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Submitted by Editor on 7/12/2007 Last Modified
All photos provided by ReJean and Terry St. Jules.All photo captions and comments by Circus4Youth Editor Jim Cole.
It all started in 1958 in St. Petersburg, Florida. The parks and recreation department sponsored a unique program for kids, taught by a lady named Faye Moses. It was a full fledged youth circus. My 11 year old sister, Kandy was learning trapeze at the park. She was getting a lot of attention and I got a little jealous, because I wanted to learn too. I was only five and scared half to death, but I did it.
1958 at Pinellas Park in St. Petersburg, FL5 year old Terry Cavaretta.
A lot of talent scouts would stop by to see us train. One man by the name of Fay Alexander recognized the potential in Kandy and I and asked us to join his act. So in 1961, with our parent’s permission, we went on the road with the Flying Alexanders. This was the beginning of our professional career.
The Flying Alexanders in 1961L-R, Paul McCausland, Kandy Cavaretta, Terry Cavaretta,Rose & Fay Alexander.
8 year old Terry Cavaretta performing a "heels off" with the Flying Alexanders.
After working a few years with different flying acts, it was decided that we would put together our own act with the rest of my siblings. Moe and Molli had been doing single-trap and web, and Jim did double-trap with me sometimes. They all had experience performing, just not with the flying act.
Terry & Jimmy Cavaretta also performed a classic doubletrapeze act in the early 1960's.
Al Dobritch (a well known circus producer) put it in my dad’s head that we could do it. “Why work for other acts, when we could do it on our own?” The contract was signed in Toledo, Ohio three months later. We had just 3 months to teach Moe & Molli how to fly and Jimmy how to catch. We also needed to make costumes and get a rigging. I was only 12 years old at the time and Moe and Molli were 14. Jimmy was 16 and Kandy was 18. We didn’t know it at the time, but a lot of performers were betting against us. Here we were, a bunch of kids not from the business, trying to put together a flying act in such a short time. It was unheard of. No one thought we could do it and we weren’t so sure ourselves.
We went to Gibsonton, Florida and began practicing. At 10 a.m. we would practice at the Zacchini’s compound in Tampa. After a couple of hours there, we would go home to eat and then leave for Venice around 4 p.m. to practice at the Gaona’s house at 5 p.m. We were practicing on 2 completely different riggings, as well as having to contend with sore muscles and blistered hands. My sister Molli, was afraid of heights making it even more difficult for her to learn. Moe dreaded the practices so much that she used to pray for rain everyday. I remember looking across at my brother sitting on the catch trap and thinking, “He’s just too small to catch us”. I was used to seeing bigger guys over there, but he did great. He never complained even though his legs were killing him. You could see that his legs were raw and bleeding. It was extremely difficult on all of us.
There were days we didn’t think it would be possible to get it all together in time, especially after a bad practice. Fortunately, a good practice after a bad one usually gave us enough incentive to keep going. I know one thing for sure; it brought us all closer together working towards the same goal. On the ground we may have had our normal sibling disagreements, but once we were up in the air all was forgotten. You had to because you depended on each other with your lives.
We practiced almost every day for three months. In our spare time we worked on our costumes with the help of our mom. Dad and Jimmy started getting the rigging together. We ended up buying the Gaona’s rigging, which we had been practicing on. The first time my dad and Jimmy put the rigging up, it fell down. That was really scary.
We did manage to put the act together in time for our first engagement date in Toledo. It was 1966 when we first performed our own act – “The Flying Cavarettas”. The performance consisted of Mollie performing a plange with a crab back, Moe doing a hox with a half-turn, Kandy did a one and a half somersault and I did a layout with an angel return. The finale was the passing leap. It wasn’t’ the hardest act, but we had something that was unique. We were the first all teenage flying trapeze act. We were also the only act where all of the flyers were girls. We choreographed all of our styles to music which added to the uniqueness of the act. Our mom designed and made our costumes. They weren’t the traditional capes, but costumes that looked like floor length evening gowns. They were white satin with boat-necked collars. We wore white gloves with the gowns. Jimmy wore a Prince Valiant type jacket, which suited him perfectly because of his long hair.
A favorite 1966 Publicity Photo. L-RMollie, Kandy, Jimmy, Moe and Terry Cavaretta.
The first show went really well considering how nervous we were. The only thing that we had trouble with was the entrance. Of course we had rehearsed the way we would walk into the ring. We even did it with our costumes on, but we never actually practiced taking our gloves off. So in the show, we started, very calmly, taking them off by pulling finger by finger. Then we each realized this was taking too long and nervously began looking at each other with panic in our eyes. We finally pulled them off with our teeth. Definitely not a good start! Later on a fellow performer showed us how to remove them quickly. Thank goodness!
