#hanlon-lees

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Metaphor for my awkwardness.

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An Acrobat's Bizarre Death; Thomas Hanlon's Doom Began In Cincinnati

It remains among the most bizarre suicides in history. Thomas Hanlon's dramatic life did not end in Cincinnati, but the seeds of his destruction sprouted here.

Thomas Hanlon was the eldest of the Hanlon Brothers, the premier acrobatic troupe of the 1800s. All of the Hanlon Brothers were born in Manchester, England. They were, in fact, brothers. Five - Thomas, George, William, Alfred and Edward - were biological siblings. The sixth and youngest, Frederick, had been adopted by the Hanlon's parents.

Beginning in the 1840s, while still children, the brothers took the stage in a variety of gymnastic acts. The 1859 invention by Jules Leotard of the trapeze launched the Hanlon Brothers into new heights. It was the Hanlons who introduced the trapeze to America, performing over the heads of packed theater audiences without a net. (Leotard also gave his name to the costume.)

On their American tours, the brothers traveled in two companies, with George, William, and Alfred usually as one act and Thomas, Edward, and Frederick as the other. Each troupe was augmented by (sources differ) a couple of young boys or midgets. As fate would have it, both troupes ended up in Cincinnati in March 1868.

From 9 March  through 21 March, George, William and Alfred, billed as "Hanlons Grand Trans-Atlantic Combination," headlined Wood's Theater on the southeast corner of Sixth and Vine streets. This venue was a fairly new, very stylish theater.

The second troupe, billed as the "European Star Combination," with Thomas, Edward and Frederick, appeared on 16 March for a run through 28 March at the old National Theater on Sycamore between Third and Fourth streets. The Thomas-led troupe was in a bad way. Thomas himself had suffered a nasty fall a few years earlier and had suffered fits of  erratic behavior ever since. A week before the Cincinnati show, Edward had dislocated his wrist in a fall in Louisville. Thomas and Frederick scrambled to modify the act. Cincinnati's National Theater was a dowdy old wreck by 1868, and not in the best neighborhood.

After struggling through their Cincinnati engagement, the Thomas, Edward, Frederick troupe decamped for Indianapolis. Thomas appeared in one show, but announced the next morning that he was leaving for New York. He took the troupe's three apprentices with him.

A few days later, Edward received an alarming telegram from the mayor of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Thomas was in custody after drunkenly attacking the apprentices at the river bank and attempting to kill the young boys (or midgets) and drown himself. On entering the county jail, Thomas demanded a knife, but was refused. He was placed in a cell and, on receiving his dinner on a pewter plate, broke it and attempted to slice his throat. The broken platter was removed, at which point he attempted to hang himself by draping his bed linens from some hooks attached to the ceiling. He was moved to another cell, in which he attacked his cellmate, and finally to a third cell lined with wood and containing no furniture. However, according to the Cincinnati Times:

"On the floor were iron heating pipes, with a large brass nut projecting at a jointure. When left alone in his cell he attempted to commit suicide by a method which none but a gymnast would think. He sprang into the air about five feet, and turning, came down with his head upon the brass projection. He repeated this terrible feat several times, and, when assistance arrived, the floor was covered with blood. Six strong men were unable to hold him."

His strength ebbing from blood loss, Thomas Hanlon succumbed to an application of chloroform, but still fought as he was strapped onto a bench, frothing at the mouth. The damage was fatal and he died, aged 32, on 5 April 1868.

The reunited Hanlon Brothers withdrew from all performances for several weeks, but resumed touring that summer as a single troupe. According to William [as quoted in Mark Cosdon's The Hanlon Brothers: From Daredevil Acrobatics to Spectacle Pantomime, 1833-1931]:

"This dreadful event . . . brought about a change in the direction of our work. Our parents especially pushed us to this - particularly our mother who had just barely survived the death of our oldest brother."

Unfortunately, the direction did not change enough. The Cincinnati Enquirer of 15 July 1891 reported the death of William Hanlon, caused by a fall in Clinton, Iowa. Although the Hanlons had invented the safety net after Edward's Louisville fall, William missed the net in Iowa.

The Hanlons, in one form or another, performed into the 1930s, and made a film for Thomas Edison called "Fantasma" in 1914.