The Death-Defying Leap at Madrona Park
A daredevil aerialist and a monkey perform a high-altitude parachute jump over Lake Washington, drawing a massive, cheering crowd.
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 Hazel Keyes, an aerialist, announced her intent to leap from a balloon at Madrona Park yesterday afternoon. Shortly after 4:00 PM, after the balloon was inflated with heated air, Miss Keyes took her position twenty feet to the rear of the craft. With a command, the men holding the ropes released their hold, and the balloon shot upward, whisking the aerialist into the sky. Trailing beneath her was a smaller parachute carrying her mascot, a monkey named Jennie Yan-Yan. As the pair reached an altitude that looked like a tiny speck to the crowd, the small parachute separated and drifted down gracefully to the water. Miss Keyes followed, striking the lake surface and being rescued by waiting boats to the cheers of thousands. The great canvas balloon, relieved of its weight, later collapsed and fell into the lake.
“Up and up it went till to the multitude below it looked a child's toy balloon with a tiny pendant hanging below.”
Madrona Park remains a beloved public gathering spot on Lake Washington. While we no longer watch daredevil balloonists plummet into the lake for entertainment, the spirit of civic leisure and public spectacle at the water's edge continues to define the park's identity.
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