One of the circus's most well-know animal trainers was Clyde (Raymond) Beatty. Beatty was born on June 10, 1903, in Bainbridge, Ohio. Beatty left home at the age of 18 to be a circus cage attendant and within a year he had owned his own animal act. From 1925 through 1934 he toured with the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus. From there he went to Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. He then moved on to the Cole Bros. Circus from 1935 through 1938. In 1945, Beatty bought a circus and later merged with the Cole Bros. in 1958.

As an American trainer of wild animals, he was best known for his "fighting act," designed to show his courage and mastery of the ferocious wild cats under his control. One of his most daring acts in circus history was when he mixed 40 lions and tigers of both sexes in the same cage. He was also known to use dangerous combinations of tigers, lions, leopards, pumas, hyenas, and bears. Clyde Beatty died at the age of 62, on July 19, 1965, in Ventura, California.

Another very famous animal trainer was the sensational German, Gunther Gebel-Williams. He thrilled the modern day audiences of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus for many years. His son follows in his footsteps today.

Karl Wallenda was born in Magdeburg, Germany, in 1905. He was born into a circus-performing family that went back as far as 1780. In the late 1800s, for the next two generations, they became known for their expertise in the flying trapeze.

They debuted in America in 1928, as performers in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus at Madison Square Garden, in New York City. They performed without a net, which had been misplaced in shipping. Once they were finished with their act, they received a standing ovation that lasted 15 minutes. This unprecedented applause stopped the circus from continuing and has never been repeated since then.

The Great Wallendas were headliners for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus from much of the 1920s to 1944, when they barely escaped a tragic fire, which occurred as their act began. The circus was playing to a 9000-member audience in Hartford, Connecticut, when the fire broke out.

In 1947, Karl began to build his own circus. It was in the winter of that year, in their Sarasota, Florida home, that Karl created the seven-person pyramid. They performed this trick from 1948 through 1962. On January 30, 1962, during a performance at the State Fair Coliseum in Detroit, the front man on the wire faltered and the pyramid collapsed. Three men fell to the ground as the rest hung on until a net could be placed underneath them. Two of men died, and the third, Karl's son Mario, survived. Mario was paralyzed from the waist down. They repeated this feat only two more times; once in 1963 to prove life goes on and disaster doesn't have to end in defeat, and again in 1977, recreated by Karl's grandchildren for the movie "The Great Wallendas."

Karl Wallenda died in March, 1978, doing what he loved most. During a promotional walk in San Juan, Puerto, at the age of 73, Karl Wallenda fell to his death because of several misconnected guy ropes along the wire. It was the most tragic site I had ever witnessed. I was present during this promotion, watching the great Karl Wallenda begin what seemed like a simple walk between two hotels. Through all the falls and death defying feats this man performed throughout his entire life and career, it was as if it was destined that this was his time to say goodbye.