Terry Cavaretta - Revision history

Djando: /* Headliner at Circus Circus */

2024-07-27T16:19:02Z

‎Headliner at Circus Circus

Djando: /* Headliner at Circus Circus */

2024-07-27T16:17:34Z

‎Headliner at Circus Circus

Djando at 16:07, 27 July 2024

2024-07-27T16:07:41Z

Djando: /* Apprenticeship */

2024-07-27T16:06:06Z

‎Apprenticeship

Djando: /* Enter The Flying Cavarettas */

2022-07-22T00:46:47Z

‎Enter The Flying Cavarettas

Djando: /* Aerialist */

2022-07-22T00:39:26Z

‎Aerialist

Djando at 23:39, 21 January 2020

2020-01-21T23:39:09Z

Djando: /* Image Gallery */

2019-04-21T19:34:52Z

‎Image Gallery

Djando: /* Image Gallery */

2019-04-21T19:23:29Z

‎Image Gallery

Djando: /* See Also */

2019-01-13T02:44:27Z

‎See Also

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 Terry would remain Circus Circus's flying star for twenty-three years. Working steadily in the same place without having to adjust constantly to the technical problems presented by ever-changing locales, she was soon able to bring consistency to her triple somersault&mdash;a feat that actually just a few male flyers could truly claim at that time. As a matter of fact, Terry was the first woman ever to do a ''consistent'' triple somersault on the flying trapeze, and one of the few flyers (male or female) to do so at the time.
-All this was in the era before Las Vegas became the world capital of faceless corporate entertainment: Its casinos were still operating under the much more liberal and colorful aegis of the Mafia&mdash;and entertainment directors still paid attention to top visual entertainers, which were treated as individuals whose very personality and talent could be a box office draw: Terry’s first contract included bonuses and a car lease! Like most performers and entertainers of that era, she enjoyed her time in Las Vegas!
+All this was in the era before Las Vegas became the world capital of faceless corporate entertainment: Its casinos were still operating under the much more liberal and colorful aegis of the Mafia&mdash;and entertainment directors still paid attention to top visual entertainers, which were treated as individuals whose very personality and talent could be a box office draw: Terry’s first contract included bonuses and a car lease! Like most performers and entertainers of that era, she enjoyed performing in Las Vegas and had no reason to go anywhere else!
 The composition of the act changed over the years. Kandy married the producer Jerry Schafer and left the act after three months only in Las Vegas (she would eventually return). Then Maureen married Barry Mitchell, of the Flying Medallions, who were also featured at Circus Circus. As for Terry, she married in 1971 Roland (Ron) Eloy Lemus, who had been the catcher of another flying trapeze legend, [[Bob Yerkes]], and of [[The Palacios]]. Ron Lemus became the catcher of the Cavarettas in 1973, while Jimmy went on with the Flying Medallions.

