Saturday, March 03, 2018

#2 Aerialists!


Posted by Buckles at 3/03/2018 06:22:00 AM

1 comments:

Roger Smith said...

Of those posed in the pyramid, Alfredo is seated on the ground. His wife-to-be, Clara Grow, sits above him. Some historians claim her maiden name was Gron, but to have it as Grow here suggests somebody got it right at the time. To her left is Alfredo's catcher-brother, Abalardo (Lalo). Clara and Alfredo married, but when the star of Lillian Leitzel ascended, she set her sights on Alfredo, then the world's top flyer. Historian Leonard V. Farley told me rumors ran wild that Leitzel paid Clara the sum of $1,000 to leave the show and free Codona for her own designs of marriage. True or not about a payoff, Clara departed and lived out her days in Cleveland. Leitzel and Codona married in Chicago in the season of 1928, and clown Buck Baker's "funny car" served as their limousine. Read of their story both in Bradna's THE BIG TOP, and in the exquisitely-researched tome by Dean Jensen, QUEEN OF THE AIR.

03 March, 2018 22:29

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