The Greenville News from Greenville, South Carolina • Page 22

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 25. 19S2 TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2 5, 1 982 THE GREENVILLE NEWS, GREENVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA High Wire Is Nothing But Way Of Life For Famous Wallenda Troupe three. There are no plans to add with crutches and braces. Doctors 1. fWfi vp 7" v'waw Jenny Wallenda Faughnan, widow, "but before we left Sarasota.

say he will never walk unaided again. "I don't believe it," says Always before, after a few days at home we were restless to go on tour, but not this time, I had a dream one night, and I woke up And what of the future? a Bookings for next year are very good, says Karl. And it is Just as well. Mario's hospital bills havtf' reached $16,000, he says. maybe we will add a girl to the troupe," he said.

"I don't know. Maybe in time I AfX Karl. "There is always hope. Jenny runs a school in Sarasota for children who wish to learn circus skills, and cares for her two children. SARASOTA, Fla.

Time has eased the sorrow and mended the hurt, but The Great Wallendas till wear the mark of tragedy. The circus troupe performs a high wire act more daring than ever. But It is a decimated version of the troupe that fell apart last January three stories above the concrete floor of the fairgrounds coliseum in Detroit. There were almost a dozen members then. Today there are more.

"We have a big shock in our hearts," says Karl Wallenda, 56-year-old founder and leader. "We nave not the strength to teach. We know what we are doing. There is 100 years of experience among the three of us. But we cannot teach.

Perhaps some day." PREMONITIONS There were premonitions. "Not in Detroit," says Mrs. MM CHRIS1MAS Hera comes Santo with a pack of Christmas wishes for everyone PETERSON crying. I told my husband, 'I don't want to go to Detroit. Something is going to "Richard went around telling everyone goodbye.

Re never did that before. He told one friend, 'I will be back even if I am not "Mario felt it, too." Mrs. Hellen Wallenda, Karl's wife and a former aerialist, says her 22-year-old son had a religious medal she had given him that he wore on a chain around his neck. The chain broke shortly before they were to leave. "Mario told me he had to have it fixed before they left," she says.

"'Is it so I asked him, and he said, 'Oh, He always put the medal between his teeth when they did 'the "The seven." "The human pyramid," the billing called it. The climax of the act: seven Wallendas, four of them on the wire, Building Supply Co Travelers Rest, S. C. hXr two balancing on metal rods car A NEW ACT The present Wallenda troupe looks at a pipe used to brace the platform for their ried on the shoulders of the four, another seated on a chair balanced on a rod carried by the three-man, two-bicycle pyramid on the high wire. They are, from left, Herman Wallenda, his son Gunther Wallenda, Mike McGulre.

who doesn't take part la the pyramid act, and leader Karl Wallenda, Herman's brother. Last January a seven-person pyramid fell from the wire, killing two and crippling one of the famous circus troupe. two. Best wishes to all for a joyous Christmas, Jack and George Tate JUST COMPLETED SPLIT Detroit, January 30: Jenny had The troupe returned to work with him Nov. 2 in Green Bay, Wis.

just completed a split on the high wire. She waited on the platform as "the seven" eased along the ger and death. Three times in her career Helen Wallenda fell from the high wire but escaped injury every time. Mario, paralyzed below the ever go up on the wire again," says Karl. KARL LAID OFF Karl laid off in September for an operation to correct the damage caused when he caught Jana.

wire. Another minute and it would be over. waist, came home from Detroit Sept. 28 after eight months in the hospital. He is learning to walk The troupe was on the wire on July 6, 1944, in Hartford when the big top burst into flame and touched off a panic that took more than 160 lives.

Two years ago in Mexico City, 411 PENDLETON ST. Dial CI 2-5639 GREENVILLE, S. C. Gunther's wife fell, injuring her spine. She died eight months It ') ft But nothing before compared with this: Dieter and Richard The seven: Cousin Dieter Schepp, 23, only 10 months out of East Germany, making his debut after months of practice, led the way.

Behind him, Mario. Then Richard Faughman, 29. At the rear, cousin Gunther Wallenda, 34. Above Dieter and Mario, leader Karl. Above Richard and Gunther, uncle Herman.

On the chair, 17-year-old Jana Schepp, Dieter's sister. Jenny watched absently, then more closely. "It looked like Dieter didn't feel so good," she says. "His left hand holding the (balance) pole opened. He tried to grab the pole.

