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Sylvia and the Birds

by Local Echoes

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about

Arriving to each new town, Bertelle and Wendell Hansen would place their young daughter Sylvia atop an ostrich, and send her riding down main street. Sylvia's job was to announce the arrival of the family show, Bertelle's Bird Circus, later known as Hansen's Bible Birds.

Starting in the 1940s, trained ministers Wendell and Bertelle brought their bird circus program to schools, churches, and community centers around the U.S. They travelled in a Desoto limousine, with an attached trailer carrying the over 40 trained birds. The bird circus was part entertainment and part evangelizing, with pigeons, parrots, and canaries performing tricks that illustrated Biblical concepts. Sylvia had many jobs with the circus, including teaching a grackle to swallow a 10-inch sword.

In this audio piece, Sylvia tells Josephine McRobbie and Joe O'Connell about her early life, and her reflections today on her unusual childhood.

credits

released December 13, 2021
Thank you to Sylvia Marie.
Music by Elephant Micah and Gibson & Toutant.
Produced in part during coursework at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.

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