July 2, 2015 • 43 mins
Don't be confused - this one is about actual circus acts made of family members, not the controversial comic strip.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to you stuff you should know fromhouse Stuff Works
dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark,
Charles W. Chuck Bryant and Jerry. Which makes this The
Flying s y s K Flying Stuff Stuffy Ends Stefanos
(00:26):
Steffini's the Flying steffens Man. Boy. See you look at that.
It took us wet seven seconds. Maybe even wants to
come up with the best name in the history of
podcasting circus teams. Yeah, we'll go back and look at
the time stamp. After this publicism, we'll know for sure.
But I say less than seven seconds. The Flying Steffeni's.
Good job man, all right, I guess we can retire.
We've hit it big, Yeah we have. You can make
(00:49):
some money being a circus family, I learned. Yeah, I
have no idea about costs. So you will delight me
because I think everyone, well not everyone. I think some
people when they go to circus, they're like, what's that
guy make for throwing knives? Oh? I have no idea
what they make. It's just and I got from this
research and I thought you had some hard numbers. No,
(01:11):
you're the statman, remember, and I know, but people, uh,
you know it's rude to talk about money, so people
don't share these things these days. That's why I'm not
saying anything. I'm just telling you the impression I had.
They're always strutting around with goblets full of really expensive
wine circus families, so you know, yeah, they got uh.
(01:31):
You know. Every time I think we're all circused, out
there comes another topic. Well, we have yet to do
how circuses themselves work. We will do that one day.
So we've done all of its components, every last one.
After that, Well, it does have interesting history, so well
we will save that then. Yeah, we Well I do
want to do how circus is working. We should also
say I don't want anybody to have the impression that
(01:53):
by talking about circus families we are endorsing circuses in general.
I have serious issues with some of them, with them
for the most part, oh, like because of their treatment
of animals. Yeah, but a lot of them don't use
animals at all anymore, not a lot of them, some
of them don't. I have no problem with those circuses. Yeah,
Like I remember the Big Apple Circus. They have a
(02:15):
dog thing, go out dogs a horse thing, and I
think that was it. And horses love to show off,
So I'm okay with the big Yeah you wouldn't shoot,
you know, but no, no, they wouldn't show like an
elephant right right, Which is funny because apparently an elephant
is equal to a family circus performer. Oh yeah, I
(02:38):
saw that. I should say circus family performer. Family Circus
is totally different. Yeah. This is a little frustrated research
because I kept getting lots of circular cartoons that weren't funny.
You don't think they're funny, Okay, they're they're not funny.
I think they're charming and heartwarming. Yeah, sure, you know,
Jeffy wrote on the wall, right, it's not funny, but
(02:58):
it's cute. Their little hair and the noses and the
they're cute. Uh that I have a brief segue here. Initially,
Um that reminded me was just at max foncan uh,
the the weekend retreat of Jesse Thorn and his podcasting empire.
Everybody loved you that picture of you and Hodgeman and
Justin McElroy's kid. Yeah, little baby Charlie. Yeah, very cute. Yeah,
(03:21):
I think people love babies. Hodgeman, who doesn't even particularly
like kids, was like, give me that baby. You know, Um,
Hodgman likes kids, at least he likes his own kids. Um,
so I was just there. And first of all, let
me recommend the Super Ego podcast, Very funny improv podcast
featuring Matt Gorley and Paula Tompkins and Mark McConville and
(03:44):
Jeremy Carter. You could have stopped at paul Tomkin. Yeah right, Um,
but one man improv is like, it's not the best
he can do. He does, I've seen it. So anyway,
a long story short, we were playing this game one
night where we were naming comic strips and the comic
strip mark trail came up. Oh man, you remember that.
Well it wasn't even trying to be funny. Well no,
it wasn't funny at all, but it wasn't even like interesting.
(04:06):
It was literally like, you know, the what a beautiful
sunset today, right, was tracing the trail of a hawk
in the sky, like through eight panels. I thought it
was refreshing in a little ways, like you just make
it all like through a hilarious spasm of laughter after
like Funky winker Bean or Hagar the Horrible and you
(04:28):
needed to like chill out. Remember that, so you'd like
read the Mark Trail and then like you go at
it again and just laugh and laugh and beatle Bailey,
which is great, instant it just and then maybe you'd
come down a little on merry Worth or Department but
three G, back up on Wizard of It, back down
with Brenda's starr. Yeah, that's the way you do it.
(04:49):
But Mark Trail, I don't want to knock it too
much because I believe it like taught kids about nature
and conservancy and stuff like that. But and how to
follow a hawks Trail in the sky didn't belong in
the comic section. But I don't know, like it was
a comic strip. Yeah. A lot of those comics were
like they started out or a lot of things started
out as comics like Lone Ranger comic. Oh really sure
(05:10):
comic strip or a comic book, because some have been both.
You know, well the Bolster my point. Let's say comic strip, okay, okay,
And it might have actually started out as a radio show.
And I think about it, Hey, that worked that worked
out well. I was just thinking, how can we kill
some time here before we do circuses? That's how Family
Circus tangent so Family circuses. Uh. When I first started, Yeah,
(05:36):
circus families. When I first started researching, I was like,
what a weird thing to be in a circus family.
And then I thought it might be weird to be
in one, but not weird that there are circus families,
because it makes total sense that it's the family business.
Well that's how circus is largely started out. Yeah, very familial.
It was, you know, like you some patriarch of a
(05:59):
family would find doubt that Hey, I'm I'm kind of
good at juggling. Why don't I try doing it while
I stand on the back of a moving horse And
they go, holy cow, I'm actually doing this. And they'd say, well,
let me see what happens when I tossed my sons
in the air instead of juggling, you know, batons. If
I set their hair on fire using some sort of
(06:21):
safe flammable material that will burn but not burn the sun,
say like, I have a flame retardant cap. Sure, then
all of a sudden, you've got a circus family. And
like these people would would start out by you know,
the whole family would get involved in This was a
time when they were much larger families than there are
today and they would form their own mini circus and
(06:42):
travel around. And as circuses became more and more established
and entrenched and divided among some very big names. Um,
they started basically freelancing for these things. Like they go
on a tour or a couple of tours would be
you know, with a large circus for a couple of years,
and then they go off and get on another tool
or something like that. But um, they would form these
(07:04):
family acts and that's how circus is originally got started. Yeah,
and um, apparently it's it just the more you look
at it, the more it makes sense. You know, they're
on the road a lot, um, and if you want
to spend time with your family, get your family in
the family business, because then mom and dad aren't on
the road doing their equestrian act. They are bringing the
kids along and teaching them, and all of a sudden
(07:26):
they're the the writing uh steffinos and they're spending time
together and it's uh, you know, I read a few
interviews with people in circus families and apparently if you
were not from a circus family, uh, this quote from
a Big Apple Circus guest director Steve Smith said, for
those of us those of us who didn't grow up
(07:47):
in the circus, there's always a feeling as if we're
on the outside looking in on what they call quote
being circus. Yeah, like if you're born into a circus
family and you're in the circus, you have automatic prestige,
you're part of a dynasty, and that's being circus. Yeah,
it's like a real police. If you're a fan of
the Wire, Sure there's cops and there's real police. Yeah,
(08:09):
but like if you were born into being police, which
a lot of cops are also another family tradition job. Yes,
I don't know if a little podcasters are going to
come along. We were not at that point yet where
like there's been a generation you know, not yet, but yeah,
maybe little Charlie McElroy will be a podcast maybe um
(08:30):
and then they call uh they say marrying inside the
circuits also makes a lot of sense because where you're
gonna meet people, but probably fellow performers, other circus families,
so these and not towners. If you're not like, uh,
I like you and I are towners. Yeah a k
A slack jawn yokels. Yeah, you know, how are you look?
Well that thing on fire and jump through it. Yeah,
(08:53):
there's a there's a pretty neat article on pbs UM
called Being Circus Life in the Only Business about being
born into a circus family. It seems like a pretty
cool life. I mean, you know, they go to school
on the road, and I think it's like one big
family because they say, you know, if you're in a
trap ez act, you can't be mad at your dad
(09:15):
who is catching you in the trap ez act tonight.
So I think you gotta like, yeah, well, you know,
you can't go into performance, a dangerous performance like the
Globe of Death, harboring any animosity towards your siblings. So
you gotta work this stuff out. You know, they're they're
tight knit people, right, And it seems like the custom
is that once you are done performing as a member
(09:37):
of a circus family, there's a non performing job for you,
ready and waiting in the circus elsewhere, like an administration
or something like that. I thought you were gonna say,
break a deal, face the wheel, longstanding tradition in the circus.
Welcome to Bartertown. Um, I watched that not too long ago.
(09:59):
I told you a thing. Can watch the whole Mad
Max trilogy. Yeah, the quadrilogy. Now, well, yeah, I think
it's the trilogy plus one, Like Durham is our plus
one on the Northeast tour. Yep, lousy people of Durham.
