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Broadwick - 9

Broadwick: Yes, that's the way those things worked out. That's why I had so many parachute drops to my credit. The parachutes were of various colors -- red, white, and blue as a rule. I usually dropped with the red, then the white, then... red, white and blue, anyway, and always we'd wind up with the flag hanging on the bottom of the trapeze, the one I rode. That was always an interesting point -- to see a flag flying down from the trapeze, and me sitting on the trapeze beside it.

It's hard for me to remember -- I haven't been over this in 40 years.

Q: Did you ever have any tricks to make it appear to the crowd more exciting, hoke it up?

Broadwick: Well, I did a couple of back jumps on the parachute, but I never did anything spectacular. I did a few little stunts on the trapeze, but nothing that most anyone couldn't have done.

Q: You had night performances with fireworks, too?

Broadwick: Yes, that's right. I didn't go in too much for those, but I worked with them occasionally. Because I refused to wear tights, and there was always so much danger in catching my clothes afire. I always stuck to the little dresses. 

When you leave the balloon, you have to ignite your flares, and then in the drop, there's the danger of setting your parachute and your clothes on fire, with flares on each side of you. They hang out about that far from the parachute, about two feet on each side. You keep coming down and there's always that danger of fire before the parachute gets open. I was very fortunate. I didn't have any mishaps like that, thank God.