Speaker 1: Welcome to you stuff you should know fromhouse Stuff Works
Speaker 1: dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark,
Speaker 1: Charles W. Chuck Bryant and Jerry. Which makes this The
Speaker 1: Flying s y s K Flying Stuff Stuffy Ends Stefanos
Speaker 1: Steffini's the Flying steffens Man. Boy. See you look at that.
Speaker 1: It took us wet seven seconds. Maybe even wants to
Speaker 1: come up with the best name in the history of
Speaker 1: podcasting circus teams. Yeah, we'll go back and look at
Speaker 1: the time stamp. After this publicism, we'll know for sure.
Speaker 1: But I say less than seven seconds. The Flying Steffeni's.
Speaker 1: Good job man, all right, I guess we can retire.
Speaker 1: We've hit it big, Yeah we have. You can make
Speaker 1: some money being a circus family, I learned. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: have no idea about costs. So you will delight me
Speaker 1: because I think everyone, well not everyone. I think some
Speaker 1: people when they go to circus, they're like, what's that
Speaker 1: guy make for throwing knives? Oh? I have no idea
Speaker 1: what they make. It's just and I got from this
Speaker 1: research and I thought you had some hard numbers. No,
Speaker 1: you're the statman, remember, and I know, but people, uh,
Speaker 1: you know it's rude to talk about money, so people
Speaker 1: don't share these things these days. That's why I'm not
Speaker 1: saying anything. I'm just telling you the impression I had.
Speaker 1: They're always strutting around with goblets full of really expensive
Speaker 1: wine circus families, so you know, yeah, they got uh.
Speaker 1: You know. Every time I think we're all circused, out
Speaker 1: there comes another topic. Well, we have yet to do
Speaker 1: how circuses themselves work. We will do that one day.
Speaker 1: So we've done all of its components, every last one.
Speaker 1: After that, Well, it does have interesting history, so well
Speaker 1: we will save that then. Yeah, we Well I do
Speaker 1: want to do how circus is working. We should also
Speaker 1: say I don't want anybody to have the impression that
Speaker 1: by talking about circus families we are endorsing circuses in general.
Speaker 1: I have serious issues with some of them, with them
Speaker 1: for the most part, oh, like because of their treatment
Speaker 1: of animals. Yeah, but a lot of them don't use
Speaker 1: animals at all anymore, not a lot of them, some
Speaker 1: of them don't. I have no problem with those circuses. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Like I remember the Big Apple Circus. They have a
Speaker 1: dog thing, go out dogs a horse thing, and I
Speaker 1: think that was it. And horses love to show off,
Speaker 1: So I'm okay with the big Yeah you wouldn't shoot,
Speaker 1: you know, but no, no, they wouldn't show like an
Speaker 1: elephant right right, Which is funny because apparently an elephant
Speaker 1: is equal to a family circus performer. Oh yeah, I
Speaker 1: saw that. I should say circus family performer. Family Circus
Speaker 1: is totally different. Yeah. This is a little frustrated research
Speaker 1: because I kept getting lots of circular cartoons that weren't funny.
Speaker 1: You don't think they're funny, Okay, they're they're not funny.
Speaker 1: I think they're charming and heartwarming. Yeah, sure, you know,
Speaker 1: Jeffy wrote on the wall, right, it's not funny, but
Speaker 1: it's cute. Their little hair and the noses and the
Speaker 1: they're cute. Uh that I have a brief segue here. Initially,
Speaker 1: Um that reminded me was just at max foncan uh,
Speaker 1: the the weekend retreat of Jesse Thorn and his podcasting empire.
Speaker 1: Everybody loved you that picture of you and Hodgeman and
Speaker 1: Justin McElroy's kid. Yeah, little baby Charlie. Yeah, very cute. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think people love babies. Hodgeman, who doesn't even particularly
Speaker 1: like kids, was like, give me that baby. You know, Um,
Speaker 1: Hodgman likes kids, at least he likes his own kids. Um,
Speaker 1: so I was just there. And first of all, let
Speaker 1: me recommend the Super Ego podcast, Very funny improv podcast
Speaker 1: featuring Matt Gorley and Paula Tompkins and Mark McConville and
Speaker 1: Jeremy Carter. You could have stopped at paul Tomkin. Yeah right, Um,
Speaker 1: but one man improv is like, it's not the best
Speaker 1: he can do. He does, I've seen it. So anyway,
Speaker 1: a long story short, we were playing this game one
Speaker 1: night where we were naming comic strips and the comic
Speaker 1: strip mark trail came up. Oh man, you remember that.
Speaker 1: Well it wasn't even trying to be funny. Well no,
Speaker 1: it wasn't funny at all, but it wasn't even like interesting.
Speaker 1: It was literally like, you know, the what a beautiful
Speaker 1: sunset today, right, was tracing the trail of a hawk
Speaker 1: in the sky, like through eight panels. I thought it
Speaker 1: was refreshing in a little ways, like you just make
Speaker 1: it all like through a hilarious spasm of laughter after
Speaker 1: like Funky winker Bean or Hagar the Horrible and you
Speaker 1: needed to like chill out. Remember that, so you'd like
Speaker 1: read the Mark Trail and then like you go at
Speaker 1: it again and just laugh and laugh and beatle Bailey,
Speaker 1: which is great, instant it just and then maybe you'd
Speaker 1: come down a little on merry Worth or Department but
Speaker 1: three G, back up on Wizard of It, back down
Speaker 1: with Brenda's starr. Yeah, that's the way you do it.
Speaker 1: But Mark Trail, I don't want to knock it too
Speaker 1: much because I believe it like taught kids about nature
Speaker 1: and conservancy and stuff like that. But and how to
Speaker 1: follow a hawks Trail in the sky didn't belong in
Speaker 1: the comic section. But I don't know, like it was
Speaker 1: a comic strip. Yeah. A lot of those comics were
Speaker 1: like they started out or a lot of things started
Speaker 1: out as comics like Lone Ranger comic. Oh really sure
Speaker 1: comic strip or a comic book, because some have been both.