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 ===Headliner at Circus Circus===
-[[File:Terry_Cavaretta's_triple_at_Circus_Circus.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Terry's triple at Circus Circus]]Al Dobritch was a friend of Jay Sarno, the hotel entrepreneur who had created the Caesars Palace hotel and casino, the first themed casino to open in Las Vegas. In 1968, Sarno opened a new themed hotel and casino, [[Circus Circus]], whose main attraction was a non-stop circus show involving top circus acts. Dobritch provided acts for Sarno, and he offered him the Flying Cavarettas, with its glamorous all-female flying team and its pretty triple-somersaulter, Terry Cavaretta. The Flying Cavarettas debuted in Las Vegas on Circus Circus’s opening day, October 18, 1968.
+[[File:Terry_Cavaretta's_triple_at_Circus_Circus.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Terry's triple at Circus Circus]]Al Dobritch was a friend of Jay Sarno, the hotel entrepreneur who had created the Caesars Palace Hotel and Casino, the first themed casino to open in Las Vegas. In 1968, Sarno opened a new themed hotel and casino, [[Circus Circus]], whose main attraction was a non-stop circus show involving top circus acts. Dobritch provided acts for Sarno, and he offered him the Flying Cavarettas, with its glamorous all-female flying team and its pretty triple-somersaulter, Terry Cavaretta&mdash;a perfect recipe for any Las Vegas show. The Flying Cavarettas debuted in Las Vegas on Circus Circus’s opening day, October 18, 1968.
-Terry would remain a Circus Circus flying star for twenty-three years. Working steadily in the same place without having to adjust constantly to the technical problems presented by ever-changing locales, she was soon able to bring consistency to her triple somersault&mdash;a feat that actually just a few male flyers could truly claim at that time. As a matter of fact, Terry was the first woman ever to do a ''consistent'' triple somersault on the flying trapeze, and one of the few flyers (male or female) to do so at the time.
+Terry would remain Circus Circus's flying star for twenty-three years. Working steadily in the same place without having to adjust constantly to the technical problems presented by ever-changing locales, she was soon able to bring consistency to her triple somersault&mdash;a feat that actually just a few male flyers could truly claim at that time. As a matter of fact, Terry was the first woman ever to do a ''consistent'' triple somersault on the flying trapeze, and one of the few flyers (male or female) to do so at the time.
-All this was in the era before Las Vegas became the world capital of faceless corporate entertainment: Its casinos were still operating under the much more liberal and colorful aegis of the Mafia&mdash;and entertainment directors still paid attention to top visual entertainers, which were treated as individuals whose very personality and talent could be a box office draw: Terry’s first contract included bonuses and a car lease!
+All this was in the era before Las Vegas became the world capital of faceless corporate entertainment: Its casinos were still operating under the much more liberal and colorful aegis of the Mafia&mdash;and entertainment directors still paid attention to top visual entertainers, which were treated as individuals whose very personality and talent could be a box office draw: Terry’s first contract included bonuses and a car lease! Like most performers and entertainers of that era, she enjoyed her time in Las Vegas!
 The composition of the act changed over the years. Kandy married the producer Jerry Schafer and left the act after three months only in Las Vegas (she would eventually return). Then Maureen married Barry Mitchell, of the Flying Medallions, who were also featured at Circus Circus. As for Terry, she married in 1971 Roland (Ron) Eloy Lemus, who had been the catcher of another flying trapeze legend, [[Bob Yerkes]], and of [[The Palacios]]. Ron Lemus became the catcher of the Cavarettas in 1973, while Jimmy went on with the Flying Medallions.

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 In 1974, Jimmy Cavaretta left Circus Circus and went with the Medallions to [[Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey]]. The Flying Medallions act consisted then of Barry Mitchell, Maureen Cavaretta-Mitchell, and Jimmy Cavaretta with his first wife, Judy Calvin. Jimmy would stay with the Medallions until 1976. Ron Lemus and Terry renamed their act ''The Flying Terrels''&mdash;a contraction of ''Terry'' and ''Eloy''&mdash;and under that name, Terry’s act would gain considerable fame in Europe and Australasia.
-[[File:Flying_Cavarettas_in_Windsor_(1977).jpg|Terry with Queen Elizabeth II (1977)|thumb|right|300px]]The composition of their act had changed. Judy McCardell, Terry’s elder sister and the only one who didn’t work in the circus, finally "ran away and joined." She had been working as a loan officer in a bank, and she began training with her sister during her lunch breaks. With Ron as their catcher, the Flying Terrels consisted now of Terry and Judy Cavaretta, with Eva Dunleavy taking the place of the third Cavaretta girl during Moe’s short absence. (Alicia Farfan would also fill that part.)
+[[File:Flying_Cavarettas_in_Windsor_(1977).jpg|Terry with Queen Elizabeth II (1977)|thumb|right|400px]]The composition of their act had changed. Judy McCardell, Terry’s elder sister and the only one who didn’t work in the circus, finally "ran away and joined." She had been working as a loan officer in a bank, and she began training with her sister during her lunch breaks. With Ron as their catcher, the Flying Terrels consisted now of Terry and Judy Cavaretta, with Eva Dunleavy taking the place of the third Cavaretta girl during Moe’s short absence. (Alicia Farfan would also fill that part.)
 During their Circus Circus breaks, the Flying Terrels began to get engagements in Europe. The first had been at Copenhagen’s Tivoli Gardens in the summer of 1973. In 1975, they participated in the [[Billy Smart’s Circus|''Billy Smart’s Christmas Spectacular'']], a popular Christmas television show presented by the BBC, and filmed under the giant big top of Billy Smart’s Circus. They also appeared in one of Joe Cates’s American TV circus shows for NBC, shot at Paris’s legendary [[Cirque d’Hiver]].

