Last week, reader Mike posted the following comment on my ‘About…’ page, which I thought would be worth pulling out into the light. Mike asked:

Is there anyone out there who remembers way back in 1955/6 a Troupe who appeared on the piece of land in front of the band stand opposite The central school. From memory they were called he Traber rens troupe. some of the children came to Central for a couple of weeks while they were doing local shows. They erected a big pole and a motor cycle climbed up the wire. They collected money in buckets. I remember hundreds of people being there, watching the shows.

Well, Mike, it seems you’r not alone. This rang a bell, and I had a good root through the blog. Godfrey ‘Oakparkrunner’ Hucker has mentioned this here, too. In the post ‘Keep on running’, he said:

On the subject of Holland Park, I remember a touring High wire act performing on Holland Park for a few days. I think this was about 1957 or 1958. The company was the Traber-Renz Troupe, and they set up a wire at an angle from ground level, to the top of a tall pole. A motor cycle was then driven up this wire, and various stunts performed whilst at a height, including a trapeze performance on a trapeze under slung from the motor cycle, can anyone else remember this?

Well, in a quick search, I found this from Pathe News. Click through for the video: their licensing restrictions are a bit mad and I can’t embed the video directly.

Pathe clip of the Traber Troupe at Salisbury Agricultural Show in 1960. Click on the image to visit the clip.

I also found this on the brilliant Pelsall History site. It seems they toured extensively locally. It also seems that the descendants of the original Traber-Renz Troupe are still in business – check out the site of the Johann Traber Family Show. Your German may need a little refresher, I think, with that one.

Any other contributions, memories or recollections please? You know the drill… BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com, or drop a comment on this post. Cheers.

From the wonderful Pelsall History site: ‘Super Photo of The Traber-Renz Troupe in 1955-56 who had a trapeze act on Victoria Road Common. One end was a 100 foot pole with a cable coming down to the ground attached to a army winch truck, they then drove a motorcycle up the cable with others balancing on the wheels etc. After the stunt they would come round with buckets collecting cash.’