COLLEANO, CON, Australian tightwire wizard (USA, )

CON COLLEANO (born Cornelius Sullivan) was one of Australia’s greatest contributions to the annals of international circus. Born at Lismore NSW of an Irish father and an Aboriginal mother from Narrabri in 1899, he patiently developed his unique act on the tightwire in the family circus - known as Colleano’s All-Star Circus - as it travelled the eastern states of Australia in the early 1900s. It took Con several years of arduous practice to bring off his most fabulous trick, the forward somersault, and then several more years to refine that most difficult feat for public exhibition. Con’s sister, ’Little’ Winnie, specialised in a solo trapeze act, while their eight Colleano siblings developed a combined acrobatic act. The family circus closed up in 1922 and the Colleano family worked the Australian vaudeville circuits before heading off to the more lucrative world of European and American show business. In London, an admiring journalist dubbed Con ’The Wizard of the