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Barrie Sloan 1931 - 2007

Barrie Sloan was born on November 29, 1931 in England United Kingdom, and died at age 75 years old on March 19, 2007 in Sarasota, Sarasota County, Florida United States. Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Barrie Sloan.

Barrie Sloan

November 29, 1931

England, United Kingdom

March 19, 2007

Sarasota, Sarasota County, Florida, United States

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Barrie Sloan Barrie Sloan (1931 - 2007)

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Barrie Sloan's History: 1931 - 2007

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Introduction

BARRIE SLOAN – STILT WALKER SARASOTA -- Long before most boys are planning their careers, Barrie Sloan decided to follow in his father’s footsteps -- towering as much as 22 feet off the ground. Sloan was only 14 when he began performing professionally on stilts with his father, who for many years held the record for walking on the world’s tallest stilts. The elder Sloan strutted on 22-foot-long stilts -- nearly as tall as telephone poles -- in circuses throughout the United States and Europe beginning in the late 1920s. Later, the younger Sloan and his acrobat-turned-stilt walker wife moved to the United States and toured with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus and the Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros. Circus. “It was in his genes,” said retired circus performer Sue Lenz of Venice, Sloan’s second cousin. “His father was a stilt walker. His uncle was a stilt walker. His two aunts were stilt walkers.” Barrie Sloan also rode a 7-foot-tall bicycle on stilts and appeared in 1962 on “What’s My Line?” Diagnosed with stomach cancer last summer, he died in Sarasota on March 19 at age 75. Despite a nasty fall that left him with a broken hip and another with a broken knee, Barrie Sloan spent nearly 50 years rising above the crowds in circus arenas throughout North America and Europe. After falling on his stilts and breaking his hip at age 34, “they told him he wouldn’t walk again for a year, and he was up doing the stilts again in nine months,” said his wife, Shelagh. She said her husband, who continued to perform on stilts of various heights until the age of 65, never worried about the risks. “You don’t think about things like that,” she said. “It was our livelihood. If you don’t work, you don’t get paid.” He relished the occasional gasps from the audience and took pride in “doing something special that other people couldn’t do,” she said. The feat required tremendous leg strength. Each stilt weighed 16 pounds. Sloan was born Nov. 29, 1931, in England into a family with a long tradition of performing. His grandmother was a member of the Hanneford family, which had been performing equestrian acts in Europe for many generations, Shelagh Sloan said. Barrie Sloan’s grandfather also was an equestrian performer. Sloan’s father, Harry, who toured with the Ringling circus in 1929, began a stilt walking tradition carried on by his son and grandson. Barrie Sloan and his son, King, began walking on mini-stilts less than 2 feet tall before their second birthdays. King Sloan performed with his parents for a few years after high school before taking a job outside of show business. The family’s given name is Yelding, but Barrie Sloan’s father chose the stage name Sloan to distinguish his act from other relatives performing under the family name, Shelagh Sloan said. He took the name from an advertisement on the back of a matchbook for Sloan’s linament, a pain relief balm. A jovial but strong-minded person with exacting standards, Barrie Sloan considered his years with Ringling Bros. and the European-based Circus Knie among the highlights of his career. After retiring in 1996 at age 65, he designed and built papier-mache parade floats for the Cole Bros. Circus. In addition to his wife of 48 years, Sloan is survived by his son, King, of Sarasota; a sister, Phips Hakes of Sarasota; a brother, Poodles Sloan of San Francisco; and two granddaughters. A memorial service is planned for 2 to 6 p.m. Sunday at Showfolks of Sarasota, 5204 N. Lockwood Ridge Road, Sarasota. Memorial donations may be made to Showfolks of Sarasota, P.O. Box 1476, Sarasota, FL 34230; or TideWell Hospice and Palliative Care, 5955 Rand Blvd., Sarasota, FL 34238.
11/29

1931

Birthday

November 29, 1931

Birthdate

England United Kingdom

Birthplace

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Professional Career

BARRIE SLOAN – STILT WALKER SARASOTA -- Long before most boys are planning their careers, Barrie Sloan decided to follow in his father’s footsteps -- towering as much as 22 feet off the ground. Sloan was only 14 when he began performing professionally on stilts with his father, who for many years held the record for walking on the world’s tallest stilts. The elder Sloan strutted on 22-foot-long stilts -- nearly as tall as telephone poles -- in circuses throughout the United States and Europe beginning in the late 1920s. Later, the younger Sloan and his acrobat-turned-stilt walker wife moved to the United States and toured with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus and the Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros. Circus. “It was in his genes,” said retired circus performer Sue Lenz of Venice, Sloan’s second cousin. “His father was a stilt walker. His uncle was a stilt walker. His two aunts were stilt walkers.” Barrie Sloan also rode a 7-foot-tall bicycle on stilts and appeared in 1962 on “What’s My Line?” Diagnosed with stomach cancer last summer, he died in Sarasota on March 19 at age 75.
03/19

2007

Death

March 19, 2007

Death date

Unknown
Cause of death

Sarasota, Sarasota County, Florida United States
Death location

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Obituary

Barrie Sloan (Yelding), a member of the British circus dynasty of Yelding, died in a Florida hospice on Monday, March 19, aged 76. He had been suffering from cancer since last summer. Born on November 29, 1931, Sloan came from a long established circus family, the Yeldings. His grandparents were Henry Yelding and Kate Hanneford. Said Sloan: “The family was a very large one, and they were all equestrians. One time they all met in London and began to argue about who took what engagement. My father, Harry, reached into his pocket for matches to light his cigar. The match box had an advertisement for Sloan’s Liniment, and he said that from then on Sloan was his name”. Harry Sloan became the world’s champion height stiltwalker, and was later known as the “Liniment Man”, and had his own column under that title in the circus and fairground journal, The World’s Fair. His father Harry, uncle Jackie and one of their sisters first appeared in America in 1929 with the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus, having appeared with many of Britain’s leading shows. After working with Chipperfield’s and Billy Smart’s circuses on tour, and with Tom Arnold’s Harringay Circus at the Harringay Arena, London, Sloan himself followed in his father’s footsteps some 35 years later to join the Ringling Bros and Barnum and Bailey Circus in America, “The Greatest Show on Earth”. Sloan Jnr was a stilt walker too – “My first pair of stilts my father made before I could even walk” – and clown. After some time in America with Ringling, and a year back in Europe at the Swiss National Circus Knie, Sloan returned to the States to join the Clyde Beatty-Cole Brothers’ Circus. This was run by John Pugh, the son of ‘Digger’ Pugh, who had trained groups of girl aerialists for circuses worldwide, and Sloan’s wife, Shelagh, was one of the Pugh girls. Apart from walking on stilts and presenting their carnival head characters, Barrie and Shelagh annually staged and choreographed the Beatty-Cole show parades, retiring from the sawdust ring in 1996 when Barrie reached 65. But they continued to be closely associated with the Cole Brothers’ Circus management, with Sloan designing, making and painting the many circus wagons, floats and big head costumes seen in the show’s parades, and Shelagh becoming the purchasing agent for the company from their home in DeBary, close to the circus’ winter base in DeLand, Florida. Sloan is survived by his wife Shelagh, their son King, and his siblings Phipps and Peaches. Another sister, Joy, predeceased him. Don Stacey

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Barrie Sloan lived 2 years longer than the average family member when died at the age of 75.

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