John Ciampa
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John Ciampa (1922–1970) was an
Italian-American Italian Americans () are Americans who have full or partial Italians, Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeastern United States, Northeast and industrial Midwestern United States, Midwestern ...
acrobatic Acrobatics () is the performance of human feats of balance, agility, and motor coordination. Acrobatic skills are used in performing arts, sporting events, and martial arts. Extensive use of acrobatic skills are most often performed in acro ...
stuntman A stunt performer, often called a stuntman or stuntwoman and occasionally stuntperson or stunt-person, is a trained professional who performs daring acts, often as a career. Stunt performers usually appear in films or on television, as opposed ...
and
entertainer An entertainer is someone who provides entertainment in various different forms. Types of entertainers

* Acrobat * Actor * Archimime * Barker (occupation), Barker * Beatboxer * Benshi * Bouffon * Cheerleader * Circus arts, Circus perform ...
known by the
stage names A stage name or professional name is a pseudonym used by performers, authors, and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. The equivalent concept among writers is called a ''nom de plume'' (pen name). Some performers ...
of the Human Fly, the Flying Phantom and the Brooklyn
Tarzan Tarzan (John Clayton, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, a feral child raised in the African jungle by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization, only to reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer. Creat ...
. As a child, Ciampa had been fascinated by the acrobatic agility of film stars such as
Errol Flynn Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn (20 June 1909 – 14 October 1959) was an Australian and American actor who achieved worldwide fame during the Golden Age of Hollywood. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles, frequent partnerships with Oliv ...
and Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and by the character of
Tarzan of the Apes ''Tarzan of the Apes'' is a 1912 novel by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs, and the first in the Tarzan series. The story was first printed in the pulp magazine '' The All-Story'' in October 1912 before being released as a novel in June 191 ...
as portrayed by
Elmo Lincoln Elmo Lincoln (born Otto Elmo Linkenhelt; February 6, 1889June 27, 1952) was an American stage and film actor whose career in motion pictures spanned the silent and sound eras. He performed in over 100 screen productions between 1913 and 1952, a ...
and later
Johnny Weissmuller Johnny Weissmuller ( ; born Johann Peter Weißmüller, ; June 2, 1904 – January 20, 1984) was a Hungarian-born German American Olympic swimmer, water polo player and actor. He was known for having one of the best competitive-swimming records o ...
. Inspired by his screen heroes, Ciampa began to climb trees and buildings in his
Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
neighborhood at a young age, persisting with the activity into his teenage years and early adulthood.


Career in the entertainment business

By 1942 Ciampa's unusual hobby had gained him some local notoriety. Coincident with the release of the feature film
Tarzan's New York Adventure ''Tarzan's New York Adventure'' (also known as ''Tarzan Against the World'') is a 1942 American adventure film from Metro Goldwyn Mayer, produced by Frederick Stephani, directed by Richard Thorpe, that stars Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O'S ...
, Ciampa was featured in a
Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...
newsreel exhibiting some of his feats of acrobatic
buildering Buildering (also known as edificeering, urban climbing, structuring, skywalking, boulding, or stegophily) describes the act of climbing on the outside of buildings and other artificial structures. If done without ropes or protection far off the ...
and freestyle tree climbing. A
bricklayer A bricklayer, which is related to but different from a mason, is a craftsperson and tradesperson who lays bricks to construct brickwork. The terms also refer to personnel who use blocks to construct blockwork walls and other forms of maso ...
by profession, Ciampa also worked in the entertainment business throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s, starring in Larry Sunbrock's
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and Thrill
Circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicy ...
in
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and then traveling with the circus to various U.S. and Canadian cities. Notably, his act did not include the typical, tightly choreographed feats of circus
acrobatics Acrobatics () is the performance of human feats of balance (ability), balance, agility, and motor coordination. Acrobatic skills are used in performing arts, sports, sporting events, and martial arts. Extensive use of acrobatic skills are most ...
such as
trapeze A trapeze is a short horizontal bar hung by ropes, metal straps, or chains, from a ceiling support. It is an aerial apparatus commonly found in circus performances. Trapeze acts may be static, spinning (rigged from a single point), swinging or ...
swinging or
trampolining Trampolining or trampoline gymnastics is a competitive Olympic Games, Olympic sport in which athletes perform acrobatics while bouncing on a trampoline. In competition, these can include simple jumps in the straight, pike, tuck, or straddle posit ...
, but rather improvised climbing and leaping stunts making use of
scaffolding Scaffolding, also called scaffold or staging, is a temporary structure used to support a work crew and materials to aid in the construction, maintenance and repair of buildings, bridges and all other human-made structures. Scaffolds are widely u ...
and circus
rigging Rigging comprises the system of ropes, cables and chains, which support and control a sailing ship or sail boat's masts and sails. ''Standing rigging'' is the fixed rigging that supports masts including shrouds and stays. ''Running rigg ...
. Spectators were frequently alarmed by the apparently
ad lib In music and other performing arts, the phrase (; or 'as you desire'), often shortened to "ad lib" (as an adjective or adverb) or "ad-lib" (as a verb or noun), refers to various forms of improvisation. The roughly synonymous phrase ('in acc ...
bed and obviously dangerous nature of his performances. In 1947 Ciampa was arrested for having scaled the exterior of the Astor Hotel as a publicity stunt for the Sunbrock Circus, concerning onlookers who feared that he might have been attempting suicide. In 1950 Ciampa performed in the Olsen and Johnson comedy show "Pardon Our French", in which he startled theater audiences by leaping between Box (theatre), boxes and running along balcony railings high above the stage, occasionally while costumed as a gorilla and billed as "Ciampa, the Swinging Ape". When the show toured to Boston, Ciampa's antics ran foul of local safety ordinances and he was required to reduce the height at which he performed his stunts.


Appearance in ''Gizmo!'' documentary

The 1977 documentary film ''Gizmo!'' included footage from the Paramount newsreel of John Ciampa's climbing and jumping stunts, but did not credit Ciampa and ran the footage together with unrelated film of the also uncredited German stuntman Arnim Dahl, causing some confusion as to their identities. In the ''Gizmo!'' sequence, Ciampa is first seen eating a spaghetti dinner with his family before running outside, acrobatically climbing a tree, leaping between buildings, running up a wall, quickly scaling a tall drainpipe, climbing a narrow alleyway by pressing his hands and feet against opposite walls and then repeating the latter feat with a young boy riding on his back, before waving to the camera from a rooftop. Arnim Dahl is then seen jumping on board a tram, and Dahl is featured for the remainder of the sequence.


References

*''The Milwaukee Journal'', June 5, 1947: "Sandwich Man's 'Human Fly' Stunt Puts Him in Bad" *''Billboard Magazine'', June 14, 1947 *''The Montreal Gazette'', July 25, 1947 *''New York Theatre Critics' Reviews'', Volume 18, 1950 *''Billboard Magazine'', September 16, 1950 *''The Milwaukee Journal'', November 5, 1950: "The Flying Phantom - Our old friend, the Human Fly, comes back with some new tricks" *''Theatre World Magazine'', Volume 7, 1951


External links


John Ciampa featured between 0:00 and 0:55 in an excerpt from the 1977 documentary "Gizmo!"

Paramount newsreel footage, 1942
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ciampa, John 1922 births 1970 deaths American entertainers 20th-century circus performers Urban climbers American bricklayers American people of Italian descent