Fay Alexander's fly bars did feature chrome balls on each end.
Ernest Clarke's fly bar was known in the industry as always the heaviest. We remember Burt Lancaster, as Mike Ribble in TRAPEZE, was a devotee of the "two-act", the flying act with only a leaper and his catcher--with no one up there dropping bars. Clarke had to swing so correctly that when he left the bar for his trick, it had to remain in a very straight swing so it would be at the right height for his return from his catcher brother, Charles. They determined the weight of the bar that would make this return in place. Someone who has this bar once showed it to Kim Baer, saying, "This is your grandfather's fly bar--always the heaviest."
8 comments:
Although he did both
this is not a fly bar
This is from his single trap act, my once and forever favorite photo of Codona.
How is a fly bar different?
There are several basic types of trapeze bars
Most single trap bars are suspended by rope
Some have a cable core in the rope & most of
the ropes are covered in a fabric or velvet
There is often extra pading around the splices
The round bars are between 3/4" & 1" & they
are taped with both a friction type tape as
well as a twill or gauze secondary covering
Trapeze Washington bars are flat & not round
with a solid length of rod at each end that
attaches to similar ropes as mentioned above
Fly bars are suspended by cables at each end
with no decorative end caps or balls
They are generally between 5/8" & 3/4" with
very similar taping as mentioned above
Catch trap bars are very heavily padded at
the cable connection points to protect the
catcher in suspension position
Look back to the Saturday the 22nd images
Fay Alexander's fly bars did feature chrome balls on each end.
Ernest Clarke's fly bar was known in the industry as always the heaviest. We remember Burt Lancaster, as Mike Ribble in TRAPEZE, was a devotee of the "two-act", the flying act with only a leaper and his catcher--with no one up there dropping bars. Clarke had to swing so correctly that when he left the bar for his trick, it had to remain in a very straight swing so it would be at the right height for his return from his catcher brother, Charles. They determined the weight of the bar that would make this return in place. Someone who has this bar once showed it to Kim Baer, saying, "This is your grandfather's fly bar--always the heaviest."
That's a good amount of info, but why (generally) would you not have a end cap on a fly bar?
A fly bar is primarily
a means of conveyance
not part of an artistic
routine & their cables
at each end are often
disconnected for the bar
to be rewrapped
Focus should remain with
the flyer & not the bar
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