Bruce Feiler - Where God Was Born, Abraham, Walking The Bible

Wheel of Death
Thursday, April 5, 2007

Glenn Collins of the NYT tackles the so-called Wheel of Death. One of the pioneers of this act was Elvin Bale, who starred in Ringling in the 1970s and was later crippled after flying over the bag in a canon act in Hong Kong in the 1980s. In a wheelchair, he plays a central role in my year in the circus, described in UNDER THE BIG TOP. With animals being run from the ring and clowning a dying art in America (and no longer a way to sell tickets), circuses may be back to selling risk.

“We take all the safety precautions we can,” said Nicole Feld, 29, who is producing the new show with her father, Kenneth. “But the wheel is a calculated risk.”

It has justified its billing. In 1994 a 20-year-old, Neville Campbell, was performing in the act at the Blackpool Tower Circus in Blackpool, England, when he lost his footing and fell 15 feet to his death.

The new act, performed after intermission, is officially called the Wheel of Steel this year because, according to Mr. Feld, Ringling’s chief executive, “We want people’s dreams to come true in this show, so why emphasize the negative?”

But circuses have hardly shied away from using the D-word to promote other attractions to ladies and gentlemen and children of all ages. Consider the Globe of Death (where motorcyclists roar upside down within a steel-mesh ball) and the Dive of Death, where performers slide headfirst down a chute or wire, stopping inches from the tanbark. Then there is the Cirque du Soleil’s death wheel, permanently installed in Las Vegas, with five performers in five whirling cages.

The Ringling wheel is so dangerous because — as Mr. Nock and Mr. Wallenda cheerfully explained on a recent afternoon — a safety net would be too narrow to prevent injury, and protective harnesses and wires would be impractical since the performers have to be unfettered to race atop the wheels — literally as fast as they can run — at a speed of nearly 20 miles an hour.

“Circus fans have come to expect the Wheel of Death, and it looks especially scary when they are running on top, high up in the arena,” said Erin Foley, the archivist of the Circus World Museum in Baraboo, Wis.

Labels: Circus

Posted by B Feiler at 8:00 AM
Permalink Digg this Post Email this Post

0 Comments: