In the throes of the Great Depression, all kinds of odd stunts were put on to help take Americans’ minds off the misery affecting just about everyone.
“Into this land, already beset with marathon dancers, flag pole sitters and jig-saw puzzle fiends comes a new type of personage – the flag pole dancer,” reported the Sun newspaper on Feb. 23, 1933.
The night before, a pair of high-altitude aerialists – Betty and Bennie Fox – ascended a 50-foot pole atop the Fox Theater in San Bernardino. On a 30-inch-wide platform without any railing, the pair began a snappy jig to launch their 48-hour nonstop dance exhibition.
“Well, that’s one way of getting over the Depression,” observed Sun writer Robert Walton.
For two days, the pair – they claimed to be brother and sister – danced together, enduring a lack of sleep and wintery wind and cold, with only a diet of milk and bread. At the conclusion of the dance marathon, they climbed down and twice appeared before Fox audiences answering questions and describing their experience.
“Sure, we like it up here. It’s just like home,” Bennie Fox yelled to a reporter while wiggling the pole during their aerial stunt. “But a lot of homes are that way anyway now.”
The only bit of rest for the pair came when one of them bent over and the other laid on the other’s back. “But imagine doing that on a 30-inch platform at an altitude where birds are birds and a fall means a grease spot on the sidewalk,” marveled Walton. (The writer sounds like someone who only attends auto races to see the crashes.)
Their appearance was part of a barnstorming tour that went on for years involving Bennie Fox, who called himself a “human fly” and also did stunts climbing the sides of buildings. Some articles indicated that “Betty” was originally Bennie’s wife, though at times she was replaced by at least two other women.
The act later helped sell war bonds during World War II, and the aerialists also put on shows for patients during a tour of more than 100 military hospitals in Europe. Bennie and a partner continued the stunts, though for shorter times on smaller platforms, until the 1970s.
In the 1933 event in San Bernardino, there was lots of promotion during the Betty and Bennie dance experience. An ad in the Sun for the Towne-Allison Drug Co. on Feb. 24 advertised Cara Nome Cosmetics which were “used by Betty Fox to protect her skin from the weather.”
And the pair admitted the wind and a threat of rain made things a little more difficult.
“Let’er rain,” shouted Bennie to a reporter’s question. “Betty would like it, I know. A little rain might freshen her up a bit for her stage appearance.”
At the end of the 48-hour ordeal, the pair descended from their perch, with Betty briefly collapsing atop the theater roof. A few minutes later, they received the applause of the theater crowd as they appeared on the Fox stage.
“Hot baths and a new finger wave for Betty and the two returned to the theater at 9 o’clock to tell the second show audience how they felt,” wrote the Sun on Feb. 25.
Betty conceded “a lot of people think we are crazy.” She offered a story of a man who sat on a curb during their performance in Sacramento and watched them for 7½ hours.
“He went to the police and told them we were crazy dancing up there for 48 hours,” ‘I know they are crazy. I sat and watched them 7½ hours.’
“‘You sat on the curbing and watched them 7½ hours, and you call them crazy?’ asked the officer. That ended that.”
Palomares Adobe tours
The Historical Society of Pomona Valley on Sunday, Oct. 22, will host tours of the Palomares Adobe, 491 E. Arrow Highway, Pomona. Tours begin between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. Tickets, which are $5, must be purchased in advance at https://www.pomonahistorical.org.
Halloween cemetery tours
The Historical Society of Pomona Valley has also scheduled its annual Halloween nighttime tours of the historic Spadra Cemetery, 2850 Pomona Blvd., Pomona.
The popular history tours of the cemetery are between 7 p.m. and midnight on Friday, Oct. 27, and Saturday Oct. 28, as well as on Halloween, Tuesday, Oct. 31. Flashlights and sturdy walking shoes are recommended.
The cemetery tours are not designed to be scary, unless you bring a hyper-active imagination with you. Tickets are $20 and must be purchased in advance at https://www.pomonahistorical.org.
Reaching a milestone
I was shocked Thursday to realize that it was the 25th anniversary of the first local history column I have composed here. The series of columns started Oct. 12, 1998, in the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin. They now also appear in The Sun, The Press-Enterprise and the Redlands Daily Facts.
Nothing in my working newspaper career, and now in retirement, has been more satisfying and fun than producing this column over the years.
I remain indebted to a lot of local people with great interests in local history who so often have helped me in telling the stories of our past: Patricia Edwards, Kelly Zackmann and Terry Carter of the Ontario Library, Allan Lagumby, Susan Hutchinson and Bruce Guter of the Pomona Library; Sue Payne at the Feldheym Library in San Bernardino; Ruth McCormick of the Riverside Library; Gena Sizoo of the Upland Library; Mickey and Jim Gallivan of the Historical Society of the Pomona Valley; Jennifer Dickerson of the San Bernardino County Museum; the late Phyllis Outhier of the Chino Historical Society; Marilyn Anderson of the Cooper Museum in Upland; and Paul McClure of the San Dimas Historical Society.
And I would certainly be remiss if I didn’t also express my appreciation to you readers who have not only read these words over the last quarter century but also offered many suggestions and, yes, even words of criticism. My sincere appreciation!
Joe Blackstock writes on Inland Empire history. He can be reached at [email protected] or Twitter @JoeBlackstock. Check out some of our columns of the past at Inland Empire Stories on Facebook at www.facebook.com/IEHistory.
