Monday, December 1, 2008
Circus Queen and Tinker Bell
Did you know the first person to play the role of Tinker Bell in live performances at Disneyland was a 70-year-old Hungarian Jewish immigrant burlesque dancer?
Dangling from a harness attached to a wire at the top of the 146-foot Matterhorn, the 4-foot-10-inch woman slid 784 feet to Sleeping Beauty’s castle, where she initiated the park’s nightly fireworks display.
This remarkably agile woman was Tiny Kline, and her life story provides a fascinating window into U.S. popular culture during the 20th century, writes Associate Professor of American Studies Janet Davis in the introduction to “Circus Queen & Tinker Bell: The Memoir of Tiny Kline” (University of Illinois Press, 2008).
Kline’s memoir, edited by Davis, follows the circus perfomer’s life and career, from the burlesque house to the big top, and includes intimate details about circus life, from its sexual politics to labor relations.
While working for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey in the 1920s, Kline became known for her signature “slide for life” stunt, an iron jaw act in which she slid to the ground while dangling from a trapeze by her teeth.
For the next four decades, Kline was billed as the world’s most sensational aerial daredevil. Check out the video clip on YouTube of Kline crossing Times Square–hanging by her teeth.
“Hanging by one’s teeth was popular with trapeze performers looking to make themselves more salable with more breadth and range,” Davis explains. “Yet the learning process was excruciating.”
For years, Kline’s unpublished memoir languished in the archives of Circus World Museum in Baraboo, Wis., until Davis investigated the manuscript’s copyright status and secured the museum’s permission to edit and publish the work.
Based on information culled from obituaries, feature articles, show programs and business records, Davis’ endnotes and annotations give readers a fuller picture of Kline’s life and illuminate the colorful cast of circus personalities who surrounded her.
Davis also is the author of “The Circus Age: Culture and Society under the American Big Top” (University of North Carolina Press, 2002), which Publishers Weekly called a “fascinating, provocative history.”
