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Speaker 1: Welcome to you stuff you should know fromhouse Stuff Works

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Speaker 1: dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark,

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Speaker 1: Charles W. Chuck Bryant and Jerry. Which makes this The

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Speaker 1: Flying s y s K Flying Stuff Stuffy Ends Stefanos

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Speaker 1: Steffini's the Flying steffens Man. Boy. See you look at that.

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Speaker 1: It took us wet seven seconds. Maybe even wants to

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Speaker 1: come up with the best name in the history of

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Speaker 1: podcasting circus teams. Yeah, we'll go back and look at

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Speaker 1: the time stamp. After this publicism, we'll know for sure.

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Speaker 1: But I say less than seven seconds. The Flying Steffeni's.

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Speaker 1: Good job man, all right, I guess we can retire.

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Speaker 1: We've hit it big, Yeah we have. You can make

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Speaker 1: some money being a circus family, I learned. Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: have no idea about costs. So you will delight me

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Speaker 1: because I think everyone, well not everyone. I think some

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Speaker 1: people when they go to circus, they're like, what's that

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Speaker 1: guy make for throwing knives? Oh? I have no idea

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Speaker 1: what they make. It's just and I got from this

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Speaker 1: research and I thought you had some hard numbers. No,

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Speaker 1: you're the statman, remember, and I know, but people, uh,

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Speaker 1: you know it's rude to talk about money, so people

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Speaker 1: don't share these things these days. That's why I'm not

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Speaker 1: saying anything. I'm just telling you the impression I had.

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Speaker 1: They're always strutting around with goblets full of really expensive

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Speaker 1: wine circus families, so you know, yeah, they got uh.

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Speaker 1: You know. Every time I think we're all circused, out

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Speaker 1: there comes another topic. Well, we have yet to do

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Speaker 1: how circuses themselves work. We will do that one day.

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Speaker 1: So we've done all of its components, every last one.

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Speaker 1: After that, Well, it does have interesting history, so well

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Speaker 1: we will save that then. Yeah, we Well I do

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Speaker 1: want to do how circus is working. We should also

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Speaker 1: say I don't want anybody to have the impression that

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Speaker 1: by talking about circus families we are endorsing circuses in general.

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Speaker 1: I have serious issues with some of them, with them

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Speaker 1: for the most part, oh, like because of their treatment

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Speaker 1: of animals. Yeah, but a lot of them don't use

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Speaker 1: animals at all anymore, not a lot of them, some

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Speaker 1: of them don't. I have no problem with those circuses. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: Like I remember the Big Apple Circus. They have a

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Speaker 1: dog thing, go out dogs a horse thing, and I

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Speaker 1: think that was it. And horses love to show off,

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Speaker 1: So I'm okay with the big Yeah you wouldn't shoot,

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Speaker 1: you know, but no, no, they wouldn't show like an

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Speaker 1: elephant right right, Which is funny because apparently an elephant

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Speaker 1: is equal to a family circus performer. Oh yeah, I

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Speaker 1: saw that. I should say circus family performer. Family Circus

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Speaker 1: is totally different. Yeah. This is a little frustrated research

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Speaker 1: because I kept getting lots of circular cartoons that weren't funny.

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Speaker 1: You don't think they're funny, Okay, they're they're not funny.

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Speaker 1: I think they're charming and heartwarming. Yeah, sure, you know,

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Speaker 1: Jeffy wrote on the wall, right, it's not funny, but

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Speaker 1: it's cute. Their little hair and the noses and the

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Speaker 1: they're cute. Uh that I have a brief segue here. Initially,

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Speaker 1: Um that reminded me was just at max foncan uh,

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Speaker 1: the the weekend retreat of Jesse Thorn and his podcasting empire.

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Speaker 1: Everybody loved you that picture of you and Hodgeman and

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Speaker 1: Justin McElroy's kid. Yeah, little baby Charlie. Yeah, very cute. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think people love babies. Hodgeman, who doesn't even particularly

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Speaker 1: like kids, was like, give me that baby. You know, Um,

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Speaker 1: Hodgman likes kids, at least he likes his own kids. Um,

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Speaker 1: so I was just there. And first of all, let

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Speaker 1: me recommend the Super Ego podcast, Very funny improv podcast

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Speaker 1: featuring Matt Gorley and Paula Tompkins and Mark McConville and

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Speaker 1: Jeremy Carter. You could have stopped at paul Tomkin. Yeah right, Um,

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Speaker 1: but one man improv is like, it's not the best

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Speaker 1: he can do. He does, I've seen it. So anyway,

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Speaker 1: a long story short, we were playing this game one

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Speaker 1: night where we were naming comic strips and the comic

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Speaker 1: strip mark trail came up. Oh man, you remember that.

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Speaker 1: Well it wasn't even trying to be funny. Well no,

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Speaker 1: it wasn't funny at all, but it wasn't even like interesting.

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Speaker 1: It was literally like, you know, the what a beautiful

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Speaker 1: sunset today, right, was tracing the trail of a hawk

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Speaker 1: in the sky, like through eight panels. I thought it

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Speaker 1: was refreshing in a little ways, like you just make

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Speaker 1: it all like through a hilarious spasm of laughter after

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Speaker 1: like Funky winker Bean or Hagar the Horrible and you

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Speaker 1: needed to like chill out. Remember that, so you'd like

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Speaker 1: read the Mark Trail and then like you go at

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Speaker 1: it again and just laugh and laugh and beatle Bailey,

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Speaker 1: which is great, instant it just and then maybe you'd

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Speaker 1: come down a little on merry Worth or Department but

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Speaker 1: three G, back up on Wizard of It, back down

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Speaker 1: with Brenda's starr. Yeah, that's the way you do it.

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Speaker 1: But Mark Trail, I don't want to knock it too

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Speaker 1: much because I believe it like taught kids about nature

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Speaker 1: and conservancy and stuff like that. But and how to

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Speaker 1: follow a hawks Trail in the sky didn't belong in

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Speaker 1: the comic section. But I don't know, like it was

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Speaker 1: a comic strip. Yeah. A lot of those comics were

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Speaker 1: like they started out or a lot of things started

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Speaker 1: out as comics like Lone Ranger comic. Oh really sure

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Speaker 1: comic strip or a comic book, because some have been both.

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Speaker 1: You know, well the Bolster my point. Let's say comic strip, okay, okay,

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Speaker 1: And it might have actually started out as a radio show.

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Speaker 1: And I think about it, Hey, that worked that worked

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Speaker 1: out well. I was just thinking, how can we kill

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Speaker 1: some time here before we do circuses? That's how Family

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Speaker 1: Circus tangent so Family circuses. Uh. When I first started, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: circus families. When I first started researching, I was like,

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Speaker 1: what a weird thing to be in a circus family.

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Speaker 1: And then I thought it might be weird to be

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Speaker 1: in one, but not weird that there are circus families,

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Speaker 1: because it makes total sense that it's the family business.

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Speaker 1: Well that's how circus is largely started out. Yeah, very familial.

