Editor's note: St. Armands Circle’s Circus Ring of Fame, a landmark honoring circus legends, has taken a hit from recent hurricanes, forcing a pause in its tradition. Organizers recently announced that the 2025 Circus Ring of Fame Awards event will be postponed until 2026 to address extensive damage caused by saltwater intrusion.

In the world of the circus, few names carry as much cred as Elvin Bale's. Bale's gravity-bending, death-defying trapeze acts made him an icon of heart-stopping performances and earned him the title of "World's Greatest Daredevil."

Now, Bale's contributions to circus arts will be honored by the Circus Ring of Fame, which has announced his induction into its class of 2025.

Bale has headlined some of the most famous circuses in the world, including Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey. His feats earned him international acclaim, and he performed for multiple presidents and world leaders like Pope John Paul II. With his induction into the Circus Ring of Fame, Bale now joins the ranks of other circus legends who've been immortalized for their achievements.

Bale, who now lives in Myakka, was born in London but moved to the U.S. at age 6 when his father, a renowned ringmaster for Ringling Bros. Circus, relocated the family to Sarasota in 1953. Bale was immersed in circus life from an early age.  "My parents were in the circus, and I had three beautiful sisters in it too," he says.

Bale's early days were spent training horses with his father and feeding tigers, but eventually Bale’s passion for the trapeze took over.

“My father trained the horses and I was a groom. We’d do bike tricks together as a family," he recalls. 'But I didn't want to do that all my life because I was like his assistant. I’d feed the tigers and worked as a clown and was a web sitter [a person on the ground who holds or controls the web for aerialists]."

Bale’s big break came when he perfected the heel-catching trapeze act, a trick in which an acrobat dives forward or backward and catches the trapeze bar with their heels. It cemented his status as a star and earned him a spot on the Johnny Carson Show. By 1969, Bale was headlining the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. "It's dangerous and you gotta be a little bit crazy to do it," he says.

“I used to practice after dark with my sister’s spare trapeze. I was just a teen, but I wanted to be in the circus ever since I could remember—in a way that wasn’t just caring for the animals," Bale says. "I figured the trapeze is something I could do by myself. You don't have to rely on anyone. I could put [the equipment] in my car and be gone. And I didn't have to feed it."

As Bale’s career progressed, so did the scale of his stunts. He pioneered the "Wheel of Death" act, in which he mounted an 8-foot steel mesh wheel on the end of a 38-foot steel arm suspended from the ceiling, and the "Human Rocket," which launched him into the air at 55 miles per hour. He likens the experience to the gravitational forces astronauts endure in space. 

“All the astronauts came down from West Palm Beach and came to see it," Bale says of his Human Rocket stunt. "Al Worden told me I was taking 15 Gs from the Earth when I shot out that thing at that speed. The difference between [the astronauts] and me was that my [experience] only lasted a second or two, while theirs was sustained.”

He also went on to perform his trapeze act hanging from a helicopter over the French Alps and in Germany, and over soccer stadiums in Durban, South Africa.

“A mayor in Germany asked if I could fly over the town, and I didn't have a top on!" Bale says. "I didn't realize it was so cold up there. I couldn't move—I was frozen. That was kinda scary, and I was losing my grip."

It all paid off. Throughout his career, Bale has won numerous accolades, including the "Gold Clown" award at the Monte Carlo Circus Festival. But he's modest about his success.

"I love performing and looking in the crowd’s eyes and seeing the excitement," he says. "I always try to do more and more, especially for the kids.

"I’m very happy about [the Circus Ring of Fame] award but now I gotta polish that damn thing all the time!" he jokes.

Bale has long maintained a sense of humor—even following a tragic turn during a performance in Hong Kong in 1987. As he prepared for a cannon stunt, a series of technical mishaps resulted in a catastrophic accident.

"I knew right away I was too high," Bale says, explaining how he was overshot over the airbag and came crashing down, breaking his legs and thoracic spine. The incident left him with incomplete paraplegia, but he gets around with crutches and leg braces—but even that didn’t extinguish his passion for the circus. After six months in the hospital, he returned to the industry, eventually founding a booking agency that connected circus talent with performances taking place across the globe.

The risks and precision required in the circus are immense. "The thing with circus artists, they have to be 1,000 percent correct all the time," says Bill Powell, CEO of the Circus Ring of Fame. "There can't be any bad days. Whether on a high wire or shot out of a cannon or hanging from your heels from a trapeze... performers train continuously. It's grueling." 

Bale will be inducted to the Circus Ring of Fame alongside two other honorees: the Vazquez Family, known for growing Circus Vazquez from humble beginnings in Mexico to a premier act that has dazzled audiences across the Americas, and the late Franco Dragone, who is credited with revolutionizing circus arts by combining traditional performances with cutting-edge technology and music. Dragone is also known as the force behind Cirque du Soleil. The ceremony will now take place in 2026 at Circus Sarasota's Big Top at Nathan Benderson Park.

Ticket information will be announced soon. Follow here for updates.