Speaker 1: Hi, everybody, Happy Saturday. I hope you're having a great weekend.
Speaker 1: If you want to learn something about circus families, you're
Speaker 1: in the right place because this is a throwback select
Speaker 1: episode to July two. Circus families, Believe it or not,
Speaker 1: It's a thing, great, great, rich traditions all over the
Speaker 1: world with circus families, fathers and mothers teaching sons and daughters,
Speaker 1: aunts and uncles teaching nieces and nephews how to swing
Speaker 1: on trap pieces and climb ropes and dew flips and
Speaker 1: ride motorcycles. Here we go, how circus families work. Welcome
Speaker 1: to Stuff you should know, a production of I Heart Radio. Hey,
Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, Just Charles
Speaker 1: W Chuck Bryant, and Jerry, Which makes this the Flying
Speaker 1: s Y s Cades, Flying Stuff, stuffy In's Stuffino, Oh,
Speaker 1: Steffini's Flying stef Man Boy. See you look at that.
Speaker 1: It took us we seven seconds, maybe even less, 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 publishism we'll know for sure,
Speaker 1: But I say less than seven seconds. The Flying Stefeni'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 the circus, they're like, what's
Speaker 1: that guy make for throwing knives? Oh? I have no
Speaker 1: idea what they make. It's just the question I got
Speaker 1: from this research. Gotcha, And I thought you had some
Speaker 1: hard numbers. Uh. No, you're the statman, remember, And I know,
Speaker 1: but people, you know, it's rude to talk about money,
Speaker 1: so people don't share these things these days. That's why
Speaker 1: I'm not saying anything. I'm just telling you the impression
Speaker 1: I had. They're always strutting around with goblets full of
Speaker 1: really expensive wine circus families, so you know, yeah, they
Speaker 1: got uh. You know. Every time I think we're all circused,
Speaker 1: out there comes another topic. Well, we have yet to
Speaker 1: do how circuses themselves work. We will do that one day,
Speaker 1: so we've done all of its component, every last one.
Speaker 1: After that. Well, it does have interesting history, so well
Speaker 1: we will save that then. Yeah. Well, I do want
Speaker 1: to do how circuses working. We should also say I
Speaker 1: don't want anybody to have the impression that by talking
Speaker 1: about circus families we are endorsing circuses in general. I
Speaker 1: have serious issues with some of them, with them for
Speaker 1: the most part, oh, like because of their treatment of animals. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but a lot of them don't use animals at all anymore. Well,
Speaker 1: not a lot of them, some of them don't. I
Speaker 1: have no problem with those circuses. Yeah, Like I remember
Speaker 1: the Big Apple Circus. They have a dog thing. Well dogs,
Speaker 1: I mean, we're horse thing, and I think that was it.
Speaker 1: And horses love to show off, So I'm okay with
Speaker 1: the Big Apple. Yeah, you wouldn't shoot, you know, but no, no,
Speaker 1: they wouldn't show like an elephant, right right, Which is
Speaker 1: funny because apparently an elephant is equal to a family
Speaker 1: circus performer. Oh yeah, I saw that. I should say
Speaker 1: circus family performer. Family circus is totally different. Yeah. This
Speaker 1: is a little frustrating research because I kept getting lots
Speaker 1: of circular cartoons that weren't funny. You don't think they're funny, Okay,
Speaker 1: they're they're not funny. I think they're charming and heartwarming. Yeah, sure,
Speaker 1: you know, Jeffy wrote on the wall, right, it's not funny,
Speaker 1: but it's cute. Their little hair in the noses and
Speaker 1: the they're cute. U that I have a brief segue here. Initially, Um,
Speaker 1: that reminded me. Was just at max fun Con, 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, well 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: husband 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 Paul if Tompkins and Mark McConville
Speaker 1: and Jeremy Carter. You could have stopped at Paul if Tompkins.
Speaker 1: Yeah right, Um, but one man improv is like, it's
Speaker 1: not the best he can do it. I bet he could.
Speaker 1: He does, I've seen it. So anyway, a long story short,
Speaker 1: we were playing this game one night where we were
Speaker 1: naming comic strips and the comic strip Mark Trail came up.
Speaker 1: Oh man, you remember that. Well it wasn't even trying
Speaker 1: to be funny. Well, no, it wasn't funny at all,
Speaker 1: but it wasn't even like interesting. It was literally like
Speaker 1: you know the what a beautiful sunset today? Right, that
Speaker 1: was tracing the trail of a hawk in the sky
Speaker 1: like through eight panels. Yeah. I thought it was refreshing
Speaker 1: in a little ways, like you just make it all
Speaker 1: like through a hilarious spasm of laugh or after like
Speaker 1: Funky winker Bean or Hagar the Horrible and you needed
Speaker 1: to like chill out, remember that, so you'd like read
Speaker 1: the Mark Trail and then like you go at it
Speaker 1: again and just laugh and laugh and beatle Bailey, which
Speaker 1: is great institches and then maybe you come down a
Speaker 1: little on Merry Worth or Department at three G Well,
Speaker 1: back up on Wizard of It, back down with Brenda Starr.
