Volume 11 • Number 2

fall 2011

$4.95

The American Wonder

also iNside:

Yankees Take On Rebel Guerrillas Counting Indians Peace Meetings Lead to The Hague YEARS Imagining Bartleby 10 Suffragists Embrace Their Femininity 9

LA OG DY FR THE DEVIL

By JeNNifer leMaK

Two “benders”–– contortionists––made headlines around the world in the early twentieth century with their daring and dangerous feats of aerial renown. When they were done performing, they retired to New York.

NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM, H-1987.61 Friede DeMarlo performs “Frog’s Paradise.”

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ome of the many the best Danish circus for interesting historical most of the twentieth century. artifacts in the New Friede became restless York State Museum’s watching him and the others SPopular Entertainment collec- perform and begged Harry to tion document the lives and teach her contortion skills. careers of Friede and Harry Because of her age—twenty- DeMarlo, two celebrated one at the time—getting contortionists and artists limber enough to work as a who performed in and contortionist was difficult. on vaudeville circuits around But she was determined. In the world from the 1910s her unpublished memoir, through the 1930s. They are Farewell to Glitter, Sawdust, credited by circus historians as and the World, Friede wrote, creating several new contortion “Contortion is a hard thing to and aerial acts. The Museum tackle when one is over twenty. holds these items because I began to practice each Friede and Harry retired from morning stretching and limber- performing in the 1940s to ing up in earnest on the stage.” live in upstate New York. Her perseverance paid off, Friede Gobsch was born in and soon she was performing 1890 in Germany and became between Harry’s acts to give interested in show business as him a rest. Within a short a teenager. During her early time, they were being billed as career, she performed with an “DeMarlo and Partner.” Their all-girl Hungarian dance troupe marriage in 1911 also gave that toured Europe and Asia. Friede American citizenship.

IMAGES: NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM, H-1987.61 In 1910, while on an extended Harry and Friede hit the engagement in Copenhagen, big time in 1912 with an act Friede met West Virginian they called “Frog’s Paradise.” Top: Harry Harry DeMarlo (born in 1882), The stage set was a wood- DeMarlo had an aerial contortionist who land scene with leaves, trees, performed as a was billed as “DeMarlo the a full moon, and worms and contortionist from American Wonder” and who bugs lit by tiny light bulbs. In the age of six. had been performing with the center, Friede, dressed as Photo ca. 1911. the Barnum and Bailey Circus a frog, emerged from a giant Bottom: The in the United States and water lily and began dancing DeMarlos toured Europe since he was six years and bending about the stage. the world with old. Harry, whose real name Music then identified a storm the Ringling was James Dwight Morrow, approaching, and Harry Brothers and pursued Friede, much to the appeared onstage as another Barnum and disappointment of the other frog who contorted his body Bailey Circus, girls in the dance troupe. in a variety of poses. After the as well as with storm passed, Friede morphed other circuses. The Big Time into a nymph, with more This photo shows Friede resigned from the troupe dancing and bending about the couple in to follow Harry, who was the stage. For the next five Canada in 1932. under contract to the Circus years, the couple performed Schumann, considered to be “Frog’s Paradise” nearly

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worldwide; some dignitaries adopted the stage name La in their audiences included the Marletta, perfected an act King of Siam, the Queen of titled “Symphony in the Air,” Holland, and the Czar of . which became a headliner for The DeMarlos were under the Ringling Brothers Circus. contract to several different She would contort her body vaudeville circuits and circuses into a small box that hung in Australia, Japan, India, South directly over the audience— Africa, and across Europe; thus who, not knowing what was they performed year-round. in the box, would suddenly They joked that they “crossed hear an operatic aria being the ocean so many times even sung. During the aria, Friede NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM, H-1987.61 the porpoises know [our] would gracefully drop out of names.” Harry was also a the box by her ankle, which body-double for the actor John was attached to a sling, while Barrymore in some of his early she continued singing and silent films for acrobatic shots performing contortions. and fencing. For several seasons In 1924, Friede developed in the 1920s the couple a new act with the same performed for the Barnum determination she used to and Bailey Circus, and then make her body limber. This the combined Ringling was called a “teeth act,” “Contortion is a hard thing to tackle when Brothers and Barnum and whereby a leather strap that Bailey Circus (the Ringling bore her complete dental one is over twenty. I began to practice Brothers purchased the Barnum imprint was attached to an and Bailey Circus in 1907, but aerial rope, allowing her to each morning stretching and limbering up ran the circuses separately hang suspended from only in earnest on the stage.” until 1919, when the two were her teeth. But to perform this merged.) The circus season act at all, she first had to start ran through spring, summer, developing her jaw muscles. and fall; in the winter, the She wrote in her memoir, “I uncoiled, she began to spin Above: The picture reads: “Friede DeMarlos signed on to smaller broke it [the mouthpiece] in around. She practiced this De Marlo, The Original Frog-Lady.” circuses, such as Shipp and slowly, holding the contraption until she was ready for the Photo ca. 1912. Feltus, which toured Central firmly in my jaws. It hurt next step, which was installa- and South America, and the tremendously. The pulling of tion of an electric motor that Santos and Artigas Grand the sinuses, the muscles, it was would turn the rope faster. Circus, which toured Cuba downright killing. I wasn’t a The circus electrician built and other vaudeville circuits. [spring] chicken anymore, Friede exactly what she thirty-four by now, although I wanted: a 110-volt motor astonishing acts looked like twenty.” with a regulator encased in a While “Frog’s Paradise” was After weeks of strengthen- tiny golden container that their major act, the DeMarlos ing her jaw, Friede told Harry would speed the rope’s—and continued to develop new she was ready to begin. After Friede’s—rotation. material. Harry perfected an act more weeks of simply hang- First, Friede was lifted up called “Devil on the Trapeze,” ing suspended by her teeth, by the rope about fifty-five in which he performed she developed the next part feet in the air. The spinning contortions high over the of the act: she bent both legs then started gradually, until audience while dressed in a behind her neck and, as the the motor spun her at full devil costume. Friede, who rope she was tied to swiftly speed for two whole minutes