Get it together, Durham. Um. All right, So you want
to talk about some of these famous families. You know,
(10:20):
you marry into it, you're born into it, and then
before you know and it it seems like they always
have a lot of kids too. Yeah, like seven children,
because you need seven to complete a pyramids exactly? Is
that why? Probably if you think you need help, um,
you know, tending to the farm. Imagine having like a
circus act. That's good point. And some circus families also
(10:41):
kind of expand, especially once they form a troop, they'll
expand the family act to include non family members. Where
they're they're members of the troops, they're not members of
the family. But for any outsider, they're like, oh, there's
like three dads here. Yeah. But they take the traditional
blood oath think sure, you know, and cut themselves with
(11:03):
an elephant tusks still attached to the elephant. Yeah, that's right,
and then they do a trapeze that's gotta hurt. Yeah.
So let's talk about the Clarks, one of the earliest
UM British circus families. Any relation do you probably? I mean,
can't you tell you see me on the high wire?
I have? You're quite skilled. Yes, they the Clarks go
(11:26):
all the way back to the very first uh circuses,
because a man named Philip Astley is credited as being
the inventor of the modern circus in the late seventeen hundreds. Right,
and he heard about John Clark, who was a horseman,
and a lot of these people were horse people. Yeah,
it's a good way to start in the circus to
be good on a horse. Um he Uh, John Clark
(11:50):
was good on a horse. He caught the attention of
um Philip Astley and uh in the early nineteenth century
they started a circus act. Yeah, it was an area
act at first. And it seems like anytime you're good,
then the Ringling Brothers will come a calling at some point. Yeah,
(12:10):
for sure, to snap you up, because they're the greatest
show on earth. That's right. Um. The one of the
ways also to cement your family act as a dynasty,
in addition to having multiple generations that stay in the
circus um is to create some new thrilling move that
no one else has done before, like the Clarks are
(12:32):
credited with um coming up with the triple back somersault
in nine nine, right, and the whole the Clark family
dynasty actually broke up because of World War Two. World
War two, interestingly had a really direct impact on a
lot of circus families, and the Clarks were among them. Um,
(12:56):
So the men went off to war. I'm sure some
of them died. The ones of it turned were like,
I've seen too much to go back into the circus.
And it was up to Ernestine Clark, who was a
great granddaughter of John Clark I believe, to carry on
the family business, yes, single handedly, and daughter of Ernest.
Her name was actually Elizabeth Laura, but she looks so
(13:18):
much like Ernest. People called her little Ernie and uh yeah,
she eventually went by Ernestine. I guess she was like,
I might as well just make this a little more feminine.
It's like a family circus trip. And she did soldier
on um, you know, after World War two. Like you said,
it's so crazy to think about these famous people going
(13:40):
and joining the army. Well, Elvis did. Yeah, Elvis was
in the army. I know. He's also probably like more
protected than Prince Harris. Sure, but he was still in
the army and famous athletes. Like can you imagine, like
Justin Bieber is in the army, it's a fight in
the Middle East. No, I really really came just doing
his duty kind of is an American just a different time.
(14:02):
It's just mind boggling to think about the mindset back then.
You know. Do you know I got my haircut recently
by the guy who created the Bieber haircut back in
the day. Is that why you went to him? No?
I didn't find out until part way through, and I
was like, please don't give me a beaper, Please don't
give which what was the sweepy in your face? Wow? Yeah,
(14:25):
So he was Bieber styliss yes, early on, and gave
him that haircut. Isn't that cool? I guess man, I
was like one degree from Justin Bieber. I think we
all are. Um, so everybody, UM, I don't know if
you found this. I thought this is pretty amazing. Um.
The Clark's performance group early on, we're called the clarkon Ians.
(14:48):
I thought that was pretty good. It's weird. It's so funny,
like for some reason, if you're a circus promoter, You're like,
that name is not nearly Italian enough at an eeny
or an owny or something on the end of even
if it doesn't work like clark Oni in yeah, or
as we'll hear about later, the hoy Genie's Yeah, this
isn't that's that's senseless. It is pretty senseless. But you
(15:10):
can thank circus promoters for coming up with those horrible
hybrids of names. I think there's a rich tradition in Italy,
so they just sounded, you know, fanciful. Um. So, Ernestine
carried the torch um. She finally left the circus in
the nineteen fifties. Uh and had a husband that was
a part time circus performer, part time actor and her
(15:32):
little girls who party? Yeah, part of who he was
the mayor and Andy Griffith. Oh no way. And if
you look up his um his credits, he was in everything.
He like made appearances in everything, Like you would recognize
him immediately. Interesting, He's been in everything from Three's Company
to The Golden Girls. He was just in everything. Wow,
(15:53):
that's pretty awesome. Bewitched. Yeah, did I say three His Company?
I'll say it again. Uh. So she married the famous
actor Um and then her daughters became trapeze artists, carrying
on the family tradition, and Ernestine eventually became the first
daughter to follow her father into the International Circus Hall
(16:13):
of Fame. And I have a little clip here. Do
you ever read the old New York Times articles sometimes
the pdf? Eighteen different headlines? Yeah, yeah, this is basically
read the headline several headlines. Actually, so this is about
clark Um Ernest Clark in New York City and Madison
Square Garden. And the first headline is trapeze man noted
(16:36):
for twist and air. Uh, Ernest Clark of wrinkling circus,
turns at right angles and leap for life line line,
broken rib brings panic, I'm sorry, payne line line and
then writhing action during triple somersault starts sweat of agony.
All right, And then in the article it says, h
(16:57):
Clark's feet is apparently in defiance of all the laws
of mechanics, for he turns his body in the air
and a pirouette at right angles to its line of flight,
with no other leverage than that he can exert by
a thrust of his shoulders. Journalism it is. And then
later when they're describing describing him, says Clark as a small,
(17:19):
almost slight man, but with a large, wonderfully developed chest
with a great heart beating inside. Old New York Times
articles are just the best, I would say, all old
newspapers period. But there are times they knew what they
were doing. Yeah, you could access You can access that
stuff today pretty easily, pretty neat. You know. I looked
up what um that line, and staying Alive means about
(17:42):
the New York Times don't make a Man? Is that
in the song Staying Alive the Dow York Times Don't
make a Man? Oh? I never knew that's what they
were saying. So what does that mean? It means basically
at the time that I like, if it wasn't in
the New York Times, it doesn't matter. And this is
about a man whose life still does matter even though
it's not worthy of being reported on in the New
York Times. John Travolta or the character, yeah, I can't
(18:05):
remember his saying Tony manera, right, I think a scarface
Tony Marinera. Was it Tony? It's probably Tony, you know.
So that movie was based on an article in New
York magazine, and it turned out that the guy who
wrote it made the whole thing up from beginning to end,
made it up crazy. Yeah, but it's still worth reading.
(18:28):
And especially if you know that he made it up,
you're like, how did how did anybody buy this? This
kind of like like on the spot reporting is just
done by a handful of people. Sure, and he found
this guy that that worked on a hardware store in Brooklyn,
and yeah, and then like was there like with the
it was was able to like almost omnisciently track like
the people that came into this guy's orbit. Yeah. Yeah,
(18:51):
it's funny that the editors were like, Wow, you did
a really good job here, not you're a fraud who cares? Yeah,
they should have. Just when I hear things like that,
I'm like, say, it's fiction from the beginning, it's still interesting.
It's like when the guy that the author wrote about
his drug rehab, the James Fry, Yeah, that was a
great book. And I remember at the time when that
(19:13):
all came out, I was like, man, man, you should
just call it fiction. It's a really good book. But
I thought I followed that story and and thought the
same thing, like like why why would you Why would
you say that every word of this is accurate. It
doesn't make any sense. We will get back to uh.
Circus families believe it or not right after this message.
(19:49):
So chuck sometimes them if the family circus, the circus
family can get in front of a show promoter, they
can have some sort of control over their own name.
Sure the change that comes to it. And that is
the case with the Hobson's Robert Hobson who left England
for the US in eighteen sixty UM and started a family,
(20:12):
a circus family act, acrobats family act. That's right. And
apparently he was noted for tossing his sons about like
indian rubber. Don't even know what that means. It means
he was basically throwing his sons all over the place
and they're just landing places. Well, no, I get that,
but I just I don't know what indian rubber is.
I think that they were very pliable, gotcha. Uh. So
(20:39):
with the name change, they were originally Hobson, I'm sorry,
originally Nelson, but changed their name. No, it was Hobson first, oh,
was changed to Nelson. Man, it gets confusing, so he
called themselves Professor Nelson and sons, the sons who he
tossed about like Indian rubber right, But it's not a
better like Nelson's, no better than Hobson. That's just strange. Uh. Yeah,
(21:01):
he changed it, supposedly allegedly because he wanted to pay
homage to a former stage partner that I guess it
died or moved on or whatever. I couldn't find the
person's name, whoever the Nelson was, but it was an homage.
