Con Colleano

Con Colleano was an Australian tightrope walker who was the first person to successfully attempt a forward somersault on a tightrope and became one of the most celebrated and highly paid circus performers of his time. He was born Cornelius Sullivan in Lismore, New South Wales on 26 December 1899, the son of Cornelius Sullivan, a showman, and Julia Vittorine Sullivan, a woman of partial Bundjalung and Afro-Caribbean descent. He was the third of 10 children. His father made a living from sideshow boxing and gambling. Around 1907, when Colleano was seven years old, the family settled in Lightning Ridge, New South Wales, then a newly established opal mining field and a fertile ground for the father's talents. Here Colleano received a rudimentary education and learned circus skills from the sideshows present in the town. By 1910, those of the family of sufficient age had formed a small circus troupe, calling themselves the "Collinos" (apparently as an Italian-sounding name befitting the "sable" complexion of the children, in order to cover the "native blood" in their veins). They traveled through New South Wales and supplemented their income by working for the major traveling circuses of the time. By 1918, now known as "Colleano's All-Star Circus" (with more of Con's siblings), the troupe was sufficiently established to travel through Queensland on their own hired train. The children became known as "The Royal Hawaiian Troupe" (again to cover for their dark complexions). In 1919, Con managed to achieve the foot-to-foot forward somersault he had been attempting for some time and which was destined to secure his subsequent career. In 1922 he was engaged by the popular Tivoli circuit, the major outlet for vaudeville in Australia, on a salary of £60 a week. His siblings also appeared at The Tiv as "Eight Akbar Arabs". In 1924 he went abroad with his fiancée Winifred Constance Stanley Trevail, a vaudeville soubrette who claimed descent from the earls of Derby. At Johannesburg, South Africa, in April 1924 Colleano adopted the Spanish costume that became his trademark. After a successful American debut at the Hippodrome, New York, in September, he was soon engaged by Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Combined Circus. Entering the centre ring, he made the traditional passes of a bullfighter; on mounting the wire, he gracefully performed tangos, jotas and fandangos; he concluded his twelve-minute act with the dangerous forward somersault. He became known as "The Wizard of the Wire" or "The Toreador of the Wire". He was one of the highest-paid circus performers in America at that time, earning up to $1000 a week. He also performed in Europe and Asia with various circuses and shows. He married Winifred in 1924 and they had no children. He retired from performing in 1959 and settled in Miami, Florida. He died on 13 November 1973 at the age of 73 from natural causes.