Kirby’s Flying Ballet



This is the apparatus that famously caused Mary Martin to fly as Peter Pan.

Wikipedia page for Peter Foy.





     Posted By: Paul - Thu Feb 18, 2021
     Category: Technology | Theater and Stage | Special Effects | 1950s | 1960s





Comments
Rod Stewart couldn't get the wire, apparently:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d-BGmHVFa0
Posted by Virtual in Carnate on 02/18/21 at 01:37 PM
I remember watching the 1960 TV version and being amazed at how they could do this.

But I could never understand why they chose a woman to play a boy.
Posted by Judy on 02/18/21 at 02:10 PM
@Judy: You'd be shocked by English panto. Peter Pan is always played by a young woman. (And Widow Twanky is, equally compulsarily, played by a post-middle-aged male actor in drag.)

Come to mention it... you'd be shocked by Mozart's Marriage de Figaro! In fact, breeches roles are common all over opera. As, though these days not as commonly, are skirt roles. And all the better for it!
Posted by Richard Bos on 02/20/21 at 02:24 PM
I had never heard of English panto. Looked it up; very interesting!
Posted by Judy on 02/21/21 at 04:31 PM
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