Throwing the Triple

well we
FLOAT thru the air, wit the
GREATEST of ease, we’re the
FLYING PAGES, we
ALWAYS please…..
HIGH in the sky, up a-
BOVE the ground, we’re
HOTTEST -- FLYIN’ --
ACT a - ROUND
　
The above lyrics are all I can remember from my first and only attempt at writing a Rap Song, and a goofy reminder of the nine months I spent with the Gatti Circus in 1988.

It was a medium-sized circus, certainly no Ringling Brothers. But it provided solid, predictable employment as a keyboardist at a time when I really needed it. It also provided a ton of interesting travel and interesting people, for instance the Flying Pages -- the sons of poor Cuban circus performers who immigrated here in the 50s.

Jorge Pages (“Pages” apparently both a singular and plural word) was the oldest of three brothers comprising this trapeze act. He was the “catcher” -- it seems that baseball and trapeze acts are the only institutions in which someone has the title of “catcher”. Jorge, thickly built, with large arms, hung from one trapeze and caught whatever human being was flying toward him, and then tossed the person back to the trapeze on the other side.

Felix was the middle brother, a bit of a renegade with a "street tough" image, and clearly the most athletic. In order to sell itself to a circus, a trapeze act had to have a least one person who could perform the triple somersault. Felix was able to do this about 95% of the time, plus quite a few other marvelous trapeze tricks.

Youngest brother Willy, only 18 years old, was thicker in build and less wiry and agile than Felix. “Throwing the Triple” did not come so easy to him, yet he spent much of the 1988 circus season trying to do it, often in front of thousands of people.

I remember it well. The ringmaster would announce “William will now attempt the famous Triple Somersault.” Then the drum roll, and the hushed crowd. Then up goes Willy, then down goes Willy into the net.

In 30 or so attempts, Willy managed the Triple Somersault just once, with a heroic assist from catcher Jorge, who seemed to be holding Willy by his fingernails. There was much congratulations and brotherly hugging all around, but over time it became clear that Willy would never be able to throw the triple with any consistency. By contrast, brother Felix would soon be working on “throwing quad“, the latest new achievement in trapeze, something once thought of as impossible.

As the season progressed and people got to know each other, I had the audacity to try and write the “Flying Pages Rap”. The Pages traveled with cousins and in-laws who eked out a living selling cotton candy and circus souvenirs, and the circus “neighborhood” always had a Pages group of mobile homes and trailers, from which emanated all manner of rap music any time of day.

I knew little about rap in general, and even less about Cuban culture, but I went right ahead putting words in the mouths of these 3 brothers, with a little 4-track recorder that I was carrying during the entire 9-month contract.

One day in Oregon, as I sat in my pop-up tent-trailer with a rough draft of the rap on tape, I noticed Willy nearby and called him in to check it out. He smiled as he stood there with the headphones on, and it appeared that I had hit a home run.

A little later Jorge appeared, at Willy’s recommendation. Quite a different reaction. A small frown appeared on his face after a brief listen. In addition to the general “chorus” rap mentioned above, I’d written 3 individual solo raps, one for each  brother. Jorge didn’t seem to appreciate the “Jorge” rap.

He said “you’re spreading it on really thick, Steve” and that’s about all he said. I didn’t offer to play it for Felix, and he never asked to hear it. I suspected that he’d heard an unfavorable review from Jorge.

The rap was forgotten, and the circus season ended, as did my career as a circus keyboardist. One year of circus was plenty for this lifetime.

The Pages went back to Sarasota, Florida for their 3-month off-season. I heard they did at least one more season for Gatti, during which Willy met a lovely young aerial athlete and quickly married her.

Only recently, spacing out as I so frequently do during my rides to Long Island and back, did the historical curiosity called the “Flying Pages Rap” pop back into my head. Maybe the individual solo raps left something to be desired, but that chorus still seemed catchy to me.

So I hit the Internet to find out what became of the Flying Pages. I found an extensive article on the subject, written in 2007, 19 years after I worked with them.

Jorge, the older brother who failed to recognize my genius as a rap writer, had retired from trapeze performance in 1992. By then he’d learned enough about the Big Top to run his own little indoor circus, called Circus Pages.

The article does not say what became of Felix Pages, the brash and highly talented middle brother.  Considering his marvelous abilities, it seemed odd that the article had nothing to say about him, except that he also retired in 1992.

Willy re-invented himself as a catcher, with older brother Jorge as the perfect tutor. Instead of retiring in 1992, he had many years to go as the leader and mentor of…..

…..The Flying Pages. His son Anthony, with the perfect pedigree, was part of the act by the time he was 6 years old. At the age of 13 he threw his first Triple, and has been doing it with “the greatest of ease” ever since. He is clearly the centerpiece of the Pages present-day lineup.

Over the years, Willy and his wife have seen to it that the name Flying Pages is synonymous with quality trapeze artistry. Now both around 40 years old, they’ll now phase themselves out of the actual flying, as they recruit younger talent to support a “name” that is gathering increasing fame and industry respect with each generation.

Truly a family success story, truly a circus success story, and of course truly an American success story.  A story of hard work and strong family ties. I’m glad to have met them at that particular juncture of their lives. Perhaps now I’ll re-record the rap, tweak it here and there, write a new verse for Anthony, and….nah, just kidding.