Speaker 1: You know, well the Bolster my point. Let's say comic strip, okay, okay,
Speaker 1: And it might have actually started out as a radio show.
Speaker 1: And I think about it, Hey, that worked that worked
Speaker 1: out well. I was just thinking, how can we kill
Speaker 1: some time here before we do circuses? That's how Family
Speaker 1: Circus tangent so Family circuses. Uh. When I first started, Yeah,
Speaker 1: circus families. When I first started researching, I was like,
Speaker 1: what a weird thing to be in a circus family.
Speaker 1: And then I thought it might be weird to be
Speaker 1: in one, but not weird that there are circus families,
Speaker 1: because it makes total sense that it's the family business.
Speaker 1: Well that's how circus is largely started out. Yeah, very familial.
Speaker 1: It was, you know, like you some patriarch of a
Speaker 1: family would find doubt that Hey, I'm I'm kind of
Speaker 1: good at juggling. Why don't I try doing it while
Speaker 1: I stand on the back of a moving horse And
Speaker 1: they go, holy cow, I'm actually doing this. And they'd say, well,
Speaker 1: let me see what happens when I tossed my sons
Speaker 1: in the air instead of juggling, you know, batons. If
Speaker 1: I set their hair on fire using some sort of
Speaker 1: safe flammable material that will burn but not burn the sun,
Speaker 1: say like, I have a flame retardant cap. Sure, then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, you've got a circus family. And
Speaker 1: like these people would would start out by you know,
Speaker 1: the whole family would get involved in This was a
Speaker 1: time when they were much larger families than there are
Speaker 1: today and they would form their own mini circus and
Speaker 1: travel around. And as circuses became more and more established
Speaker 1: and entrenched and divided among some very big names. Um,
Speaker 1: they started basically freelancing for these things. Like they go
Speaker 1: on a tour or a couple of tours would be
Speaker 1: you know, with a large circus for a couple of years,
Speaker 1: and then they go off and get on another tool
Speaker 1: or something like that. But um, they would form these
Speaker 1: family acts and that's how circus is originally got started. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and um, apparently it's it just the more you look
Speaker 1: at it, the more it makes sense. You know, they're
Speaker 1: on the road a lot, um, and if you want
Speaker 1: to spend time with your family, get your family in
Speaker 1: the family business, because then mom and dad aren't on
Speaker 1: the road doing their equestrian act. They are bringing the
Speaker 1: kids along and teaching them, and all of a sudden
Speaker 1: they're the the writing uh steffinos and they're spending time
Speaker 1: together and it's uh, you know, I read a few
Speaker 1: interviews with people in circus families and apparently if you
Speaker 1: were not from a circus family, uh, this quote from
Speaker 1: a Big Apple Circus guest director Steve Smith said, for
Speaker 1: those of us those of us who didn't grow up
Speaker 1: in the circus, there's always a feeling as if we're
Speaker 1: on the outside looking in on what they call quote
Speaker 1: being circus. Yeah, like if you're born into a circus
Speaker 1: family and you're in the circus, you have automatic prestige,
Speaker 1: you're part of a dynasty, and that's being circus. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like a real police. If you're a fan of
Speaker 1: the Wire, Sure there's cops and there's real police. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but like if you were born into being police, which
Speaker 1: a lot of cops are also another family tradition job. Yes,
Speaker 1: I don't know if a little podcasters are going to
Speaker 1: come along. We were not at that point yet where
Speaker 1: like there's been a generation you know, not yet, but yeah,
Speaker 1: maybe little Charlie McElroy will be a podcast maybe um
Speaker 1: and then they call uh they say marrying inside the
Speaker 1: circuits also makes a lot of sense because where you're
Speaker 1: gonna meet people, but probably fellow performers, other circus families,
Speaker 1: so these and not towners. If you're not like, uh,
Speaker 1: I like you and I are towners. Yeah a k
Speaker 1: A slack jawn yokels. Yeah, you know, how are you look?
Speaker 1: Well that thing on fire and jump through it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a there's a pretty neat article on pbs UM
Speaker 1: called Being Circus Life in the Only Business about being
Speaker 1: born into a circus family. It seems like a pretty
Speaker 1: cool life. I mean, you know, they go to school
Speaker 1: on the road, and I think it's like one big
Speaker 1: family because they say, you know, if you're in a
Speaker 1: trap ez act, you can't be mad at your dad
Speaker 1: who is catching you in the trap ez act tonight.
Speaker 1: So I think you gotta like, yeah, well, you know,
Speaker 1: you can't go into performance, a dangerous performance like the
Speaker 1: Globe of Death, harboring any animosity towards your siblings. So
Speaker 1: you gotta work this stuff out. You know, they're they're
Speaker 1: tight knit people, right, And it seems like the custom
Speaker 1: is that once you are done performing as a member
Speaker 1: of a circus family, there's a non performing job for you,
Speaker 1: ready and waiting in the circus elsewhere, like an administration
Speaker 1: or something like that. I thought you were gonna say,
Speaker 1: break a deal, face the wheel, longstanding tradition in the circus.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Bartertown. Um, I watched that not too long ago.
Speaker 1: I told you a thing. Can watch the whole Mad
Speaker 1: Max trilogy. Yeah, the quadrilogy. Now, well, yeah, I think
Speaker 1: it's the trilogy plus one, Like Durham is our plus
Speaker 1: one on the Northeast tour. Yep, lousy people of Durham.
