Berta Beeson

"[1] According to several anecdotes, he learned to dance upon the wire by imitating the routine of a young girl in the circus.

Upon her sudden injury, he stepped in to take her place; in one version, the young woman for whom he inadvertently understudied became his wife.

[2] As a teenage grocery clerk in Summitville, Indiana, Beeson moonlighted at the local vaudeville house.

[2] In 1917, the Sells Floto Circus billed him as "Mademoiselle Beeson, Marvelous High Wire Venus."

[4] He retired from performance in 1936, but later reemerged as an advance man, traveling ahead of the show to make necessary arrangements.