Alfredo Codona

Who was Alfredo Codona?

Alfredo Codona was an Italian American trapeze artist related to the "Flying Codona's" and whose family led to the creation of Codonas Amusement Park in Aberdeen in 1969.

Codona was born in Sonora, Mexico to a circus trapeze family that became famous in the Ringling Brothers Circus. His father owned the circus and his mother, Hortense Buislay, was from a great family of trapeze performers. He began appearing in the circus at 7½ months when his father, a flyer, balanced him on his hand for the opening act. By 1913 Edward had formed a family act that included Alfredo, his brother Abelardo, and his sister Victoria.

Alfredo married his first wife, Clara Curtin in 1917 after she left her husband. They were divorced in 1927. In 1928 Codona married aerialist Lillian Leitzel, who died in 1931, aged 39, in Copenhagen, Denmark when one of her hand rings snapped and she fell to a concrete floor. Both were temptuous, star performers whose personalities were well matched. Alfredo was famed for his triple somersault, which he regularly incorporated in his act.

Codona later married a member of their trapeze act, Vera Bruce, in 1932.