Speaker 1: Get it together, Durham. Um. All right, So you want
Speaker 1: to talk about some of these famous families. You know,
Speaker 1: you marry into it, you're born into it, and then
Speaker 1: before you know and it it seems like they always
Speaker 1: have a lot of kids too. Yeah, like seven children,
Speaker 1: because you need seven to complete a pyramids exactly? Is
Speaker 1: that why? Probably if you think you need help, um,
Speaker 1: you know, tending to the farm. Imagine having like a
Speaker 1: circus act. That's good point. And some circus families also
Speaker 1: kind of expand, especially once they form a troop, they'll
Speaker 1: expand the family act to include non family members. Where
Speaker 1: they're they're members of the troops, they're not members of
Speaker 1: the family. But for any outsider, they're like, oh, there's
Speaker 1: like three dads here. Yeah. But they take the traditional
Speaker 1: blood oath think sure, you know, and cut themselves with
Speaker 1: an elephant tusks still attached to the elephant. Yeah, that's right,
Speaker 1: and then they do a trapeze that's gotta hurt. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about the Clarks, one of the earliest
Speaker 1: UM British circus families. Any relation do you probably? I mean,
Speaker 1: can't you tell you see me on the high wire?
Speaker 1: I have? You're quite skilled. Yes, they the Clarks go
Speaker 1: all the way back to the very first uh circuses,
Speaker 1: because a man named Philip Astley is credited as being
Speaker 1: the inventor of the modern circus in the late seventeen hundreds. Right,
Speaker 1: and he heard about John Clark, who was a horseman,
Speaker 1: and a lot of these people were horse people. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a good way to start in the circus to
Speaker 1: be good on a horse. Um he Uh, John Clark
Speaker 1: was good on a horse. He caught the attention of
Speaker 1: um Philip Astley and uh in the early nineteenth century
Speaker 1: they started a circus act. Yeah, it was an area
Speaker 1: act at first. And it seems like anytime you're good,
Speaker 1: then the Ringling Brothers will come a calling at some point. Yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure, to snap you up, because they're the greatest
Speaker 1: show on earth. That's right. Um. The one of the
Speaker 1: ways also to cement your family act as a dynasty,
Speaker 1: in addition to having multiple generations that stay in the
Speaker 1: circus um is to create some new thrilling move that
Speaker 1: no one else has done before, like the Clarks are
Speaker 1: credited with um coming up with the triple back somersault
Speaker 1: in nine nine, right, and the whole the Clark family
Speaker 1: dynasty actually broke up because of World War Two. World
Speaker 1: War two, interestingly had a really direct impact on a
Speaker 1: lot of circus families, and the Clarks were among them. Um,
Speaker 1: So the men went off to war. I'm sure some
Speaker 1: of them died. The ones of it turned were like,
Speaker 1: I've seen too much to go back into the circus.
Speaker 1: And it was up to Ernestine Clark, who was a
Speaker 1: great granddaughter of John Clark I believe, to carry on
Speaker 1: the family business, yes, single handedly, and daughter of Ernest.
Speaker 1: Her name was actually Elizabeth Laura, but she looks so
Speaker 1: much like Ernest. People called her little Ernie and uh yeah,
Speaker 1: she eventually went by Ernestine. I guess she was like,
Speaker 1: I might as well just make this a little more feminine.
Speaker 1: It's like a family circus trip. And she did soldier
Speaker 1: on um, you know, after World War two. Like you said,
Speaker 1: it's so crazy to think about these famous people going
Speaker 1: and joining the army. Well, Elvis did. Yeah, Elvis was
Speaker 1: in the army. I know. He's also probably like more
Speaker 1: protected than Prince Harris. Sure, but he was still in
Speaker 1: the army and famous athletes. Like can you imagine, like
Speaker 1: Justin Bieber is in the army, it's a fight in
Speaker 1: the Middle East. No, I really really came just doing
Speaker 1: his duty kind of is an American just a different time.
Speaker 1: It's just mind boggling to think about the mindset back then.
Speaker 1: You know. Do you know I got my haircut recently
Speaker 1: by the guy who created the Bieber haircut back in
Speaker 1: the day. Is that why you went to him? No?
Speaker 1: I didn't find out until part way through, and I
Speaker 1: was like, please don't give me a beaper, Please don't
Speaker 1: give which what was the sweepy in your face? Wow? Yeah,
Speaker 1: So he was Bieber styliss yes, early on, and gave
Speaker 1: him that haircut. Isn't that cool? I guess man, I
Speaker 1: was like one degree from Justin Bieber. I think we
Speaker 1: all are. Um, so everybody, UM, I don't know if
Speaker 1: you found this. I thought this is pretty amazing. Um.
Speaker 1: The Clark's performance group early on, we're called the clarkon Ians.
Speaker 1: I thought that was pretty good. It's weird. It's so funny,
Speaker 1: like for some reason, if you're a circus promoter, You're like,
Speaker 1: that name is not nearly Italian enough at an eeny
Speaker 1: or an owny or something on the end of even
Speaker 1: if it doesn't work like clark Oni in yeah, or
Speaker 1: as we'll hear about later, the hoy Genie's Yeah, this
Speaker 1: isn't that's that's senseless. It is pretty senseless. But you
Speaker 1: can thank circus promoters for coming up with those horrible
Speaker 1: hybrids of names. I think there's a rich tradition in Italy,
Speaker 1: so they just sounded, you know, fanciful. Um. So, Ernestine
Speaker 1: carried the torch um. She finally left the circus in
Speaker 1: the nineteen fifties. Uh and had a husband that was
Speaker 1: a part time circus performer, part time actor and her
Speaker 1: little girls who party? Yeah, part of who he was
Speaker 1: the mayor and Andy Griffith. Oh no way. And if
Speaker 1: you look up his um his credits, he was in everything.
Speaker 1: He like made appearances in everything, Like you would recognize
Speaker 1: him immediately. Interesting, He's been in everything from Three's Company
Speaker 1: to The Golden Girls. He was just in everything. Wow,
Speaker 1: that's pretty awesome. Bewitched. Yeah, did I say three His Company?