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Speaker 1: It was, you know, like you some patriarch of a

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Speaker 1: family would find doubt that Hey, I'm I'm kind of

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Speaker 1: good at juggling. Why don't I try doing it while

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Speaker 1: I stand on the back of a moving horse And

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Speaker 1: they go, holy cow, I'm actually doing this. And they'd say, well,

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Speaker 1: let me see what happens when I tossed my sons

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Speaker 1: in the air instead of juggling, you know, batons. If

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Speaker 1: I set their hair on fire using some sort of

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Speaker 1: safe flammable material that will burn but not burn the sun,

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Speaker 1: say like, I have a flame retardant cap. Sure, then

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Speaker 1: all of a sudden, you've got a circus family. And

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Speaker 1: like these people would would start out by you know,

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Speaker 1: the whole family would get involved in This was a

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Speaker 1: time when they were much larger families than there are

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Speaker 1: today and they would form their own mini circus and

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Speaker 1: travel around. And as circuses became more and more established

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Speaker 1: and entrenched and divided among some very big names. Um,

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Speaker 1: they started basically freelancing for these things. Like they go

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Speaker 1: on a tour or a couple of tours would be

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Speaker 1: you know, with a large circus for a couple of years,

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Speaker 1: and then they go off and get on another tool

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Speaker 1: or something like that. But um, they would form these

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Speaker 1: family acts and that's how circus is originally got started. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and um, apparently it's it just the more you look

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Speaker 1: at it, the more it makes sense. You know, they're

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Speaker 1: on the road a lot, um, and if you want

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Speaker 1: to spend time with your family, get your family in

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Speaker 1: the family business, because then mom and dad aren't on

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Speaker 1: the road doing their equestrian act. They are bringing the

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Speaker 1: kids along and teaching them, and all of a sudden

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Speaker 1: they're the the writing uh steffinos and they're spending time

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Speaker 1: together and it's uh, you know, I read a few

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Speaker 1: interviews with people in circus families and apparently if you

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Speaker 1: were not from a circus family, uh, this quote from

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Speaker 1: a Big Apple Circus guest director Steve Smith said, for

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Speaker 1: those of us those of us who didn't grow up

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Speaker 1: in the circus, there's always a feeling as if we're

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Speaker 1: on the outside looking in on what they call quote

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Speaker 1: being circus. Yeah, like if you're born into a circus

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Speaker 1: family and you're in the circus, you have automatic prestige,

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Speaker 1: you're part of a dynasty, and that's being circus. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's like a real police. If you're a fan of

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Speaker 1: the Wire, Sure there's cops and there's real police. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but like if you were born into being police, which

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Speaker 1: a lot of cops are also another family tradition job. Yes,

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Speaker 1: I don't know if a little podcasters are going to

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Speaker 1: come along. We were not at that point yet where

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Speaker 1: like there's been a generation you know, not yet, but yeah,

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Speaker 1: maybe little Charlie McElroy will be a podcast maybe um

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Speaker 1: and then they call uh they say marrying inside the

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Speaker 1: circuits also makes a lot of sense because where you're

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Speaker 1: gonna meet people, but probably fellow performers, other circus families,

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Speaker 1: so these and not towners. If you're not like, uh,

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Speaker 1: I like you and I are towners. Yeah a k

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Speaker 1: A slack jawn yokels. Yeah, you know, how are you look?

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Speaker 1: Well that thing on fire and jump through it. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: there's a there's a pretty neat article on pbs UM

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Speaker 1: called Being Circus Life in the Only Business about being

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Speaker 1: born into a circus family. It seems like a pretty

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Speaker 1: cool life. I mean, you know, they go to school

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Speaker 1: on the road, and I think it's like one big

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Speaker 1: family because they say, you know, if you're in a

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Speaker 1: trap ez act, you can't be mad at your dad

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Speaker 1: who is catching you in the trap ez act tonight.

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Speaker 1: So I think you gotta like, yeah, well, you know,

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Speaker 1: you can't go into performance, a dangerous performance like the

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Speaker 1: Globe of Death, harboring any animosity towards your siblings. So

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Speaker 1: you gotta work this stuff out. You know, they're they're

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Speaker 1: tight knit people, right, And it seems like the custom

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Speaker 1: is that once you are done performing as a member

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Speaker 1: of a circus family, there's a non performing job for you,

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Speaker 1: ready and waiting in the circus elsewhere, like an administration

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Speaker 1: or something like that. I thought you were gonna say,

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Speaker 1: break a deal, face the wheel, longstanding tradition in the circus.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Bartertown. Um, I watched that not too long ago.

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Speaker 1: I told you a thing. Can watch the whole Mad

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Speaker 1: Max trilogy. Yeah, the quadrilogy. Now, well, yeah, I think

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Speaker 1: it's the trilogy plus one, Like Durham is our plus

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Speaker 1: one on the Northeast tour. Yep, lousy people of Durham.

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Speaker 1: Get it together, Durham. Um. All right, So you want

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Speaker 1: to talk about some of these famous families. You know,

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Speaker 1: you marry into it, you're born into it, and then

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Speaker 1: before you know and it it seems like they always

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Speaker 1: have a lot of kids too. Yeah, like seven children,

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Speaker 1: because you need seven to complete a pyramids exactly? Is

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Speaker 1: that why? Probably if you think you need help, um,

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Speaker 1: you know, tending to the farm. Imagine having like a

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Speaker 1: circus act. That's good point. And some circus families also

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Speaker 1: kind of expand, especially once they form a troop, they'll

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Speaker 1: expand the family act to include non family members. Where

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Speaker 1: they're they're members of the troops, they're not members of

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Speaker 1: the family. But for any outsider, they're like, oh, there's

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Speaker 1: like three dads here. Yeah. But they take the traditional

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Speaker 1: blood oath think sure, you know, and cut themselves with

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Speaker 1: an elephant tusks still attached to the elephant. Yeah, that's right,

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Speaker 1: and then they do a trapeze that's gotta hurt. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So let's talk about the Clarks, one of the earliest

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Speaker 1: UM British circus families. Any relation do you probably? I mean,

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Speaker 1: can't you tell you see me on the high wire?

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Speaker 1: I have? You're quite skilled. Yes, they the Clarks go

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Speaker 1: all the way back to the very first uh circuses,

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Speaker 1: because a man named Philip Astley is credited as being

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Speaker 1: the inventor of the modern circus in the late seventeen hundreds. Right,

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Speaker 1: and he heard about John Clark, who was a horseman,

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Speaker 1: and a lot of these people were horse people. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's a good way to start in the circus to

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Speaker 1: be good on a horse. Um he Uh, John Clark

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Speaker 1: was good on a horse. He caught the attention of

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Speaker 1: um Philip Astley and uh in the early nineteenth century

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Speaker 1: they started a circus act. Yeah, it was an area

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Speaker 1: act at first. And it seems like anytime you're good,

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Speaker 1: then the Ringling Brothers will come a calling at some point. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: for sure, to snap you up, because they're the greatest

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Speaker 1: show on earth. That's right. Um. The one of the

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Speaker 1: ways also to cement your family act as a dynasty,

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Speaker 1: in addition to having multiple generations that stay in the

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Speaker 1: circus um is to create some new thrilling move that

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Speaker 1: no one else has done before, like the Clarks are

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Speaker 1: credited with um coming up with the triple back somersault

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Speaker 1: in nine nine, right, and the whole the Clark family

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Speaker 1: dynasty actually broke up because of World War Two. World

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Speaker 1: War two, interestingly had a really direct impact on a

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Speaker 1: lot of circus families, and the Clarks were among them. Um,

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Speaker 1: So the men went off to war. I'm sure some

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Speaker 1: of them died. The ones of it turned were like,

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Speaker 1: I've seen too much to go back into the circus.

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Speaker 1: And it was up to Ernestine Clark, who was a

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Speaker 1: great granddaughter of John Clark I believe, to carry on

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Speaker 1: the family business, yes, single handedly, and daughter of Ernest.

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Speaker 1: Her name was actually Elizabeth Laura, but she looks so

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Speaker 1: much like Ernest. People called her little Ernie and uh yeah,

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Speaker 1: she eventually went by Ernestine. I guess she was like,

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Speaker 1: I might as well just make this a little more feminine.

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Speaker 1: It's like a family circus trip. And she did soldier

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Speaker 1: on um, you know, after World War two. Like you said,

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Speaker 1: it's so crazy to think about these famous people going

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Speaker 1: and joining the army. Well, Elvis did. Yeah, Elvis was

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Speaker 1: in the army. I know. He's also probably like more

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Speaker 1: protected than Prince Harris. Sure, but he was still in

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Speaker 1: the army and famous athletes. Like can you imagine, like

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Speaker 1: Justin Bieber is in the army, it's a fight in

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Speaker 1: the Middle East. No, I really really came just doing

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Speaker 1: his duty kind of is an American just a different time.

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Speaker 1: It's just mind boggling to think about the mindset back then.

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Speaker 1: You know. Do you know I got my haircut recently

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Speaker 1: by the guy who created the Bieber haircut back in

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Speaker 1: the day. Is that why you went to him? No?