Speaker 1: Yeah that's the way you do it. But Mark Trail,
Speaker 1: I don't want to knock it too much because I
Speaker 1: believe it like taught kids about nature and conservancy and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. But and how to follow a hawks
Speaker 1: trail in this guy didn't belong in the comics section,
Speaker 1: but I don't know. It was a comic strip. Yeah.
Speaker 1: A lot of those comics were like they started out
Speaker 1: or a lot of things started out as comics like
Speaker 1: Lone Ranger comic sure, comic strip or comic book m
Speaker 1: because some have been both. You know, well the Bolster
Speaker 1: my point. Let's say comic strip. Okay, okay, great, and
Speaker 1: it might have actually started out as a radio show.
Speaker 1: And I think about it, Hey, that work. That worked
Speaker 1: out well. I was thinking, how can we kill some
Speaker 1: time here before we do circuses? That's how family circus
Speaker 1: tangent so family circuses. Uh. When I first circus families,
Speaker 1: when I first started researching, I was like, what a
Speaker 1: weird thing to be in a circus family? And then
Speaker 1: I thought it might be weird to be in one,
Speaker 1: but not weird that there are circus families, because it
Speaker 1: makes total sense that it's the family business. Well, that's
Speaker 1: how circus is largely started out. Yeah, very familiar. It was,
Speaker 1: you know, like you some patriarch of a family would
Speaker 1: find out that, hey, I'm I'm kind of good at juggling.
Speaker 1: Why don't I try doing it while I stand on
Speaker 1: the back of a moving horse and they go, Holy cow,
Speaker 1: I'm actually doing this. And uh, they'd say, well, let
Speaker 1: me see what happens when I tossed my sons in
Speaker 1: the air instead of juggling you know, batons juggle my sons. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if I set their hair on fire using some sort
Speaker 1: of safe flammable material that will burn but not burn
Speaker 1: the sun, say yeah, like have a flame retardant cap. Sure,
Speaker 1: that's then all of a sudden, you've got a circus family.
Speaker 1: And like these people would would start out by you know,
Speaker 1: the whole family would get involved in This is a
Speaker 1: time when they were much larger families than there are today,
Speaker 1: and they would form their own mini circus and travel around.
Speaker 1: And as circuses became more and more established and entrenched
Speaker 1: and divided among some very big names. Um, they started
Speaker 1: basically freelancing for these things. Like they go on a
Speaker 1: tour or a couple of tours would be you know,
Speaker 1: with a large circus for a couple of years, and
Speaker 1: then they go off and get on another tour or
Speaker 1: something like that. But um, they would form these family
Speaker 1: acts and that's how circuses originally got started. Yeah, and um,
Speaker 1: apparently it's it just the more you look at it,
Speaker 1: the more it makes sense. You know, they're on the
Speaker 1: road a lot um and if you want to spend
Speaker 1: time with your family, get your family and the family business,
Speaker 1: because then mom and dad aren't on the road doing
Speaker 1: their equestrian act. They're bringing the kids along and teaching them,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden they're the writing uh steffins,
Speaker 1: and there's spending time together and it's uh, you know.
Speaker 1: I read a few interviews with people in circus families,
Speaker 1: and apparently if you were not from a circus family, uh,
Speaker 1: this quote from Big Apple Circus guest director Steve Smith said,
Speaker 1: for those 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 real police. If you're a fan of the Wire,
Speaker 1: Sure there's cops and there's real police. Yeah, but like
Speaker 1: if you were born into being police, which a lot
Speaker 1: of cops are also another family tradition job. Yes, I
Speaker 1: don't know if a little podcasters are going to come along.
Speaker 1: We were not at that point yet where like there's
Speaker 1: been a generation you know it. But yeah, maybe a
Speaker 1: little Charlie McElroy will be a podcast maybe. Um And
Speaker 1: then they call uh they say marrying inside the circus
Speaker 1: also makes a lot of sense because where you're gonna
Speaker 1: meet people, but probably fellow performers, other circus families. So
Speaker 1: these are not towners if you're not like, uh, I
Speaker 1: like you and I are towners. Yeah, a k A
Speaker 1: slack jawed yokels. Yeah you know, sure, 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 Family 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 ees 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 en it people, right, And it seems like the
Speaker 1: custom is that once you are done performing as a
Speaker 1: member of a circus family, there's a non performing job
Speaker 1: for you, ready and waiting in the circus elsewhere, like
Speaker 1: an administration or something like that. I thought you were
Speaker 1: gonna say, break a deal, face the wheel, longstanding tradition
Speaker 1: in the circus. I know, welcome to Bartertown. Um. I
Speaker 1: watched that not too long ago. I told you I
Speaker 1: think I watched the whole mad Max trilogy. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: quadrilogy now well yeah, I think it's still trilogy plus one.