Speaker 1: I'll say it again. Uh. So she married the famous
Speaker 1: actor Um and then her daughters became trapeze artists, carrying
Speaker 1: on the family tradition, and Ernestine eventually became the first
Speaker 1: daughter to follow her father into the International Circus Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame. And I have a little clip here. Do
Speaker 1: you ever read the old New York Times articles sometimes
Speaker 1: the pdf? Eighteen different headlines? Yeah, yeah, this is basically
Speaker 1: read the headline several headlines. Actually, so this is about
Speaker 1: clark Um Ernest Clark in New York City and Madison
Speaker 1: Square Garden. And the first headline is trapeze man noted
Speaker 1: for twist and air. Uh, Ernest Clark of wrinkling circus,
Speaker 1: turns at right angles and leap for life line line,
Speaker 1: broken rib brings panic, I'm sorry, payne line line and
Speaker 1: then writhing action during triple somersault starts sweat of agony.
Speaker 1: All right, And then in the article it says, h
Speaker 1: Clark's feet is apparently in defiance of all the laws
Speaker 1: of mechanics, for he turns his body in the air
Speaker 1: and a pirouette at right angles to its line of flight,
Speaker 1: with no other leverage than that he can exert by
Speaker 1: a thrust of his shoulders. Journalism it is. And then
Speaker 1: later when they're describing describing him, says Clark as a small,
Speaker 1: almost slight man, but with a large, wonderfully developed chest
Speaker 1: with a great heart beating inside. Old New York Times
Speaker 1: articles are just the best, I would say, all old
Speaker 1: newspapers period. But there are times they knew what they
Speaker 1: were doing. Yeah, you could access You can access that
Speaker 1: stuff today pretty easily, pretty neat. You know. I looked
Speaker 1: up what um that line, and staying Alive means about
Speaker 1: the New York Times don't make a Man? Is that
Speaker 1: in the song Staying Alive the Dow York Times Don't
Speaker 1: make a Man? Oh? I never knew that's what they
Speaker 1: were saying. So what does that mean? It means basically
Speaker 1: at the time that I like, if it wasn't in
Speaker 1: the New York Times, it doesn't matter. And this is
Speaker 1: about a man whose life still does matter even though
Speaker 1: it's not worthy of being reported on in the New
Speaker 1: York Times. John Travolta or the character, yeah, I can't
Speaker 1: remember his saying Tony manera, right, I think a scarface
Speaker 1: Tony Marinera. Was it Tony? It's probably Tony, you know.
Speaker 1: So that movie was based on an article in New
Speaker 1: York magazine, and it turned out that the guy who
Speaker 1: wrote it made the whole thing up from beginning to end,
Speaker 1: made it up crazy. Yeah, but it's still worth reading.
Speaker 1: And especially if you know that he made it up,
Speaker 1: you're like, how did how did anybody buy this? This
Speaker 1: kind of like like on the spot reporting is just
Speaker 1: done by a handful of people. Sure, and he found
Speaker 1: this guy that that worked on a hardware store in Brooklyn,
Speaker 1: and yeah, and then like was there like with the
Speaker 1: it was was able to like almost omnisciently track like
Speaker 1: the people that came into this guy's orbit. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's funny that the editors were like, Wow, you did
Speaker 1: a really good job here, not you're a fraud who cares? Yeah,
Speaker 1: they should have. Just when I hear things like that,
Speaker 1: I'm like, say, it's fiction from the beginning, it's still interesting.
Speaker 1: It's like when the guy that the author wrote about
Speaker 1: his drug rehab, the James Fry, Yeah, that was a
Speaker 1: great book. And I remember at the time when that
Speaker 1: all came out, I was like, man, man, you should
Speaker 1: just call it fiction. It's a really good book. But
Speaker 1: I thought I followed that story and and thought the
Speaker 1: same thing, like like why why would you Why would
Speaker 1: you say that every word of this is accurate. It
Speaker 1: doesn't make any sense. We will get back to uh.
Speaker 1: Circus families believe it or not right after this message.
Speaker 1: So chuck sometimes them if the family circus, the circus
Speaker 1: family can get in front of a show promoter, they
Speaker 1: can have some sort of control over their own name.
Speaker 1: Sure the change that comes to it. And that is
Speaker 1: the case with the Hobson's Robert Hobson who left England
Speaker 1: for the US in eighteen sixty UM and started a family,
Speaker 1: a circus family act, acrobats family act. That's right. And
Speaker 1: apparently he was noted for tossing his sons about like
Speaker 1: indian rubber. Don't even know what that means. It means
Speaker 1: he was basically throwing his sons all over the place
Speaker 1: and they're just landing places. Well, no, I get that,
Speaker 1: but I just I don't know what indian rubber is.
Speaker 1: I think that they were very pliable, gotcha. Uh. So
Speaker 1: with the name change, they were originally Hobson, I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: originally Nelson, but changed their name. No, it was Hobson first, oh,
Speaker 1: was changed to Nelson. Man, it gets confusing, so he
Speaker 1: called themselves Professor Nelson and sons, the sons who he
Speaker 1: tossed about like Indian rubber right, But it's not a
Speaker 1: better like Nelson's, no better than Hobson. That's just strange. Uh. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he changed it, supposedly allegedly because he wanted to pay
Speaker 1: homage to a former stage partner that I guess it
Speaker 1: died or moved on or whatever. I couldn't find the
Speaker 1: person's name, whoever the Nelson was, but it was an homage.