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Speaker 1: I didn't find out until part way through, and I

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Speaker 1: was like, please don't give me a beaper, Please don't

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Speaker 1: give which what was the sweepy in your face? Wow? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: So he was Bieber styliss yes, early on, and gave

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Speaker 1: him that haircut. Isn't that cool? I guess man, I

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Speaker 1: was like one degree from Justin Bieber. I think we

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Speaker 1: all are. Um, so everybody, UM, I don't know if

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Speaker 1: you found this. I thought this is pretty amazing. Um.

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Speaker 1: The Clark's performance group early on, we're called the clarkon Ians.

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Speaker 1: I thought that was pretty good. It's weird. It's so funny,

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Speaker 1: like for some reason, if you're a circus promoter, You're like,

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Speaker 1: that name is not nearly Italian enough at an eeny

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Speaker 1: or an owny or something on the end of even

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Speaker 1: if it doesn't work like clark Oni in yeah, or

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Speaker 1: as we'll hear about later, the hoy Genie's Yeah, this

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Speaker 1: isn't that's that's senseless. It is pretty senseless. But you

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Speaker 1: can thank circus promoters for coming up with those horrible

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Speaker 1: hybrids of names. I think there's a rich tradition in Italy,

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Speaker 1: so they just sounded, you know, fanciful. Um. So, Ernestine

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Speaker 1: carried the torch um. She finally left the circus in

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Speaker 1: the nineteen fifties. Uh and had a husband that was

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Speaker 1: a part time circus performer, part time actor and her

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Speaker 1: little girls who party? Yeah, part of who he was

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Speaker 1: the mayor and Andy Griffith. Oh no way. And if

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Speaker 1: you look up his um his credits, he was in everything.

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Speaker 1: He like made appearances in everything, Like you would recognize

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Speaker 1: him immediately. Interesting, He's been in everything from Three's Company

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Speaker 1: to The Golden Girls. He was just in everything. Wow,

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Speaker 1: that's pretty awesome. Bewitched. Yeah, did I say three His Company?

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Speaker 1: I'll say it again. Uh. So she married the famous

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Speaker 1: actor Um and then her daughters became trapeze artists, carrying

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Speaker 1: on the family tradition, and Ernestine eventually became the first

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Speaker 1: daughter to follow her father into the International Circus Hall

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Speaker 1: of Fame. And I have a little clip here. Do

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Speaker 1: you ever read the old New York Times articles sometimes

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Speaker 1: the pdf? Eighteen different headlines? Yeah, yeah, this is basically

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Speaker 1: read the headline several headlines. Actually, so this is about

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Speaker 1: clark Um Ernest Clark in New York City and Madison

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Speaker 1: Square Garden. And the first headline is trapeze man noted

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Speaker 1: for twist and air. Uh, Ernest Clark of wrinkling circus,

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Speaker 1: turns at right angles and leap for life line line,

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Speaker 1: broken rib brings panic, I'm sorry, payne line line and

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Speaker 1: then writhing action during triple somersault starts sweat of agony.

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Speaker 1: All right, And then in the article it says, h

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Speaker 1: Clark's feet is apparently in defiance of all the laws

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Speaker 1: of mechanics, for he turns his body in the air

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Speaker 1: and a pirouette at right angles to its line of flight,

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Speaker 1: with no other leverage than that he can exert by

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Speaker 1: a thrust of his shoulders. Journalism it is. And then

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Speaker 1: later when they're describing describing him, says Clark as a small,

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Speaker 1: almost slight man, but with a large, wonderfully developed chest

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Speaker 1: with a great heart beating inside. Old New York Times

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Speaker 1: articles are just the best, I would say, all old

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Speaker 1: newspapers period. But there are times they knew what they

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Speaker 1: were doing. Yeah, you could access You can access that

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Speaker 1: stuff today pretty easily, pretty neat. You know. I looked

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Speaker 1: up what um that line, and staying Alive means about

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Speaker 1: the New York Times don't make a Man? Is that

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Speaker 1: in the song Staying Alive the Dow York Times Don't

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Speaker 1: make a Man? Oh? I never knew that's what they

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Speaker 1: were saying. So what does that mean? It means basically

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Speaker 1: at the time that I like, if it wasn't in

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Speaker 1: the New York Times, it doesn't matter. And this is

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Speaker 1: about a man whose life still does matter even though

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Speaker 1: it's not worthy of being reported on in the New

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Speaker 1: York Times. John Travolta or the character, yeah, I can't

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Speaker 1: remember his saying Tony manera, right, I think a scarface

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Speaker 1: Tony Marinera. Was it Tony? It's probably Tony, you know.

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Speaker 1: So that movie was based on an article in New

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Speaker 1: York magazine, and it turned out that the guy who

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Speaker 1: wrote it made the whole thing up from beginning to end,

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Speaker 1: made it up crazy. Yeah, but it's still worth reading.

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Speaker 1: And especially if you know that he made it up,

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Speaker 1: you're like, how did how did anybody buy this? This

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Speaker 1: kind of like like on the spot reporting is just

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Speaker 1: done by a handful of people. Sure, and he found

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Speaker 1: this guy that that worked on a hardware store in Brooklyn,

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Speaker 1: and yeah, and then like was there like with the

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Speaker 1: it was was able to like almost omnisciently track like

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Speaker 1: the people that came into this guy's orbit. Yeah. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's funny that the editors were like, Wow, you did

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Speaker 1: a really good job here, not you're a fraud who cares? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: they should have. Just when I hear things like that,

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Speaker 1: I'm like, say, it's fiction from the beginning, it's still interesting.

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Speaker 1: It's like when the guy that the author wrote about

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Speaker 1: his drug rehab, the James Fry, Yeah, that was a

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Speaker 1: great book. And I remember at the time when that

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Speaker 1: all came out, I was like, man, man, you should

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Speaker 1: just call it fiction. It's a really good book. But

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Speaker 1: I thought I followed that story and and thought the

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Speaker 1: same thing, like like why why would you Why would

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Speaker 1: you say that every word of this is accurate. It

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Speaker 1: doesn't make any sense. We will get back to uh.

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Speaker 1: Circus families believe it or not right after this message.

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Speaker 1: So chuck sometimes them if the family circus, the circus

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Speaker 1: family can get in front of a show promoter, they

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Speaker 1: can have some sort of control over their own name.

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Speaker 1: Sure the change that comes to it. And that is

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Speaker 1: the case with the Hobson's Robert Hobson who left England

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Speaker 1: for the US in eighteen sixty UM and started a family,

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Speaker 1: a circus family act, acrobats family act. That's right. And

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Speaker 1: apparently he was noted for tossing his sons about like

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Speaker 1: indian rubber. Don't even know what that means. It means

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Speaker 1: he was basically throwing his sons all over the place

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Speaker 1: and they're just landing places. Well, no, I get that,

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Speaker 1: but I just I don't know what indian rubber is.

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Speaker 1: I think that they were very pliable, gotcha. Uh. So

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Speaker 1: with the name change, they were originally Hobson, I'm sorry,

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Speaker 1: originally Nelson, but changed their name. No, it was Hobson first, oh,

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Speaker 1: was changed to Nelson. Man, it gets confusing, so he

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Speaker 1: called themselves Professor Nelson and sons, the sons who he

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Speaker 1: tossed about like Indian rubber right, But it's not a

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Speaker 1: better like Nelson's, no better than Hobson. That's just strange. Uh. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: he changed it, supposedly allegedly because he wanted to pay

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Speaker 1: homage to a former stage partner that I guess it

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Speaker 1: died or moved on or whatever. I couldn't find the

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Speaker 1: person's name, whoever the Nelson was, but it was an homage.