Well maybe he wanted to uh anonymity as well. Yeah,
he's probably on the run from the law. So. Um,
(21:22):
the Nelson's became the Great Nelson Family because they followed
that tradition of like needing more people, um, more quickly
than they could reproduce. Uh. So they brought in other
performers who weren't family members, and they became the Great
Nelson Family and then ultimately the Flying Nelson's, which is
what they became famous as the Flying Nelson's. Yeah, and
(21:42):
here's I thought the cool little factoid about them. In
the early I'm sorry, late nineteen twenties, Um, granddaughter Hilda
taught Lot was hired to teach Lon Cheney, the actor,
how to walk the high wire. In a movie called
Laugh Clown Laugh, And then all of the Nelson's, Um,
we're in a movie called Circus Rookies in so um
(22:05):
they still continue, I think, not as the Nelson's, but um,
they said their ancestors, some of which still perform. Yeah,
they basically retired mostly by nineteen thirty five. But then yeah,
some carried on. Sure, what about the flying Wallendas. These
are the ones that everybody knows, everybody's heard of that.
It's sort of that became part of the lexicon. Yeah,
(22:28):
the flying Wellendus y um. And then funny enough, the
flying Wallendas actually got their name from a newspaper headline
that dubbed them that because four of them fell from
a high wire. Yeah, in Akron, Ohio. And they said,
I like the flying Mollendis. Yeah, they said. The quote
was the Lendas volendas. The Wallendas fell so gracefully that
(22:49):
it seemed as if they were flying. Uh. But I wonder,
like there were other flying flying Nelson's, Like, was this
the first one? I wonder the Wellenda's No, because the
flying Nelson's were called that long before the middle of
the twentieth century, So I think it was a natural
word to apply to a circus family that did acrobatics,
(23:11):
they're flying and they definitely did acrobatics. Man, they were Um.
They cemented their legacy for the seven person chair pyramid
wait for it, on a high wire no nets, no nets,
no harnesses. Very dangerous, so dangerous in fact that Carl
will Lenda Um, who was the patriarch at the time,
(23:31):
died at age seventy three from a fall on the
high wire. Yeah, they had a lot of tragedy. Um.
When they had the pyramid collapse in nineteen sixty two,
two people died and Carlson Mario was paralyzed. Carl goes
on to die. That had a sister in law who
fell to her death in nineteen sixty three. And then
in nineteen forty four they were the group performing when
(23:57):
the Hartford Circus fire broke out. Oh really, so their
act was going on. Uh. These tents were made of
They were coded in paraffin wax at the time, probably
kerosene to keep it from uh, to keep it waterproof.
Paraffin wax is highly flammable. So skearroceene and UM a
(24:18):
little tent sidewall started and during their performance, Um a
band leader spotted it and apparently, and they should tell
everyone this, the song Stars and Stripes Forever is a
warning signal to the circus performers. He said, start playing that,
and that signaled like big trouble as ahead, and a
hundred and sixty six to sixty nine people died. It
(24:41):
didn't only have one point of entrance, entrance or exit.
I think, I don't know. I know that some of
the exits were blocked because they had like the ramps
set up for the lions and stuff to come through
like portals, and so they couldn't get out that way.
So you might be right, But yeah, that was one
of the deadliest fire as in US history. And that's
a that's a bad fire. Yeah, And there were a
(25:03):
bunch of circus fires. I read about two or three.
I would guess if you have huge canvas tents, a
lot of hay on the ground, Yeah, and um they're
coated inflammable material and everybody smoked. Yeah, and then we'll
just they still don't know. There was a guy that
claimed responsibility as an arsonist, but um, they don't think
(25:24):
he did it. He was mentally ill and although he
was an arsonist's just not that time just not that time.
So the well Lendas have become synonymous with um circus
tragedy strangely, but they also has an overshadowed their accomplishments
there in the world. The Guinness Book of World records
for the world's first and only ten person pyramid on
(25:47):
a tight rope. Consider this. Several of their family members
died doing this, and they went on and not only
redo it, but they add three more seats, three more
will Endas. Yeah, that's crazy. So they said old record
um and then uh, Nick will And who has been
on Discovery Channel before? I believe he walked over the
(26:08):
Grand Canyon? What channel? Discovery Channel? Have you heard of it? They?
I think he was the one who walked over the
Grand Canyon. He definitely walked over um uh Chicago in
between two skyscrapers, over a six D fot drop. Yeah. Man,
that stuff is just just nutty. Which is two crazy? Yeah,
on a on a high wire without a net. You
(26:30):
could put a net at the bottom. It's not gonna
do anything. How did we talked about this a little
bit recently with the movie coming out about Man on
Wire the typer Walker between the Twin Hours. Yeah, how
does the wind, not just knock them off. Well, that's
what that polls for to extend their um their point
of what balance point center of gravity. Yeah, I mean
I knew it helped them balance, but it just seems
(26:51):
like the wind could be so fierce a goold like,
like the wind blows me over just walking down the street.
I've seen it. I frequently have to help you up.
That's how you found most of your lucky pennies. Yeah,
that's a good point. Hoovered them all up? All right?
Are we onto the the Hygenie's Yes, we are the Hygenies,
(27:12):
which is started out as the Hodges. Not good enough,
Let's make it more Italian and add any to the
end of Hodges. Yes, which is what a promoter did
to that lovely English surname on the late nineteenth century.
And um, they have been around for a long time,
three hundred and fifty year uh, ancestry of circus performers.
(27:36):
It's not bad, it isn't bad. I think that's the
oldest in here. The Wallendas went back to the late
eighteenth centuries, seventeen hundreds. Yeah, I think the Hygenies might
be the oldest one in here. This one, lady, I
saw that was interviewed. I can't remember her name. She
was a twelfth generation on one side and seventh on
her father's side. Man, that's serious being circus. So with
(27:59):
the Hygenie's, chuck, um they were. They were really good
with the horse equestrians. Yep. They had their own um,
in particular Harriet, which was one of Albert Hygenie's um
who I well, I guess he wasn't the founder if
it went back through hundred fifty years, but um an
early hygiene, early twentieth century hygiene or late nineteenth century um.
(28:24):
His kid Harriet Uh would somersault and like dance on
the back of a moving horse, which is weird because
I've seen that before. I've seen like footage from the
forties or fifties. So I wonder if I was seeing
her because there's probably not that many people walking around
on Earth who can do backflips on a horse. That's
good point, um. But the really notable thing about the
(28:46):
Hygenie's is what they did in retirement. Yeah, I thought
that was pretty cool. Tom and Betty Hygenie Uh from
Indiana Peru Indiana, not to be confused with Peru, the
country Peru Peru. They retired in ninetifty six, and businessman
there said, you know what, why don't you come and
(29:07):
work with some kids and teach them like your your craft.
And that began where we're just like, leave us alone,
seriously retired. Uh and that's welcome, Matt, No, because we
hadn't put went out, get off the property. Uh. That
began what is now the Peru Amateur Circus, in which
(29:27):
kids perform like ten performances every summer. And it just
sounds like a neat little program. Yeah, and it's not
that little. Apparently tens of thousands of people show up
for it. Yeah, a little, you know. And Um, it's
actually going on July eleven to eighteen, yeah around. I
don't know exactly when this one's gonna come up, but
it will be in time. So if you find yourself
(29:47):
around Peru, Indiana, go check out the circus there July eleven. Chuck,
we got more, don't we up our sleeves and more Ennis, Um,
and we will talk about them right after this. You
(30:16):
remember you said, Chuckers that, Um, a lot of these
families started out as like a great equestrian families. Um.
The Knots are probably the premier equestrian circus family around. Yes,
they began in eighteen seventy a teenager named Leopold, and
they were Hungarian. Um. He he did the old like
(30:38):
right out of a story book. He said, I'm running
away and joining the circus. Yeah, that's another way to
found a circus family. Go start your own to run
off to the circus. Yeah, and started. Yeah, start having kids,
and then you won't be circus, but your kids will
be circus. Yeah. It's got to start somewhere, exactly. All
starts by running off to the that's right. Of course
(31:01):
he might have married into circus. He probably, Yeah, he
probably did so. Not only were they equestrians. They and
of course when we say equestrian there it's always bareback
writing tricks almost yeah, but this article actually has. It
features a member of the Knats Tina kon yacht who
(31:22):
um was competing for the US in the two thousand
twelve Olympics. Yeah. Like sure, she got out of this
circus and said, let me, what's something super snobby I
can go do? Is that grssage? I don't know. That's
not snobby though, it's just it's actually beautiful and amazing. Yeah,
I don't want the equestrians there. You don't want them
(31:43):
after you. Is that a hornet's nest? Yeah, it's a
hornet's nest. Uh. They're on horses, for God's sake. You know,
they can run faster than you on a horse. So,
like most performers, John Ringling of the Barnum and Bailey
Circus caught ahold them in Ninetina said Evan said, you're
coming to America, and um, they performed there for a
(32:04):
little while, but then said, you know, we're gonna go
back to Europe and we're gonna start our own circus. No,
not just a circus, an American style circus and wild
West show. Yeah it's good on them, you know, yeah,
I think it's hilarious. So they're like, okay, they're gonna
go crazy for this in Europe. So the equestrian part
of the show was really big in Europe. And then like, uh,
(32:26):
which was the family the Clark's World War two put
a dent in all of Europe and so they said, well,
I guess we got to go back to America now,
And then they kept performing and eventually stopped. H at
least they I guess the family legacy was to create
equestrian centers. Um, so they weren't circus performers anymore anymore.
