Welcome back all you sublimity junkies. In this week’s video, we take a step back in time to witness an act that is one part magnificent athleticism, and another part pure insanity. In the video, which was filmed in 1932, circus performer Tiny Kline (1891-1964) flies 500 feet above Times Square while gripping a trapeze rigging by her teeth.
Kline, a Hungarian Jewish immigrant, began her performing career as a burlesque dancer. She then went on to work for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus before moving on to Disneyland, where, at 70-years-old, she performed as Tinker Bell in live shows at Disneyland. If you dig reading about Americana, Kline’s memoir Circus Queen and Tinker Bell, makes for a pretty interesting insider’s account of circus folk and circus life.
Although the arrest at the end of the video looks like it was possibly staged (probably by the vaudeville company that sponsored the stunt), Kline’s ability to dance and hold acrobatic poses while flying through the air with nothing holding her above the ground besides her iron jaw is the very essense of the sublime. So get your fix. I’ll see you next week.
