Ildebrando ZacchiniDied 17 Jul 1948 (born 1868).Spanish inventor who devised the human cannonball act in 1922, in his Olympic Circus, assisted by two of his sons, Hugo and Mario. He left Europe with Hugo to feature in the U.S. with the Ringling Brothers-Barnum and Bailey Circus (1929) at Madison Square Garden, New York City. His seven sons grew up as performers. Although it is said the idea was inspired by trench mortars used in WW I, there may have been a German showman precede the Zacchinis. Hugo was the star of the act, shot headfirst from the barrel of a monster cannon to travel in a projectile curve into a safety net. No explosive was used for the launch; the power came from compressed air under a piston platform. By the time he died, Ilbrando had more than 30 members of his family living and training in Tampa, Florida, and two or three cannonball teams performing in the Western Hemisphere.« |