Speaker 1: Well maybe he wanted to uh anonymity as well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's probably on the run from the law. So. Um,
Speaker 1: the Nelson's became the Great Nelson Family because they followed
Speaker 1: that tradition of like needing more people, um, more quickly
Speaker 1: than they could reproduce. Uh. So they brought in other
Speaker 1: performers who weren't family members, and they became the Great
Speaker 1: Nelson Family and then ultimately the Flying Nelson's, which is
Speaker 1: what they became famous as the Flying Nelson's. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: here's I thought the cool little factoid about them. In
Speaker 1: the early I'm sorry, late nineteen twenties, Um, granddaughter Hilda
Speaker 1: taught Lot was hired to teach Lon Cheney, the actor,
Speaker 1: how to walk the high wire. In a movie called
Speaker 1: Laugh Clown Laugh, And then all of the Nelson's, Um,
Speaker 1: we're in a movie called Circus Rookies in so um
Speaker 1: they still continue, I think, not as the Nelson's, but um,
Speaker 1: they said their ancestors, some of which still perform. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they basically retired mostly by nineteen thirty five. But then yeah,
Speaker 1: some carried on. Sure, what about the flying Wallendas. These
Speaker 1: are the ones that everybody knows, everybody's heard of that.
Speaker 1: It's sort of that became part of the lexicon. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the flying Wellendus y um. And then funny enough, the
Speaker 1: flying Wallendas actually got their name from a newspaper headline
Speaker 1: that dubbed them that because four of them fell from
Speaker 1: a high wire. Yeah, in Akron, Ohio. And they said,
Speaker 1: I like the flying Mollendis. Yeah, they said. The quote
Speaker 1: was the Lendas volendas. The Wallendas fell so gracefully that
Speaker 1: it seemed as if they were flying. Uh. But I wonder,
Speaker 1: like there were other flying flying Nelson's, Like, was this
Speaker 1: the first one? I wonder the Wellenda's No, because the
Speaker 1: flying Nelson's were called that long before the middle of
Speaker 1: the twentieth century, So I think it was a natural
Speaker 1: word to apply to a circus family that did acrobatics,
Speaker 1: they're flying and they definitely did acrobatics. Man, they were Um.
Speaker 1: They cemented their legacy for the seven person chair pyramid
Speaker 1: wait for it, on a high wire no nets, no nets,
Speaker 1: no harnesses. Very dangerous, so dangerous in fact that Carl
Speaker 1: will Lenda Um, who was the patriarch at the time,
Speaker 1: died at age seventy three from a fall on the
Speaker 1: high wire. Yeah, they had a lot of tragedy. Um.
Speaker 1: When they had the pyramid collapse in nineteen sixty two,
Speaker 1: two people died and Carlson Mario was paralyzed. Carl goes
Speaker 1: on to die. That had a sister in law who
Speaker 1: fell to her death in nineteen sixty three. And then
Speaker 1: in nineteen forty four they were the group performing when
Speaker 1: the Hartford Circus fire broke out. Oh really, so their
Speaker 1: act was going on. Uh. These tents were made of
Speaker 1: They were coded in paraffin wax at the time, probably
Speaker 1: kerosene to keep it from uh, to keep it waterproof.
Speaker 1: Paraffin wax is highly flammable. So skearroceene and UM a
Speaker 1: little tent sidewall started and during their performance, Um a
Speaker 1: band leader spotted it and apparently, and they should tell
Speaker 1: everyone this, the song Stars and Stripes Forever is a
Speaker 1: warning signal to the circus performers. He said, start playing that,
Speaker 1: and that signaled like big trouble as ahead, and a
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty six to sixty nine people died. It
Speaker 1: didn't only have one point of entrance, entrance or exit.
Speaker 1: I think, I don't know. I know that some of
Speaker 1: the exits were blocked because they had like the ramps
Speaker 1: set up for the lions and stuff to come through
Speaker 1: like portals, and so they couldn't get out that way.
Speaker 1: So you might be right, But yeah, that was one
Speaker 1: of the deadliest fire as in US history. And that's
Speaker 1: a that's a bad fire. Yeah, And there were a
Speaker 1: bunch of circus fires. I read about two or three.
Speaker 1: I would guess if you have huge canvas tents, a
Speaker 1: lot of hay on the ground, Yeah, and um they're
Speaker 1: coated inflammable material and everybody smoked. Yeah, and then we'll
Speaker 1: just they still don't know. There was a guy that
Speaker 1: claimed responsibility as an arsonist, but um, they don't think
Speaker 1: he did it. He was mentally ill and although he
Speaker 1: was an arsonist's just not that time just not that time.
Speaker 1: So the well Lendas have become synonymous with um circus
Speaker 1: tragedy strangely, but they also has an overshadowed their accomplishments
Speaker 1: there in the world. The Guinness Book of World records
Speaker 1: for the world's first and only ten person pyramid on
Speaker 1: a tight rope. Consider this. Several of their family members
Speaker 1: died doing this, and they went on and not only
Speaker 1: redo it, but they add three more seats, three more
Speaker 1: will Endas. Yeah, that's crazy. So they said old record
Speaker 1: um and then uh, Nick will And who has been
Speaker 1: on Discovery Channel before? I believe he walked over the
Speaker 1: Grand Canyon? What channel? Discovery Channel? Have you heard of it? They?
Speaker 1: I think he was the one who walked over the
Speaker 1: Grand Canyon. He definitely walked over um uh Chicago in
Speaker 1: between two skyscrapers, over a six D fot drop. Yeah. Man,
Speaker 1: that stuff is just just nutty. Which is two crazy? Yeah,
Speaker 1: on a on a high wire without a net. You
Speaker 1: could put a net at the bottom. It's not gonna
Speaker 1: do anything. How did we talked about this a little
Speaker 1: bit recently with the movie coming out about Man on
Speaker 1: Wire the typer Walker between the Twin Hours. Yeah, how
Speaker 1: does the wind, not just knock them off. Well, that's
Speaker 1: what that polls for to extend their um their point
Speaker 1: of what balance point center of gravity. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: I knew it helped them balance, but it just seems
Speaker 1: like the wind could be so fierce a goold like,
Speaker 1: like the wind blows me over just walking down the street.