(32:49):
But it's almost like this equestrian family had a brush
with circus notoriety and then leverage that. Yeah, and then
just continued on as in equestrian family. It's just pretty neat.
Probably make more money in equestrians, you know. And then
Arthur k who's one of the original who's one of
the sons of the founder Leopold. He's in the International
(33:12):
Circus Hall of Fame. Nice. So there you go. So
the're not doing too bad. All right, we got a
couple of more here. Um Gina, how to pronounce this one?
T o g and I s I would say Tony,
that's what I was gonna say. Yeah, that's right. They
are another Italian family um in circus dynasty and the
(33:35):
original founder uh artists today. He said, was a student
and he said, you know what, I'm done with school
and I'm going to go performance circus, open my own
have eight kids so I can open my own circus. Yeah.
I get the impression that he decided he was done
with school. Yeah, yeah, so he ran off to the circus. Um,
(33:59):
did you have then question whether his wife was a
circus was circus family, circus performer? I don't know. Well
she was. After they got married, they had kids and
set up their own circus, and it was such a
success that um in nineteen nineteen the King of Italy
or the king of that part of Italy, because I
(34:20):
don't when was Italy unified together in a single country.
Was it under Musilini? It wasn't that long ago. Um Well,
King and King Victor Emmanuel the third um created or
said that the Circo Toni was the Circo Netsinale. Yeah,
and that ran for a while. Um Again, a circus
(34:41):
fire in nineteen fifty one hit the Circo Nacional and
from that point three of the sons split apart and
formed three different circus factions. Yeah. That fires spread them
far and wide. I guess so. But they are noteworthy
because not only were they circus family, they were really
(35:03):
smart inventive engineer types and made a lot of advancements
in the circus uh itself, Like the tent, Uh, like
the big top tent, the couple of Yeah, they came
up with that. Yeah, they came up with three different
design the round couple, in the nineteen forties, the oblong
in the seventies, and the the hugely famous round couple
(35:25):
of quarter pole free in the nineties. And one of
the other sons too Um invented the collapsible seating wagons
and a metallic mesh cage that I don't know if
that's the globe of death or not. No, that's the
urias as he came up with the globe of death,
all right, So the metallic mesh cage he invented must
have just been like, I don't know, for animals or something. Probably. Yeah.
(35:48):
The point is though they were inventors and made some
money doing that stuff, like designing tents and the like.
And one of the things that we haven't really kind
of hit squarely on is the act that these if
you're born into a circus family and you are raised
in the circus um, from what I've read, you're very
rarely pressured into being a part of the family. It's
(36:12):
more like this is your reality. So you start doing
gymnastics and acrobatics at an early age and you're surrounded
by yeah, and then eventually that you know, age six, seven, eight, nine, ten,
you end up like being a part of the family act,
and then the circus says at large, Um, but it
writes a question to me like about that ten myth,
like is it just from practicing this stuff at an
(36:33):
early age? Or you know, are some a this is
this just the result of some you know, people who
are born acrobats coming together and producing offspring that are
born acrobats themselves. I don't know. It's a great question.
There's a good question. Um. I wonder how many time
it's happened that you're in a big circus family. You
have like seven kids, and six of them are in
(36:56):
the circus, and one of them is like, I want
to be a city planner. Probably not much. No, we
got one more we do the r eyess who did
come up with that globe of death in nineteen twelve?
That globe, that metal globe motorcycles in Yeah, that was
invented in nineteen twelve. Yeah, I had no idea it
went back. It seemed. I was sure that this thing
(37:17):
was probably invented in like the nineteen sixties or seventies.
I was gonna say seventies. It seems like a seventies
thing to invent totally, you know. Yeah, but yeah, it
goes all the way back to nineteen twelve. That is nuts,
so that the actual globe of death was a sixteen
foot diameter metal mesh orb. Yeah. And the idea is,
if you haven't seen one of these, a just look
up a video real quick. Be U crawl out from
(37:40):
under that rocky live in right under and then uh
see it's when you put multiple motorcycle riders that just
gun it and fly around this thing without hitting each
other ideally, and they would um add people who are
juggling fire in the center of the globe, some people
(38:03):
riding around it going up to sixty miles an hour apparently. Um.
And they had the urias Is in particular, were the
first to feature female motorcycle riders, the first to feature
two female motorcycle riders, because how you're gonna top the
first one, but head to um And there's one where
(38:23):
the Jody urias doesn't next spin you know that thing
where like you just have a harness attached to the
back of your head and you spin around until you vomit.
They had her doing that with people going around her
on their bikes and circles. Yeah, it's really impressive. I
mean the precision is is ridiculous when you see I
(38:46):
mean I've seen. I don't think it's I mean, they're
still doing this act today. I saw another family that
they don't have the market cornered on the globe of death,
but but they invented it. They just failed the copyright
trade market, I guess. But I did see another family
that was think they had like eight motorcycles and this thing.
It was ridiculous, and one where they actually brought the
(39:07):
globe apart, so where there was a gap that they
would be jumping or riding over, it was suddenly filled
with crocodiles. But these people crashed. When was it every
couple of weeks. I looked that there was a crash
not too long ago. It was in April of this
year at the Washington Fairgrounds. And there's actually a YouTube
(39:31):
of it. It's not like remarkable. It just at the
very end of their thing, they all just sort of
run into each other. But um, there was a fractured
leg and some broken ribs, but other than that, everyone
was okay and got right back up on the horse,
iron horse, the iron horse, the steel horse. You got
anything else, No, So that's circus families part of our
(39:53):
never ending quest to explain absolutely everything there is on
planet Earth and beyond. That's right, it's one of them. Uh.
If you want to know more about circus families, you
can type those words in the search bar how stuff
works dot com And I said search bar, which means
it's time for a listener, Mayo, I'm gonna call this.
(40:17):
We misspoke on something in the Bridges episode. Oh I did, Chuck.
I take full responsibility, and we like to point these
things out. Do you want to set this up? Yeah?
In the Bridges episode I talked about the Higher Regency
skywalk collapse. Remember you made that Lionel Richie's joke and
all that stuff. Well, like hundred and four I believe
(40:38):
a hundred and fourteen people ultimately died from this thing.
And I said that it was because they were dancing
on the skywalk at the time. Totally not true. There
was a t dance going on in the lobby below
and people were standing on the skywalks looking at it
and the skywalk Apparently in the design um there had
(40:58):
been a change in design line that nobody did the
numbers and crunched the math on and this thing could
barely hold up its deadweight and then once you had
you know, a few dozen people on it, though, the
fourth story skywalk collapsed onto the second story skywalk and
both of them collapsed onto the ground. Gotcha, it was.
It's crazy. If you look up the highest Regency skywalk
(41:21):
collapse and look at some of the images, just the
destruction is amazing. Wow. All right, So I guess you
just picked out the we heard from a few people.
He picked out probably the nicest one. I would imagine
that's what we usually try to do. Hey, guys, wanted
to point out your explanation of the Kansas City Highight
Regency collapse side of the wrong cause. The collapses due
to a change that was made to the initial design.
(41:42):
Two walkways we're supposed to be supported by long continuous
threaded steel rods from the ceiling design was changed to
two separate rods. UH. It should be noted that the
original design was determined to hold only six of the
minimum building Code load UH, and the way it was
built would only support half of that Not enough, not
nearly enough. One bridge failure that should be mentioned is
(42:05):
the Quebec Bridge crossing the St. Lawrence River. UH. This
bridge collapsed twice when it was being built and incited
as a reason behind the idea of registering and licensing
engineers to practice something that is a standard throughout the
world now. And that is from Taylor, who is a
geo technical engineer branch of civil Engineering that deals with soils, rocks,
(42:27):
and foundations. She said, or he, I don't know which
that I make sure the ground can support the structure.
Thanks a lot of Taylor. It's a pretty neat job,
I guess, and you very important. Yeah, and thanks for
the email. We appreciate that. And uh, I went back
and looked to try to figure out where I got
that info, but I swear it did not make up.
Don't you hate that I've been called out on stuff
(42:49):
that I've read and I couldn't find the source and
it's still wrong. But it's maddening. It's like, I know
I didn't just create that's not my own brain. So
we we believe. But thanks to everybody who wrote in
and hey, dudes, uh, that is absolutely wrong because we
want to make sure we get it right. So if
we got something wrong that you want to point out
and correct us on, let us know. You can tweet
(43:10):
to us at s Y s K podcast. You can
join us on Facebook dot com slash stuff you Should Know.