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 ===Apprenticeship===
-[[File:Terry_Cavaretta_on_trapeze.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Young Terry (c.1960)]]In 1956, when Terry was three years old, the family left Buffalo for the balmier climate of St. Petersburg in Florida&mdash;a city close to Sarasota, where [[Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey]] had kept their winter quarters for thirty years, and in and around which a great number of circus performers had consequently established their home. In St. Petersburg, Kandy, Moe, and Molli joined a circus program run by Faye Moses (who was to marry [[Hugo Zacchini]]). Faye had trained in a circus program that existed then at Florida State University in Tallahassee, and she created her own kid program, which she ran over the years in various recreation centers in the area.
+[[File:Terry_Cavaretta_on_trapeze.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Young Terry (c.1960)]]In 1956, when Terry was three years old, the family left Buffalo for the balmier climate of St. Petersburg in Florida&mdash;a city close to Sarasota, where [[Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey]] had kept their winter quarters for thirty years, and in and around which a great number of circus performers had consequently established their home. In St. Petersburg, Kandy, Moe, and Molli joined a circus program run by Faye Moses (who was to marry [[Hugo Zacchini]]). Faye had trained in a circus program that existed then at Florida State University in Tallahassee, and she created her own kid program, which she ran over the years in various recreation centers in the area.
 Terry began training with Faye in 1958, at age five. (She dropped her actual first name, Darlene, after she had grown tired of being called "Darling" at school, and opted for Terry, the diminutive of her second name, Teresa.) She worked in every circus discipline, on the ground and in the air, including tumbling and high wire. Bob Fisher, formerly of the Flying Fishers, took care of rigging for Faye, and flying trapeze was therefore on the menu: Kandy and Terry began to fly under Faye Moses's guidance on the rig Fisher had installed. (Moe and Molli were also trained in a large range of specialties, but they didn’t fly.)

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 ===Enter The Flying Cavarettas===
-The following year, in 1962, Terry created a double trapeze act with brother Jimmy. But her experience with Fay Alexander had hooked her up on flying, and the following year, she went to work with the [[Flying Zacchinis]] on dates, and again with the Al Dobritch show. Al Dobritch suggested then that the Cavaretta kids do their own flying act; they had the skills and the personality, and a teenager flying act with girl flyers only couldn’t fail to attract attention&mdash;and it did: The Cavarettas were soon booked for a couple of dates, even though they had no rigging, no costumes and… no act.
+The following year, in 1962, Terry created a double trapeze act with brother Jimmy. But her experience with Fay Alexander had hooked her up on flying, and the following year, she went to work on dates with the [[Flying Zacchinis]], and again with the Al Dobritch show. Al Dobritch suggested then that the Cavaretta kids do their own flying act; they had the skills and the personality, and a teenager flying act with only girl flyers couldn’t fail to attract attention&mdash;and it did: The Cavarettas were soon booked for a couple of dates, even though they had no rigging, no costumes and… no act.
 [[File:Flying_Cavarettas.jpg|thumb|right|400px|The teenage Cavarettas (c.1966)]]They managed to build their flying act in two-and-a-half months, practicing daily first at the Zacchinis’ compound in Tampa (where Jimmy, who had never caught a flying trapeze act before, had begun his aerial training), and then on the [[The Flying Gaonas|Gaonas]]’ rig in Venice, Florida; although they practiced on two different rigs at the same time, they progressed quickly. Terry’s mother did the costumes, the Gaonas sold them an old rig, and the act debuted on March 6, 1966 in Toledo, Ohio. It was composed of Kandy, Moe, Molli, and Terry, with Jimmy being the catcher. They didn’t do truly "big" tricks (although Kandy did a somersault-and-a-half caught by the legs, and Terry by now caught a double in the hands of Jimmy), but they were teenagers with an all-girl flying cast, and that indeed was enough to make their act unique.

