The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-10-21
''CIRCUS THRnLERS''
EVOLUTION OF DANGEROUS FEATs
 BY SHOWMEN.
@LoopinG the Gap" In Al Automobile Appears to Be the Climax of Human Daring For
 Money.

 of modern sensational circus perfor- mances express the opinion that in the Auto Bolide. an imported French act. in which 8 youg woman loops the gap in an automobile. the extreme limit of daring possibility has been reached.
 It Is not diH1cllt to trace the de- velopment of the various loop the loop" and leap the gap acts and their final climatic achievement in the Auto Bolide, or as the European press describes 1t. the Dip of Death" This act like all the others leading up to u is an answer to an apparent demand on
 the part of the public for new circus sensations in which the danger of in- jury to the performer is So. great. ns I to make the exhibition a "thriller' in every sense of the word.
 There were circus thrillers twenty years ago. Proir to the first visit of the Hanlon Volters to America-and this is easily within the memory of a thing as a flying trapeze act wasl practically unknown. The old style l trapese act was performed on a single pendant bar. and consisted principal I ly in delft feats of suspension by the | toes and eTaborations of the old trick
 known to every school boy as skin ming the cat" The Hanlon- -Volters | revolutionized the trapeze performan- ces. and their flights through the air created a sensation. The real danger of the act was not, however, apparent to the public until one of the perform CTS was killed by a fall.
 During the same period. or perhaps a little later. American circus-goers were startled by a young English ar ct hn txrytoA do uIr, taI tD hn shot from a cannot and landing in net many feet away. Variations on this act were attempted with more or less success. but the serious injury of Zazal, the handsome original had a dis couraging effect upon this class of sep sationa' performances, and for several years the American cricuses offered no distinctive sensational feats in which the element of danger. was. to a great extent. depended upon to attract the crowds.
 The next distinct revival of the cir GUS sensation was a series of acts in which performers enclosed in globe or standing on the top of It, and some- times even riding bicycles. ascended and descended spiral tower to the accompaniment of awe-inspiring music and sputtering pyrotechnics. These acts were clever, but they lacked the extreme thrill-creating character and their popularity was brief.
 The use of the bicycle. however, sug gested possibilities In another drec- tion and several years ago the some what jaded show-goers of New York had their curiosity aroused and their feelings more or less narrowed by the daring Fitzpatrick, who rode down hundred foot stairway at breakneck speed on a wheel, and later on an au- tomobile. Then came the loop the loop" In this act Diavolo rode down a runway with the speed of an express train, and following ribbon-like loop. actually rode upside down for the briefest period of time. and finished his wild journey half way down the bippodrome track. This act created tho greatest sensation of any perilous per formance that had been seen in Ameri- ca up to this time and Its success started many of the daring men to work endeavoring to improve upon the idea.
 The first tangible result of this emulation was the double loop the loop" which Hugo Ancilotti produced at the Folies Bergeres. Paris. about five years ago. In this act there were two loops and two bicyclists who per formed the feat side by side simul- taneously. The performance made great hit, and added a great deal to the fame of the adapter. Ancilotti. however. was not satisfied with the "loop" and conceived the idea of per- forming the feat with the entire up per section of the loop cut out this compellnig the bicyclist to literally ride through the air upside down. The attempt was made; it proved a success and was one of the greatest sensa- tions of the Paris season. Ancilotti was engaged to produce the act on this side of the water. and last season it was first introduced to the Ameri- can public by the Barnum and Bailey circus.
 Tn the meantime and even before Auci- lotti had succeeded with his "open gap" d clever Frenchman had invent cd the Fleche Humaine. or Human Ar row. This is the act known in this country as leapng the chasm on bicycle. An act of this kind Is given with the Barnum and Bailey circus, but the leap Is nearly forty feet. twice the distance accomplished by the original French experiments.
 The success of these various thrill ers and the great crowds and conse- auent pecuniary returns for which they were responsible acted as an ir,
 petus to the inventors, but 1t, remain
 cd for M Alonzo Perez, an artist, a painter of pictures, to invent the ''thriller" that seems to have reached the limit of effort in this direction.
 M. Perez was ignorant of any prac- tical knowledge of scientific mechan- les, but was fortunate in securing the