Con Colleano
| Con Colleano | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Cornelius Sullivan 26 December 1899 Lismore, New South Wales |
| Died | 13 November 1973 (aged 73) Miami, Florida |
| Other names | Cornelius Sullivan |
| Occupation | Tightrope walker |
| Spouse(s) | Winifred (Winnie) Trevail |
Con Colleano (26 December 1899 – 13 November 1973) was an indigenous Australian tightrope walker. He 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 known as "The Wizard of the Wire" or "The Toreador of the Wire".
He was born Cornelius Sullivan in Lismore, New South Wales, the son of an Irish man and a woman of indigenous descent whose father was of African heritage from St Thomas in the West Indies. Colleano was the third of 10 children. His father (reportedly a freed convict) made a precarious living from sideshow "take-on-all-comers" 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 the now "Colleano's All-Star Circus" (with more of Con's siblings) 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).
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Wikipedia