Melzer Thomas (1884-1951) was the father and founder of the
Flying Melzoras. Melzer played baseball for Akron, OH, before he
performed an act called the Tumbling Bell Hop on vaudeville, using
suitcases, hat boxes, and things people traveled with at train
stations. An all around athlete and performer who performed acrobatics,
tumbling, flipflops, and hand bell routines, Melzer joined the DaComa
troupe, a flying return act, in 1897. The troupe performed opposite the
Flying Fishers in the Ringling Brothers Circus.
By 1904 Melzer married Eliza Jane (1886-1974). He taught Jane
all the basic trapeze tricks on a zip bar inside hung in a doorway.
They also installed rigging in their yard. Together, they performed a
double trapeze act. All of their sons, Melzer, Junior, called Buster or
Bus (1908-1994), Ray (1907-1966), and Bill (1916-), eventually joined
Thomas family moved to Saginaw where Hulme and Shevette lived. Thomas
Melzer formed a flying return act called the Flying Melzoras, and began
training his sons and local boys in the flying return act. Ray was in
the family act by the age of 7. The Thomas family built a barn on
Webber and Collingwood streets in Saginaw to train flyers. By 1938
the Thomas family had trained at least 28 men and women for circus
Training was rigorous, 2-11 p.m. Both Melzer and Jane were
demanding. A mistake could hurt another troupe member so badly they
would not be able to perform and endanger the performance, or indeed,
the career of the troupe. Mistakes could lower the overall performance
quality, the types and numbers of tricks that could be performed, and
audience satisfaction. Therefore both practice and performance was very
Like other troupes, the Thomas family experimented with
various rigging until they found what they needed and then kept it for
most of the professional life of the troupe. Rigging is also adjusted
for the height of the performers. Bill grew to 6’2” and Bus to 6’1” and
230 pounds, the two tallest flyers in the U.S. Most flyers averaged a
height of 5’5” inches and 145pounds. Tricks done by tall trapeze
artists look more graceful and difficult than those performed by
Jane and Melzer divorce after 1925. Melzer remarried and
started another troupe, the Flying Columbians. He died in 1951 at age 67
and is buried in a Saginaw.
Jane and the boys continued as The Flying Melzoras. They
worked at major entertainment sites and major state fairs. Jane became
the troupe’s manager and catcher. She was the mom and the enforcer.
Jane developed tremendous muscles and used prongs for her feet on the
sides of the catchtrap to catch her sons. The longest performing
female catcher in the business, Jane Thomas was inducted into the
Saginaw Hall of Fame October 24, 2006.
When Bill was with the act (he left at age 19 in 1935) there
was no mandatory schooling or tutors for children in the entertainment
business. Most of his education came from another member of the
troupe, Paul Garee. Paul and his brother, Al, were catchers in the
Flying Melzoras, as was their cousin, Roy Deisler. Buster and Paul
Garee worked together for at least 25 years, missing only 3 tricks
Boys and young men in trapeze troupes sometimes had to dress
as girls. It was mandatory for trapeze acts to have two females in
order to ensure maximum audience appeal. Both Bus and Bill felt sorry
for the “Jenny” of the day.
The Thomas brothers had no money of their own even though
they performed summers at fairs as a trapeze troupe and winters on
vaudeville in a small casting act and a tumbling act. The Coogan law
had not yet gone into effect. The [Jackie] Coogan Bill of 1939
required “the child’s employer set aside 15% of the child’s earnings in a
trust, and codifies such issues as schooling, work hours and time-off.
Bill Thomas (1916-) was considered by his brothers
to be “good on the bar. He did a one-arm, double somersault as his
specialty.” At age 19 Bill returned to school, coached football at the
UM and Saginaw High School, and became a very successful certified
public accountant. He married Beverly B. Seaman in 1940, and has three
daughters: Judith, Janet, and Jill. Bill thomas died on July 6, 2010 at
In 1966 the Flying Melzoras were inducted into the Circus Hall of Fame.
A ring of the Circus Model Builders was named in Jane’s honor.
Bus was always the star flier of the troupe. His skill was
internationally recognized. By the age of 16 Bus earned the “Flyer’s
Crown,” meaning his fellow trapeze artists recognized him as the best
of them. In 1934 he perfected the High Drive Backward Somersault
Passing Leap. He performed a double somersault to a triple, sometimes
up to 75 feet high in the air. Also, Bus performed a
two-and-a-half-turn somersault while blindfolded. Phil Shevette taught
Bus the Hawk Double, a move in which the flyer leaps from the trapeze
to the catcher’s hands and back doing a backward somersault with
split-second timing. Bus earned a Guinness Book of World Records record
for his development and performance of the Majestic Leap, first
performed at Latrobe, PA in 1935. The Majestic Leap cemented his place
in trapeze history.
The Majestic Leap was and is still considered a very
dangerous, very advanced trick. It has never been performed by another
flying trapeze troupe. The leap consisted of three people moving
simultaneously, Ann underneath in a birds nest position flying from the
catcher to the fly bar and Bus overhead performing a backwards
somersault to be caught by the catcher. The backwards somersault is
very dangerous by itself because the performer cannot see exactly where
he is going. The combination of the three elements made the trick
Bus retired at age 42 in 1950. In 1962 at age 54 he left
retirement with his Ma to help develop a new act and train new fliers.
Bus married Carrie Reider in 1960. He died in 1994 and is buried in
Saginaw with Jane, Ray, and Ann.
always performed as the clown in the troupe. He and Ann decided to
marry in 1932. Ray got a job at the Chevrolet Tool and Die Operation in
Saginaw to earn his own money. His foot was injured, developed
gangrene, and was amputated from the knee down. Ray had been an
outstanding trapeze artist. This was devastating to the family act.
Herbie Bean of Bay City learned some of Ray’s tricks, wore his clown
costume, and performed his gags for a year. Then, a prosthetic limb was
purchased, and Ray returned to the air as the only one-legged flying
clown trapeze artist in the world. Part of his routine was to spin his
fake leg backwards to demonstrate that it really was fake. In order to
do this, a gear was developed for Ray’s fake leg. He was featured in
Ripley’s newspaper feature “Believe it or not” in 1937 as “the wooden
legged man on the flying trapeze,” with his signature and a drawing of
him in clown costume. Some people in the audience hit Ray’s leg with a
cane and others kicked his leg, usually the wrong one. Besides
performing, Ray demonstrated how he could run and dance with his
prosthetic limb to many World War II war veterans who had lost a leg or
Shortly before the tragic July 6, 1944 Hartford, CT, fire
occurred, Ray was working as a clown in the ring with the great Emmett
Kelly. Emmett, dressed and made up as Weary Willie, took a nap in the
ring. Then, a clown costumed and made up exactly like Emmett (Ray
Thomas) snuck in and performed while Emmett was napping. There was
some debate among Ray and his friends about whether the famous image of
Emmett in tramp makeup as Weary Willie with a bucket of water in front
of the fire was Emmett or Ray.
From 1950 to 1955, Ray performed with Ann (whom he married in
1933), William Lake and Barry Miller of Saginaw. Ann was hurt in a fall
in 1955. After that Ray soloed with Ringling Brothers until he
retired. He died in1966 in Saginaw. Ann survived Ray for nearly 30
years. They are both buried in Saginaw.