HANGING ON.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 955, 27 December 1933, Page 8

HANGING ON.

Wire Walker’s Grim Fight. "THINGS WENT BLACK." (Special to the “ Star.”) LONDON, November 24. “ Everything went black before my eyes; I clutched at the rope with both hands, locked mv arms round it, and clung on as tightly as I could.” This was how twenty-one-year-old Lucie Wallenda, the high-wire walker of the Great Wallenda troupe, attached to Bertram Mills’s Circus, described to a reporter a terrifying experience. She almost fainted as she stepped off a narrow platform 50ft above the ring during a performance in Bristol. “It was the heat at the top of the tent and the sultry, thundery weather that made me go dizzy,” Lucie said. ” We had just finished our most difficult act, and as I started to climb down my head seemed to go round and round. ” I knew that I must not relax until help reached me. I wanted to faint, but I dare not. How long I hung there I do not know, but at last I was caught in the arms of someone and lifted on to the safety of the little platform. It was only then that I was able to relax and fall back exhausted. “It was a terrifying experience and it was.the first time that I have gone dizzy while I have been aloft.” Miss Wallenda soon recovered and resumed her daring acts.