#ben dova

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contorcionista, ben dova

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Ben Dova: The Vaudevillian Who Survived The Hindenburg

March 14 was the birthday of Joseph Anthony Spah (1905-86), professionally known as “Ben Dova”. Spah was 17 when he immigrated to the U.S. from his native Alsace-Lorraine in 1922. A circus performer since childhood, he became a comic acrobat on the American vaudeville circuits. In his act he played a drunken swell who would teeter dangerously around the stage, constantly on the verge of falling,…

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Was reading about old sideshow acts and stumbled across this video, and found that contortionist and acrobat Ben Dova survived the Hindenburg accident- from wikipedia:

"When passenger Joseph Späh [de], a vaudeville comic acrobat, billed as Ben Dova, saw the first sign of trouble he smashed the window with his movie camera with which he had been filming the landing (the film survived the disaster). As the ship neared the ground he lowered himself out the window and hung onto the window ledge, letting go when the ship was perhaps 20 feet (6.1 m) above the ground. His acrobat's instincts kicked in, and Späh kept his feet under him and attempted to do a safety roll when he landed. He injured his ankle nonetheless, and was dazedly crawling away when a member of the ground crew came up, slung the diminutive Späh under one arm, and ran him clear of the fire."

oh my gosh

Footage from his camera can be found here:

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Photoplay, November 1939

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Ben Dova - 1930