Description:
In the 1960s and 1970s, Lilly Yokoi was considered the world's greatest acrobat on bicycle. Her act was indeed technically outstanding, and the ease with which she performed it, her grace, and her unmatched elegance have survived the test of time. Even today, her act can be regarded as the greatest solo bicycle act that ever was—and it is universally acknowledged as such by all those who were lucky enough to see her perform.
Although of Japanese descent, she was born in New York City in 1929, into a family of circus performers. Her parents, Eizo and Rui Yokoi, were acrobats on unicycle and bicycle who went to work in the U
In the 1960s and 1970s, Lilly Yokoi was considered the world's greatest acrobat on bicycle. Her act was indeed technically outstanding, and the ease with which she performed it, her grace, and her unmatched elegance have survived the test of time. Even today, her act can be regarded as the greatest solo bicycle act that ever was—and it is universally acknowledged as such by all those who were lucky enough to see her perform.
Although of Japanese descent, she was born in New York City in 1929, into a family of circus performers. Her parents, Eizo and Rui Yokoi, were acrobats on unicycle and bicycle who went to work in the United States in the 1920s. They had trained their four daughters, Mary, Lilly, Olga (Akimo), and Kimiko (Kimi, 1939-1990), and their son, George, in their craft. The four girls reached a remarkable technical level in bicycle acrobatics, doing tricks rarely or never seen in their time with an uncanny facility. The children worked together with their parents in a bicycle and unicycle act billed as The Yokoi Family. Then, the act was featuring only the four Yokoi Sisters.
Lilly was the star of the family: Pretty and naturally elegant, she had a remarkable stage presence and charisma. She began working solo in 1956, while her siblings Olga, Mary, and Kimi, continued to work together as the Yokoi Trio. (In time, Kimi would embark into a successful solo career of her own, and George would complete the trio.) That very year, Lilly made her first television appearance on CBS television’s The Toast Of The Town (whose title would change to The Ed Sullivan Show), which certainly helped boost her budding career.
In the United States, Lilly worked exclusively in variety—from the enormous Radio City Music-Hall to Lou Walters’ intimate Latin Quarter on Times Square in New York, to tours with the Harlem Globe Trotters—but word of her exceptional talent spread out, and she was soon in high demand in Europe. There, she appeared in major circuses, such as Bertram Mills Circus at Olympia in London, Cirkus Berny in Norway, Cirkus Schumann in Copenhagen, Circus Knie in Switzerland, among others. In variety, she was featured in some of the most prestigious venues, which included the Hansa Theater in Hamburg, the London Palladium, and the Lido in Paris—with which show she also appeared at the Stardust Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.
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