My Mom Micky...in memory for Mothers Day and Birthday

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hen mom was a young girl around the late 20's early 30's she always dreamed of show business or fame of sorts, running away to join the circus in Dresden Germany when she was just a teenager.

The circus she started out with was the famed Sarrasani's, and while there she met a visiting R.B.B.B circus manager named Antoinette Concello from the "Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus."

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ntoinette thought mom would be a great aerialist so brought her back to Sarasota Florida and trained her in the trapeze act...Antoinette herself was from the famed Consello aerial act.

I believe they trained dozens of people for the Trapeze from all over the world at the winter quarters in Sarasota.

Traveling all over the United States, they performed in many capitol cities. One time mom told me she was at the Madison Square Garden, New York, and everyone was running outside of the building to watch the dirigible LZ 129 Hindenburg from Germany coming in for a landing in New Jersey, which turned out to be a terrible disaster. Mom saw the blimp only moments before it burst into flames.

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his promotional postcard shows a scene from the movie and it says: (translated) Micky >>Dance in the Air<< a double as Lilian Leitzel in the Codona Film.

Mom was named Micky for her Ariel act by Antoinette who also had a sister named Mickey with an "e" and she also was an aerialist, so I have a feeling the names might be associated.

I'm not clear why mom left the US., but it was shortly before the war in Germany broke out, returning there with her trapeze act that she had perfected. While in Berlin a movie producer saw her act and included her in a 1940 German movie called "die drei Codonas" (the three Codonas) where she did all the aerial stunts as Lillian Leitzel...after that movie she was coined the "The double Lillian Leitzel" and all the posters of her reflected that in writing.

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ow fast forward...my sister and I had come to America 1950 and lived in San Francisco.

Every Friday night mom took us to the movies, this is how we learned English, however this particular evening we went to a theater in the Mission district which was on the other side of town. When we arrived at the theater we saw the lobby card and knew it was a black and white German movie about an aerialist.

Mom did not mention to us that she was in it, until we noticed a few scenes that we had photographs of and magazine stories on. I said, mom is that you? she shushed us and said yes...wow we were excited to have been able to see this movie.

The movie was called "die drei Codonas" (pronounced...dee dry Codonas... meaning...the three Codonas) of course I never saw the movie again.

For many years I looked for the movie but never found it...UNTIL I got a computer around 1999! I then searched for it on the internet, and that was like a needle in the hay stack, but guess what! I found it in Indianapolis, Indiana, at an online German movie store "German Language Video Center©" and it happen to be the very last one, and now it's "Discontinued" and "Out of print"... what luck!

Mom riding the Elephant Modoc

Mom rode horses, first learning on a small Pinto named Patty and then her beloved chestnut Trotter named Margret, who tragically perished in circus tent fire.

Riding an Elephant was also an exciting duty, especially the famed Modoc. Mom told me the story about a time when she was nervous and Modoc felt it, so when he picked her up with his trunk he held her too tight, breaking three ribs in the fear he was going to drop her.

Now this brings me to another interesting story...it's about a picture of mom in an old Encyclopedia. I was in grammar school and just finished a test, after turning in my paper I was allowed to look at books. While in the C section of the encyclopedia I came across the Circus section, and there in front of me a photo of my mom sitting on the Elephant Modoc. I knew it was her because we had pictures with the same costume of Butterfly wings and sitting on Modoc, just a different pose. I could hardly wait to go home and tell mom.

Of course again, I looked for the encyclopedia book "C" to have for my own. In those days buying an encyclopedia was very expensive..it was like buying a computer, then our "knowledge base."

I had not forgotten about the book but just kind of gave up looking, except if I went into a second hand store. Then Mom passed in 1975, about two weeks after her death one of my daughters was with me while driving by a Salvation Army store. As I past the store a voice inside me told me to go back to the store, so I did but not really knowing why...walking through the entrance of the store I immediately saw in my head a book, I went to the book section and looked for the red and blue encyclopedia, but saw only dark blue ones. I picked up the C section book and it fell open to the page of mom, my daughter said, Omi! I was in tears with joy and bought the whole set since that's the only way they sold it. Now I had my encyclopedia book "C" with moms photo in it.

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nother story to go with this...in 1995 my daughter (the same one that was with me when I found the book) was coming over for Mother's Day.

Prior to that, I was asked by a friend who was involved in a Sanctuary for elephants, to watch a TV program showing the cruelty towards Elephants, and how to rescue them. Reluctantly I watched (I can not bare to watch animal cruelty) while sitting on the floor crying and watching this program...a head popped around the door, it was my daughter! Seeing what I was watching she said, I guess this is not the right time to give you this gift...she then handed me a bag, in it was an Antique frame with a picture of mom and Modoc (the same image I found earlier) she had the image professionally matted and framed.

For me it was a joy in my heart to receive this gift, especially how all this happened...from the first time finding the book, and again my daughter finding it.

Every year since 1975 for moms Birthday April 30th and Mother's Day, I place a small bouquet of flowers from my yard next her picture, and now in particular to this picture.

Mom riding her horses

Some of the performers and mom's friends, the X is her.

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f any of you have read some of my other lenses you would know my dad was a Baron, and one of his hobbies was photography while owning studios in Berlin and Dresden. My mother had some promos done and that's how they met, most of the images in postcards and ads are from my dad's work. The image here was her identifiable image used on many posters in Europe.

They started dating, marrying her a year later, and of course we were born, all this during the war...What were they thinking!

Mom told me she had to perform the trapeze act for Hitler, that had to have been scary, also the fact she did not use a net making her act was death defying...she said she even performed while pregnant with my twin sister and me. Maybe this is why I have a fear of heights!

Poster version of the photograph

more posters

I
was surprised with an email from Germany informing me this person had photos of my mom's family and this business card belonging to my mom (notice Mickey misspelled). Can you imagine all this through Squidoo? The person turned out to be a relative to my mom's side of the family, a second cousin.

Now I have a floodgate of information sent to me on my mom's maiden name Fredersdorff including never seen photos. To top it, I now have a distant cousin in Berlin.

Yeah, Squidoo!

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bove are some of Moms collection of Theater photos of her.

My mom adored our girls, calling them Pumpkins...these photos are some of my favorites...especially the one were she is walking hand in hand with our first born. Mom came over that day and asked if she could take her to Europe with her and we would not allow it...a big regret, but I doubt our daughter would have remembered that time, she was so young.

The girls called her Omi (German for grandma) of course at my mothers insistence, since she felt she was too young to be a grandmother and calling her Omi people would not know, I thought that was funny since she was in her 50's already.

Me, Mom and Sis

Here we were celebrating our 29th Birthday, and I also told my mom that I was three months pregnant with our second child...she says, "How is that possible!" You had to have known her out spoken ways, she said what she felt...this question was because of the Vietnam War, she felt we should not have a child because of the war...maybe a flashback for her, none the less the statement she made, made me laugh.

She was leaving for Switzerland to live there for awhile. I was sad cause she was not going to be here when I had my second child. Personally I think this is why she made that statement about my pregnancy.

I had a hard time thinking about not seeing her or talking with her...phone calls were very costly to Europe at that time, besides that I had separation anxiety and cried a lot when she was gone, which was a residual from the war time in Germany.

I'm so proud of our daughters, they are beautiful human beings with kind hearts and accomplished young ladies...they are a gift from God and I am so grateful for them, and of course for my loving husband.

I hope mom sees all of our accomplishments...how we wished that we could have shared this with her.

Copyright and All Rights Reserved, including the stories, writings and Photographs by Delia Pacheco.