TIGHT-ROPE WALKER KILLED AT FAIR.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18772, 30 May 1929, Page 10

TIGHT-ROPE WALKER KILLED AT FAIR.

" AUDIENCE AT FIRST THOUGHT IT A TRICK.” (Special to the “Star.**) LONDON, April 21. A sixty-year-old tight-rope walker, Theodore Gappa, of Milton Road, Herne Hill, was killed last night at a travelling circus in a fair ground at Hayes Bridge, Southall. Recently a daughter of the dead man was killed while performing a similar act. Gappa was half-way across the rope, which was suspended forty-eight feet above the ground, when, in full view of thousands attending the fair, he was seen to slip and hang, head downwards, from the rope. The audience, thinking it was a trick, applauded. Gappa remained suspended from the rope for some time until a steward realised that something amiss had occurred.

Fall Through Sheet. Taking a tarpaulin sheet some men ran to beneath the spot where the man was hanging, and shouted to him to let go. But Gappa continued to hang with his feet crossed and his arms stretched out from the rope. They loosened the guy ropes and immediately the man fell through the tarpaulin sheet they were holding, and struck the ground. Gappa was rushed to the King Edward Hospital, Ealing, where he died shortly after admission from a fractured spine and severe injuries to his shoulder.

The accident caused a panic. Immediately the crowd realised what had happened they crowded round the ground and many women fainted. A pathetic feature of the performance was the fact that all the proceeds were in aid of the family of a little girl who was killed by a car near the fair ground a week ago.