Speaker 1: Like Durham is our plus one on the Northeast tour. Yep,
Speaker 1: lousy people of Durham. Get it together, Durham. Um, all right,
Speaker 1: So you want to talk about some of these famous families,
Speaker 1: you know, you marry into it, you're born into it,
Speaker 1: and then before you know, and it seems like they
Speaker 1: always have a lot of kids too, Yeah, like seven children,
Speaker 1: because you need seven to complete a pyramids exactly? Is that? Why?
Speaker 1: Probably if you think you need help um, you know,
Speaker 1: tending to the farm. Imagine having like a circus act.
Speaker 1: That's good point. And some circus families also kind of expand,
Speaker 1: especially once they form a troop, they'll expand the family
Speaker 1: act to include non family members. Where they're they're members
Speaker 1: of the troops, they're not members of the family. But
Speaker 1: for for any outsider, they're like, oh, there's like three
Speaker 1: dads here. Yeah. But they take the traditional blood oath
Speaker 1: I think, sure, you know, and cut themselves with an
Speaker 1: elephant tusk that's still attached to the elephant. Yeah, that's right,
Speaker 1: and then they do a trepeze. It'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 to 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 are horse people. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a good way to start in the circus. Just
Speaker 1: be good on a horse. Um he Uh. John Clark
Speaker 1: was good on a horse. He caught the attention of UM,
Speaker 1: Philip Astley and Uh. In the early nineteenth century they
Speaker 1: started a circus act. Yeah, it was an area act
Speaker 1: at first. And it seems like anytime you're good, then
Speaker 1: the Ringling Brothers will come a call in 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 circus, UH,
Speaker 1: is to create some new thrilling move that no one
Speaker 1: else has done before, like the Clarks are credited with
Speaker 1: um coming up with the triple back somersault in nineteen
Speaker 1: o nine. Right, and the whole the Clark family dynasty
Speaker 1: actually broke up because of World War Two. World War
Speaker 1: two interestingly had a really direct impact on a lot
Speaker 1: 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 it returned, We're like, I've
Speaker 1: seen too much to go back into the circus and
Speaker 1: it was up to Ernestine Clark, who was a great
Speaker 1: granddaughter of John Clark I believe, to carry on the
Speaker 1: family business single handedly and daughter of Ernest. Her name
Speaker 1: was actually Elizabeth Laura, but she looked so much like Ernest.
Speaker 1: People called her little Ernie and uh yeah, she eventually
Speaker 1: went by Ernestine. I guess she was. I come on
Speaker 1: as well, just make this a little more feminine. It's
Speaker 1: like a family circus trip. And she did soldier on
Speaker 1: 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 Harry is sure, but he was still
Speaker 1: in the army. And famous athletes like can you imagine,
Speaker 1: like Justin Bieber is in the army it's a fight
Speaker 1: in the Middle East. No, I really really came, just
Speaker 1: doing his Duty's an American just a different time. It's
Speaker 1: 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 Bieber, Please don't
Speaker 1: give you which what was the sweepy in your face? Wow? Yeah,
Speaker 1: so he is Bieber stylists, 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 it,
Speaker 1: even if it doesn't work like clark one in yeah,
Speaker 1: or as we'll hear about later, the hoy Genie's 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 Parley, Yeah, part of whole. 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: He did? I'll say it again. Uh. So she married
Speaker 1: the famous actor um and then her daughters became trapeze artists,
Speaker 1: carrying on the family tradition. And Ernestine eventually became the
Speaker 1: first daughter to follow her father into the International Circus
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame. And I have a little clip here.
Speaker 1: Do you ever read the old New York Times articles?
Speaker 1: Sometimes the PDF ones with eighteen different headlines? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: this is his base. Clear read the headline several headlines actually,
Speaker 1: So this is about Clark Um Ernest Clark in New
Speaker 1: York City and Madison Square Garden and the first headline
Speaker 1: is trapeze man noted for twist and air. Uh Ernest
Speaker 1: Clark of wrinkling circus, turns at right angles and leap
Speaker 1: for life line line, broken rib brings panic, I'm sorry
Speaker 1: payne line and then writhing action during triple somersault starts
Speaker 1: sweat of agony all right, And then in the article
Speaker 1: it says, h Clark's feet is apparently in defiance of
Speaker 1: all the laws of mechanics, for he turns his body
Speaker 1: in the air and a pirouette at right angles to
Speaker 1: its line of flight with no other leverage than that
Speaker 1: he can exert by a thrust of his shoulders. Jo
Speaker 1: it is. And then later when they're describing him, describing
Speaker 1: him says Clark as a small, almost slight man, but
Speaker 1: with a large, wonderfully developed chest with a great heart
Speaker 1: beating inside. Old New York Times articles are just the best,
Speaker 1: I would say, all old newspapers period. But there times
Speaker 1: they knew what they were doing. Yeah, you could access
Speaker 1: You can access that stuff today pretty easily, pretty neat.
