MOVE TO THE DENVER CENTRAL YMCA

Because it was so well established and so popular after fifteen years at the University it seems unlikely that the circus and the equipment could have moved from the campus without the approval of Mabel Rilling and Granny Johnson. It was not a gradual move because of attrition but a proactive decision to go to another space, accomplished in a few months. It is most likely that the date of the move was 1931 because after 1930, there are no brochures in the Penrose Library archives documenting the circus at the University. And this was the time at which the Denver YMCA began to have circuses of its own with many of the same personnel. The background of a photograph on page six shows that the net that was used by the circus group at the University was the same net used by the circus group at the YMCA. At the YMCA it became the two trapeze apron nets. There are a number of explanations for why the circus group might have moved from the University to the Denver Central YMCA that are both practical and aesthetic. Any one or all of them might explain the move. The first is that in 1931 the United States was in the depths of the great depression. This was a time during which one out of every five Americans was unemployed, and also a time when women didn’t work outside the home, which makes the percentage even more significant. These were very hard times. Some might have been able to continue to be college students, but many could not and dropped out. No doubt there were people who wanted to continue circus involvement who were not associated with the University and couldn’t be students. But for a seven-cent token they could take a Denver Tramway Co. electric streetcar to the YMCA. When so many people were without money, there must also have been fewer people buying memberships and showing up at the YMCA as well. The Denver Central YMCA was really two different functions serving two different populations. One was an inexpensive hostel for visitors to the city who were willing to share a sleeping room with others in exchange for a minimum cost. The other function was athletic and provided a gymnasium, handball courts, a swimming pool and the like for both children and adults.

In order to bolster attention, attendance and memberships in his part of the facility, the manager of the YMCA gymnasium, Walter “Hack” Hackenson, made an arrangement with Granville Johnson to install the single trapeze, double trapeze, revolving ladder, and flying trapeze in the Central YMCA gymnasium. This could not have been done at that time without Hackenson’s approval and encouragement. Perhaps they both saw it as a win-win situation. Some of the hardware that the current Denver Imperial Flyers have dates to that installation. Finally, it must have been appealing to the flyers at the University to see that if they moved from one facility to the other they could put a bigger rig in the larger space and fly higher and perform more difficult tricks. Whatever the explanation, it was the beginning of a long and productive relationship between the YMCA and the flyers. “Hack” Hackenson continued to be in charge of the gymnasium including its circus equipment into the 1960s. Those who remember him from that time also remember that he was happy to have the flyers around because it made the Denver Central YMCA the only YMCA in the world with its own trapeze. He was extremely generous in giving memberships to teenagers to keep them off the streets and into a more wholesome environment. He typically gave a “senior flyer” the keys to the gymnasium so that that person could lock up the facility when the flyers were done working out. That person was designated a YMCA “lay leader” and received a free membership. This meant the flyers could stay as late as they wished and it was not unusual for them to stay until midnight. They “suited up” (males in one room and females in another) in a “trophy room” on the north side of the gymnasium balcony. They were trusted to supervise themselves.

Click HERE to view the 1962 circus playbill

For the YMCA they put on over thirty circus shows, the proceeds of which were donated to support under-funded YMCAs around the world. When the 16th Street Mall was finished and opened, the YMCA was asked by the City of Denver if they could participate in some way in the celebration because their building was at one end of the mall. The YMCA volunteered the Imperial Flyers to put on an all-day-long exhibition on May 7, 1981. The gymnasium door was left open so that visitors to the mall could wander in and watch the flyers. Talk about sore hands.