You can send us an email to Stuff Podcast at
how stuff works dot com and has always joined us
at our home on the web, Stuff you Should Know
dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics,
visit how stuff works dot com
Welcome to you stuff you should know fromhouse Stuff Works
dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark,
Charles W. Chuck Bryant and Jerry. Which makes this The
Flying s y s K Flying Stuff Stuffy Ends Stefanos
(00:26):
Steffini's the Flying steffens Man. Boy. See you look at that.
It took us wet seven seconds. Maybe even wants to
come up with the best name in the history of
podcasting circus teams. Yeah, we'll go back and look at
the time stamp. After this publicism, we'll know for sure.
But I say less than seven seconds. The Flying Steffeni's.
Good job man, all right, I guess we can retire.
We've hit it big, Yeah we have. You can make
(00:49):
some money being a circus family, I learned. Yeah, I
have no idea about costs. So you will delight me
because I think everyone, well not everyone. I think some
people when they go to circus, they're like, what's that
guy make for throwing knives? Oh? I have no idea
what they make. It's just and I got from this
research and I thought you had some hard numbers. No,
(01:11):
you're the statman, remember, and I know, but people, uh,
you know it's rude to talk about money, so people
don't share these things these days. That's why I'm not
saying anything. I'm just telling you the impression I had.
They're always strutting around with goblets full of really expensive
wine circus families, so you know, yeah, they got uh.
(01:31):
You know. Every time I think we're all circused, out
there comes another topic. Well, we have yet to do
how circuses themselves work. We will do that one day.
So we've done all of its components, every last one.
After that, Well, it does have interesting history, so well
we will save that then. Yeah, we Well I do
want to do how circus is working. We should also
say I don't want anybody to have the impression that
(01:53):
by talking about circus families we are endorsing circuses in general.
I have serious issues with some of them, with them
for the most part, oh, like because of their treatment
of animals. Yeah, but a lot of them don't use
animals at all anymore, not a lot of them, some
of them don't. I have no problem with those circuses. Yeah,
Like I remember the Big Apple Circus. They have a
(02:15):
dog thing, go out dogs a horse thing, and I
think that was it. And horses love to show off,
So I'm okay with the big Yeah you wouldn't shoot,
you know, but no, no, they wouldn't show like an
elephant right right, Which is funny because apparently an elephant
is equal to a family circus performer. Oh yeah, I
(02:38):
saw that. I should say circus family performer. Family Circus
is totally different. Yeah. This is a little frustrated research
because I kept getting lots of circular cartoons that weren't funny.
You don't think they're funny, Okay, they're they're not funny.
I think they're charming and heartwarming. Yeah, sure, you know,
Jeffy wrote on the wall, right, it's not funny, but
(02:58):
it's cute. Their little hair and the noses and the
they're cute. Uh that I have a brief segue here. Initially,
Um that reminded me was just at max foncan uh,
the the weekend retreat of Jesse Thorn and his podcasting empire.
Everybody loved you that picture of you and Hodgeman and
Justin McElroy's kid. Yeah, little baby Charlie. Yeah, very cute. Yeah,
(03:21):
I think people love babies. Hodgeman, who doesn't even particularly
like kids, was like, give me that baby. You know, Um,
Hodgman likes kids, at least he likes his own kids. Um,
so I was just there. And first of all, let
me recommend the Super Ego podcast, Very funny improv podcast
featuring Matt Gorley and Paula Tompkins and Mark McConville and
(03:44):
Jeremy Carter. You could have stopped at paul Tomkin. Yeah right, Um,
but one man improv is like, it's not the best
he can do. He does, I've seen it. So anyway,
a long story short, we were playing this game one
night where we were naming comic strips and the comic
strip mark trail came up. Oh man, you remember that.
Well it wasn't even trying to be funny. Well no,
it wasn't funny at all, but it wasn't even like interesting.
(04:06):
It was literally like, you know, the what a beautiful
sunset today, right, was tracing the trail of a hawk
in the sky, like through eight panels. I thought it
was refreshing in a little ways, like you just make
it all like through a hilarious spasm of laughter after
like Funky winker Bean or Hagar the Horrible and you
(04:28):
needed to like chill out. Remember that, so you'd like
read the Mark Trail and then like you go at
it again and just laugh and laugh and beatle Bailey,
which is great, instant it just and then maybe you'd
come down a little on merry Worth or Department but
three G, back up on Wizard of It, back down
with Brenda's starr. Yeah, that's the way you do it.
(04:49):
But Mark Trail, I don't want to knock it too
much because I believe it like taught kids about nature
and conservancy and stuff like that. But and how to
follow a hawks Trail in the sky didn't belong in
the comic section. But I don't know, like it was
a comic strip. Yeah. A lot of those comics were
like they started out or a lot of things started
out as comics like Lone Ranger comic. Oh really sure
(05:10):
comic strip or a comic book, because some have been both.
You know, well the Bolster my point. Let's say comic strip, okay, okay,
And it might have actually started out as a radio show.
And I think about it, Hey, that worked that worked
out well. I was just thinking, how can we kill
some time here before we do circuses? That's how Family
Circus tangent so Family circuses. Uh. When I first started, Yeah,
(05:36):
circus families. When I first started researching, I was like,
what a weird thing to be in a circus family.
And then I thought it might be weird to be
in one, but not weird that there are circus families,
because it makes total sense that it's the family business.
Well that's how circus is largely started out. Yeah, very familial.
It was, you know, like you some patriarch of a
(05:59):
family would find doubt that Hey, I'm I'm kind of
good at juggling. Why don't I try doing it while
I stand on the back of a moving horse And
they go, holy cow, I'm actually doing this. And they'd say, well,
let me see what happens when I tossed my sons
in the air instead of juggling, you know, batons. If
I set their hair on fire using some sort of
(06:21):
safe flammable material that will burn but not burn the sun,
say like, I have a flame retardant cap. Sure, then
all of a sudden, you've got a circus family. And
like these people would would start out by you know,
the whole family would get involved in This was a
time when they were much larger families than there are
today and they would form their own mini circus and
(06:42):
travel around. And as circuses became more and more established
and entrenched and divided among some very big names. Um,
they started basically freelancing for these things. Like they go
on a tour or a couple of tours would be
you know, with a large circus for a couple of years,
and then they go off and get on another tool
or something like that. But um, they would form these
(07:04):
family acts and that's how circus is originally got started. Yeah,
and um, apparently it's it just the more you look
at it, the more it makes sense. You know, they're
on the road a lot, um, and if you want
to spend time with your family, get your family in
the family business, because then mom and dad aren't on
the road doing their equestrian act. They are bringing the
kids along and teaching them, and all of a sudden
(07:26):
they're the the writing uh steffinos and they're spending time
together and it's uh, you know, I read a few
interviews with people in circus families and apparently if you
were not from a circus family, uh, this quote from
a Big Apple Circus guest director Steve Smith said, for
those of us those of us who didn't grow up
(07:47):
in the circus, there's always a feeling as if we're
on the outside looking in on what they call quote
being circus. Yeah, like if you're born into a circus
family and you're in the circus, you have automatic prestige,
you're part of a dynasty, and that's being circus. Yeah,
it's like a real police. If you're a fan of
the Wire, Sure there's cops and there's real police. Yeah,
(08:09):
but like if you were born into being police, which
a lot of cops are also another family tradition job. Yes,
I don't know if a little podcasters are going to
come along. We were not at that point yet where
like there's been a generation you know, not yet, but yeah,
maybe little Charlie McElroy will be a podcast maybe um
(08:30):
and then they call uh they say marrying inside the
circuits also makes a lot of sense because where you're
gonna meet people, but probably fellow performers, other circus families,
so these and not towners. If you're not like, uh,
I like you and I are towners. Yeah a k
A slack jawn yokels. Yeah, you know, how are you look?
Well that thing on fire and jump through it. Yeah,
(08:53):
there's a there's a pretty neat article on pbs UM
called Being Circus Life in the Only Business about being
born into a circus family. It seems like a pretty
cool life. I mean, you know, they go to school
on the road, and I think it's like one big
family because they say, you know, if you're in a
trap ez act, you can't be mad at your dad
(09:15):
who is catching you in the trap ez act tonight.
So I think you gotta like, yeah, well, you know,
you can't go into performance, a dangerous performance like the
Globe of Death, harboring any animosity towards your siblings. So
you gotta work this stuff out. You know, they're they're
tight knit people, right, And it seems like the custom
is that once you are done performing as a member
(09:37):
of a circus family, there's a non performing job for you,
ready and waiting in the circus elsewhere, like an administration
or something like that. I thought you were gonna say,
break a deal, face the wheel, longstanding tradition in the circus.
Welcome to Bartertown. Um, I watched that not too long ago.
(09:59):
I told you a thing. Can watch the whole Mad
Max trilogy. Yeah, the quadrilogy. Now, well, yeah, I think
it's the trilogy plus one, Like Durham is our plus
one on the Northeast tour. Yep, lousy people of Durham.