Speaker 1: I've seen it. I frequently have to help you up.
Speaker 1: That's how you found most of your lucky pennies. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a good point. Hoovered them all up? All right?
Speaker 1: Are we onto the the Hygenie's Yes, we are the Hygenies,
Speaker 1: which is started out as the Hodges. Not good enough,
Speaker 1: Let's make it more Italian and add any to the
Speaker 1: end of Hodges. Yes, which is what a promoter did
Speaker 1: to that lovely English surname on the late nineteenth century.
Speaker 1: And um, they have been around for a long time,
Speaker 1: three hundred and fifty year uh, ancestry of circus performers.
Speaker 1: It's not bad, it isn't bad. I think that's the
Speaker 1: oldest in here. The Wallendas went back to the late
Speaker 1: eighteenth centuries, seventeen hundreds. Yeah, I think the Hygenies might
Speaker 1: be the oldest one in here. This one, lady, I
Speaker 1: saw that was interviewed. I can't remember her name. She
Speaker 1: was a twelfth generation on one side and seventh on
Speaker 1: her father's side. Man, that's serious being circus. So with
Speaker 1: the Hygenie's, chuck, um they were. They were really good
Speaker 1: with the horse equestrians. Yep. They had their own um,
Speaker 1: in particular Harriet, which was one of Albert Hygenie's um
Speaker 1: who I well, I guess he wasn't the founder if
Speaker 1: it went back through hundred fifty years, but um an
Speaker 1: early hygiene, early twentieth century hygiene or late nineteenth century um.
Speaker 1: His kid Harriet Uh would somersault and like dance on
Speaker 1: the back of a moving horse, which is weird because
Speaker 1: I've seen that before. I've seen like footage from the
Speaker 1: forties or fifties. So I wonder if I was seeing
Speaker 1: her because there's probably not that many people walking around
Speaker 1: on Earth who can do backflips on a horse. That's
Speaker 1: good point, um. But the really notable thing about the
Speaker 1: Hygenie's is what they did in retirement. Yeah, I thought
Speaker 1: that was pretty cool. Tom and Betty Hygenie Uh from
Speaker 1: Indiana Peru Indiana, not to be confused with Peru, the
Speaker 1: country Peru Peru. They retired in ninetifty six, and businessman
Speaker 1: there said, you know what, why don't you come and
Speaker 1: work with some kids and teach them like your your craft.
Speaker 1: And that began where we're just like, leave us alone,
Speaker 1: seriously retired. Uh and that's welcome, Matt, No, because we
Speaker 1: hadn't put went out, get off the property. Uh. That
Speaker 1: began what is now the Peru Amateur Circus, in which
Speaker 1: kids perform like ten performances every summer. And it just
Speaker 1: sounds like a neat little program. Yeah, and it's not
Speaker 1: that little. Apparently tens of thousands of people show up
Speaker 1: for it. Yeah, a little, you know. And Um, it's
Speaker 1: actually going on July eleven to eighteen, yeah around. I
Speaker 1: don't know exactly when this one's gonna come up, but
Speaker 1: it will be in time. So if you find yourself
Speaker 1: around Peru, Indiana, go check out the circus there July eleven. Chuck,
Speaker 1: we got more, don't we up our sleeves and more Ennis, Um,
Speaker 1: and we will talk about them right after this. You
Speaker 1: remember you said, Chuckers that, Um, a lot of these
Speaker 1: families started out as like a great equestrian families. Um.
Speaker 1: The Knots are probably the premier equestrian circus family around. Yes,
Speaker 1: they began in eighteen seventy a teenager named Leopold, and
Speaker 1: they were Hungarian. Um. He he did the old like
Speaker 1: right out of a story book. He said, I'm running
Speaker 1: away and joining the circus. Yeah, that's another way to
Speaker 1: found a circus family. Go start your own to run
Speaker 1: off to the circus. Yeah, and started. Yeah, start having kids,
Speaker 1: and then you won't be circus, but your kids will
Speaker 1: be circus. Yeah. It's got to start somewhere, exactly. All
Speaker 1: starts by running off to the that's right. Of course
Speaker 1: he might have married into circus. He probably, Yeah, he
Speaker 1: probably did so. Not only were they equestrians. They and
Speaker 1: of course when we say equestrian there it's always bareback
Speaker 1: writing tricks almost yeah, but this article actually has. It
Speaker 1: features a member of the Knats Tina kon yacht who
Speaker 1: um was competing for the US in the two thousand
Speaker 1: twelve Olympics. Yeah. Like sure, she got out of this
Speaker 1: circus and said, let me, what's something super snobby I
Speaker 1: can go do? Is that grssage? I don't know. That's
Speaker 1: not snobby though, it's just it's actually beautiful and amazing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't want the equestrians there. You don't want them
Speaker 1: after you. Is that a hornet's nest? Yeah, it's a
Speaker 1: hornet's nest. Uh. They're on horses, for God's sake. You know,
Speaker 1: they can run faster than you on a horse. So,
Speaker 1: like most performers, John Ringling of the Barnum and Bailey
Speaker 1: Circus caught ahold them in Ninetina said Evan said, you're
Speaker 1: coming to America, and um, they performed there for a
Speaker 1: little while, but then said, you know, we're gonna go
Speaker 1: back to Europe and we're gonna start our own circus. No,
Speaker 1: not just a circus, an American style circus and wild
Speaker 1: West show. Yeah it's good on them, you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it's hilarious. So they're like, okay, they're gonna
Speaker 1: go crazy for this in Europe. So the equestrian part
Speaker 1: of the show was really big in Europe. And then like, uh,
Speaker 1: which was the family the Clark's World War two put
Speaker 1: a dent in all of Europe and so they said, well,
Speaker 1: I guess we got to go back to America now,
Speaker 1: And then they kept performing and eventually stopped. H at
Speaker 1: least they I guess the family legacy was to create
Speaker 1: equestrian centers. Um, so they weren't circus performers anymore anymore.
