July 31, 2007

Section: Local News

Grandma was a what? Gulp!

TIM BOTOS
REPOSITORY STAFF WRITER

All day long, cars buzz north and south along Interstate 77, casting a perpetual blanket of noise
on Edith Bauer's unassuming tombstone on the fringes of West Lawn Cemetery.

The stone simply reads: Edith Bauer, 1886-1942.

Her husband, Karl Bauer, is buried nearby: 1887-1962.

Close your eyes for just a moment though, and imagine, the droning sounds can be mistaken for
a more fitting muffled applause and roars of a crowd.

Edith's obituary in The Repository never hinted at her past. Merely that she was a wife who was
active in the women's Republican club. Her grandson, Karl Spinden, named after his grandpa, isn't
surprised. As a young boy, he helped work in his grandparents' grocery store on Fifth Street NE in
Canton.

Grandma Edith never spoke about the old days.

It's probably not that she was ashamed. After all, Karl Spinden, who's 81 years old and lives in
Massillon, remembers the visitors Grandma got whenever the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey
Circus came to Canton in the 1930s. Circus performers and sideshow acts roamed in and out of
Edith's home on Third Street NE.

"Oh my, all kinds of them," Spinden recalled.

By that time, Edith was retired from the business.

Still, all those circus people remained her friends.

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People in Canton knew her as Edith Bauer. Housewife and mom. Operator of a corner grocery
store that bore her name. The rest of the world, though, probably knew her better as Edith
Clifford (her maiden name), "Mademoiselle Clifford" (a stage name), or the star attraction of "The
Cliffords" (another stage name).

Edith Clifford swallowed swords for a living.

Unusual for a woman.

She swallowed large swords - with blades nearly 2 feet long. Once, she swallowed 24 at the same
time, setting a world record that stood until two years ago. Sometimes, she swallowed razor and
saw blades. And on occasion, she even swallowed a bayonet fired from a cannon.

"Edith Clifford was revolutionary for her time ... she set the standard," said Dan Meyer, a sword-
swallower himself, and also executive director of Sword Swallowers Association International. "She
was huge."

Meyer collects memorabilia for a hall of fame that appears on his Web site
www.swordswallow.com. One of his hobbies is learning about those who helped grow the craft. He
had some information on Edith:

She began performing in 1899 after studying under Delno Fritz. She performed for both Barnum
& Bailey and Gollmer's Circus. Her act found favor in the Royal Courts of Europe. She first married
Thomas Holmes, a sideshow performer better known as the "Elastic Stretch Man" because he was
born with only one layer of skin.

The key to sword-swallowing, experts agree, is first to overcome the human gag reflex. The
feeling that makes you want to expel whatever enters the throat. Edith and others apparently
were able to do that. One of her most famous moments came after illusionist and magician Harry
Houdini took a special interest in her.

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He wrote about her in his book "The Miracle Mongers, an Expose:"

"Several women have adopted the profession of sword-swallowing, and some have won much
more than a passing fame. Notable among these is Mlle. Edith Clifford, who is, perhaps, the most
generously endowed. Possessed of more than ordinary personal charms, a refined taste for
dressing both herself and her stage, and an unswerving devotion to her art, she has perfected an
act that has found favor even in the Royal Courts of Europe.

"Mlle. Clifford was born in London in 1884 and began swallowing the blades when only 15 years
of age. During the foreign tour of the Barnum & Bailey show she joined that Organization in
Vienna, 1901, and remained with it for five years, and now, after eighteen years of service, she
stands well up among the stars. She has swallowed a 26-inch blade, but the physicians advise her
not to indulge her appetite for such luxuries often, as it is quite dangerous. Blades of 18 or 20
inches give her no trouble whatever.

"In the spring of 1919, I visited the Ringling Bros., and the Barnum & Bailey Show especially to
witness Mlle. Clifford's act. In addition to swallowing the customary swords and sabers she
introduced such novelties as a specially constructed razor, with a blade five or six times the usual
length, a pair of scissors of unusual size, a saw which is 2 1/2 inches wide at the broadest point,
with ugly looking teeth, although somewhat rounded at the points, and several other items quite
unknown to the bill-of-fare of ordinary mortals. A set of ten thin blades slip easily down her throat
and are removed one at a time.

"The sensation of her act is reached when the point of a bayonet, 23 1/2 inches long, fastened
to the breech of a cannon, is placed in her mouth and the piece discharged; the recoil driving the
bayonet suddenly down her throat. The gun is loaded with a 10-gauge cannon shell.

"Mlle. Clifford's handsomely arranged stage occupied the place of honor in the section devoted
to freaks and specialties."

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Meyer said Sword swallowing originated thousands of years ago in India. It then spread to China,
Greece, Rome and Europe, and was seen at festivals in ancient Rome. In the Middle Ages, sword
swallowers, like magicians, jugglers and other entertainers, were often condemned and persecuted
by the Catholic church, he wrote on his Web site.

Sword swallowing began to die out in Europe in the late 1800s, and in Sweden in 1893 when
variety shows were outlawed, Meyer said. Edith was among those who gave it a new life around
the turn of the century.

Houdini likely was off by two years on her birth date.

Stark County Probate Court records, which include a marriage license and wills for Edith and
some family members, indicate she was born in London in 1886 and died in Canton in 1942 of a
cancerous right ovary.

Edith had two children, one named Edith and the other named Margaret, by her first husband,
Thomas Holmes, the Elastic Stretch Man. After he died, she married Karl Bauer, of Canton, in
1912.
 Bauer was a circus trapeze artist, but apparently served as Edith's assistant when the couple
married. They performed as "The Cliffords." Together, they traveled the world. Edith's two
daughters grew up with an aunt in Pawtucket, R.I. It wasn't until Edith retired from performing at
the age of 36 in 1922 that she moved to Canton for good with her husband - they brought her
daughters home to live with them.

Her grandson, Karl Spinden, from Massillon, doesn't remember his grandma ever talking about her
past in show business. He never saw her swallow a sword. He knew her mostly as a typical nice and
sweet grandma.

To this day, Spinden keeps one of her swords in a closet at his home. It was a gift from his
grandpa. In his wallet, he keeps a tattered and yellowed newspaper clipping he cut out years ago.
"I said 'Oh my God, that's my grandma,' " he recalled. It features a sketch of Edith, her mouth
open and standing beneath a cannon that's ready to fire:

It reads: Ripley's Believe it or Not! Edith Clifford, an English circus performer, swallowed a 23-inch
bayonet that was fired from a cannon.

Reach Repository staff writer Tim Botos at (330) 580-8333 or e-mail: tim.botos@cantonrep.com
Copyright 2007, The Repository, All Rights Reserved.