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rave reviews— “La Marletta, The Human Then disaster Top, Crashes To The Ground Two years later, Harry and At The London Olympia… Friede were chosen for a five- taken to the West London Hospital at Hammer Schmidt IMAGES: NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM, H-1987.61 week winter engagement at the London Olympia Circus: Crossing. Fearful accident. Harry would perform “Devil Women in audience screamed on the Trapeze,” and Friede in panic and a great number would perform “Whirl of fainted away, many others Death.” Friede’s contract, at hurried out.” $375 dollars a week, included Friede’s spine was badly second-class fares to and bruised, her ankle was broken, from London and was the and her upper teeth moved most money she had ever back and forth. She was made. All the attention made hospitalized for five weeks. her push the envelope. She She made the doctors reset began to think about increas- her ankle three times because ing the amount of electricity she refused to have any sort to the motor, doubling it to of limp. After a few months Friede developed a new act called a 220 volts in an effort to spin of recuperation, she went “teeth act,” whereby a leather strap even faster. The London back to working on her act Olympia also had the highest and was able to perfect it that bore her complete dental ceiling in which either of them again, although she no had ever performed—Friede at longer used an electric motor, imprint was attached to an aerial 100 feet, Harry at eighty feet. simply using the uncoiling rope, allowing her to hang All over the city, giant rope for speed. posters urged audiences to suspended from only her teeth. “Come see the beautiful La long Careers, long lives Marletta at the Olympia.” Both Harry and Friede toured Friede and Harry’s opening Russia, Europe, and Africa while she performed her con- performances gathered rave for the next few years and tortions. The greatest danger reviews. They even performed returned to the Ringling was at the end, when the for the British royalty. One Brothers Circus for the electric power was shut off: review said, “De Marlo’s 1932–33 season. After that, her mouthpiece was also marvelous contortions caused they played state fairs for the twisting, and a too-abrupt gasps of amazement…and then Wirth and Hamid Circus and end to the spinning could audience grows dizzy watch- performed in smaller indoor cause the mouthpiece to jolt ing Mlle. DeMarlo correctly circuses across the country out of her mouth. This was described as the human top.” and in Europe. In 1936, they Above: Friede’s But four days before their decided not to tour with stage name was also the time when she had closing date, disaster struck. Ringling Brothers anymore La Marletta. to have the strongest grip on because their friend, John Broadside ca. the mouthpiece with her jaws. As Friede was completing Ringling, the founder, had 1922. Friede worked on the act “Whirl of Death” and spinning (which she named “Whirl of (via 220 volts of electricity) passed away that year. In Left: The leather Death”) for months, mostly to 100 feet in the air, when the 1937, the couple started strap that Friede electricity was shut off her playing nightclubs across the used in her “teeth get over being dizzy. During jaw finally gave out and she United States, including act” is in the the 1925 circus season, “Whirl Buffalo and Rochester—two collections of the of Death” was booked as a plummeted to the ground. shows a night, one at 9 p.m. State Museum. major attraction. The London News reported,

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and the other at midnight. NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM, H-1987.61 THe arCHiVes Friede commented on their CoNNeCTioN new venue: “This whole thing was new to us. This was no n 1987, through purchase theater, no circus. It seemed and donation, the New funny to perform close to I York State Museum acquired the patrons.” several items related to They continued to perform Harry and Friede DeMarlo for four more years until and their careers for its 1941, when they decided that Popular Entertainment it was finally time to retire collection. Included are from show business. They had their costumes and trapeze no children, and Friede was ropes, Friede’s mouthpiece fifty years old, Harry fifty- for her “Whirl of Death” act, eight. They bought a farm in broadsides, photographs, Walton, New York (Delaware letters, Friede’s unpublished County) and settled down–– memoir, and scrapbooks. to train dogs for animal acts in circuses. Although they’d performed intense and dangerous physical acts for decades, they were both in good health and lived long lives; Harry died in 1971 at the age of eighty-nine, and Friede died in 1980 at ninety. In an interview for a 1963 article, “Forgotten Acrobats of the Arena…” by Burns M. Kattenberg in The Circus Review, Harry reflected on his career––and on the physical demands of extreme perfor- mance. “Contortion…keeps you fit in every way,” he said. “It helps you to stay young and alert. The only way to achieve contortion stunts is Top: Friede and Harry were married by patient and constant train- for sixty years. This photo is from ing and nothing else.” He their honeymoon in Brussels in 1911. related how, in the Gay Right: The picture reads: “de Marlo, NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM, H-1987.61 Nineties, bakers sold a dark The American Wonder.” Photo brown concoction called ca. 1912. “snake oil” under such names as “Angle Worm Oil” or wish such an oil would have “Lizard Oil” that supposedly [an] effect, because it is only made youthful and ambitious by relentless practice and contortionists more limber. unending limbering that I can “[S]ometimes,” he said, “I accomplish results.” n

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