Get it together, Durham. Um. All right, So you want
to talk about some of these famous families. You know,
(10:20):
you marry into it, you're born into it, and then
before you know and it it seems like they always
have a lot of kids too. Yeah, like seven children,
because you need seven to complete a pyramids exactly? Is
that why? Probably if you think you need help, um,
you know, tending to the farm. Imagine having like a
circus act. That's good point. And some circus families also
(10:41):
kind of expand, especially once they form a troop, they'll
expand the family act to include non family members. Where
they're they're members of the troops, they're not members of
the family. But for any outsider, they're like, oh, there's
like three dads here. Yeah. But they take the traditional
blood oath think sure, you know, and cut themselves with
(11:03):
an elephant tusks still attached to the elephant. Yeah, that's right,
and then they do a trapeze that's gotta hurt. Yeah.
So let's talk about the Clarks, one of the earliest
UM British circus families. Any relation do you probably? I mean,
can't you tell you see me on the high wire?
I have? You're quite skilled. Yes, they the Clarks go
(11:26):
all the way back to the very first uh circuses,
because a man named Philip Astley is credited as being
the inventor of the modern circus in the late seventeen hundreds. Right,
and he heard about John Clark, who was a horseman,
and a lot of these people were horse people. Yeah,
it's a good way to start in the circus to
be good on a horse. Um he Uh, John Clark
(11:50):
was good on a horse. He caught the attention of
um Philip Astley and uh in the early nineteenth century
they started a circus act. Yeah, it was an area
act at first. And it seems like anytime you're good,
then the Ringling Brothers will come a calling at some point. Yeah,
(12:10):
for sure, to snap you up, because they're the greatest
show on earth. That's right. Um. The one of the
ways also to cement your family act as a dynasty,
in addition to having multiple generations that stay in the
circus um is to create some new thrilling move that
no one else has done before, like the Clarks are
(12:32):
credited with um coming up with the triple back somersault
in nine nine, right, and the whole the Clark family
dynasty actually broke up because of World War Two. World
War two, interestingly had a really direct impact on a
lot of circus families, and the Clarks were among them. Um,
(12:56):
So the men went off to war. I'm sure some
of them died. The ones of it turned were like,
I've seen too much to go back into the circus.
And it was up to Ernestine Clark, who was a
great granddaughter of John Clark I believe, to carry on
the family business, yes, single handedly, and daughter of Ernest.
Her name was actually Elizabeth Laura, but she looks so
(13:18):
much like Ernest. People called her little Ernie and uh yeah,
she eventually went by Ernestine. I guess she was like,
I might as well just make this a little more feminine.
It's like a family circus trip. And she did soldier
on um, you know, after World War two. Like you said,
it's so crazy to think about these famous people going
(13:40):
and joining the army. Well, Elvis did. Yeah, Elvis was
in the army. I know. He's also probably like more
protected than Prince Harris. Sure, but he was still in
the army and famous athletes. Like can you imagine, like
Justin Bieber is in the army, it's a fight in
the Middle East. No, I really really came just doing
his duty kind of is an American just a different time.
(14:02):
It's just mind boggling to think about the mindset back then.
You know. Do you know I got my haircut recently
by the guy who created the Bieber haircut back in
the day. Is that why you went to him? No?
I didn't find out until part way through, and I
was like, please don't give me a beaper, Please don't
give which what was the sweepy in your face? Wow? Yeah,
(14:25):
So he was Bieber styliss yes, early on, and gave
him that haircut. Isn't that cool? I guess man, I
was like one degree from Justin Bieber. I think we
all are. Um, so everybody, UM, I don't know if
you found this. I thought this is pretty amazing. Um.
The Clark's performance group early on, we're called the clarkon Ians.
(14:48):
I thought that was pretty good. It's weird. It's so funny,
like for some reason, if you're a circus promoter, You're like,
that name is not nearly Italian enough at an eeny
or an owny or something on the end of even
if it doesn't work like clark Oni in yeah, or
as we'll hear about later, the hoy Genie's Yeah, this
isn't that's that's senseless. It is pretty senseless. But you
(15:10):
can thank circus promoters for coming up with those horrible
hybrids of names. I think there's a rich tradition in Italy,
so they just sounded, you know, fanciful. Um. So, Ernestine
carried the torch um. She finally left the circus in
the nineteen fifties. Uh and had a husband that was
a part time circus performer, part time actor and her
(15:32):
little girls who party? Yeah, part of who he was
the mayor and Andy Griffith. Oh no way. And if
you look up his um his credits, he was in everything.
He like made appearances in everything, Like you would recognize
him immediately. Interesting, He's been in everything from Three's Company
to The Golden Girls. He was just in everything. Wow,
(15:53):
that's pretty awesome. Bewitched. Yeah, did I say three His Company?
I'll say it again. Uh. So she married the famous
actor Um and then her daughters became trapeze artists, carrying
on the family tradition, and Ernestine eventually became the first
daughter to follow her father into the International Circus Hall
(16:13):
of Fame. And I have a little clip here. Do
you ever read the old New York Times articles sometimes
the pdf? Eighteen different headlines? Yeah, yeah, this is basically
read the headline several headlines. Actually, so this is about
clark Um Ernest Clark in New York City and Madison
Square Garden. And the first headline is trapeze man noted
(16:36):
for twist and air. Uh, Ernest Clark of wrinkling circus,
turns at right angles and leap for life line line,
broken rib brings panic, I'm sorry, payne line line and
then writhing action during triple somersault starts sweat of agony.
All right, And then in the article it says, h
(16:57):
Clark's feet is apparently in defiance of all the laws
of mechanics, for he turns his body in the air
and a pirouette at right angles to its line of flight,
with no other leverage than that he can exert by
a thrust of his shoulders. Journalism it is. And then
later when they're describing describing him, says Clark as a small,
(17:19):
almost slight man, but with a large, wonderfully developed chest
with a great heart beating inside. Old New York Times
articles are just the best, I would say, all old
newspapers period. But there are times they knew what they
were doing. Yeah, you could access You can access that
stuff today pretty easily, pretty neat. You know. I looked
up what um that line, and staying Alive means about
(17:42):
the New York Times don't make a Man? Is that
in the song Staying Alive the Dow York Times Don't
make a Man? Oh? I never knew that's what they
were saying. So what does that mean? It means basically
at the time that I like, if it wasn't in
the New York Times, it doesn't matter. And this is
about a man whose life still does matter even though
it's not worthy of being reported on in the New
York Times. John Travolta or the character, yeah, I can't
(18:05):
remember his saying Tony manera, right, I think a scarface
Tony Marinera. Was it Tony? It's probably Tony, you know.
So that movie was based on an article in New
York magazine, and it turned out that the guy who
wrote it made the whole thing up from beginning to end,
made it up crazy. Yeah, but it's still worth reading.
(18:28):
And especially if you know that he made it up,
you're like, how did how did anybody buy this? This
kind of like like on the spot reporting is just
done by a handful of people. Sure, and he found
this guy that that worked on a hardware store in Brooklyn,
and yeah, and then like was there like with the
it was was able to like almost omnisciently track like
the people that came into this guy's orbit. Yeah. Yeah,
(18:51):
it's funny that the editors were like, Wow, you did
a really good job here, not you're a fraud who cares? Yeah,
they should have. Just when I hear things like that,
I'm like, say, it's fiction from the beginning, it's still interesting.
It's like when the guy that the author wrote about
his drug rehab, the James Fry, Yeah, that was a
great book. And I remember at the time when that
(19:13):
all came out, I was like, man, man, you should
just call it fiction. It's a really good book. But
I thought I followed that story and and thought the
same thing, like like why why would you Why would
you say that every word of this is accurate. It
doesn't make any sense. We will get back to uh.
Circus families believe it or not right after this message.
(19:49):
So chuck sometimes them if the family circus, the circus
family can get in front of a show promoter, they
can have some sort of control over their own name.
Sure the change that comes to it. And that is
the case with the Hobson's Robert Hobson who left England
for the US in eighteen sixty UM and started a family,
(20:12):
a circus family act, acrobats family act. That's right. And
apparently he was noted for tossing his sons about like
indian rubber. Don't even know what that means. It means
he was basically throwing his sons all over the place
and they're just landing places. Well, no, I get that,
but I just I don't know what indian rubber is.
I think that they were very pliable, gotcha. Uh. So
(20:39):
with the name change, they were originally Hobson, I'm sorry,
originally Nelson, but changed their name. No, it was Hobson first, oh,
was changed to Nelson. Man, it gets confusing, so he
called themselves Professor Nelson and sons, the sons who he
tossed about like Indian rubber right, But it's not a
better like Nelson's, no better than Hobson. That's just strange. Uh. Yeah,
(21:01):
he changed it, supposedly allegedly because he wanted to pay
homage to a former stage partner that I guess it
died or moved on or whatever. I couldn't find the
person's name, whoever the Nelson was, but it was an homage.
