the stories: Snake Charmer • Arthur Borella, Clown • The Flying Wards • Reporter in Tights • Elephant Trainer • Tight Wire • Dress Rehearsal
The big life net had been rigged up, and the tiny swinging ladders had been let down from the lofty platform. The band was tuning up. A group of cowboys were practicing with a lariat, and a girl was riding a white horse around the ring...
Mrs. Mayme Ward gave me a look of admiration. "Why, you look just splendid in tights!" she exclaimed.
"Thanks," I said, "only I hope they don't bust."
It looks easy enough to scramble up that little ladder, but if you think it's anything like ascending a step-ladder, you're mistaken. The first few rungs you have to take hand over hand, and I was glad when finally I could get a foothold.
Up I went, feeling like a spider, until I found myself under the steel girders of the Coliseum. Erma Ward, the little red-headed girl who does 101 aerial somersaults, or "one-arm rollup," was on the platform waiting for me. It was not a steady platform, and it was not particularly wide.
The big brown net stretching below seemed ever so far off. I began to wish I was back on terra firma... (read the whole article)
photo: Mayme Ward, the only woman ever to accomplish a double aerial somersault to a "hand-to-hand" catch, tries a move called a "crab" (also called "bird's nest") with a 46-year-old Paul Gilbert.