Local Woman Acrobat Falls From Top Tent

The Register-Leader, June 14, 1915

The Wynkoops - Dancers, Acrobats, Aerialists. From the Harry P. Fischer Collection, Marietta College.

When she became exhausted by heat while doing a "swinging ladder single" with the Heber Brothers Circus at Deshler, Ohio, Friday afternoon, Mrs. Earl Wynkoop [Leota Rice] of this city fell from the top of the tent, twenty feet into the reserve seat section. Her left arm was broken and her right arm and back was badly sprained. She was also badly bruised about the body.

Mr. and Mrs. Wynkoop and daughter, whose work was one of the features of the Heber Brothers Circus, arrived home Saturday and are now with Mr. Wynkoop's parents on Fort Street. Mrs. Wynkoop is reported to be resting nicely and they hope to join the show later in the season.

The accident was due to the intense heat which caused Mrs. Wynkoop to faint while she was swinging in mid air near the top of the tent. Crashing through the ropes and narrowly missing tent poles, Mrs. Wynkoop alighted among the spectators in the reserve seat section. For a time it was believed that she had been killed.

A panic was narrowly averted when the woman alighted in the audience. Many people narrowly escaped injury.

"The Heber Brothers Greater Show Circus was a Columbus based family circus started by Reginald "Pop" Heber in 1907 and existed until 1917. Here is a rare photograph of the interior of the big top tent showing the band in the foreground with the trapeze on the left and the expectant crowd of circus goers." From collections of the Columbus Metropolitan Library - Columbus Memory