Carnival Performer Critically Injured
A teenage girl performing a 'loop-the-loop' stunt in Tacoma suffered catastrophic injuries due to alleged equipment negligence.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Miss Ida Allsop, known on carnival bills as 'Fraviola,' was critically injured Wednesday night when the ball used for her 'loop-the-loop' act jumped its incline and crashed to the ground. The net meant to catch the apparatus functioned only as a buffer, failing to hold the device. Now at Fannie Paddock Hospital, she remains paralyzed from the neck down. Physicians indicate that the teen, who took the dangerous job to help support her mother, faces a grim recovery. The accident has been widely attributed to the management's failure to properly secure the equipment.
“The injury which caused the paralysis resulted from a blow on the back of the neck which she received when the ball struck the ground.”
This tragic story reflects the precarious life of early industrial-era performers who faced extreme hazards for low wages. The account emphasizes the lack of safety standards in traveling carnivals, a precursor to modern labor and workplace safety oversight.
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