Speaker 1: You know. I looked up what um that line and
Speaker 1: staying alive means about the New York Times Don't Make
Speaker 1: a Man? Is that in the song Stay Alive The
Speaker 1: New York Times Don't make a Man? Oh? I never
Speaker 1: knew that's what they were saying. Yeah, so what does
Speaker 1: that mean? It means basically at the time that if
Speaker 1: like if it wasn't in the New York Times, it
Speaker 1: doesn't matter. And this is about a man whose life
Speaker 1: still does matter even though it's not worthy of being
Speaker 1: reported on it in the New York Times. John Travolta
Speaker 1: or the character. Yeah, I can't remember his name, Tony Manera, right,
Speaker 1: I think as scarface, Tony Marinera. Was it Tony? It's
Speaker 1: probably Tony, you know. So that movie was based on
Speaker 1: an article in New York magazine and it turned out
Speaker 1: that the guy who wrote it made the whole thing
Speaker 1: up from beginning to end. That made it up crazy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but it's still worth reading. And especially if you know
Speaker 1: that he made it up, you're like, how did how
Speaker 1: did anybody buy this? This kind of like like on
Speaker 1: the spot reporting is just done by a handful of people. Sure,
Speaker 1: and he found this guy that they worked on a
Speaker 1: hardware store in Brooklyn, and yeah, and then like was
Speaker 1: there like with the it was was able to like
Speaker 1: almost omnisciently track, like the people that came into this
Speaker 1: guy's orbit. Yeah, it's funny that the editors were like, Wow,
Speaker 1: you did a really good job here, not you're a
Speaker 1: fraud who cares? Yeah, they should have. Just when I
Speaker 1: hear things like that, I'm like, just say it's fiction
Speaker 1: from the beginning. It's still interesting. It's like when the
Speaker 1: guy the the author wrote about his drug rehab the
Speaker 1: James Fry. Yeah, that was a great book. And I
Speaker 1: remember at the time when all came out, I was like, man, man,
Speaker 1: you should just call it fiction. It's a really good book.
Speaker 1: But I thought I followed that story and and thought
Speaker 1: the same thing, like like, why why would you why
Speaker 1: would you say that every word of this is accurate? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it 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: the change that comes to it. And that is the
Speaker 1: case with the Hobson's. Robert Hobson, who left England for
Speaker 1: 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 son's about like
Speaker 1: indian rubber. I don't even know what that means. It
Speaker 1: means he was basically throwing us ones all over the
Speaker 1: place 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. Okay, gotcha. Uh
Speaker 1: So 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: it was changed to Nelson. Man, it gets confusing. So
Speaker 1: he called themselves professor Nelson and sons. Right, the son
Speaker 1: So he tossed about like indian rubber. Right, But it's
Speaker 1: not a better like Nelson's, no better than Hobson. That's
Speaker 1: just strange. Uh. Yeah, he changed it, supposedly allegedly because
Speaker 1: he wanted to pay homage to a former stage partner
Speaker 1: that I guess it died or moved on or whatever.
Speaker 1: I couldn't find the person's name, whoever the Nelson was,
Speaker 1: but it was an homage. Well, maybe he wanted to
Speaker 1: anonymity as well. Yeah, but he's probably on the run
Speaker 1: from the law. So um, the Nelson's became the Great
Speaker 1: Nelson Family because they they follow that tradition of like
Speaker 1: needing more people, um, more quickly than they could reproduce. Uh.
Speaker 1: So they brought in other performers who weren't family members,
Speaker 1: and they became the Great Nelson Family and then ultimately
Speaker 1: the Flying Nelson's, which is what they became famous as
Speaker 1: the Flying Nelson's. Yeah, and here's I thought the cool
Speaker 1: little factoid about them in the early I'm sorry, late
Speaker 1: nineteen twenties. Um, granddaughter Hilda taught lot was hired to
Speaker 1: teach Lon Cheney, the actor, how to walk the high
Speaker 1: wire in a movie called Laugh, Clown Laugh, and then
Speaker 1: all of the Nelson's, Um, we're in a movie called
Speaker 1: Circus Rookies in so um they still continue, I think,
Speaker 1: not as the Nelson's, but um, they said their ancestors,
Speaker 1: some of which still perform. Yeah, they basically retired mostly
Speaker 1: by nineteen thirty five. But then yeah, some carried on.
Speaker 1: What about the Flying Wallendas. These are the ones that
Speaker 1: everybody knows, everybody's heard of that it's sort of uh
Speaker 1: that became part of the lexicon. Yeah, the flying Wellendus Um.