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Speaker 1: Well maybe he wanted to uh anonymity as well. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: he's probably on the run from the law. So. Um,

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Speaker 1: the Nelson's became the Great Nelson Family because they followed

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Speaker 1: that tradition of like needing more people, um, more quickly

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Speaker 1: than they could reproduce. Uh. So they brought in other

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Speaker 1: performers who weren't family members, and they became the Great

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Speaker 1: Nelson Family and then ultimately the Flying Nelson's, which is

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Speaker 1: what they became famous as the Flying Nelson's. Yeah, and

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Speaker 1: here's I thought the cool little factoid about them. In

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Speaker 1: the early I'm sorry, late nineteen twenties, Um, granddaughter Hilda

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Speaker 1: taught Lot was hired to teach Lon Cheney, the actor,

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Speaker 1: how to walk the high wire. In a movie called

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Speaker 1: Laugh Clown Laugh, And then all of the Nelson's, Um,

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Speaker 1: we're in a movie called Circus Rookies in so um

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Speaker 1: they still continue, I think, not as the Nelson's, but um,

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Speaker 1: they said their ancestors, some of which still perform. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: they basically retired mostly by nineteen thirty five. But then yeah,

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Speaker 1: some carried on. Sure, what about the flying Wallendas. These

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Speaker 1: are the ones that everybody knows, everybody's heard of that.

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Speaker 1: It's sort of that became part of the lexicon. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: the flying Wellendus y um. And then funny enough, the

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Speaker 1: flying Wallendas actually got their name from a newspaper headline

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Speaker 1: that dubbed them that because four of them fell from

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Speaker 1: a high wire. Yeah, in Akron, Ohio. And they said,

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Speaker 1: I like the flying Mollendis. Yeah, they said. The quote

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Speaker 1: was the Lendas volendas. The Wallendas fell so gracefully that

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Speaker 1: it seemed as if they were flying. Uh. But I wonder,

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Speaker 1: like there were other flying flying Nelson's, Like, was this

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Speaker 1: the first one? I wonder the Wellenda's No, because the

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Speaker 1: flying Nelson's were called that long before the middle of

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Speaker 1: the twentieth century, So I think it was a natural

402
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Speaker 1: word to apply to a circus family that did acrobatics,

403
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Speaker 1: they're flying and they definitely did acrobatics. Man, they were Um.

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Speaker 1: They cemented their legacy for the seven person chair pyramid

405
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Speaker 1: wait for it, on a high wire no nets, no nets,

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Speaker 1: no harnesses. Very dangerous, so dangerous in fact that Carl

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Speaker 1: will Lenda Um, who was the patriarch at the time,

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Speaker 1: died at age seventy three from a fall on the

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Speaker 1: high wire. Yeah, they had a lot of tragedy. Um.

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Speaker 1: When they had the pyramid collapse in nineteen sixty two,

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Speaker 1: two people died and Carlson Mario was paralyzed. Carl goes

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Speaker 1: on to die. That had a sister in law who

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Speaker 1: fell to her death in nineteen sixty three. And then

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00:23:51,119 --> 00:23:57,320
Speaker 1: in nineteen forty four they were the group performing when

415
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Speaker 1: the Hartford Circus fire broke out. Oh really, so their

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Speaker 1: act was going on. Uh. These tents were made of

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Speaker 1: They were coded in paraffin wax at the time, probably

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Speaker 1: kerosene to keep it from uh, to keep it waterproof.

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Speaker 1: Paraffin wax is highly flammable. So skearroceene and UM a

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Speaker 1: little tent sidewall started and during their performance, Um a

421
00:24:22,000 --> 00:24:24,640
Speaker 1: band leader spotted it and apparently, and they should tell

422
00:24:24,680 --> 00:24:28,600
Speaker 1: everyone this, the song Stars and Stripes Forever is a

423
00:24:28,680 --> 00:24:33,600
Speaker 1: warning signal to the circus performers. He said, start playing that,

424
00:24:34,440 --> 00:24:37,560
Speaker 1: and that signaled like big trouble as ahead, and a

425
00:24:37,680 --> 00:24:41,720
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty six to sixty nine people died. It

426
00:24:41,800 --> 00:24:45,920
Speaker 1: didn't only have one point of entrance, entrance or exit.

427
00:24:45,960 --> 00:24:47,680
Speaker 1: I think, I don't know. I know that some of

428
00:24:47,760 --> 00:24:51,840
Speaker 1: the exits were blocked because they had like the ramps

429
00:24:51,880 --> 00:24:53,880
Speaker 1: set up for the lions and stuff to come through

430
00:24:54,000 --> 00:24:56,920
Speaker 1: like portals, and so they couldn't get out that way.

431
00:24:56,960 --> 00:24:58,920
Speaker 1: So you might be right, But yeah, that was one

432
00:24:58,960 --> 00:25:01,160
Speaker 1: of the deadliest fire as in US history. And that's

433
00:25:01,160 --> 00:25:02,920
Speaker 1: a that's a bad fire. Yeah, And there were a

434
00:25:03,560 --> 00:25:05,600
Speaker 1: bunch of circus fires. I read about two or three.

435
00:25:05,960 --> 00:25:08,760
Speaker 1: I would guess if you have huge canvas tents, a

436
00:25:08,880 --> 00:25:11,480
Speaker 1: lot of hay on the ground, Yeah, and um they're

437
00:25:11,520 --> 00:25:17,560
Speaker 1: coated inflammable material and everybody smoked. Yeah, and then we'll

438
00:25:17,600 --> 00:25:19,639
Speaker 1: just they still don't know. There was a guy that

439
00:25:20,080 --> 00:25:24,240
Speaker 1: claimed responsibility as an arsonist, but um, they don't think

440
00:25:24,280 --> 00:25:26,760
Speaker 1: he did it. He was mentally ill and although he

441
00:25:26,880 --> 00:25:30,680
Speaker 1: was an arsonist's just not that time just not that time.

442
00:25:30,920 --> 00:25:35,720
Speaker 1: So the well Lendas have become synonymous with um circus

443
00:25:35,800 --> 00:25:40,720
Speaker 1: tragedy strangely, but they also has an overshadowed their accomplishments

444
00:25:40,800 --> 00:25:43,520
Speaker 1: there in the world. The Guinness Book of World records

445
00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:46,920
Speaker 1: for the world's first and only ten person pyramid on

446
00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:51,000
Speaker 1: a tight rope. Consider this. Several of their family members

447
00:25:51,080 --> 00:25:53,680
Speaker 1: died doing this, and they went on and not only

448
00:25:54,119 --> 00:25:57,239
Speaker 1: redo it, but they add three more seats, three more

449
00:25:57,280 --> 00:26:00,560
Speaker 1: will Endas. Yeah, that's crazy. So they said old record

450
00:26:00,920 --> 00:26:04,399
Speaker 1: um and then uh, Nick will And who has been

451
00:26:04,480 --> 00:26:08,080
Speaker 1: on Discovery Channel before? I believe he walked over the

452
00:26:08,160 --> 00:26:13,400
Speaker 1: Grand Canyon? What channel? Discovery Channel? Have you heard of it? They?

453
00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:15,520
Speaker 1: I think he was the one who walked over the

454
00:26:15,560 --> 00:26:20,040
Speaker 1: Grand Canyon. He definitely walked over um uh Chicago in

455
00:26:20,119 --> 00:26:23,280
Speaker 1: between two skyscrapers, over a six D fot drop. Yeah. Man,

456
00:26:23,359 --> 00:26:27,520
Speaker 1: that stuff is just just nutty. Which is two crazy? Yeah,

457
00:26:27,600 --> 00:26:30,520
Speaker 1: on a on a high wire without a net. You

458
00:26:30,560 --> 00:26:32,080
Speaker 1: could put a net at the bottom. It's not gonna

459
00:26:32,119 --> 00:26:34,359
Speaker 1: do anything. How did we talked about this a little

460
00:26:34,359 --> 00:26:36,920
Speaker 1: bit recently with the movie coming out about Man on

461
00:26:37,000 --> 00:26:39,840
Speaker 1: Wire the typer Walker between the Twin Hours. Yeah, how

462
00:26:39,880 --> 00:26:42,000
Speaker 1: does the wind, not just knock them off. Well, that's

463
00:26:42,040 --> 00:26:46,280
Speaker 1: what that polls for to extend their um their point

464
00:26:46,359 --> 00:26:49,960
Speaker 1: of what balance point center of gravity. Yeah, I mean

465
00:26:50,000 --> 00:26:51,639
Speaker 1: I knew it helped them balance, but it just seems

466
00:26:51,680 --> 00:26:53,280
Speaker 1: like the wind could be so fierce a goold like,

467
00:26:53,680 --> 00:26:55,760
Speaker 1: like the wind blows me over just walking down the street.

