In January 2017, Steve Rawlings challenged me to find a video of the unicycle act, The Volantes, who he said were the first to do the 'volunteers helping you get up on the unicycle bit'. After a lot of searching on the internet and following a few false leads due to spelling errors, I finally tracked them down. One of the duo was Don Thompson, who unfortunately was suffering mental health issues and lived in a care home and has since died and the other was Scott Beldin who I discovered on Facebook. Scott quickly replied to my message and said that he didn't know if they were the first or not but said that they worked it into the act whenever possible. Scott told me how pleased he was to have been 'rediscovered' and thanked me for reaching out to him. Like many others, he was able to reconnect with old friends and gain new fans, even though he'd been retired for a number of years. In June 2022, I had a notification that today was Scott's 83rd birthday but as I went to wish him a great day, I sadly discovered that he died last month on 5th May. I feel honoured to have been a very small part of his life and I hope he's riding his unicycle forever. I couldn't find any videos of The Volantes in my search but as soon as I'd made that first contact with Scott, he gleefully shared these two videos with me. The Volantes performing in 1966 on the TV show, Truth or Consequences with host Bob Barker. Make sure you watch them in order.
Part one:
https://youtu.be/5uGaEbIifj8
https://youtu.be/5uGaEbIifj8
Part two:
https://youtu.be/mc7mH2c0SOI
Here's another video of The Volantes that was filmed two years earlier in 1964 on the Ed Sullivan Show. I shared this with Scott when it was released three months ago and I know it brought back some amazing memories for him:
https://youtu.be/aIAg0a9kCLw
https://youtu.be/mc7mH2c0SOI
Here's another video of The Volantes that was filmed two years earlier in 1964 on the Ed Sullivan Show. I shared this with Scott when it was released three months ago and I know it brought back some amazing memories for him:
https://youtu.be/aIAg0a9kCLw