The Flying Cavarettas premier performance, 1966, Toledo, OHAl Dobritch Circus.
Kandy was pretty much the leader in the act, as she called time and dropped bars. I was still very nervous and would worry a lot before each show. For the longest time, I missed having an adult on the pedestal board with us. I felt we were all too young to be up there by ourselves.
We continued to practice even though we were doing shows because we needed harder tricks in the act. One time we were all just sitting around when we dared each other to do certain tricks. Kandy said to me, I’ll try a phylifis, if you try a triple. Then Moe said, “I’ll try a double if you guys do that”. Mollie then said to Moe, “I’ll do a double too then.” The very next practice we were all terrified, but we each did our new tricks. Jimmy even did a double to the net.
Later on when we perfected our act it consisted of a double layout, a double cut-away half with a pirouette return and a triple by me. Moe did a double with an angel return and a seat roll, or a full. Kandy performed a one and a half and sometimes a phylifis. Molli did a plange or a split with a crab back. We then performed a three part passing leap in which Kandy would do a one and a half across. Then I would go over her with a shoot over, change to legs in my brother’s hands after which Moe would go over me with a shoot over, then return to the board together. Jimmy would then follow us to the board with a straight jump. We would take our finale bow before doing our dismounts.
The next big town we worked was St. Louis. It was one of Al Dobritch’s big Shrine dates. I’m sure he must have been a little nervous about bringing a brand new act to such a big date, but he never let on. We didn’t let him down. We only had problems with one show and that was with the passing leap. The first try, Kandy missed going over to Jimmy. We then tried it again she caught her part, but I missed coming back. The third try, we finally got it right. The audience which was probably around 5,000, went wild.
When we finished the act, we went back stage to our dressing rooms. Al Dobritch was waiting for us. He asked to speak to our mom and dad. Of course we all thought “this is it, we’re fired. He thinks we’re awful.” Instead, he told our parents how lucky we are and that we have gold in our hands. He also wanted us to keep the misses in the act. He couldn’t have been nicer.
In 1967, the Cavarettas were with the Polack Bros. Circus, and touredcoast to coast. In Oct. 1968, they attained "Teen Idol" staus whenthey were featured in "FAVE" magazine.
It was because of Al Dobritch that we were hired to perform at Circus Circus, Las Vegas in 1968. We made it our headquarters for 23 years, although several times a year we would accept invitations to perform in cities all around the world. It was during one of these engagements that I met my husband, Rejean St. Jules. He was performing his juggling act at the 1982 Montreal Festival. We were married in 1983.
The Flying Cavarettas in 1980.
Some of the highlights of the Flying Cavarettas career include a command performance for the Queen of England. That was really exciting, but very nerve-wracking. We won the Circus World Championships in 1977 and a silver clown in the Monte Carlo Festivale de Cirque in 1984.
Recieving flowers at the 1977 London Circus World Championships.
A 1977 Command performance for Queen Elizabeth on theoccasion of her Silver (25th) Jubillee.
A Triple Somersault at the Monte Carlo Circus Festivale in 1984.Terry completed her first triple to Jimmy when she was only 13 years old.She was the youngest flyer, boy or girl, to complete that trick.
Recieving the Silver Clown Award from movie actor Cary Grant at the 1984 Monte Carlo Circus Festivale.
I was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for about 10 years for being the first woman to consistently perform the triple somersault in a live show. We did tours of Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines. We also did television shows in Paris, England and Copenhagen.
A perfect double layout (L) by Terry, and a triple (R)at the 1975 Billy SmartsChristmas Circus in London England.
The under and over passing leap at Circus Circus in Las Vegas, NV,where the Flying Cavarettas spent 23 consecutive years. Terry is above, while Mollie is the lower flyer.
After twenty three years of performing at Circus Circus, we retired the flying act in 1991. Jimmy and I then revamped our double trapeze act from years before and performed it in the Follies Bergere at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas for an additional 4 years. The act was choreographed to the music “Lady in Red” making it very enjoyable to perform. It was a great way to end our career.
At the age of 47, I became pregnant and on June 24, 2001, Rejean and I became the proud parents of a baby boy. His name is Sebastian St. Jules. He just celebrated his sixth birthday and seems to want to follow in his parent’s footsteps and become an entertainer. When he was five, after watching his dad practice he picked up the juggling balls and started doing tricks. Now he is doing three balls on the piano and continues to practice. Rejean will be performing in Holland in December of this year. If Sebastian wants to, he may make his debut there. I think my husband will agree that he is our greatest accomplishment yet!
A 2007 Family Photo. Husband ReJean St. Jules, 6 year old Sebastian, and the still young looking Terry Cavaretta St. Jules. And right, we see Sebastianfollowing in his father's footsteps with his early juggling skills.
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