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Copyright Times Publishing Co. Apr 9, 2000
A member of the famed Wallenda aerial family, Carla
dazzles the audience with her feats atop the "sway pole."
In many ways, Carla Wallenda is a typical grandma.
She loves to cook and scout for yard sales. But unlike most grandmas,
she also likes to walk high wires, swing from a trapeze and hang atop
a 70- foot-tall pole.
She's a 5-foot-2-inch "high-flying grandmother with
nerves of steel" and she's performing this weekend at a fund-raising
carnival for Pinellas Park Middle School student clubs.
Daughter of the famed Karl Wallenda, who founded
"The Great Wallendas" circus acrobatic troupe, Carla Wallenda, 64, has
been performing on the sway pole for 36 years and uses no safety net,
said her husband, Mike Morgan. She will swing from the pole and hang
upside down. Her aunt died while performing on the pole in 1963.
Afterward, Karl Wallenda put the act away "because
it was too dangerous," Morgan said. But as an admirer of her deceased
aunt and the pole act, Carla Wallenda begged her father to let her try
it. He finally agreed, and she's been doing the pole act at circuses,
carnivals and fairs ever since, her husband said.
"It's a career," Morgan said. "A lifestyle. It's a
challenge. You not only get the good feeling of performing, but also
of challenging yourself to succeed."
Several of Wallenda's family members have died or
been injured while performing circus stunts.
Karl Wallenda, who once said, "Being on the
tightrope is living; everything else is waiting," fell to his death in
1978 at the age of 73. In 1962, Carla Wallenda's brother was paralyzed
and a cousin and brother-in-law died after falling from a seven-man
high wire act in Detroit.
The seven-man pyramid was once a trademark of the
Wallendas. But after the 1962 accident, they all but cut it out of
their performances.
Carla Wallenda has never thought about stopping her
circus acts because of the deaths or injuries of family members, her
husband said. "She says many people lose family members in car
accidents, but they still get in a car and drive," Morgan said.
"It's like driving a car, you've got to have
respect for what you're doing," he said. "She has total control and
respect for what she's doing. She's not an idiot or a fool."
Wallenda has been performing since about age 3. And
while the travels for the Pensacola grandmother of eight have slowed
in recent years, she still performs frequently.
Morgan said Wallenda relishes the reaction of
children who come to watch her stunts.
"The young kids ooh and ahh and they want to come
over and talk to her," he said. "Carla just loves performing. It's her
therapy to go up on the pole. She goes on up the pole and when she
comes down, her troubles are gone.
"Not only that, but she also spots yard sales. When
she comes down, she's like come on, let's go to a yard sale."
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