American Prince by Tony Curtis

Author:Tony Curtis
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780307449467
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2008-10-13T21:00:00+00:00

Before we began filming Trapeze, I spent two months in Paris training with a fine company of acrobats attached to the Cirque d’Hiver. I had learned how to tumble before, but their routines were a lot more elaborate than anything I’d ever done. I also got some training from Burt, who had worked as a circus acrobat when he was a young boy, and from Fay Alexander, my stunt double. I was the flyer, and Burt was the catcher. I learned to swing on the trapeze and time my release so that my momentum would carry me to the point where Burt was on his trapeze, his arms extended to catch me. I also learned to throw my feet out when I swung to help my momentum carry my body across the space it had to travel.

The professional acrobats also showed me how to land on the net, thirty feet below. It was called a safety net, but you could still get hurt on it if you weren’t careful. I’d hang from the trapeze, and Burt would yell, “Now!” Then I’d let go of the trapeze and lie flat, fall straight down onto the net and bounce. Fay taught me not to change the direction of my body as I was falling, not to look over my shoulder, not to do anything—just let go and wait.

There was only one serious injury during the making of Trapeze. We had some circus lions on the set, and everybody was nervous about them—with good reason, as it turned out. The girl who stunt-doubled for Gina Lollobrigida was in the pit with the lions when they started fighting with each other. She stood stock-still and waited for them to calm down. She wasn’t attacked, but a little later on, when one of the custodians went into their den to feed them, one of the cats attacked him, bit him, and dragged him around. He didn’t die. He was ripped up pretty badly, but he recovered. By the end of Trapeze I was a skilled flyer.

Alone in a strange land, I did what I could to keep myself busy when I wasn’t making the movie. I’d always had a deep love of art, so while I was in Paris I looked up all the places where Modigliani had lived. Modigliani was loaded with talent, but he drank a lot, did lots of drugs, and came to a sad end. I went to his studio and stood at the spot where his mistress had jumped out of a four-story window the day after he died. I wasn’t depressed enough to follow her example, but I was lonely enough to relate to how she’d felt.

Dean Martin happened to be in town while I was there, so I went to see him, and we palled around a little. He was in town to make The Young Lions with Marlon Brando and Monty Cliff. Dean was staying in the hotel right next to the George Cinq. Another day I spent some time with Billy Wilder and his wife, Audrey.

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