The Stratosphere Girl Butlins Blackpool Circus Stunt Woman Hand Signed Photo

PFAS212  This is a superb opportunity to secure this original 5.5" x 3.5" antique 1930s hand signed photo for Lotte White known as "The Stratosphere Girl" who performed at Butlins, Blackpool and around Europe in the 1930s in a show deemed one of the most amazing of its time, who has personally autographed the souvenir where her signature rests perfectly accompanying her portrait and whilst a little surface and lightly aged (mildly darkened to reverse) this is very good (and mostly otherwise great) condition (vg grading). The signing was obtained at Blackpool in 1938 (written on reverse).(Please note due to a scanning issue the clarity and sharpness has been lost in this photo due to its antique pixellation - Please be assured the souvenir is a much sharper and much higher quality than shown).

She appeared in the old Butlins Pleasure Park from 1937 until war broke out in 1939. Her real name was Lotte Witte. She was born in 1918 in Stettin, Germany (today Szczecin, in Poland), the daughter of a plumber. An artistically minded and very attractive young girl, she was 16 when she joined Camilio Mayers high-wire circus troupe in 1934.Fearless and talented, she soon became the troupes star attraction, and Lotte became known as Camilla Mayer.

Her act consisted of performing extraordinary stunts perched on a two-inch wide platform on top of a steel pole anything up to 175-feet high, which she did in the popular seaside resort of Atlantic City, in the United States in 1936. Lotte made the headlines with this act as her daring feat was heralded as a world record at the time.

On this platform she would stand on her head, hands or one toe. She brought her act to its climax by sliding along a rope from the pole to the centre of the park holding on by just her teeth. She would then challenge all the boys in the audience to do what she had done. None ever did.

In 1937, at Butlins, her trainer discovered on two occasions just before her performance that the wire ropes supporting her mast had been cut.  It was thought this attempted sabotage was due to her being German and the following year an anonymous letter threatening her was said to have been received by the Butlins manager. A special corps of men were ordered to guard her mast and its supports against sabotage attempts.

Sadly, Camilla lost her life on January 20, 1940, when her sway pole broke during a performance at the Deutschlande Halle in Berlin. The crowded audience were watching her acrobatic feats, performed at the top of a 60ft steel tubular mast, when the mast snapped without warning. She was one of the greatest circus legends of her time.