468
00:26:56,480 --> 00:26:59,239
Speaker 1: I've seen it. I frequently have to help you up.

469
00:27:00,840 --> 00:27:02,960
Speaker 1: That's how you found most of your lucky pennies. Yeah,

470
00:27:03,040 --> 00:27:06,679
Speaker 1: that's a good point. Hoovered them all up? All right?

471
00:27:06,760 --> 00:27:11,520
Speaker 1: Are we onto the the Hygenie's Yes, we are the Hygenies,

472
00:27:12,080 --> 00:27:16,000
Speaker 1: which is started out as the Hodges. Not good enough,

473
00:27:16,400 --> 00:27:19,960
Speaker 1: Let's make it more Italian and add any to the

474
00:27:20,080 --> 00:27:22,560
Speaker 1: end of Hodges. Yes, which is what a promoter did

475
00:27:23,359 --> 00:27:26,959
Speaker 1: to that lovely English surname on the late nineteenth century.

476
00:27:27,480 --> 00:27:30,200
Speaker 1: And um, they have been around for a long time,

477
00:27:30,320 --> 00:27:35,160
Speaker 1: three hundred and fifty year uh, ancestry of circus performers.

478
00:27:36,359 --> 00:27:38,680
Speaker 1: It's not bad, it isn't bad. I think that's the

479
00:27:38,760 --> 00:27:42,120
Speaker 1: oldest in here. The Wallendas went back to the late

480
00:27:42,280 --> 00:27:46,199
Speaker 1: eighteenth centuries, seventeen hundreds. Yeah, I think the Hygenies might

481
00:27:46,240 --> 00:27:48,720
Speaker 1: be the oldest one in here. This one, lady, I

482
00:27:48,800 --> 00:27:50,760
Speaker 1: saw that was interviewed. I can't remember her name. She

483
00:27:50,880 --> 00:27:54,520
Speaker 1: was a twelfth generation on one side and seventh on

484
00:27:55,040 --> 00:27:59,760
Speaker 1: her father's side. Man, that's serious being circus. So with

485
00:27:59,880 --> 00:28:04,040
Speaker 1: the Hygenie's, chuck, um they were. They were really good

486
00:28:04,119 --> 00:28:07,280
Speaker 1: with the horse equestrians. Yep. They had their own um,

487
00:28:07,800 --> 00:28:13,120
Speaker 1: in particular Harriet, which was one of Albert Hygenie's um

488
00:28:14,000 --> 00:28:16,119
Speaker 1: who I well, I guess he wasn't the founder if

489
00:28:16,160 --> 00:28:18,639
Speaker 1: it went back through hundred fifty years, but um an

490
00:28:18,680 --> 00:28:23,560
Speaker 1: early hygiene, early twentieth century hygiene or late nineteenth century um.

491
00:28:24,160 --> 00:28:28,720
Speaker 1: His kid Harriet Uh would somersault and like dance on

492
00:28:28,800 --> 00:28:31,960
Speaker 1: the back of a moving horse, which is weird because

493
00:28:32,400 --> 00:28:35,000
Speaker 1: I've seen that before. I've seen like footage from the

494
00:28:35,080 --> 00:28:37,000
Speaker 1: forties or fifties. So I wonder if I was seeing

495
00:28:37,040 --> 00:28:40,040
Speaker 1: her because there's probably not that many people walking around

496
00:28:40,080 --> 00:28:43,360
Speaker 1: on Earth who can do backflips on a horse. That's

497
00:28:43,400 --> 00:28:46,720
Speaker 1: good point, um. But the really notable thing about the

498
00:28:46,760 --> 00:28:49,880
Speaker 1: Hygenie's is what they did in retirement. Yeah, I thought

499
00:28:49,920 --> 00:28:53,760
Speaker 1: that was pretty cool. Tom and Betty Hygenie Uh from

500
00:28:53,920 --> 00:28:57,520
Speaker 1: Indiana Peru Indiana, not to be confused with Peru, the

501
00:28:57,600 --> 00:29:04,360
Speaker 1: country Peru Peru. They retired in ninetifty six, and businessman

502
00:29:04,440 --> 00:29:06,800
Speaker 1: there said, you know what, why don't you come and

503
00:29:07,000 --> 00:29:09,840
Speaker 1: work with some kids and teach them like your your craft.

504
00:29:10,320 --> 00:29:13,160
Speaker 1: And that began where we're just like, leave us alone,

505
00:29:13,520 --> 00:29:18,880
Speaker 1: seriously retired. Uh and that's welcome, Matt, No, because we

506
00:29:18,960 --> 00:29:23,080
Speaker 1: hadn't put went out, get off the property. Uh. That

507
00:29:23,240 --> 00:29:26,760
Speaker 1: began what is now the Peru Amateur Circus, in which

508
00:29:27,120 --> 00:29:31,640
Speaker 1: kids perform like ten performances every summer. And it just

509
00:29:31,680 --> 00:29:34,280
Speaker 1: sounds like a neat little program. Yeah, and it's not

510
00:29:34,600 --> 00:29:37,200
Speaker 1: that little. Apparently tens of thousands of people show up

511
00:29:37,240 --> 00:29:39,640
Speaker 1: for it. Yeah, a little, you know. And Um, it's

512
00:29:39,640 --> 00:29:44,240
Speaker 1: actually going on July eleven to eighteen, yeah around. I

513
00:29:44,240 --> 00:29:45,960
Speaker 1: don't know exactly when this one's gonna come up, but

514
00:29:46,080 --> 00:29:47,640
Speaker 1: it will be in time. So if you find yourself

515
00:29:47,680 --> 00:29:54,520
Speaker 1: around Peru, Indiana, go check out the circus there July eleven. Chuck,

516
00:29:54,560 --> 00:29:58,080
Speaker 1: we got more, don't we up our sleeves and more Ennis, Um,

517
00:29:58,280 --> 00:30:16,560
Speaker 1: and we will talk about them right after this. You

518
00:30:16,640 --> 00:30:20,000
Speaker 1: remember you said, Chuckers that, Um, a lot of these

519
00:30:20,040 --> 00:30:24,040
Speaker 1: families started out as like a great equestrian families. Um.

520
00:30:24,280 --> 00:30:29,680
Speaker 1: The Knots are probably the premier equestrian circus family around. Yes,

521
00:30:29,800 --> 00:30:34,200
Speaker 1: they began in eighteen seventy a teenager named Leopold, and

522
00:30:34,240 --> 00:30:38,680
Speaker 1: they were Hungarian. Um. He he did the old like

523
00:30:38,880 --> 00:30:40,440
Speaker 1: right out of a story book. He said, I'm running

524
00:30:40,440 --> 00:30:42,720
Speaker 1: away and joining the circus. Yeah, that's another way to

525
00:30:42,840 --> 00:30:46,840
Speaker 1: found a circus family. Go start your own to run

526
00:30:46,920 --> 00:30:49,680
Speaker 1: off to the circus. Yeah, and started. Yeah, start having kids,

527
00:30:50,920 --> 00:30:53,480
Speaker 1: and then you won't be circus, but your kids will

528
00:30:53,520 --> 00:30:58,360
Speaker 1: be circus. Yeah. It's got to start somewhere, exactly. All

529
00:30:58,440 --> 00:31:01,400
Speaker 1: starts by running off to the that's right. Of course

530
00:31:01,440 --> 00:31:05,120
Speaker 1: he might have married into circus. He probably, Yeah, he

531
00:31:05,240 --> 00:31:10,280
Speaker 1: probably did so. Not only were they equestrians. They and

532
00:31:10,360 --> 00:31:13,520
Speaker 1: of course when we say equestrian there it's always bareback

533
00:31:13,840 --> 00:31:17,640
Speaker 1: writing tricks almost yeah, but this article actually has. It

