Outrage and a political scandal followed Gladys Van Tassel’s balloon ascent and parachute jump at Townsville on a Sunday. The implications are explained in this entertaining journal article Lady Parachutists and the End of Civilisation in Queensland by Bill Metcalf and the saga consumed a large amount of ink in newspapers and letters to various officials.
The Van Tassel sisters, Gladys and Valerie, had teamed up with Park Van Tassel and his assistant (James Price) and in February 1890, Valerie became the first woman in Australia to make a balloon ascent. Before this, the sisters performed a trapeze act at the Haymarket Music Hall in George Street, Sydney using another stage name, the Freitas Sisters. The earliest newspaper report of the girls is in the Sydney Morning Herald, 2 July 1885: The charming young American Lady-trapeze Artists, the sisters Gladys and Valerie Fraties, will make their first appearance in these colonies.
In March 1890, Gladys created a sensation in Melbourne when an estimated crowd of 10,000 people turned out to watch her parachute jump. The Melbourne Punch published these sketches of the event which shows the process of inflating the balloon.
The Van Tassels spent six months touring Australia. The poster below advertises an ascent in Adelaide (note the extra zero added to the size of the crowd in Melbourne).
In May 1892, The Australian Town and Country Journal featured the photograph (above right) of Gladys Van Tassel. The article claimed Gladys Van Tassel had died from injuries received in a parachute descent in India, but this was a case of mistaken identity.
Below are photographs of some of the men involved in the scandalous Townsville ascent, which features in Chapter 12 of The Only Living Lady Parachutist.
Catherine Clarke 