Speaker 1: But it's almost like this equestrian family had a brush
Speaker 1: with circus notoriety and then leverage that. Yeah, and then
Speaker 1: just continued on as in equestrian family. It's just pretty neat.
Speaker 1: Probably make more money in equestrians, you know. And then
Speaker 1: Arthur k who's one of the original who's one of
Speaker 1: the sons of the founder Leopold. He's in the International
Speaker 1: Circus Hall of Fame. Nice. So there you go. So
Speaker 1: the're not doing too bad. All right, we got a
Speaker 1: couple of more here. Um Gina, how to pronounce this one?
Speaker 1: T o g and I s I would say Tony,
Speaker 1: that's what I was gonna say. Yeah, that's right. They
Speaker 1: are another Italian family um in circus dynasty and the
Speaker 1: original founder uh artists today. He said, was a student
Speaker 1: and he said, you know what, I'm done with school
Speaker 1: and I'm going to go performance circus, open my own
Speaker 1: have eight kids so I can open my own circus. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I get the impression that he decided he was done
Speaker 1: with school. Yeah, yeah, so he ran off to the circus. Um,
Speaker 1: did you have then question whether his wife was a
Speaker 1: circus was circus family, circus performer? I don't know. Well
Speaker 1: she was. After they got married, they had kids and
Speaker 1: set up their own circus, and it was such a
Speaker 1: success that um in nineteen nineteen the King of Italy
Speaker 1: or the king of that part of Italy, because I
Speaker 1: don't when was Italy unified together in a single country.
Speaker 1: Was it under Musilini? It wasn't that long ago. Um Well,
Speaker 1: King and King Victor Emmanuel the third um created or
Speaker 1: said that the Circo Toni was the Circo Netsinale. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that ran for a while. Um Again, a circus
Speaker 1: fire in nineteen fifty one hit the Circo Nacional and
Speaker 1: from that point three of the sons split apart and
Speaker 1: formed three different circus factions. Yeah. That fires spread them
Speaker 1: far and wide. I guess so. But they are noteworthy
Speaker 1: because not only were they circus family, they were really
Speaker 1: smart inventive engineer types and made a lot of advancements
Speaker 1: in the circus uh itself, Like the tent, Uh, like
Speaker 1: the big top tent, the couple of Yeah, they came
Speaker 1: up with that. Yeah, they came up with three different
Speaker 1: design the round couple, in the nineteen forties, the oblong
Speaker 1: in the seventies, and the the hugely famous round couple
Speaker 1: of quarter pole free in the nineties. And one of
Speaker 1: the other sons too Um invented the collapsible seating wagons
Speaker 1: and a metallic mesh cage that I don't know if
Speaker 1: that's the globe of death or not. No, that's the
Speaker 1: urias as he came up with the globe of death,
Speaker 1: all right, So the metallic mesh cage he invented must
Speaker 1: have just been like, I don't know, for animals or something. Probably. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The point is though they were inventors and made some
Speaker 1: money doing that stuff, like designing tents and the like.
Speaker 1: And one of the things that we haven't really kind
Speaker 1: of hit squarely on is the act that these if
Speaker 1: you're born into a circus family and you are raised
Speaker 1: in the circus um, from what I've read, you're very
Speaker 1: rarely pressured into being a part of the family. It's
Speaker 1: more like this is your reality. So you start doing
Speaker 1: gymnastics and acrobatics at an early age and you're surrounded
Speaker 1: by yeah, and then eventually that you know, age six, seven, eight, nine, ten,
Speaker 1: you end up like being a part of the family act,
Speaker 1: and then the circus says at large, Um, but it
Speaker 1: writes a question to me like about that ten myth,
Speaker 1: like is it just from practicing this stuff at an
Speaker 1: early age? Or you know, are some a this is
Speaker 1: this just the result of some you know, people who
Speaker 1: are born acrobats coming together and producing offspring that are
Speaker 1: born acrobats themselves. I don't know. It's a great question.
Speaker 1: There's a good question. Um. I wonder how many time
Speaker 1: it's happened that you're in a big circus family. You
Speaker 1: have like seven kids, and six of them are in
Speaker 1: the circus, and one of them is like, I want
Speaker 1: to be a city planner. Probably not much. No, we
Speaker 1: got one more we do the r eyess who did
Speaker 1: come up with that globe of death in nineteen twelve?
Speaker 1: That globe, that metal globe motorcycles in Yeah, that was
Speaker 1: invented in nineteen twelve. Yeah, I had no idea it
Speaker 1: went back. It seemed. I was sure that this thing
Speaker 1: was probably invented in like the nineteen sixties or seventies.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say seventies. It seems like a seventies
Speaker 1: thing to invent totally, you know. Yeah, but yeah, it
Speaker 1: goes all the way back to nineteen twelve. That is nuts,
Speaker 1: so that the actual globe of death was a sixteen
Speaker 1: foot diameter metal mesh orb. Yeah. And the idea is,
Speaker 1: if you haven't seen one of these, a just look
Speaker 1: up a video real quick. Be U crawl out from
Speaker 1: under that rocky live in right under and then uh
Speaker 1: see it's when you put multiple motorcycle riders that just
Speaker 1: gun it and fly around this thing without hitting each
Speaker 1: other ideally, and they would um add people who are
Speaker 1: juggling fire in the center of the globe, some people
Speaker 1: riding around it going up to sixty miles an hour apparently. Um.
