BARS #5 AERIAL BARS
AERIAL BARS:
Most aerial bar act riggings I see in old photos are 4 bars like the ones below.
FOUR BAR AERIAL BARS
This four bar act, on Ringling in the late '20's or early '30's is probably one of three.
CHARLIE FORREST
THREE BAR AERIAL BAR ACTS:
THE LA BLONDES.
After an opening routine by the straight man, the next trick in most comedy aerial bar acts was the "strip shirt". This is Blondie LaBlonde, Xenia Ohio, 1953.
STEP-A-LEAN
To stand on one bar & lean forward to the next bar, was naturally called a "lean", thus when the comic pretended to step to the other bar, then do the lean it became the "step-a-lean" This is Jim LaBlonde, Xenia, Ohio 1953.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT.
This is yours truly, Detroit Shrine Circus, 1956
GIANT SWING
This is when you completely encircle the bar, mostly used to gain momentum for more dificult tricks from bar to bar.
Both of these clips were taken at Olympic Park in New Jersey, the first is one from the Pedro Morales' home movies, & the night show from Frank Clark's collection.
FIVE BAR AERIAL BARS:
THE PABLO RODRIGUEZ TROUPE
The first five bar act I saw was "The Ibarra Brothers", on Ringling, later when I first saw Pablo on Gil Gray it was a five bar ground bar act. Later after going to Europe he moved the act to the air, Paplo had done aerial bars before.
posted by 24-HOUR-MAN | 10:53 AM
4 Comments:
FROM ANNONYMOUS:
Now that's the OLD YESTERDAYSTOWN BLOG I'm use to. Thanks Bill, and keep all the interesting information coming. Not being familiar with bar acts I trully enjoyed reading and getting educated at the same time.
That was really GREAT!!!
Working horizontal bars was not easy for Bruce La Blonde because he was so tall. In fact when he was a youngster learning bars in Bloomington, all the old timers said he'd never make a bar actor because of his height.He hasd to constantly bend his legs to keep from hitting the bar in front and or the one behind. The portable rigging was a real nightmare as he had to bend his legs to miss the other bar,bend them to miss the floor, and since the bars were only 4ft. long he had to watch & not hit the pipes connecting the bars on each side.
FROM mr.lee:
Thanks Bill for the great history and info..I remeber The Rodriguez's act, Think it was on the Beatty show in the early 70's..
The Pablo Rodriguez bar act at Navy Pier, Chicago for L. N. Fleckles or his successor, Ron Kelroy.
The Aerial Thrill Circus which was originally on the Daley Center plaza downtown later moved to Navy Pier.
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