Fay who got named in the screen credits as Technical Adviser - Flying Sequences, and he who was the main leaper for Tony's Tino Orsini.
6 comments:
Bobby & Dorothy Yerkes
Rose & Fay Alexander
I believe that Bobby still
maintains his training yard
for circus & film stunt folks
in Northridge California
Yes he does, and still goes in for stunt work in his 80s. He consults more now than performs.
The bandage on Fay's left shoulder is covering the badly festering reactions from vaccinations everyone on the Ringling had to take before entering Mexico, which dates this photo as 1957. This was my first time to meet Fay and Rosie. He was freshly returned from filming TRAPEZE, at the D'Hiver, in Paris, and the movie made him a lasting and influential hero to all flying act fans.
Bobby trained & assembled
quite a few flying acts
Some from folks he found
on Muscle Beach including
The Flying Apollos with
Francine & Phil Schacht
that started on Beatty
Phil died not long ago
Their elephant Dondi died
in 2010 at age 36
Doubt I could count the flyers who told me they took to the rigging after seeing Fay doubling for Tony Curtis in TRAPEZE. After cutting the film and getting it into distribution, Burt Lancaster wrote a letter to Fay, saying whatever success coming from the film would be owed to him. Some film folks, including TCM's late Robert Osbourne, credited the flying work to Eddie Ward. No, Ward wad decked out in drag, doubling Gina Lollobrigida--who, incidentally, felt poor Eddie was "too ug-lee to play me!" Willie Krause doubled Burt Lancaster in the catch trap. It was Fay who got named in the screen credits as Technical Adviser - Flying Sequences, and he who was the main leaper for Tony's Tino Orsini.
In later years Fay bought a comedy car
(maybe from Cook) & updated it with a
number of reliable gimmicks & titled
it "Al's Lemonzeen" with which Rosie
doing all the hard work & Fay working
it very well as a tramp clown wowed
the crowds for several years
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