534
00:31:17,760 --> 00:31:22,280
Speaker 1: features a member of the Knats Tina kon yacht who

535
00:31:22,560 --> 00:31:25,200
Speaker 1: um was competing for the US in the two thousand

536
00:31:25,240 --> 00:31:28,720
Speaker 1: twelve Olympics. Yeah. Like sure, she got out of this

537
00:31:28,800 --> 00:31:32,200
Speaker 1: circus and said, let me, what's something super snobby I

538
00:31:32,240 --> 00:31:36,720
Speaker 1: can go do? Is that grssage? I don't know. That's

539
00:31:36,760 --> 00:31:40,560
Speaker 1: not snobby though, it's just it's actually beautiful and amazing. Yeah,

540
00:31:40,600 --> 00:31:43,479
Speaker 1: I don't want the equestrians there. You don't want them

541
00:31:43,520 --> 00:31:45,840
Speaker 1: after you. Is that a hornet's nest? Yeah, it's a

542
00:31:45,880 --> 00:31:50,000
Speaker 1: hornet's nest. Uh. They're on horses, for God's sake. You know,

543
00:31:50,720 --> 00:31:53,000
Speaker 1: they can run faster than you on a horse. So,

544
00:31:53,280 --> 00:31:57,280
Speaker 1: like most performers, John Ringling of the Barnum and Bailey

545
00:31:57,320 --> 00:32:00,560
Speaker 1: Circus caught ahold them in Ninetina said Evan said, you're

546
00:32:00,600 --> 00:32:04,880
Speaker 1: coming to America, and um, they performed there for a

547
00:32:04,920 --> 00:32:06,360
Speaker 1: little while, but then said, you know, we're gonna go

548
00:32:06,400 --> 00:32:08,440
Speaker 1: back to Europe and we're gonna start our own circus. No,

549
00:32:08,680 --> 00:32:11,560
Speaker 1: not just a circus, an American style circus and wild

550
00:32:11,640 --> 00:32:14,520
Speaker 1: West show. Yeah it's good on them, you know, yeah,

551
00:32:14,520 --> 00:32:18,320
Speaker 1: I think it's hilarious. So they're like, okay, they're gonna

552
00:32:18,360 --> 00:32:21,840
Speaker 1: go crazy for this in Europe. So the equestrian part

553
00:32:21,880 --> 00:32:26,040
Speaker 1: of the show was really big in Europe. And then like, uh,

554
00:32:26,440 --> 00:32:30,320
Speaker 1: which was the family the Clark's World War two put

555
00:32:30,400 --> 00:32:33,280
Speaker 1: a dent in all of Europe and so they said, well,

556
00:32:33,280 --> 00:32:34,959
Speaker 1: I guess we got to go back to America now,

557
00:32:35,960 --> 00:32:40,160
Speaker 1: And then they kept performing and eventually stopped. H at

558
00:32:40,240 --> 00:32:44,480
Speaker 1: least they I guess the family legacy was to create

559
00:32:44,600 --> 00:32:49,360
Speaker 1: equestrian centers. Um, so they weren't circus performers anymore anymore.

560
00:32:49,440 --> 00:32:52,760
Speaker 1: But it's almost like this equestrian family had a brush

561
00:32:52,880 --> 00:32:57,120
Speaker 1: with circus notoriety and then leverage that. Yeah, and then

562
00:32:57,200 --> 00:32:59,840
Speaker 1: just continued on as in equestrian family. It's just pretty neat.

563
00:33:00,120 --> 00:33:04,840
Speaker 1: Probably make more money in equestrians, you know. And then

564
00:33:05,040 --> 00:33:08,960
Speaker 1: Arthur k who's one of the original who's one of

565
00:33:09,000 --> 00:33:12,400
Speaker 1: the sons of the founder Leopold. He's in the International

566
00:33:12,480 --> 00:33:16,640
Speaker 1: Circus Hall of Fame. Nice. So there you go. So

567
00:33:16,680 --> 00:33:19,400
Speaker 1: the're not doing too bad. All right, we got a

568
00:33:19,440 --> 00:33:22,360
Speaker 1: couple of more here. Um Gina, how to pronounce this one?

569
00:33:22,600 --> 00:33:24,680
Speaker 1: T o g and I s I would say Tony,

570
00:33:25,440 --> 00:33:30,840
Speaker 1: that's what I was gonna say. Yeah, that's right. They

571
00:33:31,160 --> 00:33:35,440
Speaker 1: are another Italian family um in circus dynasty and the

572
00:33:35,560 --> 00:33:41,280
Speaker 1: original founder uh artists today. He said, was a student

573
00:33:41,400 --> 00:33:43,400
Speaker 1: and he said, you know what, I'm done with school

574
00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:48,640
Speaker 1: and I'm going to go performance circus, open my own

575
00:33:48,720 --> 00:33:51,640
Speaker 1: have eight kids so I can open my own circus. Yeah.

576
00:33:51,680 --> 00:33:53,840
Speaker 1: I get the impression that he decided he was done

577
00:33:53,880 --> 00:33:58,239
Speaker 1: with school. Yeah, yeah, so he ran off to the circus. Um,

578
00:33:59,240 --> 00:34:01,520
Speaker 1: did you have then question whether his wife was a

579
00:34:01,560 --> 00:34:05,960
Speaker 1: circus was circus family, circus performer? I don't know. Well

580
00:34:06,120 --> 00:34:09,480
Speaker 1: she was. After they got married, they had kids and

581
00:34:09,760 --> 00:34:12,640
Speaker 1: set up their own circus, and it was such a

582
00:34:12,719 --> 00:34:17,160
Speaker 1: success that um in nineteen nineteen the King of Italy

583
00:34:18,680 --> 00:34:20,400
Speaker 1: or the king of that part of Italy, because I

584
00:34:20,440 --> 00:34:23,640
Speaker 1: don't when was Italy unified together in a single country.

585
00:34:23,719 --> 00:34:28,520
Speaker 1: Was it under Musilini? It wasn't that long ago. Um Well,

586
00:34:28,719 --> 00:34:33,400
Speaker 1: King and King Victor Emmanuel the third um created or

587
00:34:33,520 --> 00:34:38,520
Speaker 1: said that the Circo Toni was the Circo Netsinale. Yeah,

588
00:34:38,520 --> 00:34:41,120
Speaker 1: and that ran for a while. Um Again, a circus

589
00:34:41,200 --> 00:34:47,120
Speaker 1: fire in nineteen fifty one hit the Circo Nacional and

590
00:34:47,400 --> 00:34:50,800
Speaker 1: from that point three of the sons split apart and

591
00:34:50,960 --> 00:34:55,920
Speaker 1: formed three different circus factions. Yeah. That fires spread them

592
00:34:55,960 --> 00:34:58,960
Speaker 1: far and wide. I guess so. But they are noteworthy

593
00:34:58,960 --> 00:35:03,320
Speaker 1: because not only were they circus family, they were really

594
00:35:03,480 --> 00:35:08,000
Speaker 1: smart inventive engineer types and made a lot of advancements

595
00:35:08,160 --> 00:35:12,920
Speaker 1: in the circus uh itself, Like the tent, Uh, like

596
00:35:13,000 --> 00:35:15,640
Speaker 1: the big top tent, the couple of Yeah, they came

597
00:35:15,719 --> 00:35:17,440
Speaker 1: up with that. Yeah, they came up with three different

598
00:35:17,480 --> 00:35:20,720
Speaker 1: design the round couple, in the nineteen forties, the oblong

599
00:35:20,800 --> 00:35:25,640
Speaker 1: in the seventies, and the the hugely famous round couple

600
00:35:25,680 --> 00:35:29,560
Speaker 1: of quarter pole free in the nineties. And one of

601
00:35:29,600 --> 00:35:32,880
Speaker 1: the other sons too Um invented the collapsible seating wagons

602
00:35:33,600 --> 00:35:36,319
Speaker 1: and a metallic mesh cage that I don't know if

603
00:35:36,360 --> 00:35:38,759
Speaker 1: that's the globe of death or not. No, that's the

604
00:35:39,000 --> 00:35:41,399
Speaker 1: urias as he came up with the globe of death,

605
00:35:41,480 --> 00:35:43,680
Speaker 1: all right, So the metallic mesh cage he invented must

606
00:35:43,719 --> 00:35:48,799
Speaker 1: have just been like, I don't know, for animals or something. Probably. Yeah.