Speaker 1: And then funny enough, the flying Wallendas actually got their
Speaker 1: name from a newspaper headline that dubbed them that because
Speaker 1: four of them fell from a high wire. Yeah, in
Speaker 1: acron Ohio and they said, like the flying Mollendis. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they said, the quote was the Wolendas Volendas. The Wallendas
Speaker 1: fell so gracefully that it seemed as if they were flying. Uh.
Speaker 1: But I wonder, like there were other flying flying Nelson's, Like,
Speaker 1: was this the first one? I wonder the Wollenda's. No,
Speaker 1: because the flying Nelson's were called that long before the
Speaker 1: middle of the twentieth century, So I think it was
Speaker 1: a natural word to apply to a circus family that
Speaker 1: did acrobatics. They're flying, And they definitely did acrobatics. Man,
Speaker 1: they were Um. They cemented their legacy for the seven
Speaker 1: person chair pyramid wait for it, on a high wire
Speaker 1: no nets, no nets, no harnesses. Very dangerous, so dangerous
Speaker 1: in fact that Carl will lenda Um, who was the
Speaker 1: patriarch at the time, died at age seventy three from
Speaker 1: a fall on the high wire. Yeah, they had a
Speaker 1: lot of tragedy. Um when they had the pyramid collapse
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty two. Two people died and Carlson Mario
Speaker 1: was paralyzed. Carl goes on to die. They had a
Speaker 1: sister in law who fell to her death in nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty three, and then in nineteen forty four they were
Speaker 1: the group performing when the Hartford Circus fire broke out.
Speaker 1: Oh really, so their act was going on. Uh. These
Speaker 1: tents were made of They were coated in paraffin wax
Speaker 1: at the time, probably kerosene to keep it from uh,
Speaker 1: to keep it waterproof. Paraffin wax is highly flammable, so
Speaker 1: scarrocene and UM A little tent sidewall started and during
Speaker 1: their performance, UM a band leader spotted it and apparently,
Speaker 1: and they should tell everyone this the song Stars and
Speaker 1: Stripes Forever as a warning signal to the circus performers.
Speaker 1: He said, start playing that, and that signaled like big
Speaker 1: trouble as ahead, and a hundred and sixty six to
Speaker 1: sixty nine people died. It didn't only have one point
Speaker 1: of entrance, entrance or exit. I think, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I know that some of the exits were blocked because
Speaker 1: they had like the ramp set up for the lions
Speaker 1: and stuff to come through like portals, and so they
Speaker 1: couldn't get out that way. So you might be right,
Speaker 1: But yeah, that was one of the deadliest fires in
Speaker 1: US history. And that's a that's a bad fire. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And there were a bunch of circus fires. I read
Speaker 1: about two or three. I would guess if you have
Speaker 1: huge canvas tents, a lot of hay on the ground, yeah,
Speaker 1: and um, they're coated inflammable material. Yeah, and everybody smoked. Sure, yeah,
Speaker 1: and then we'll just they still don't know. There was
Speaker 1: a guy that claimed responsibility as an arsonist, but um,
Speaker 1: they don't think he did it. He was mentally and
Speaker 1: although he was an arsonist, just not that time that time.
Speaker 1: So the will 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: Wilenda's Yeah, that's crazy. So they set a world record. Um.
Speaker 1: And then uh Nick will Lenda who has been on
Speaker 1: Discovery Channel before. I believe he walked over the Grand
Speaker 1: Canyon 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 foot drop. Yeah. Man,
Speaker 1: that stuff is just just nutty. Which is two meters 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 Wire,
Speaker 1: the tyro walker between the Twin Tours. How does the
Speaker 1: wind not just knock them off? Well, that's what that
Speaker 1: polls for to extend their um their point of what
Speaker 1: balance point center of gravity. Yeah, I mean I knew
Speaker 1: it helped them balance, but it just seems like the
Speaker 1: wind could be so fierce a good like, like the
Speaker 1: wind blows me over just walking down the street. I've
Speaker 1: seen it. I frequently have to help you up. That's
Speaker 1: how you found most of your lucky pennies. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: a good point. Hoovered them all up all right, Are
Speaker 1: we onto the the hoy Genie's Yes, we are the
Speaker 1: hoy Genies. Which is it started out as the Hodges
Speaker 1: not good enough, Let's make it more Italian and add
Speaker 1: any to the end of Hodges. Yes, which is what
Speaker 1: a promoter did to that lovely English surname on the
Speaker 1: late nineteenth century. And um, they have been around for
Speaker 1: a long time, three hundred and fifty year uh, ancestry
Speaker 1: of circus performers. It's not bad, it isn't bad. I
Speaker 1: think that's the oldest in here. The Wallendas went back
Speaker 1: to the late eighteenth centuries, seventeen hundreds. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: the Hygenies might be the oldest one in here. This
Speaker 1: one lady I saw that was interviewed. I can't remember
Speaker 1: her name. She was a twelfth generation on one side
Speaker 1: and seventh on her father's side. Man, that's serious being circus.
