Fresno History - A Circus Tragedy

I was in high school in about 1974 or 75, maybe even 1976 and had never been to a circus. I begged my step dad to go to the circus. We got free tickets from my stepdad's friend, so off we went. I had no idea how memorable this experience would be. Seeing the animal acts was cool of course, the clowns were okay, the food was good, everything was very neat overall. We were having a good time.

It came time for the high wire acts and trapeze artists. This was really entertaining. The lights were turned down and the trapeze artist was in the spotlight. We watched the woman with awe and then all of a sudden it looked like her hands let go of the swing. Suddenly she fell to the ground. We didn't see her fall or land since it was dark, but we heard a barely audible thud.

We thought this must be part of the act. The lights came on and an announcer asked if there was a doctor in the house. Well, we still thought this must be part of the act. We saw the woman lying on the floor face down in her beautiful costume. There was no net anywhere. People and then paramedics went to her and we started to realize this was real. This was not an act. The paramedics turned the woman over and we saw the blood on the cement.

Reality began to set in then. The paramedics took her away. Everyone was in shock, As they say 'The Show Must Go on' and it did. In fact more trapeze artists and high wire acts followed. Every time one of them swung from one swing to another or started to lose their balance on the high wire everyone in the audience gasped with fear, including me.

Of course it was reported in the news the next day. The woman lost consciousness and that is what caused her to let go of the swing and fall. Believe it or not her husband did his act on the trapeze right after her. I couldn't believe it. I'm glad the woman was passed out before she fell. Needless to say it was a long time before I ever went to the circus again.

This happened at The Barnum and Bailey Circus in Fresno, California. I don't know if this was the first time in history this happened, but I never heard about anything like it before in recent history.