607
00:35:48,800 --> 00:35:51,200
Speaker 1: The point is though they were inventors and made some

608
00:35:51,280 --> 00:35:54,719
Speaker 1: money doing that stuff, like designing tents and the like.

609
00:35:55,200 --> 00:35:57,839
Speaker 1: And one of the things that we haven't really kind

610
00:35:57,880 --> 00:36:01,560
Speaker 1: of hit squarely on is the act that these if

611
00:36:01,920 --> 00:36:04,840
Speaker 1: you're born into a circus family and you are raised

612
00:36:04,880 --> 00:36:08,680
Speaker 1: in the circus um, from what I've read, you're very

613
00:36:08,800 --> 00:36:12,000
Speaker 1: rarely pressured into being a part of the family. It's

614
00:36:12,040 --> 00:36:14,319
Speaker 1: more like this is your reality. So you start doing

615
00:36:14,719 --> 00:36:18,320
Speaker 1: gymnastics and acrobatics at an early age and you're surrounded

616
00:36:18,360 --> 00:36:22,359
Speaker 1: by yeah, and then eventually that you know, age six, seven, eight, nine, ten,

617
00:36:22,480 --> 00:36:24,640
Speaker 1: you end up like being a part of the family act,

618
00:36:24,719 --> 00:36:27,360
Speaker 1: and then the circus says at large, Um, but it

619
00:36:27,440 --> 00:36:30,080
Speaker 1: writes a question to me like about that ten myth,

620
00:36:30,880 --> 00:36:33,680
Speaker 1: like is it just from practicing this stuff at an

621
00:36:33,719 --> 00:36:37,080
Speaker 1: early age? Or you know, are some a this is

622
00:36:37,120 --> 00:36:39,920
Speaker 1: this just the result of some you know, people who

623
00:36:39,960 --> 00:36:43,160
Speaker 1: are born acrobats coming together and producing offspring that are

624
00:36:43,200 --> 00:36:46,960
Speaker 1: born acrobats themselves. I don't know. It's a great question.

625
00:36:47,160 --> 00:36:50,239
Speaker 1: There's a good question. Um. I wonder how many time

626
00:36:50,280 --> 00:36:52,680
Speaker 1: it's happened that you're in a big circus family. You

627
00:36:52,800 --> 00:36:56,120
Speaker 1: have like seven kids, and six of them are in

628
00:36:56,200 --> 00:36:57,839
Speaker 1: the circus, and one of them is like, I want

629
00:36:57,840 --> 00:37:03,239
Speaker 1: to be a city planner. Probably not much. No, we

630
00:37:03,320 --> 00:37:05,560
Speaker 1: got one more we do the r eyess who did

631
00:37:05,680 --> 00:37:08,360
Speaker 1: come up with that globe of death in nineteen twelve?

632
00:37:08,760 --> 00:37:13,320
Speaker 1: That globe, that metal globe motorcycles in Yeah, that was

633
00:37:13,360 --> 00:37:15,840
Speaker 1: invented in nineteen twelve. Yeah, I had no idea it

634
00:37:15,880 --> 00:37:17,839
Speaker 1: went back. It seemed. I was sure that this thing

635
00:37:17,960 --> 00:37:20,600
Speaker 1: was probably invented in like the nineteen sixties or seventies.

636
00:37:20,600 --> 00:37:23,200
Speaker 1: I was gonna say seventies. It seems like a seventies

637
00:37:23,280 --> 00:37:26,520
Speaker 1: thing to invent totally, you know. Yeah, but yeah, it

638
00:37:26,560 --> 00:37:29,279
Speaker 1: goes all the way back to nineteen twelve. That is nuts,

639
00:37:29,440 --> 00:37:31,840
Speaker 1: so that the actual globe of death was a sixteen

640
00:37:31,880 --> 00:37:35,400
Speaker 1: foot diameter metal mesh orb. Yeah. And the idea is,

641
00:37:35,480 --> 00:37:37,319
Speaker 1: if you haven't seen one of these, a just look

642
00:37:37,400 --> 00:37:40,839
Speaker 1: up a video real quick. Be U crawl out from

643
00:37:40,920 --> 00:37:43,960
Speaker 1: under that rocky live in right under and then uh

644
00:37:44,560 --> 00:37:48,960
Speaker 1: see it's when you put multiple motorcycle riders that just

645
00:37:49,719 --> 00:37:53,879
Speaker 1: gun it and fly around this thing without hitting each

646
00:37:53,920 --> 00:38:00,120
Speaker 1: other ideally, and they would um add people who are

647
00:38:00,160 --> 00:38:03,040
Speaker 1: juggling fire in the center of the globe, some people

648
00:38:03,200 --> 00:38:06,839
Speaker 1: riding around it going up to sixty miles an hour apparently. Um.

649
00:38:07,719 --> 00:38:11,520
Speaker 1: And they had the urias Is in particular, were the

650
00:38:11,600 --> 00:38:15,920
Speaker 1: first to feature female motorcycle riders, the first to feature

651
00:38:16,000 --> 00:38:18,400
Speaker 1: two female motorcycle riders, because how you're gonna top the

652
00:38:18,480 --> 00:38:22,959
Speaker 1: first one, but head to um And there's one where

653
00:38:23,280 --> 00:38:27,560
Speaker 1: the Jody urias doesn't next spin you know that thing

654
00:38:27,640 --> 00:38:30,400
Speaker 1: where like you just have a harness attached to the

655
00:38:30,480 --> 00:38:35,040
Speaker 1: back of your head and you spin around until you vomit.

656
00:38:36,200 --> 00:38:39,080
Speaker 1: They had her doing that with people going around her

657
00:38:39,400 --> 00:38:42,080
Speaker 1: on their bikes and circles. Yeah, it's really impressive. I

658
00:38:42,160 --> 00:38:46,080
Speaker 1: mean the precision is is ridiculous when you see I

659
00:38:46,120 --> 00:38:48,239
Speaker 1: mean I've seen. I don't think it's I mean, they're

660
00:38:48,239 --> 00:38:50,800
Speaker 1: still doing this act today. I saw another family that

661
00:38:50,960 --> 00:38:52,879
Speaker 1: they don't have the market cornered on the globe of death,

662
00:38:53,400 --> 00:38:56,799
Speaker 1: but but they invented it. They just failed the copyright

663
00:38:56,960 --> 00:38:59,120
Speaker 1: trade market, I guess. But I did see another family

664
00:38:59,200 --> 00:39:02,759
Speaker 1: that was think they had like eight motorcycles and this thing.

665
00:39:02,840 --> 00:39:06,800
Speaker 1: It was ridiculous, and one where they actually brought the

666
00:39:07,719 --> 00:39:11,000
Speaker 1: globe apart, so where there was a gap that they

667
00:39:11,040 --> 00:39:14,759
Speaker 1: would be jumping or riding over, it was suddenly filled

668
00:39:14,800 --> 00:39:21,120
Speaker 1: with crocodiles. But these people crashed. When was it every

669
00:39:21,600 --> 00:39:24,360
Speaker 1: couple of weeks. I looked that there was a crash

670
00:39:24,520 --> 00:39:27,160
Speaker 1: not too long ago. It was in April of this

671
00:39:27,320 --> 00:39:31,200
Speaker 1: year at the Washington Fairgrounds. And there's actually a YouTube

672
00:39:31,239 --> 00:39:33,920
Speaker 1: of it. It's not like remarkable. It just at the

673
00:39:34,040 --> 00:39:35,400
Speaker 1: very end of their thing, they all just sort of

674
00:39:35,440 --> 00:39:38,240
Speaker 1: run into each other. But um, there was a fractured

675
00:39:38,320 --> 00:39:41,120
Speaker 1: leg and some broken ribs, but other than that, everyone

676
00:39:41,239 --> 00:39:43,880
Speaker 1: was okay and got right back up on the horse,

677
00:39:44,520 --> 00:39:48,440
Speaker 1: iron horse, the iron horse, the steel horse. You got

678
00:39:48,440 --> 00:39:53,640
Speaker 1: anything else, No, So that's circus families part of our

679
00:39:53,760 --> 00:39:56,920
Speaker 1: never ending quest to explain absolutely everything there is on

680
00:39:57,080 --> 00:40:00,359
Speaker 1: planet Earth and beyond. That's right, it's one of them. Uh.

