18 under the big top be summer 2009
from "Wizard of Oz" fame. Barstow was "relentless"
when it came to practicing.
"The most challenging thing was the rehearsals for
the show. Once the show was on the road it was all
downhill and a blast but the preparation for it was a
challenge," she said.
"Richard was a real challenge. He'd get all of us gals
out there and he whipped us into shape."
Although Barstow had worked with some of Hol-
lywood's most glamorous stars, Pendleton was a chal-
lenge for the masterful choreographer.
"He wanted me to do a cartwheel. I never could do
a cartwheel. I'd try and try again. With everything I had
done in aerial ballet, I just couldn't do a cartwheel."
The Amazing RayAls
Pendleton may have not mastered the cartwheel but
that didn't stop her from learning a new act. While on a
break from the circus, Pendleton and her then husband
Cuddy developed a motorcycle high wire act.
Cuddy would drive a motorcycle along a high wire
while Pendleton sat precariously on a steel trapeze,
dangling hundreds of feet above the floor, no net, no
soft landing. As the motorcycle roared overhead Pend-
leton acted as a balance to keep herself and her hus-
band safe.
The couple took the name the RayAls and performed
the act they learned from their friends Elvin Bale and
Cuttin while traveling with the Clyde Beatty Circus.
"It was dangerous. (Brenda) later died doing the
act," she said. "That was the hardest thing -- when
someone got hurt, and it happened often -- we had to
go out and perform. As the saying goes, `the show must
go on' and it did."
While the circus took every precaution to keep per-
formers safe, Pendleton had a close call while perform-
ing the motorcycle act.
"The brakes broke on the bike and I ended up going
to the hospital on that one," she said. "He couldn't stop
the backward momentum and it tilted the guide wires.
I scraped my arms really bad and I went into shock.
If anything happened to me he would go down too so
somehow I held on. They got him down and they got
me down and I went to the ER."
Pachyderm Perils and Monkey Madness
While danger was ever apparent performing the high
wire act, Pendleton's closest call came with one of the
circus elephants.
The perilous encounter with the pachyderm hap-
pened when Pendleton was traveling with the Carson
& Barnes Circus. They pulled into a town where it had
rained and when they parked they sank in a muddy lot.
"The car and trailer just sank," she recalled, "so Ray
went to get one of the elephants that was setting up the
tents (to help pull the car out of the mud)."
While Cuddy was talking with the elephant trainer
about getting the car unstuck, the elephant wandered
over to the vehicle where Pendleton was waiting.
"He just started walking toward me. And I'm yelling
at Ray," she said. "All of a sudden, the elephant turns
and sits right on the hood of the car. And we sank
even further."
Pendleton said she was in shock and
soon was calling for help.
"I was yelling and yelling," she said.
"I wasn't sure what he was gonna do. I
was scared to death."
Cuddy and the elephant trainer
ran to Pendleton's rescue but there
was no need. The elephant didn't
harm a hair on her head or even
Big Top --
Continued from 17
Jason Cuddy,
Alice Pendleton's son,
clowns around at his
parents' "office" the circus.
Cuddy was born in 1971
while his parents worked
with the circus and
traveled the country.
See BigTop page 19

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