Jumbo Trapeze
Posted By thecircusblog on February 4, 2011
Well here we are three of six guys that did the trapeze number. We were called Barbette’s Boys. This photo is a wardrobe still used to keep continuity in the film. There were six of us side by side on separate trapeze bars and had to coordinate ourselves to perform five tricks together in a time frame and sing……………. Yes sing…..I never forgot the song.. Swing high, swing low, upon the trapeze……….. At first you will fall, but then a year from now you’ll do it with ease, over and over again……….Well it was imposable to sing this song while doing ankle drops and back phalanges so they had people sing it for us. After weeks of practice all six of us got the routine down patt. I cannot remember the names of the two fellows in the photo with me. One was a stunt man and the other worked for Barbette. I remember Bill Couch he was a stunt man and he was very good on the traps, also there was one of the Cristiani kid on the show doing trapeze. I continued doing my work with Mr. Durante and then with Stephen Boyd as he took a serious liking to the trapeze…………. To my knowledge there are no still photos taken of the six of us preforming on the traps but it can be seen in the movie…………. Oh yes the mustache was part of the wardrobe. During the 1950’s and 60′ I was doing a lot of motion picture Television work as an actor. There have been those that said,”I didn’t see your name in the credits”. The reason was. As an actor my stage name was Dana Madison, later Ivan Fairbanks which is a real family name. Ivan M. Henry of course is the name I am known for.
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