On Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:14:16 -0700, carlfo
...@comcast.net wrote:
>Around the turn of the century, circus acts began to include bicycles
>looping the loop in imitation of roller-coasters:
>
http://www.imageenvision.com/free_picture/0003-0702-1421-0934.html >You can see the side netting prevented the bicyclist from accidentally
>zooming off sideways. Netting was also used sometimes inside the loop.
>One of the earliest loopers was "Diavolo" (J.C. Carter), who patented
>his act and toured the world with it:
> http://www.sideshowworld.com/blowoffLoopLoop.html
>http://bp1.blogger.com/_iz9PHlS9nas/Rx5RTr5fScI/AAAAAAAAADg/y9-t8_I0M...
>Nice helmet.
>The simple loop-the-loop was improved by putting a gap in the loop,
>favored by the Ancillotti brothers:
>http://www.falconmotorcycles.com/blog/falcon-blog/1-motorcycles/159-t...
>As that site points out, "Casualties ended up being so high among the
>gravity defying performers that the tracks were eventually outlawed."
>Sometimes the loop-the-loop riders veered off the painted strip:
>http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=950DE1D71E3BE7...
>Sometimes the rider just fell straight down:
>http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9D00E1DE113EE7...
>Two dead loopers in a row:
>http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9407E7D71739E433A25...
>***
>The carnage often became confusing.
>The original "Dr. Clarke" (stage name Volo) rode for Barnum & Bailey
>in 1904 and included straightforward jumps in his loop act:
>"In 1904 Barnum & Bailey introduced a daredevil coalled Volo the
>Volitant (C.B. Clarke), whose specialty was 'Cycling the Aerial Arc.'
>Volo rode a bicycle down a forty-five degree incline that was eighty
>feet long and forty feet high. Then he flew through the air on his
>bicycle fifty-six feet, landed on a seven-foot-high platform, and rode
>to the ground on another ramp."
> http://www.circusinamerica.org/public/acts/public_show/154
>After the original "Dr. Clarke" retired, a second "Dr. Clark" (stage
>name Diavolo, but not the _original_ Diavolo) was killed in 1905 while
>leaping a bicycle in Cuba:
>http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9E05EED7173AE733A25...
>Unfortunately, the original "Dr. Clarke" was also killed in 1911 while
>looping the loop . . . but in an early plane, long after his
>retirement from bicycle stunts:
>http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9906E1D81531E233A25...
>(Go to the bottom of the link above and the wretched text turns into a
>nice image.)
>The original "Dr. C.B. Clarke" was actually Charles Clarke
>Bunting--and he was a real doctor of medicine, as the article
>explains, until he fell under the evil spell of the bicycle boom.
>***
>Confused stage and real names were common in the circus, where new
>performers often used the names (both stage and real) of their
>predecessors, as explained in this long article about another looper,
>Conn Baker, who was originally a world mile record-holder, good enough
>to compete with the famous Zimmerman:
>http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9C04E1D71E3BE631A25...
>If you read the whole article, you'll learn that Conn Baker, pro bike
>racer, took over the Diavolo loop act after the original "Diavolo" was
>killed while performing. Baker even used the same "J.C. Carter" as his
>"real" name.
>Baker crashed and hurt himself badly, breaking several bones on a
>failed loop, but he kept on coasting down the ramp into the loop for
>the money.
>In contrast to these doctors and bicycle racers, with their
>devil-costume and Italian pseudonyms, here's a dreadfully prosaic
>looper. Mr. Robert B. Vandevoort, an electrician from Brooklyn:
> http://i35.tinypic.com/213n9rb.jpg
> http://i37.tinypic.com/17fhg2.jpg
>("Shooting the chutes" was just riding a roller-coaster car down into
>a long water tank for the splash--it's still popular.)
>***
>The bicycle loop-the-loop acts were popular enough to be used on
>magazine covers as editorial cartoons:
> http://tinyurl.com/yjfg8st
>The loop act showed up in vending machines:
>"The Maniken Vendor Co. made a series of clock work mechism machines
>including the Baker Boy, which had a baker that would pivot to take a
>gumball out of an oven and deliver it for a penny. Loop The Loop,
>featured diavolo, the bike rider who looped the loop and dispensed a
>stick of gum."
>http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Antique+Coin+Operated+Machines+-+An+Ove...
>And the loop act even appeared in the kind of literature that appeals
>to RBT:
> http://tinyurl.com/yg8d3rg
>A more modern and often-pirated physics lecture uses Diavolo as an
>example:
>http://physics.ucsd.edu/students/courses/spring2008/managed/physics2a...
>***
>Back to Conn Baker, the racer who claimed to have replaced the
>original Diavolo in the loop act.
>Baker may have been the original Diavolo, not the replacement that he
>claimed to be in the long interview--replacing someone killed while
>performing the act sounds better.
>Baker liked to hang from rocks and lived a long and happy life:
>http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSmid=47137674&GRid=...
>Naturally, Baker preferred a proper bicycle in his old age:
>http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=38975903&PIpi=1...
>Bet you didn't think I could sneak a highwheeler in, did you?
>Cheers,
>Carl Fogel
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