I thought, 'Oh, my God, something Is "Then they went. I screamed. I heard myself scream. I don't know nothing after that." dead; Mario critically injured: Jana less seriously hurt but marked forever by the shock of watch ing her brother die in the ambu lance en route to a hospital; Karl torn inside from catching Jana. What happened? "Somebody told us later that itDMiMn i nmwdaM- MNMMMMMMM9RMMNRI aBai! aHNHiiBM hammmmm mnmmm IIHVKESS vts time again to wish our Dieter was sick, that he was not feeling good, but he didn't tell us," says Karl.

"We have ideas. One is that he blacked out. The other idea is that the bar pinched a nerve in his shoulder." TKk Inrrmipp! 8ii gooatnenas all the enchantment, every 3: good friends all the enchantment, ever With the instinct bred by 18 generations of circus forebears excitement and wonder that the Christmas Season and to express our ancae appreciation! BACK NEXT DAY Gunther was back on the high and 40 years experience, Karl grabbed the wire. With the same instinct, he reached out and miraculously caught Jana as she; fell. 1 Rl uiLLimuu wire the next day, and two days later he and his father, Herman, were performing again.

Soon Karl rejoined them. ll II This is our way of life," says "I had her In my hand," he says. "I looked up to see who had saved himself. I saw my brother (Herman) hanging on the wire and Gunther still standing on the wire. Gunther.

"If someone is killed in an accident in a factory, the fac "Then I looked down and saw I Si9i8EZc OM PAN tory doesn shut down." These three men are the troupe today. The climax of their act is another pyramid, two of them rid BUSINESS EQUIPMENT CO. We're wishing all of you every oy of the Holiday Season. May your days be merry and bright serving you hat made ours a delightl 719 E. STONE AVE.

BY-PASS CE 5-7469 400 WESTFIELD ST. CE 2-2481 2 ing bicycles with the third balanced on a melal rod they carry on their shoulders. I the three boys in the sawdust." NET IMPROVISED Below, performers quickly improvised a net from a blanket. Jana dropped, striking the blanket and bouncing out onto the floor. Karl, Gunther and Herman climbed down.

In the years since 1922 when Karl organized the troupe in "GREENVILLE'S FINEST FOR ENTERTAINMENT" 8 Germany, The Great Wallendas had experienced accidents, dan "We're doing a more difficult trick than we did with the human pyramid," says Karl. "The balance Is more delicate. And If you fall with the bicycle, you are thrown away from the wire. You have no chance to grab It." There is no net, not for The Great Wallendas. "When you do something daily without the net, all your ability has to be three times as good," says Karl.

"If you have a net, it takes the edge off the performance. We wouldn't have any feel ing. We would just do it." What of the present? Jana has returned to Hamburg, Germany. "I don't think she will i NVJsSb? Police Go After Man And Flush 2 PHOENIX, Ariz. W) Phoenix police surrounded a motel and over a loudspeaker demanded that Walter Lewis Hefner, 33, surrender, Hefner was wanted on 1 1 I a robbery charge.

Officers were surprised when Hefner walked out of a cabin to surrender, then two other men came out of a different unit with their hands raised. 1 I Mil I II I Hfja IS The other two were wanted in a llnllullla folir -J i jy ii in ix mi wvj tWf thought the police had come after I them. iTM ui i -rill 1U vz-'C MW 1 Tee' joy an Uetiin of Chrittmit, Wjfptr MkS Jmtf vc Join our keartelt brsyen 'int itk yours, thtt pesee tnd JooJ ifl Z' I may Kon endure for til men. ytjSjP HUIIT DuPREE AGENCY ll KlOfl nil heartily wish, for you and yours, a most merry and festive as filled with the joy of giving as jolly St Nick full of happy wonder as the shining faces of children 4' wJFi i tmm LAidMdr gathered around the tree. May your heart and home be brimming with all the most precious blessings of the Christmas season.

7 I 8 1 OST COMPLETE 8 i I UNDERWRITER SERVICE IN THE SOUTH 1912 AUGUSTA ROAD M' Silent Night 5M stnq out worm ling out worm ireetings end bst wishes for wy jojroui (hristmosl ran H. GRICE HUNT C. C. LIPSCOMB J. E.

LIPSCOMB, III EDWARD C. LIGON, JR. JULIAN G. HUNT MARGARET HOWARD MARY MILLER FAYE ROCHESTER TupnoiQuno Ml Idea Center 201 buncombe ST. GREENVILLE HARDWARE COMPANY A.

B. CARSON MARY ELLEN McDONALD mnn i tii.cn fYlCLWn ALU CE 3-3623 Vl if McBm, Crcanvlllt Tf".