Well maybe he wanted to uh anonymity as well. Yeah,
he's probably on the run from the law. So. Um,
(21:22):
the Nelson's became the Great Nelson Family because they followed
that tradition of like needing more people, um, more quickly
than they could reproduce. Uh. So they brought in other
performers who weren't family members, and they became the Great
Nelson Family and then ultimately the Flying Nelson's, which is
what they became famous as the Flying Nelson's. Yeah, and
(21:42):
here's I thought the cool little factoid about them. In
the early I'm sorry, late nineteen twenties, Um, granddaughter Hilda
taught Lot was hired to teach Lon Cheney, the actor,
how to walk the high wire. In a movie called
Laugh Clown Laugh, And then all of the Nelson's, Um,
we're in a movie called Circus Rookies in so um
(22:05):
they still continue, I think, not as the Nelson's, but um,
they said their ancestors, some of which still perform. Yeah,
they basically retired mostly by nineteen thirty five. But then yeah,
some carried on. Sure, what about the flying Wallendas. These
are the ones that everybody knows, everybody's heard of that.
It's sort of that became part of the lexicon. Yeah,
(22:28):
the flying Wellendus y um. And then funny enough, the
flying Wallendas actually got their name from a newspaper headline
that dubbed them that because four of them fell from
a high wire. Yeah, in Akron, Ohio. And they said,
I like the flying Mollendis. Yeah, they said. The quote
was the Lendas volendas. The Wallendas fell so gracefully that
(22:49):
it seemed as if they were flying. Uh. But I wonder,
like there were other flying flying Nelson's, Like, was this
the first one? I wonder the Wellenda's No, because the
flying Nelson's were called that long before the middle of
the twentieth century, So I think it was a natural
word to apply to a circus family that did acrobatics,
(23:11):
they're flying and they definitely did acrobatics. Man, they were Um.
They cemented their legacy for the seven person chair pyramid
wait for it, on a high wire no nets, no nets,
no harnesses. Very dangerous, so dangerous in fact that Carl
will Lenda Um, who was the patriarch at the time,
(23:31):
died at age seventy three from a fall on the
high wire. Yeah, they had a lot of tragedy. Um.
When they had the pyramid collapse in nineteen sixty two,
two people died and Carlson Mario was paralyzed. Carl goes
on to die. That had a sister in law who
fell to her death in nineteen sixty three. And then
in nineteen forty four they were the group performing when
(23:57):
the Hartford Circus fire broke out. Oh really, so their
act was going on. Uh. These tents were made of
They were coded in paraffin wax at the time, probably
kerosene to keep it from uh, to keep it waterproof.
Paraffin wax is highly flammable. So skearroceene and UM a
(24:18):
little tent sidewall started and during their performance, Um a
band leader spotted it and apparently, and they should tell
everyone this, the song Stars and Stripes Forever is a
warning signal to the circus performers. He said, start playing that,
and that signaled like big trouble as ahead, and a
hundred and sixty six to sixty nine people died. It
(24:41):
didn't only have one point of entrance, entrance or exit.
I think, I don't know. I know that some of
the exits were blocked because they had like the ramps
set up for the lions and stuff to come through
like portals, and so they couldn't get out that way.
So you might be right, But yeah, that was one
of the deadliest fire as in US history. And that's
a that's a bad fire. Yeah, And there were a
(25:03):
bunch of circus fires. I read about two or three.
I would guess if you have huge canvas tents, a
lot of hay on the ground, Yeah, and um they're
coated inflammable material and everybody smoked. Yeah, and then we'll
just they still don't know. There was a guy that
claimed responsibility as an arsonist, but um, they don't think
(25:24):
he did it. He was mentally ill and although he
was an arsonist's just not that time just not that time.
So the well Lendas have become synonymous with um circus
tragedy strangely, but they also has an overshadowed their accomplishments
there in the world. The Guinness Book of World records
for the world's first and only ten person pyramid on
(25:47):
a tight rope. Consider this. Several of their family members
died doing this, and they went on and not only
redo it, but they add three more seats, three more
will Endas. Yeah, that's crazy. So they said old record
um and then uh, Nick will And who has been
on Discovery Channel before? I believe he walked over the
(26:08):
Grand Canyon? What channel? Discovery Channel? Have you heard of it? They?
I think he was the one who walked over the
Grand Canyon. He definitely walked over um uh Chicago in
between two skyscrapers, over a six D fot drop. Yeah. Man,
that stuff is just just nutty. Which is two crazy? Yeah,
on a on a high wire without a net. You
(26:30):
could put a net at the bottom. It's not gonna
do anything. How did we talked about this a little
bit recently with the movie coming out about Man on
Wire the typer Walker between the Twin Hours. Yeah, how
does the wind, not just knock them off. Well, that's
what that polls for to extend their um their point
of what balance point center of gravity. Yeah, I mean
I knew it helped them balance, but it just seems
(26:51):
like the wind could be so fierce a goold like,
like the wind blows me over just walking down the street.
I've seen it. I frequently have to help you up.
That's how you found most of your lucky pennies. Yeah,
that's a good point. Hoovered them all up? All right?
Are we onto the the Hygenie's Yes, we are the Hygenies,
(27:12):
which is started out as the Hodges. Not good enough,
Let's make it more Italian and add any to the
end of Hodges. Yes, which is what a promoter did
to that lovely English surname on the late nineteenth century.
And um, they have been around for a long time,
three hundred and fifty year uh, ancestry of circus performers.
(27:36):
It's not bad, it isn't bad. I think that's the
oldest in here. The Wallendas went back to the late
eighteenth centuries, seventeen hundreds. Yeah, I think the Hygenies might
be the oldest one in here. This one, lady, I
saw that was interviewed. I can't remember her name. She
was a twelfth generation on one side and seventh on
her father's side. Man, that's serious being circus. So with
(27:59):
the Hygenie's, chuck, um they were. They were really good
with the horse equestrians. Yep. They had their own um,
in particular Harriet, which was one of Albert Hygenie's um
who I well, I guess he wasn't the founder if
it went back through hundred fifty years, but um an
early hygiene, early twentieth century hygiene or late nineteenth century um.
(28:24):
His kid Harriet Uh would somersault and like dance on
the back of a moving horse, which is weird because
I've seen that before. I've seen like footage from the
forties or fifties. So I wonder if I was seeing
her because there's probably not that many people walking around
on Earth who can do backflips on a horse. That's
good point, um. But the really notable thing about the
(28:46):
Hygenie's is what they did in retirement. Yeah, I thought
that was pretty cool. Tom and Betty Hygenie Uh from
Indiana Peru Indiana, not to be confused with Peru, the
country Peru Peru. They retired in ninetifty six, and businessman
there said, you know what, why don't you come and
(29:07):
work with some kids and teach them like your your craft.
And that began where we're just like, leave us alone,
seriously retired. Uh and that's welcome, Matt, No, because we
hadn't put went out, get off the property. Uh. That
began what is now the Peru Amateur Circus, in which
(29:27):
kids perform like ten performances every summer. And it just
sounds like a neat little program. Yeah, and it's not
that little. Apparently tens of thousands of people show up
for it. Yeah, a little, you know. And Um, it's
actually going on July eleven to eighteen, yeah around. I
don't know exactly when this one's gonna come up, but
it will be in time. So if you find yourself
(29:47):
around Peru, Indiana, go check out the circus there July eleven. Chuck,
we got more, don't we up our sleeves and more Ennis, Um,
and we will talk about them right after this. You
(30:16):
remember you said, Chuckers that, Um, a lot of these
families started out as like a great equestrian families. Um.
The Knots are probably the premier equestrian circus family around. Yes,
they began in eighteen seventy a teenager named Leopold, and
they were Hungarian. Um. He he did the old like
(30:38):
right out of a story book. He said, I'm running
away and joining the circus. Yeah, that's another way to
found a circus family. Go start your own to run
off to the circus. Yeah, and started. Yeah, start having kids,
and then you won't be circus, but your kids will
be circus. Yeah. It's got to start somewhere, exactly. All
starts by running off to the that's right. Of course
(31:01):
he might have married into circus. He probably, Yeah, he
probably did so. Not only were they equestrians. They and
of course when we say equestrian there it's always bareback
writing tricks almost yeah, but this article actually has. It
features a member of the Knats Tina kon yacht who
(31:22):
um was competing for the US in the two thousand
twelve Olympics. Yeah. Like sure, she got out of this
circus and said, let me, what's something super snobby I
can go do? Is that grssage? I don't know. That's
not snobby though, it's just it's actually beautiful and amazing. Yeah,
I don't want the equestrians there. You don't want them
(31:43):
after you. Is that a hornet's nest? Yeah, it's a
hornet's nest. Uh. They're on horses, for God's sake. You know,
they can run faster than you on a horse. So,
like most performers, John Ringling of the Barnum and Bailey
Circus caught ahold them in Ninetina said Evan said, you're
coming to America, and um, they performed there for a
(32:04):
little while, but then said, you know, we're gonna go
back to Europe and we're gonna start our own circus. No,
not just a circus, an American style circus and wild
West show. Yeah it's good on them, you know, yeah,
I think it's hilarious. So they're like, okay, they're gonna
go crazy for this in Europe. So the equestrian part
of the show was really big in Europe. And then like, uh,
(32:26):
which was the family the Clark's World War two put
a dent in all of Europe and so they said, well,
I guess we got to go back to America now,
And then they kept performing and eventually stopped. H at
least they I guess the family legacy was to create
equestrian centers. Um, so they weren't circus performers anymore anymore.
