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The Flying Wallendas is the name of a circus
act and daredevil stunt performers, most known for performing
highwire acts without a safety net. They were first known as
The Great Wallendas, but the current name was coined by
the press in the 40s and has stayed since. The name in their native
German, "Die fliegenden Wallenda", is an obvious rhyme on the title
of the Wagner opera, "Der fliegende Holländer" ("The
Flying Dutchman").
Karl Wallenda
was born in Magdeburg,
Germany in 1905 to an old circus family, and began
performing at the age of 6. While still in his teens he answered an
ad for a hand balancer with courage. His employer, Louis
Weitzman, taught him the trade. In 1922, Karl put together his own
act with his brother Herman, Joseph Geiger, and a teenage girl,
Helen Kreis, who eventually became his wife.
The act toured Europe for
several years, performing some amazing stunts. When John Ringling saw
them perform in Cuba, he quickly
hired them to perform at the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey
Circus. In 1928, they debuted at the Madison
Square Garden. The act performed without a net (it had been
lost in transit) and the crowd gave them a standing ovation.
It was at a performance in Akron, Ohio that the group all fell off the
wire, but were unhurt. The next day, a reporter who witnessed the
accident was quoted in the newspaper: "The Wallendas fell so
gracefully that it seemed as if they were flying" -- thus coining
the name of The Flying Wallendas.
In 1944, while performing in Hartford, Connecticut, a fire
started that ended up killing over 168 people (see Hartford Circus Fire). None of the
Wallendas were hurt.
In the following years, Karl developed some of the most amazing
acts like the seven-person chair pyramid. They continued
performing those acts until 1962. That year, while performing at
the Shrine
Circus at Detroit's State Fair
Coliseum, the front man on the wire faltered and the pyramid
collapsed. Three men fell to the ground, killing two of them
(Richard Faughnan, Wallenda's son-in-law, and nephew Dieter
Schepp). Karl injured his pelvis, and his adopted son, Mario, was
paralyzed from the waist down.
Other tragedies include when Wallenda's sister-in-law, Rietta,
fell to her death in 1963, and his son-in-law Richard ("Chico")
Guzman was killed in 1972 after touching a live electric wire while
holding part of the metal rigging. Nonetheless, Karl decided to go
on. He repeated the pyramid act in 1963 and 1977. Karl continued
performing with a smaller group, and doing solo acts.
On March 22, 1978, during a promotional walk in San
Juan, Puerto
Rico, Karl
Wallenda fell from the wire and died. He was 73 at the time.
Rick Wallenda completed the walk a year later.
There are several branches of the Wallendas performing today,
comprising mostly grandchildren of Karl Wallenda. They still perform
regularly and have achieved recognition in the Guinness Book of Records.
Some Family
Members
- Jenny Wallenda, Karl's oldest daughter,
performed around the world. After her retirement she remains active
in the circus community, organizing parades, shows and other events
to promote and preserve the art of circus. She has been honored
with a place in Sarasota's Circus Ring of Fame.
- Carla Wallenda, Karl's younger daughter, this
high flying grandmother is still performing amazing feats on the
highwire and swaypole with her husband Mike Morgan.
- Richard Faughnan, Karl's son-in-law, was the
husband of Jenny Wallenda. Faughnan fell 70 feet to his death on 30
January 1962 in Detroit, when the Seven-Man Pyramid collapsed.
- Richard "Chico" Guzman, Karl's son-in-law, and
Carla's husband, was killed in 1972 when he touched a live wire
while on the metal rigging.
- Dieter Schepp, Karl's nephew, fell 70 feet to
his death on 30 January 1962 in Detroit, when the Seven-Man Pyramid
collapsed. Dieter, who was making his first appearance in the
Seven, apparently lost his grip on the balance pole.
- Jana Schepp, Karl's niece and Dieter's sister,
was one of the survivors of the 1962 disaster in Detroit.
- Angel Wallenda (20 March 1968 - 3 May 1996),
born Elizabeth Pintye, married Steven Wallenda (Karl's grandnephew)
in 1985, when she was 17, and began training on the wire. Soon,
however, she became ill with cancer. In 1987 her right leg had to
be amputated, and in 1988 parts of both lungs were removed.
Nonetheless, later that year she returned to the act, becoming the
only person with an artificial leg ever to walk a high wire. She
gave her final performance in 1990. She and Steven divorced, and
Angel married Adil Shaikh.[1]
- Edith Wallenda (18 March 1913 - 21 October
1999), Herman's second wife, performed with the Great Wallendas for
a quarter century before her retirement. After retirement from the
high wire, she worked for ten years as an X-ray technician at
Sarasota Memorial Hospital. Her children, by a previous marriage,
are Rosemarie Wallenda (born 8 December 1942) and Peter Pfeifer
(born 7 August 1938).