Speaker 1: So with the Hygiene's chuck um they were, They were
Speaker 1: really good with the horse ye equestrians. Yep. They had
Speaker 1: their own um, in particular Harriet, which was one of
Speaker 1: m Albert Hygenie's um who I well, I guess he
Speaker 1: wasn't the founder. If it went back through hundred fifty years.
Speaker 1: But um in early hygiene, early twentieth century hygiene or
Speaker 1: late nineteenth century UM, his kid Harriet UH would somersault
Speaker 1: and like dance on the back of a moving horse,
Speaker 1: which is weird because I've seen that before. I've seen
Speaker 1: like footage from the forties or fifties, So I wonder
Speaker 1: if I was seeing her because there's probably not that
Speaker 1: many people walking around on Earth who can do backflips
Speaker 1: on a horse. That's a good point, Um. But the
Speaker 1: really notable thing about the Hygiene's is what they did
Speaker 1: in retirement. Yeah, I thought that was pretty cool. Tom
Speaker 1: and Betty Hygeni uh from Indiana, Peru Indiana, not to
Speaker 1: be confused with Peru, the country Peru Peru. Yeah. Uh.
Speaker 1: They retired in n and businessman there said, you know what, wy,
Speaker 1: don't you come and work with some kids and teach
Speaker 1: them like your your craft. And that began we were
Speaker 1: just like, leave us alone, seriously retired. Uh. And that
Speaker 1: will welcome Matt now because we didn't put went out
Speaker 1: get off a property. Uh. That began what is now
Speaker 1: the Peru Amateur circus, in which kids perform like ten
Speaker 1: performances every summer. And it just sounds like a neat
Speaker 1: little program. Yeah, and it's not that little. Apparently tens
Speaker 1: of thousands of people show up for it. Yeah, a little,
Speaker 1: you know. And um, it's actually going on July eleven,
Speaker 1: ye around. I don't know exactly when this one's gonna
Speaker 1: come out, but it will be in time. So if
Speaker 1: you find yourself around Peru, Indiana, go check out the
Speaker 1: circus there July eleven. Chuck, we got more, don't we
Speaker 1: up our sleeves and more ennis, um, and we will
Speaker 1: talk about them right after this. You remember you said,
Speaker 1: Chuckers that, Um, a lot of these families started out
Speaker 1: as like a great equestrian families. Um. The Knees are
Speaker 1: probably the premier equestrian circus family around. Yes, they began
Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy a teenager named Leopold Knot and they
Speaker 1: were Hungarian. Um. He he did the old like right
Speaker 1: out of a story book. He said, I'm running away
Speaker 1: and joining the circus. Yeah, that's another way to found
Speaker 1: a circus family. Go start your own, to run off
Speaker 1: through 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 circus. That's right. Of
Speaker 1: course he might have married into circus. He probably, Yeah,
Speaker 1: he probably did. You could have. So not only were
Speaker 1: they equestrians, they and of course when we say equestrian there,
Speaker 1: it's always bareback writing tricks almost yeah, but this article
Speaker 1: actually has. It features a member of the Konyats, Tina Konyacht,
Speaker 1: who um was competing for the US in the two
Speaker 1: thousand twelve Olympics. Yeah. Like sure, she got out of
Speaker 1: this circus and said, let me, what's something super snobby
Speaker 1: I can go do? Is that dressage? I don't know.
Speaker 1: That's 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 own a horse. So,
Speaker 1: like most performers, John Ringling of the Barnum and Bailey
Speaker 1: Circus caught ahold of them in nineteen o seven said
Speaker 1: you're coming to America, and um, they performed there for
Speaker 1: a little while, but then said, you know, we're gonna
Speaker 1: go back to Europe and we're gonna start our own circus. No,
Speaker 1: that's 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
Speaker 1: Lie which was the family the Clark's World War Two
Speaker 1: put 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. At least
Speaker 1: they I guess. The family legacy was to create equestrian centers. Um,
Speaker 1: so they weren't circus performers anywhere anymore. But it's almost
Speaker 1: like this equestrian family had a brush with circus notoriety
Speaker 1: and then leverage that. Yeah, and then just continued on
Speaker 1: as in equestrian family. It's just pretty neat. Probably make
Speaker 1: more money in equestrian I guess, you know. And then
Speaker 1: Arthur Koonyat, 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: you're not doing too bad. All right. We got a
Speaker 1: couple of more here. Um Tina, how to pronounce this one?
