Friday, November 24, 2017

#2 Aerialists!

Clarkonians!

Posted by Buckles at 11/24/2017 05:34:00 AM

1 comments:

Roger Smith said...

Ernest and Charles Clarke were not the first to achieve, or "catch" the triple, but were the first to include it more consistently. There were only the two of them up there--no third person to drop bars for the flying return. When Ernest left the bar for any trick, he had to depart so precisely that the swing remained true. With no one to determine the upswing of the bar, his timing with Charles, his catcher, had to be calculated differently than that of flying acts with someone left on the board. Kim Baer, Ernest's granddaughter, had someone show her the fly-bar they used. It was exceptionally heavy to hold its true swing for men with a two-act. This bar was not gifted to Kim, and remains privately held. But among the memorabilia I still keep for Kim, there is revealed a little-known side of Charles Clarke. He was a writer, and I have his notes, random paragraphs, and short stories, most of them handwritten in pencil.

The concept of the flying two-act, and its art-form purity is a main theme extolled by Burt Lancaster's Mike Ribble character in TRAPEZE. His failed conflict with the Cirque d'Hiver's Mr. Bouglione over this purity led to the ascension of Gina Lollobrigida's Lola to the act. Ribble was embittered over having to train her, dreading to lose practice time with Tony Curtis's Tino to catch the triple. At last, Tino caught the triple, took off to New York with a new catcher, and Mike Ribble walked off with his new love, Lola--and who the hell could blame him?

24 November, 2017 15:38

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