- Gunther Herman Wallenda (25 June 1927 - 16
March 1996), Herman's son by his first wife, Lucy, began training
on the wire at age five, though he was already part of the act. In
the Hartford Circus Fire, he helped rescue a
number of the spectators. When in 1962 the pyramid fell, Gunther
was the only one left standing and was able to help rescue three
who were clinging to the wire. That summer the troupe went to the
theme park The Enchanted Forest of the Adirondacks to regroup and
heal. While performing at the Enchanted Forest that summer and the
summer of 1963, Gunther fell in love with Sheila Monahan (22 May
1936 – 15 July 2000). Sheila was a teacher who worked summers as
the secretary to the park's general manager (who was also her
brother-in-law). Sheila and Gunther married in the fall of 1963 and
settled in Sarasota, Florida where Gunther
returned to school. He graduated from high school, got a university
degree, and became a history and geography teacher. While teaching
in Sarasota, Gunther continued to train high-wire performers, most
notably as part of the Sailor Circus, a Sarasota county sponsored
circus school. They had one daughter, Lisa Ellen Wallenda (now
Wallenda-Picard) who performed with father as well as Carla
Wallenda and was part of Ringling Brothers headquarters management
for many years.
- Helen (Kreis) Wallenda (11 December 1910 - 9
May 1996), Karl's second wife, was the last surviving member of the
original troupe. She joined the Wallendas when she was 16. Helen
and Karl Wallenda were married in 1935. Until she retired in 1956,
she was balanced at the peak of the seven-man pyramid.
- Herman Wallenda (11 June 1901 – January 1985),
Karl's brother, was one of the original members of the Great
Wallendas troop (Karl Wallenda, Herman Wallenda, Helen Wallenda,
and Joe Geiger). Born in Magdeburg, Germany, he began performing at
age 2 as an acrobat and clown. Together with the other members of
the troop, he was discovered by John Ringling in Cuba in the late
1920s and joined the Ringling Brothers circus in the United States,
where he resided the rest of his life. Self-taught and without
formal education, he was conversant in five languages and played a
number of musical instruments. He was one of the survivors of the
1962 disaster in Detroit. He was the father of Gunther
Wallenda.
- Karl
Wallenda (21 January 1905 - 22 March 1978) was the
founder and leader of the group until his death in San
Juan in 1978.
- Mario Wallenda, Karl's adopted son, was
paralyzed from the waist down on 30 January 1962 in Detroit, when
the Seven-Man Pyramid collapsed. In the 1990s, Mario developed an
act in which he would ride a two-wheeled electric "sky cycle" on
the high wire.
- Tino Wallenda, Karl's grandson, started on the
high wire at age seven. He is the family patriarch of the Flying
Wallendas and is still performing (2008) the 7-Man Pyramid with his
daughters and son, his brother-in-law Sascha Pavlata, son-in-law
Robinson Cortes and family friend Jade Kindar-Martin.
- Olinka Wallenda, Tino's wife, is descended
from the Valla Bertini circus family, and has been performing on
the high wire with Tino since 1974. She and Tino have four
children, all wirewalkers - Alida, Andrea, Aurelia and Alessandro
(Alex).
- Mario B. Wallenda (6 November 1956 - 5 March
1993), Karl's grandson, learned to walk the tightrope at the age of
two or three, but his specialty was riding his motorcycle inside
the "Globe of Death". He tested positive for HIV in 1990 after collapsing after a performance in
Canada. After his death from AIDS,
his mother, Carla, said she wanted his cause of death made
public.
- Rietta Wallenda, Karl's sister-in-law, fell to
her death April 18, 1963 in Omaha, NE while performing on the sway
pole.
- Sandra Wallenda, Gunther's daughter from his
second marriage to Margarita, a talented Mexican aerialist who fell
to her death in Mexico City in the late 1950s. Sandra performed
various aerial acts around the world and is also a gifted
horsewoman.
- Rietta Wallenda, Karl's granddaughter, has
been performing since the age of 13. The only member of Karl's
family who was performing with him at the time of his death, she
performed in San Juan to a standing ovation five hours after her
grandfather died. She and her daughter Lyric, also an accomplished
performer, are currently working in Hawaii.
- Rick Wallenda, Karl's grandson, has been performing since the
age of 13. He completed the walk that took Karl's life a year after
his grandfather's death. He also broke his grandfather's record at
Kings Island
walking 2000 feet without a net. It is the continental record for
that walk.
- Nikolas & Erendira Wallenda,
Karl's great-grandson and his wife now perform with the Ringling
Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. He is a seventh generation
Wallenda. Erendira comes from the Flying Vasquez family of trapeze
artists. They have three children sons Yanni, Amadaos and daughter
Evita Wallenda who are also learning the family trade. On October
15, 2008, Nik broke the world record for the highest and longest
bike ride on a high wire live on NBC's Today.[2]
In December 2008, TLC aired a one-hour documentary about Tino
and the Wallendas family produced by Jen Stocks for Figure 8
Films.
See also
References
- ^
Angel Wallenda, 28, a Flier
Despite a Life of Obstacles.
- ^
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/27195690#27195690
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