La Norma: Queen of the Air

Follow along and see how this blog comes together today.  I saw a vehicle with 'Nona' on the license plate.  Which made me think of the name 'La Norma' (not sure why).  A name I had read multiple times when working with old circus programs for the Circus World Museum Library.  

So I thought, huh, let's look into La Norma.  

                        

And I am SO GLAD I did! What a wonderful talented interesting lady!  

So here we go.  La Norma. Queen of the Air.  A woman who commanded the center ring no less.  So many interesting tidbits and quotes.  Follow along!

• At 13 years old, she was discovered at a ballet school in Denmark.  At which time, she left her family (including five brothers & five sisters) to work on a ladder act for circuses, vaudeville shows, fairs and festivals.
• Turned out, she was too small to perform in the ladder act, so she was taught single trapeze.  
• War arrived. The Germans sent them to Norway to work. "Was not very pleasant".  Traveling on troop ships heading for Norway, in the middle of the night, they were torpedoed.  La Norma was on ship #5, ship #6 sunk.  She was told to go ahead and jump.  It was January.  "I didn't feel like jumping".

                                       

• Later they were sent back to Sweden.  When they got off the train, they just left.  No one stopped them and La Norma stayed in Sweden working at circuses until the end of the war. At which point, they returned to Denmark.
• In addition to the single trapeze, La Norma learned to ride horses which she didn't like.  
• She met a man from a French riding troupe, who told her she didn't have a good life.  So she "married the guy, went to England and had a baby there".

                       

• Eventually the family moved to France and La Norma learned to speak French at her mother-in-laws insistence.  Did I mention she also spoke German, Swedish, English and Danish?
• While working in one ring circuses (including Cirque d'hiver in Paris!), she was spotted by John Ringling North and other agents for the Ringling Bros Barnum & Bailey Circus and invited to perform in America.  It was 1949.  
• The family moved to Sarasota Florida where it was warm year round, people were friendly, and the town was full of show people walking down the street.
• In addition to learning a horse act, La Norma performed iron jaw spins. "Not very pleasant". Required alot of strength and neck mucles. If it hurt, "don't open your mouth much".

                                        

A Single Trapeze Performer

• The single trap was "controlled by me. I never left my bar willingly".
• The act was made up of strength/planges (controlling your whole body by one arm) and balances (swinging & catching by your heels and ankles or one knee).
• When asked how do you teach or learn how to catch yourself by the ankle, La Norma replied "feet out, spread your legs and go".  Or to "walk like Charlie Chaplin".  
• La Norma never performed with a net.  It "would have upset me".  

                    

                  Check out her entrance on this video montage. Dang. Classy.  

                    

• La Norma was the stunt double for the actress Betty Hutton (whom she said was very unfriendly) in Cecil B. DeMille's Oscar winning The Greatest Show on Earth.  
• She often performed two to three shows a day.  "It doesn't matter how you feel, you just have to perform".

Numerous times she fell.  

• 1962 - a loop slipped and she fell, injuring her heel and pelvis.
• 1969 - a few stakes came out and her rigging fell apart during her trick (which included fireworks no less).  La Norma landed in the sand with the rigging on top of her.  She had to be revived.  "was a bad one".  
• Seven months later she started all over again in Puerto Rico and Tokyo.  In Tokyo, they put her trap act even taller...on top of the building. 

"I landed.  And that's all it took.  One good show and I was back in.  I had to prove something and I did".   Dang.  No wonder why a reporter said she had the courage of a half dozen lions.  

                                    

La Norma retired in 1974 and was busy teaching trapeze (from an upright in her backyard), working on ceramics and creating figuring dolls (inlcuding a Unus doll).  

Wonderful 2018 interview Collecting Recollections

Wow.  What a life.  Thank you La Norma!

Two Sisters

Just two sisters.  Hanging out.  Doing what two sisters do.  Not at all!

The Chaludis Troupe

1950 Lucia and Gerda Muller

Oh the Chaludis Troupe!  I am so intrigued by these two ladies.  How did this act come about?  How did they know this was a thing?  How do they start it?  How do they 'dismount'? Yet again to be a fly on the wall of history to watch these two in person.  

The Chaudis came to the United States to work for the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus in 1950.  They performed with RBBB only three years until 1953.  At which time they returned to Germany for two years performing with the Circus Grock.  In 1955 again they returned to the U.S. as part of the Western Unit of the Polack Bros.' Circus. 

The sisters performed a bicycle routine with Karl Schwarzbauer Jr. and Karl Schwarzbauer Sr.

The Chaludis, (left to right) Karl Schwarzbauer Jr., Lucia Muller, Gerda Muller, Karl Schwarzbauer Sr.  'A very excellent bicycle act' July 16, 1950.

1951 Look how beautiful they are!

Billed as the Cycling Chaludis in 1951 with 'Amazing Achievements Awheel' and as 'Amazingly Clever Artists'.  

I might have posted this photo on the prior bicycle blog.  But it is TOO GOOD to not post again.  Wow.  I bike.  But would never in a million years think to do this.  Cudos.

1951 Costume designs for their act.  Cool!

Proving every circus performer wore many hats, the lovely 

Gerda Muller participates in the 1952 spec.

1952 Lucy and Dita with the Schwarzbauers

In 1952, Cecil B. DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth premiered.  You bet.  The Chaludis made the cut!  Incidentally, Dita Chaludis doing the headstand also doubled for Betty Hutton.  She did the distant shots doing the headstand on the trapeze and also the chair balancing. Since she wasn't an aerialist she had a safety wire on which is evident when the chair slips and she falls sideways.  

  

If you haven't seen the movie (then do it!), the movie follows the dramatic lives of trapeze artists, a clown and an elephant trainer against the background of circus spectacle.  

About 1:19 seconds into this video, the Chaludis!  

On a ladder.  Twirling a baton with her feet!

    

Passers-by stop and stare as circus performer Lucia Muller walks along the pavement at Hammersmith Broadway carrying her sister Gerda on her head, 21st January 1953.  Can you imagine!  Can you even!?  I would die. 

During 1956 the Chaludis were with the Orrin Davenport Circus thru May.  

Their contract to to play fairs for Barnes-Carruthers was cancelled due to Lucia Muller's critical illness.  The sisters flew back to Kiel, Germany on July 13th where Lucia passed away on October 14, 1956.  She was only 29 years old.  29.  Sigh.

Lucia was survived by sister Gerta and a second sister, Alice who planned to join the act.   

Thank you for all you did.

Holy Smokes Bicyles!

Today's post isn't much for words.  

It is more along the lines of bicycle acts that make you go WHAT!?

So far in my life, I have broken bones and sported numerous bruises from falling off my bike.  I am in awe of these talented folks who have an abundance of balance. 

The following Dollies video is amazing!  Such style.  And at Cirque d'hiver!

Dollies Video (1969)

Not only do they sommersault from bike to bike, they show how the "16 people on one bike" act is built.  Holy smokes!

As if the splits is not difficult enough, let's throw a high wire in just for fun.

I dont know how they do this but they make it look fun!

She is adorable!  Such talent.  And a golden bike!

 

This troupe just makes me think of 'pizzazz'!

I could be here for HOURS researching bicycle acts!