Speaker 1: And they had the urias Is in particular, were the
Speaker 1: first to feature female motorcycle riders, the first to feature
Speaker 1: two female motorcycle riders, because how you're gonna top the
Speaker 1: first one, but head to um And there's one where
Speaker 1: the Jody urias doesn't next spin you know that thing
Speaker 1: where like you just have a harness attached to the
Speaker 1: back of your head and you spin around until you vomit.
Speaker 1: They had her doing that with people going around her
Speaker 1: on their bikes and circles. Yeah, it's really impressive. I
Speaker 1: mean the precision is is ridiculous when you see I
Speaker 1: mean I've seen. I don't think it's I mean, they're
Speaker 1: still doing this act today. I saw another family that
Speaker 1: they don't have the market cornered on the globe of death,
Speaker 1: but but they invented it. They just failed the copyright
Speaker 1: trade market, I guess. But I did see another family
Speaker 1: that was think they had like eight motorcycles and this thing.
Speaker 1: It was ridiculous, and one where they actually brought the
Speaker 1: globe apart, so where there was a gap that they
Speaker 1: would be jumping or riding over, it was suddenly filled
Speaker 1: with crocodiles. But these people crashed. When was it every
Speaker 1: couple of weeks. I looked that there was a crash
Speaker 1: not too long ago. It was in April of this
Speaker 1: year at the Washington Fairgrounds. And there's actually a YouTube
Speaker 1: of it. It's not like remarkable. It just at the
Speaker 1: very end of their thing, they all just sort of
Speaker 1: run into each other. But um, there was a fractured
Speaker 1: leg and some broken ribs, but other than that, everyone
Speaker 1: was okay and got right back up on the horse,
Speaker 1: iron horse, the iron horse, the steel horse. You got
Speaker 1: anything else, No, So that's circus families part of our
Speaker 1: never ending quest to explain absolutely everything there is on
Speaker 1: planet Earth and beyond. That's right, it's one of them. Uh.
Speaker 1: If you want to know more about circus families, you
Speaker 1: can type those words in the search bar how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot com And I said search bar, which means
Speaker 1: it's time for a listener, Mayo, I'm gonna call this.
Speaker 1: We misspoke on something in the Bridges episode. Oh I did, Chuck.
Speaker 1: I take full responsibility, and we like to point these
Speaker 1: things out. Do you want to set this up? Yeah?
Speaker 1: In the Bridges episode I talked about the Higher Regency
Speaker 1: skywalk collapse. Remember you made that Lionel Richie's joke and
Speaker 1: all that stuff. Well, like hundred and four I believe
Speaker 1: a hundred and fourteen people ultimately died from this thing.
Speaker 1: And I said that it was because they were dancing
Speaker 1: on the skywalk at the time. Totally not true. There
Speaker 1: was a t dance going on in the lobby below
Speaker 1: and people were standing on the skywalks looking at it
Speaker 1: and the skywalk Apparently in the design um there had
Speaker 1: been a change in design line that nobody did the
Speaker 1: numbers and crunched the math on and this thing could
Speaker 1: barely hold up its deadweight and then once you had
Speaker 1: you know, a few dozen people on it, though, the
Speaker 1: fourth story skywalk collapsed onto the second story skywalk and
Speaker 1: both of them collapsed onto the ground. Gotcha, it was.
Speaker 1: It's crazy. If you look up the highest Regency skywalk
Speaker 1: collapse and look at some of the images, just the
Speaker 1: destruction is amazing. Wow. All right, So I guess you
Speaker 1: just picked out the we heard from a few people.
Speaker 1: He picked out probably the nicest one. I would imagine
Speaker 1: that's what we usually try to do. Hey, guys, wanted
Speaker 1: to point out your explanation of the Kansas City Highight
Speaker 1: Regency collapse side of the wrong cause. The collapses due
Speaker 1: to a change that was made to the initial design.
Speaker 1: Two walkways we're supposed to be supported by long continuous
Speaker 1: threaded steel rods from the ceiling design was changed to
Speaker 1: two separate rods. UH. It should be noted that the
Speaker 1: original design was determined to hold only six of the
Speaker 1: minimum building Code load UH, and the way it was
Speaker 1: built would only support half of that Not enough, not
Speaker 1: nearly enough. One bridge failure that should be mentioned is
Speaker 1: the Quebec Bridge crossing the St. Lawrence River. UH. This
Speaker 1: bridge collapsed twice when it was being built and incited
Speaker 1: as a reason behind the idea of registering and licensing
Speaker 1: engineers to practice something that is a standard throughout the
Speaker 1: world now. And that is from Taylor, who is a
Speaker 1: geo technical engineer branch of civil Engineering that deals with soils, rocks,
Speaker 1: and foundations. She said, or he, I don't know which
Speaker 1: that I make sure the ground can support the structure.
Speaker 1: Thanks a lot of Taylor. It's a pretty neat job,
Speaker 1: I guess, and you very important. Yeah, and thanks for
Speaker 1: the email. We appreciate that. And uh, I went back
Speaker 1: and looked to try to figure out where I got
Speaker 1: that info, but I swear it did not make up.
Speaker 1: Don't you hate that I've been called out on stuff
Speaker 1: that I've read and I couldn't find the source and
Speaker 1: it's still wrong. But it's maddening. It's like, I know
Speaker 1: I didn't just create that's not my own brain. So
Speaker 1: we we believe. But thanks to everybody who wrote in
Speaker 1: and hey, dudes, uh, that is absolutely wrong because we
Speaker 1: want to make sure we get it right. So if
Speaker 1: we got something wrong that you want to point out
Speaker 1: and correct us on, let us know. You can tweet
Speaker 1: to us at s Y s K podcast. You can
Speaker 1: join us on Facebook dot com slash stuff you Should Know.
Speaker 1: You can send us an email to Stuff Podcast at
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com and has always joined us
Speaker 1: at our home on the web, Stuff you Should Know
Speaker 1: dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics,
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