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 Terry Cavaretta-St. Jules was the greatest female flyer of her generation, and arguably one of the greatest female flyers of all time. A diminutive, eye-catching woman with a girlish charm and a luminous smile, she was for twenty-three years a headliner in Las Vegas, the star of a flying act in which she performed the repertoire of the best male flyers of her generation, including a consistent triple somersault.
-She was born Darlene Teresa Anne Cavaretta on March 6, 1953 in Buffalo, New York. Her father, Vince, was a cement mason turned drive-in restaurant entrepreneur, whose parents had emigrated from Sicily. Her mother, Anne, was a homemaker. She and Vince had six children: Judy, born in 1945; Candace (Kandy), born in 1946; Jimmy, born in 1949; the twins Maureen (Moe) and Marlene (Molli), born in 1951; and Darlene (Terry), the youngest.
+She was born Darlene Teresa Anne Cavaretta on March 6, 1953 in Buffalo, New York. Her father, Vince, was a cement mason turned drive-in restaurant entrepreneur, whose parents had emigrated from Sicily. Her mother, Anne, was a homemaker. Anne and Vince had six children: Judy, born in 1945; Candace (Kandy), born in 1946; Jimmy, born in 1949; the twins Maureen (Moe) and Marlene (Molli), born in 1951; and Darlene (Terry), the youngest.
 ===Apprenticeship===

← Older revision		Revision as of 23:39, 21 January 2020
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−	[[File:Flying_Cavarettas_Portrait.jpg\|The Flying Cavarettas\|right\|~~thumb\|250px~~]]	+	[[File:Flying_Cavarettas_Portrait.jpg\|The Flying Cavarettas\|right\|400px]]
	==Aerialist==		==Aerialist==

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 File:Terry_Cavaretta's_triple_(1975).jpg|Terry's triple (1977)
 File:Flying_Cavarettas_in_Windsor_(1977).jpg|The Flying Terrels in Windsor (1977)
-File:The_Flying_Cavarettas_(c.1980).jpg|The Cavarettas (c.1980)
+File:Cavarettas.jpg|The Cavarettas (c.1980)
 File:Cavarettas_in_Monte-Carlo.jpg|The Cavarettas in Monte Carlo (1984)
 File:Flying_Trapeze_Greats.jpeg|Terry Cavaretta in a group of flying trapeze legends (2010)

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 File:Flying_Cavarettas_Portrait.jpg|The Flying Cavarettas
 File:The_Flying_Cavarettas_(c1977).jpg|The Cavarettas (c.1970)
 File:Terry_Cavaretta_(c.1970).jpg|Terry Cavaretta (c.1970)
 File:Terry_Cavaretta_Double_Layout.jpg|Terry's double layout at Circus Circus

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 * Video: [[Kandy_Cavaretta_Video_(1967)|Kandy Cavaretta, solo trapeze act]], on ABC TV's ''Hollywood Palace'' (1967)
 * Video: [[Flying_Terrels_Video_(1976)|The Flying Terrels, flying act]], at the Circus World Championships in London (1976)
 ==Image Gallery==