The Flying Trapeze

Photo Credit: Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey
Date: 22 Jul 1936

The art of trapeze was developed in 1859 by a revolutionary French acrobatic performer named Jules Léotard (1942 – 1870), the son of a gymnastics instructor. He first invented the flying trapeze by connecting a bar to some ventilator cords above the swimming pool in his father's gymnasium in Toulouse, France. Despite having passed his Law exams at an early age and seeming destined to join the legal profession, Léotard went on to perform with the Cirque Franconi in Paris as their main aerialist, first performing in London at the Alhambra in May 1861. He was a great success. In the early years of young Léotard's performances, the flying trapeze did not have the safety net as is typically seen today. He would perform over a series of mattresses on a raised runway to give the audience a better view of his tricks or "passes."

At the Ashburnham Hall in Cremorne, Léotard performed on five trapezes turning somersaults between each one, and appeared again in London in 1866 and 1868, mainly in music halls and pleasure gardens where he was immensely popular. Léotard also popularized the one-piece gymwear that now bears his name, and his notoriety was marked by George Leybourne's popular music hall song of the day, "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze," but tragically he died at the young age of 28 from an infectious disease (possibly smallpox). "He'd fly through the air with the greatest of ease / a daring young man on the flying trapeze / his movements were graceful / all girls he could please / and my love he purloined away."

Source: Victoria and Albert Museum