Speaker 1: T o G and I s I would say Tony
Speaker 1: Tony's us What I was going to say, marr, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right. They are another Italian family um in circus
Speaker 1: dynasty and the original founder u Arris he said it
Speaker 1: was a student and he said, you know what, I'm
Speaker 1: done with school and I'm going to go performance circus,
Speaker 1: open my own have eight kids so I can open
Speaker 1: my own circus. Yeah. I get the impression that he
Speaker 1: decided he was done with school. Oh yeah, yeah, so
Speaker 1: he ran off to the circus. Um. Did you have
Speaker 1: the impression whether his wife was a circus was circus family,
Speaker 1: circus performer? I don't know. Well she was. After they
Speaker 1: got married, they um had kids and set up their
Speaker 1: own circus and it was such a success that um
Speaker 1: in n the king of Italy or the king of
Speaker 1: that part of Italy. Because I don't when was Italy
Speaker 1: unified together in a single country? Was it under Musulini? Boy?
Speaker 1: I don't it wasn't that long ago. UM Well, King
Speaker 1: King Victor Emmanuel the third Um created or said that
Speaker 1: the Circo Toni was the Circo Netsinale. Yeah, and that
Speaker 1: ran for a while. Um again. A circus fire in
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty one hit the Circo Nacional and from that
Speaker 1: point three of the Suns split apart and formed three
Speaker 1: different circus factions. Yeah. That fires spread them far and wide.
Speaker 1: I guess so. But they are noteworthy because not only
Speaker 1: were they a circus family, they were really smart inventive
Speaker 1: engineer types and made a lot of advancements in the
Speaker 1: circus uh itself, like the tent uh, like the big
Speaker 1: top tent, the couple of Yeah, they came up with that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they came up with three different design the round couple
Speaker 1: in the nineteen forties, the oblong in the seventies, and
Speaker 1: the the hugely famous round pull a quarter pole free
Speaker 1: in the nineties. And one of the other sons too,
Speaker 1: UM invented the collapsible seating wagons and a metallic mesh
Speaker 1: cage that I don't know if that's the globe of
Speaker 1: death or not. No, that's the URIs as you came
Speaker 1: up with the globe of death. All right, So the
Speaker 1: metallic mesh cage he invented must have just been like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, for animals or something. Probably. Yeah. The
Speaker 1: point is though they were inventors and made some money
Speaker 1: doing that stuff, yes, 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 fact that these if
Speaker 1: if you're born into a circus family and you are
Speaker 1: raised in the circus um, from what I've read, you're
Speaker 1: very rarely pressured into being a part of the family.
Speaker 1: It's more like this is your reality. So you start
Speaker 1: doing gymnastics and acrobatics at an early age and you're
Speaker 1: surrounded 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
Speaker 1: act and then the circus as at large. Um. But
Speaker 1: it 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 is this just
Speaker 1: the result of some you know, people who are born
Speaker 1: acrobats coming together and producing offspring that are born acrobats themselves.
Speaker 1: I don't know. It's a great question. This is a
Speaker 1: good question. Um, I wonder how many time it's happened
Speaker 1: that you're in a big circus family. You have like
Speaker 1: seven kids, and six of them are in the circus,
Speaker 1: and one of them is like, I want to be
Speaker 1: a city planner. Probably not much. No, we got one
Speaker 1: more we do the uriasis. Who did come up with
Speaker 1: that globe of death in nineteen twelve? That globe, that
Speaker 1: metal globe motorcycles in? Yeah, that was invented in nineteen twelve. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I had no idea it went back. It seemed. I
Speaker 1: was sure that this thing was probably invented in like
Speaker 1: the nineteen sixties or seventies. I was gonna say seventies.
Speaker 1: It seems like a seventies thing to invent totally, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but yeah, it goes all the way back to ninewelve.
Speaker 1: That is nuts. So the the actual globe of death
Speaker 1: was a sixteen foot diameter metal mesh orb. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: the idea is, if you haven't seen one of these,
Speaker 1: a just look up a video real quick, be uh
Speaker 1: crawl out from under that Rocky live in right under
Speaker 1: and then uh see it's when you put multiple motorcycle
Speaker 1: riders that just gun it and fly around this thing
Speaker 1: without hitting each other ideally and they they would um
Speaker 1: add people who are juggling fire in the center of
Speaker 1: the globe, riding around it, going up to sixty miles
Speaker 1: an hour. Apparently, um and they had the urias Is
Speaker 1: in particular, were the first to feature female motorcycle riders,
Speaker 1: the first to feature two female motorcycle riders, because how
Speaker 1: are you going to top the first one? But ed
Speaker 1: to UM and there's one where the Jody Urias who
Speaker 1: does the next spin you know that thing where like
Speaker 1: you just have a harness attached to the back of
Speaker 1: your head and you spin around until you vomit. They
Speaker 1: had her doing that with people going around her on
Speaker 1: their bikes and circles. Yeah, it's really impressive. I mean,
Speaker 1: the precision is is ridiculous when you see I mean
Speaker 1: I've seen I don't think it's I mean, they're still
Speaker 1: doing this act today. I saw another family that they
Speaker 1: don't have the market cornered on the Globe of Death,
Speaker 1: but but they invented it. Yeah. Yeah, they just failed
Speaker 1: the copyright or trade market, I guess. But I did
Speaker 1: see another family that was I think they had like
Speaker 1: eight motorcycles and this thing. It was ridiculous. And one
Speaker 1: where they actually brought the globe apart, so where there
Speaker 1: was a gap that they would be jumping or riding over,
Speaker 1: it was suddenly filled with crocodiles. But these people crashed.