681
00:40:00,360 --> 00:40:02,279
Speaker 1: If you want to know more about circus families, you

682
00:40:02,320 --> 00:40:04,279
Speaker 1: can type those words in the search bar how stuff

683
00:40:04,320 --> 00:40:06,600
Speaker 1: works dot com And I said search bar, which means

684
00:40:06,640 --> 00:40:16,520
Speaker 1: it's time for a listener, Mayo, I'm gonna call this.

685
00:40:17,040 --> 00:40:21,160
Speaker 1: We misspoke on something in the Bridges episode. Oh I did, Chuck.

686
00:40:21,200 --> 00:40:23,799
Speaker 1: I take full responsibility, and we like to point these

687
00:40:23,840 --> 00:40:27,160
Speaker 1: things out. Do you want to set this up? Yeah?

688
00:40:27,320 --> 00:40:30,280
Speaker 1: In the Bridges episode I talked about the Higher Regency

689
00:40:30,440 --> 00:40:34,080
Speaker 1: skywalk collapse. Remember you made that Lionel Richie's joke and

690
00:40:34,120 --> 00:40:38,239
Speaker 1: all that stuff. Well, like hundred and four I believe

691
00:40:38,280 --> 00:40:40,839
Speaker 1: a hundred and fourteen people ultimately died from this thing.

692
00:40:41,200 --> 00:40:43,040
Speaker 1: And I said that it was because they were dancing

693
00:40:43,080 --> 00:40:46,239
Speaker 1: on the skywalk at the time. Totally not true. There

694
00:40:46,320 --> 00:40:49,120
Speaker 1: was a t dance going on in the lobby below

695
00:40:50,080 --> 00:40:53,520
Speaker 1: and people were standing on the skywalks looking at it

696
00:40:54,200 --> 00:40:58,719
Speaker 1: and the skywalk Apparently in the design um there had

697
00:40:58,760 --> 00:41:01,840
Speaker 1: been a change in design line that nobody did the

698
00:41:01,960 --> 00:41:05,359
Speaker 1: numbers and crunched the math on and this thing could

699
00:41:05,440 --> 00:41:07,839
Speaker 1: barely hold up its deadweight and then once you had

700
00:41:08,040 --> 00:41:10,800
Speaker 1: you know, a few dozen people on it, though, the

701
00:41:11,080 --> 00:41:15,480
Speaker 1: fourth story skywalk collapsed onto the second story skywalk and

702
00:41:15,560 --> 00:41:18,000
Speaker 1: both of them collapsed onto the ground. Gotcha, it was.

703
00:41:18,360 --> 00:41:21,040
Speaker 1: It's crazy. If you look up the highest Regency skywalk

704
00:41:21,080 --> 00:41:23,320
Speaker 1: collapse and look at some of the images, just the

705
00:41:23,400 --> 00:41:26,880
Speaker 1: destruction is amazing. Wow. All right, So I guess you

706
00:41:26,960 --> 00:41:29,520
Speaker 1: just picked out the we heard from a few people.

707
00:41:29,880 --> 00:41:31,880
Speaker 1: He picked out probably the nicest one. I would imagine

708
00:41:32,120 --> 00:41:34,600
Speaker 1: that's what we usually try to do. Hey, guys, wanted

709
00:41:34,600 --> 00:41:37,240
Speaker 1: to point out your explanation of the Kansas City Highight

710
00:41:37,320 --> 00:41:40,880
Speaker 1: Regency collapse side of the wrong cause. The collapses due

711
00:41:40,920 --> 00:41:42,560
Speaker 1: to a change that was made to the initial design.

712
00:41:42,920 --> 00:41:46,839
Speaker 1: Two walkways we're supposed to be supported by long continuous

713
00:41:46,920 --> 00:41:49,960
Speaker 1: threaded steel rods from the ceiling design was changed to

714
00:41:50,160 --> 00:41:52,960
Speaker 1: two separate rods. UH. It should be noted that the

715
00:41:53,040 --> 00:41:55,960
Speaker 1: original design was determined to hold only six of the

716
00:41:56,040 --> 00:41:58,800
Speaker 1: minimum building Code load UH, and the way it was

717
00:41:58,840 --> 00:42:01,880
Speaker 1: built would only support half of that Not enough, not

718
00:42:02,080 --> 00:42:05,560
Speaker 1: nearly enough. One bridge failure that should be mentioned is

719
00:42:05,600 --> 00:42:09,480
Speaker 1: the Quebec Bridge crossing the St. Lawrence River. UH. This

720
00:42:09,600 --> 00:42:12,320
Speaker 1: bridge collapsed twice when it was being built and incited

721
00:42:12,360 --> 00:42:15,400
Speaker 1: as a reason behind the idea of registering and licensing

722
00:42:15,440 --> 00:42:18,400
Speaker 1: engineers to practice something that is a standard throughout the

723
00:42:18,480 --> 00:42:22,360
Speaker 1: world now. And that is from Taylor, who is a

724
00:42:22,520 --> 00:42:27,160
Speaker 1: geo technical engineer branch of civil Engineering that deals with soils, rocks,

725
00:42:27,160 --> 00:42:30,640
Speaker 1: and foundations. She said, or he, I don't know which

726
00:42:31,600 --> 00:42:34,200
Speaker 1: that I make sure the ground can support the structure.

727
00:42:35,080 --> 00:42:36,799
Speaker 1: Thanks a lot of Taylor. It's a pretty neat job,

728
00:42:36,840 --> 00:42:39,000
Speaker 1: I guess, and you very important. Yeah, and thanks for

729
00:42:39,080 --> 00:42:42,319
Speaker 1: the email. We appreciate that. And uh, I went back

730
00:42:42,400 --> 00:42:43,880
Speaker 1: and looked to try to figure out where I got

731
00:42:43,960 --> 00:42:46,880
Speaker 1: that info, but I swear it did not make up.

732
00:42:46,960 --> 00:42:49,280
Speaker 1: Don't you hate that I've been called out on stuff

733
00:42:49,360 --> 00:42:51,880
Speaker 1: that I've read and I couldn't find the source and

734
00:42:51,960 --> 00:42:54,800
Speaker 1: it's still wrong. But it's maddening. It's like, I know

735
00:42:54,880 --> 00:42:57,279
Speaker 1: I didn't just create that's not my own brain. So

736
00:42:57,400 --> 00:42:59,640
Speaker 1: we we believe. But thanks to everybody who wrote in

737
00:42:59,719 --> 00:43:03,400
Speaker 1: and hey, dudes, uh, that is absolutely wrong because we

738
00:43:03,520 --> 00:43:06,080
Speaker 1: want to make sure we get it right. So if

739
00:43:06,160 --> 00:43:08,440
Speaker 1: we got something wrong that you want to point out

740
00:43:08,480 --> 00:43:10,480
Speaker 1: and correct us on, let us know. You can tweet

741
00:43:10,520 --> 00:43:12,920
Speaker 1: to us at s Y s K podcast. You can

742
00:43:13,000 --> 00:43:15,360
Speaker 1: join us on Facebook dot com slash stuff you Should Know.

743
00:43:15,719 --> 00:43:17,880
Speaker 1: You can send us an email to Stuff Podcast at

744
00:43:17,920 --> 00:43:20,359
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com and has always joined us

745
00:43:20,360 --> 00:43:22,239
Speaker 1: at our home on the web, Stuff you Should Know

746
00:43:22,360 --> 00:43:30,160
Speaker 1: dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics,

747
00:43:30,400 --> 00:43:31,799
Speaker 1: visit how stuff works dot com