HURTLED TO DEATH.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 258, 31 October 1928, Page 10

HURTLED TO DEATH.

TRAPEZE ARTISTE'S FATE. BEFORE CROWDED AUDIENCE. t IN MELBOURNE CIRCUS RING. a (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, October 26. During the performance of Wirth's Circus in Melbourne on Wednesday, a crowded audience sat horrified while a woman acrobat, from high up in the air, having missed a vital grip, came hurtling to a terrible death below. Valmo Schultz, trapeze beauty, was the victim of this tragic accident, one of the very few such accidents which have occurred on the stage or in the circus circuits of Australasia. Miss Schultz, who was 25 years of age, was formerly- a member of the famous Le Mar troupe of flying trapeze artistes. She was doing her turn on Wednesday, when, in swinging from one trapeze to another at terrific speed, she just failed to correctly grip her partner's wrists. The latter was hanging from a bar, head downwards. He realised the girl's awful plight, and made frantic efforts to hold her by one hand. But the force of her swing wrenched her body free of his grip, and she hurtled into the side of the building with terrific force. From there she boun- ed on to the very edge of the safety net and was catapulted to a row of ringside seats. The seat on which she crashed was smashed to pieces, and the unfortunate young woman was picked up, just breathing faintly. She died on the way to hospital.

The scene as she fell was well-nigh indescribable. Horrified spectators screamed with terror as they watched her body hurtling through the air, and as she fell, clowns with faces painted in grotesque smiles, ringmaster with whip in hand, and other members of the company, crowded round the almost lifeless form. Many women in the audience fainted, some collapsed in hysterics, and the scene following the fall resembled pandemonium.

Of the few deaths due to circus acts in Australia, the outstanding instance was that of Professor Peart, who was brought out from London by Fitzgerald's circus to perform a famous high-diving act. He ascended a pole 40ft high, and from there divod into a canvas tank let into the

ground—6ft deep, Bft long, and Oft wide. Entering the water on what proved to be his last dive, he struck the boarding at the side of the tank with his chest. Not until he entered his dressing room a few minutes later was it realised that he was seriously injured. Two hours later he was dead.