Speaker 1: When was it every couple of weeks I looked at
Speaker 1: There was a crash not too long ago. Oh, it
Speaker 1: was in April of this year at the Washington Fairgrounds.
Speaker 1: And there's actually a YouTube of it. It's not like remarkable.
Speaker 1: It just at the very end of their thing. They
Speaker 1: all just sort of run into each other. But um,
Speaker 1: there was a fractured leg and some broken ribs. But
Speaker 1: other than that, everyone was okay and got right back
Speaker 1: up on the horse, iron horse, the iron horse, the
Speaker 1: steel horse. You got anything else, No, So that's Circus Families,
Speaker 1: part of our never ending quest to explain absolutely everything
Speaker 1: there is on planet Earth and beyond. That's right, it's
Speaker 1: one of them. If you want to know more about
Speaker 1: Circus Families, you can type those words in the search
Speaker 1: bar how stuff works dot Com. And I said search bar,
Speaker 1: which means it's time for a listener. Mayo, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: call this. We misspoke on something in the Bridges episode.
Speaker 1: Oh I did, Chuck? I take full responsibility, and we
Speaker 1: like to point these things out. Do you want to
Speaker 1: set this up? Yeah? In the Bridges episode, I talked
Speaker 1: about the HIGHERT Regency Skywalk collapse. Remember you made that
Speaker 1: Lionel Richie's joke and all that stuff. Well, like hundred
Speaker 1: and four I believe a hundred and fourteen people ultimately
Speaker 1: died from this thing. And I said that it was
Speaker 1: because they were dancing on the skywalk at the time.
Speaker 1: Totally not true. There was a t dance going on
Speaker 1: in the lobby below and people were standing on the
Speaker 1: skywalks looking at it, and the skywalk apparently in the
Speaker 1: design um there had been a change in design that
Speaker 1: nobody did the numbers and crunched the math on and
Speaker 1: this thing could barely hold up its deadweight. And then
Speaker 1: once you had, you know, a few dozen people on it, though,
Speaker 1: the fourth story skywalk collapsed onto the second story skywalk
Speaker 1: and both of them collapsed onto the ground. 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: You 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 High
Speaker 1: Regency collapse side of the wrong cause. The collapse is
Speaker 1: due 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 of the minimum
Speaker 1: Building Code load UH, and the way it was built
Speaker 1: would only support half of that. Not enough, not nearly enough.
Speaker 1: One bridge failure that should be mentioned is the Quebec
Speaker 1: Bridge crossing the St. Lawrence River. UH. This bridge collapsed
Speaker 1: twice when it was being built, and it's cited as
Speaker 1: a reason behind the idea of registering and licensing engineers
Speaker 1: to practice something that is a standard throughout the world. Now.
Speaker 1: And that is from Taylor, who is a geo technical
Speaker 1: engineer branches civil engineering that deals with soils, rocks, and foundations.
Speaker 1: She said, or he I don't know which that I
Speaker 1: make sure the ground can support the structure. Thanks a lot, Taylor.
Speaker 1: It's a pretty neat job, I guess, and you very important. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and thanks for the email. We appreciate that. And uh,
Speaker 1: I went back and looked to try to figure out
Speaker 1: where I got that info. But I swear I did
Speaker 1: not make up. Don't you hate that? Yeah? I've been
Speaker 1: called out on stuff that I've read and I couldn't
Speaker 1: find the source and it's still wrong. But it's maddening.
Speaker 1: It's like, I know, I didn't just create this out
Speaker 1: of my own brain. Yeah, so we we believe. But
Speaker 1: thanks to everybody who wrote in and said, hey, dudes, uh,
Speaker 1: that is absolutely wrong, because we want to make sure
Speaker 1: we get it right. So if we got something wrong
Speaker 1: that you want to point out and correct us on,
Speaker 1: let us know. You can tweet to us at s
Speaker 1: y s K podcast. You can join us on Facebook
Speaker 1: dot com slash Stuff you Should Know. You can send
Speaker 1: us an email to Stuff Podcast at how Stuff Works
Speaker 1: dot com and has always joined us at our home
Speaker 1: on the web, Stuff you Should Know dot Com. Stuff
Speaker 1: you Should Know is a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts my Heart Radio, visit the I heart
Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
Speaker 1: favorite shows.