(32:49):
But it's almost like this equestrian family had a brush
with circus notoriety and then leverage that. Yeah, and then
just continued on as in equestrian family. It's just pretty neat.
Probably make more money in equestrians, you know. And then
Arthur k who's one of the original who's one of
the sons of the founder Leopold. He's in the International
(33:12):
Circus Hall of Fame. Nice. So there you go. So
the're not doing too bad. All right, we got a
couple of more here. Um Gina, how to pronounce this one?
T o g and I s I would say Tony,
that's what I was gonna say. Yeah, that's right. They
are another Italian family um in circus dynasty and the
(33:35):
original founder uh artists today. He said, was a student
and he said, you know what, I'm done with school
and I'm going to go performance circus, open my own
have eight kids so I can open my own circus. Yeah.
I get the impression that he decided he was done
with school. Yeah, yeah, so he ran off to the circus. Um,
(33:59):
did you have then question whether his wife was a
circus was circus family, circus performer? I don't know. Well
she was. After they got married, they had kids and
set up their own circus, and it was such a
success that um in nineteen nineteen the King of Italy
or the king of that part of Italy, because I
(34:20):
don't when was Italy unified together in a single country.
Was it under Musilini? It wasn't that long ago. Um Well,
King and King Victor Emmanuel the third um created or
said that the Circo Toni was the Circo Netsinale. Yeah,
and that ran for a while. Um Again, a circus
(34:41):
fire in nineteen fifty one hit the Circo Nacional and
from that point three of the sons split apart and
formed three different circus factions. Yeah. That fires spread them
far and wide. I guess so. But they are noteworthy
because not only were they circus family, they were really
(35:03):
smart inventive engineer types and made a lot of advancements
in the circus uh itself, Like the tent, Uh, like
the big top tent, the couple of Yeah, they came
up with that. Yeah, they came up with three different
design the round couple, in the nineteen forties, the oblong
in the seventies, and the the hugely famous round couple
(35:25):
of quarter pole free in the nineties. And one of
the other sons too Um invented the collapsible seating wagons
and a metallic mesh cage that I don't know if
that's the globe of death or not. No, that's the
urias as he came up with the globe of death,
all right, So the metallic mesh cage he invented must
have just been like, I don't know, for animals or something. Probably. Yeah.
(35:48):
The point is though they were inventors and made some
money doing that stuff, like designing tents and the like.
And one of the things that we haven't really kind
of hit squarely on is the act that these if
you're born into a circus family and you are raised
in the circus um, from what I've read, you're very
rarely pressured into being a part of the family. It's
(36:12):
more like this is your reality. So you start doing
gymnastics and acrobatics at an early age and you're surrounded
by yeah, and then eventually that you know, age six, seven, eight, nine, ten,
you end up like being a part of the family act,
and then the circus says at large, Um, but it
writes a question to me like about that ten myth,
like is it just from practicing this stuff at an
(36:33):
early age? Or you know, are some a this is
this just the result of some you know, people who
are born acrobats coming together and producing offspring that are
born acrobats themselves. I don't know. It's a great question.
There's a good question. Um. I wonder how many time
it's happened that you're in a big circus family. You
have like seven kids, and six of them are in
(36:56):
the circus, and one of them is like, I want
to be a city planner. Probably not much. No, we
got one more we do the r eyess who did
come up with that globe of death in nineteen twelve?
That globe, that metal globe motorcycles in Yeah, that was
invented in nineteen twelve. Yeah, I had no idea it
went back. It seemed. I was sure that this thing
(37:17):
was probably invented in like the nineteen sixties or seventies.
I was gonna say seventies. It seems like a seventies
thing to invent totally, you know. Yeah, but yeah, it
goes all the way back to nineteen twelve. That is nuts,
so that the actual globe of death was a sixteen
foot diameter metal mesh orb. Yeah. And the idea is,
if you haven't seen one of these, a just look
up a video real quick. Be U crawl out from
(37:40):
under that rocky live in right under and then uh
see it's when you put multiple motorcycle riders that just
gun it and fly around this thing without hitting each
other ideally, and they would um add people who are
juggling fire in the center of the globe, some people
(38:03):
riding around it going up to sixty miles an hour apparently. Um.
And they had the urias Is in particular, were the
first to feature female motorcycle riders, the first to feature
two female motorcycle riders, because how you're gonna top the
first one, but head to um And there's one where
(38:23):
the Jody urias doesn't next spin you know that thing
where like you just have a harness attached to the
back of your head and you spin around until you vomit.
They had her doing that with people going around her
on their bikes and circles. Yeah, it's really impressive. I
mean the precision is is ridiculous when you see I
(38:46):
mean I've seen. I don't think it's I mean, they're
still doing this act today. I saw another family that
they don't have the market cornered on the globe of death,
but but they invented it. They just failed the copyright
trade market, I guess. But I did see another family
that was think they had like eight motorcycles and this thing.
It was ridiculous, and one where they actually brought the
(39:07):
globe apart, so where there was a gap that they
would be jumping or riding over, it was suddenly filled
with crocodiles. But these people crashed. When was it every
couple of weeks. I looked that there was a crash
not too long ago. It was in April of this
year at the Washington Fairgrounds. And there's actually a YouTube
(39:31):
of it. It's not like remarkable. It just at the
very end of their thing, they all just sort of
run into each other. But um, there was a fractured
leg and some broken ribs, but other than that, everyone
was okay and got right back up on the horse,
iron horse, the iron horse, the steel horse. You got
anything else, No, So that's circus families part of our
(39:53):
never ending quest to explain absolutely everything there is on
planet Earth and beyond. That's right, it's one of them. Uh.
If you want to know more about circus families, you
can type those words in the search bar how stuff
works dot com And I said search bar, which means
it's time for a listener, Mayo, I'm gonna call this.
(40:17):
We misspoke on something in the Bridges episode. Oh I did, Chuck.
I take full responsibility, and we like to point these
things out. Do you want to set this up? Yeah?
In the Bridges episode I talked about the Higher Regency
skywalk collapse. Remember you made that Lionel Richie's joke and
all that stuff. Well, like hundred and four I believe
(40:38):
a hundred and fourteen people ultimately died from this thing.
And I said that it was because they were dancing
on the skywalk at the time. Totally not true. There
was a t dance going on in the lobby below
and people were standing on the skywalks looking at it
and the skywalk Apparently in the design um there had
(40:58):
been a change in design line that nobody did the
numbers and crunched the math on and this thing could
barely hold up its deadweight and then once you had
you know, a few dozen people on it, though, the
fourth story skywalk collapsed onto the second story skywalk and
both of them collapsed onto the ground. Gotcha, it was.
It's crazy. If you look up the highest Regency skywalk
(41:21):
collapse and look at some of the images, just the
destruction is amazing. Wow. All right, So I guess you
just picked out the we heard from a few people.
He picked out probably the nicest one. I would imagine
that's what we usually try to do. Hey, guys, wanted
to point out your explanation of the Kansas City Highight
Regency collapse side of the wrong cause. The collapses due
to a change that was made to the initial design.
(41:42):
Two walkways we're supposed to be supported by long continuous
threaded steel rods from the ceiling design was changed to
two separate rods. UH. It should be noted that the
original design was determined to hold only six of the
minimum building Code load UH, and the way it was
built would only support half of that Not enough, not
nearly enough. One bridge failure that should be mentioned is
(42:05):
the Quebec Bridge crossing the St. Lawrence River. UH. This
bridge collapsed twice when it was being built and incited
as a reason behind the idea of registering and licensing
engineers to practice something that is a standard throughout the
world now. And that is from Taylor, who is a
geo technical engineer branch of civil Engineering that deals with soils, rocks,
(42:27):
and foundations. She said, or he, I don't know which
that I make sure the ground can support the structure.
Thanks a lot of Taylor. It's a pretty neat job,
I guess, and you very important. Yeah, and thanks for
the email. We appreciate that. And uh, I went back
and looked to try to figure out where I got
that info, but I swear it did not make up.
Don't you hate that I've been called out on stuff
(42:49):
that I've read and I couldn't find the source and
it's still wrong. But it's maddening. It's like, I know
I didn't just create that's not my own brain. So
we we believe. But thanks to everybody who wrote in
and hey, dudes, uh, that is absolutely wrong because we
want to make sure we get it right. So if
we got something wrong that you want to point out
and correct us on, let us know. You can tweet
(43:10):
to us at s Y s K podcast. You can
join us on Facebook dot com slash stuff you Should Know.
You can send us an email to Stuff Podcast at
how stuff works dot com and has always joined us
at our home on the web, Stuff you Should Know
dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics,
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