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".
- 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!
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