The Flying Wallendas is the name of a famous group of circus act and daredevil stunts performers, most known for
performing death-defying stunts 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 in the wire, but were
unhurt. The next day, a reporter who witnessed the accident stated in the newspaper, "The Wallendas fell so gracefully that it
seemed as if they were flying", 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 group was 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 Detroit, Michigan, 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 wire in the
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.
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
- 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, was killed in 1972 when he touched a live wire in the 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.
- Edith Wallenda (18 March, 1913 - 21 October, 1990), 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.
- Gunther Herman Wallenda (25 June 1927 -
16 March 1996), Herman's son by his first wife, Elizabeth, 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 (and 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 school fund-raiser.
- 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 survivors of the 1962 disaster in Detroit.
- 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 (2006) 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 he wanted his cause of death made public.
- Rietta Wallenda, Karl's sister-in-law, fell to her death in 1963.
- 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.
References
See also
External links
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