Every time the list of the most dangerous professions in the world is published, the list usually includes loggers, miners, steelworkers, high-rise installers, and fishermen. But none of these professions even come close to the danger of ejecting a person from the barrel of a prop gun at 100 km/h, flying through the air without any kind of parachute or harness, and trying to land on a net or an inflatable cushion without missing. The most dangerous normal occupations typically hold a record for
workplace deaths of approximately 100 per 100,000 people per year. Which is a hundred more people than needed. But this is, let's say, ridiculously low compared to the mortality rate of people working with cannonballs. Throughout history, only about fifty people have mastered this rare profession and thirty of them died while performing the trick. And the first person to be shot from the cannon was a seventeen-year-old girl, whom the whole world knew under the name Zazel. She was born in 1860 i
nto a circus family - with sawdust in her blood, as they said then. Rossa Matilda Richter was the daughter of an English dancer and a German talent agent who supplied circuses and other entertainment venues with both performers and trained animals . She was taught to fall before she could walk. In an old abandoned church in London, there was a wire stretched from the altar to the gallery, and a safety net underneath it . And there little Rossa practiced walking - on a tightrope. No one doubted t
hat she would become a circus performer. She began her performing career at the age of four , playing one of Cinderella's sisters in a music hall pantomime. At the age of six, Rossa began performing on the trapeze. Her first professional pseudonym was La Petite Lulu. When she was twelve, she was assigned to a traveling troupe of Japanese acrobats to hone her professional skills. Maybe you remember how Passepartout, during a trip around the world, broke away for a while from Phileas Fogg and then
suddenly showed up at the base of the pyramid of Japanese gymnasts - “long noses”, under the patronage of the god Tengu? It seems that Jules Verne invented this particular troupe and its extravagant stunts, but in general Japanese artists and acrobats were very much appreciated in Europe at that time in the wake of the fascination with everything Japanese. They, indeed, knew how to do tricks unknown to Europeans and possessed exceptional skills, which for some time became exemplary in the circu
s professions, and European circus performers willingly adopted their experience. And working with these unsurpassed specialists will greatly advance the career of young Rossa Richter. With an exotic troupe, the girl toured the UK and France, pretended to be Japanese, and newspapers even wrote about her as “the first and only Japanese acrobat to ever visit Europe, and received many awards and medals for her courage and skill.” During a performance in Toulouse, she received her first but not the
last serious injury, falling from a trapeze. She was 13 years old. For some time, Rossa lost the opportunity to perform and returned home to London. In those years, on the other side of the globe, in Canada and the USA, another young trickster, also named Lulu, ruled the minds. This golden-haired beauty was a couple of years older than Rossa, and she became famous for a completely unprecedented trick. “Beautiful Lulu, aerialist and Circassian catapultist,” as she was called in the posters, enter
ed the arena, bowed to the audience, and then suddenly flew vertically upward, right up to the dome, where she grabbed the trapeze and hovered over the abyss. After which Lulu began to do various other tricks on the trapeze, but the main shock for the audience was this magical jump of her almost 10 meters vertically upward - I did not find an exact confirmed number, but she really flew very high. The jump was carried out using a special catapult designed by Lulu's manager, the famous showman Gre
at Farini. His real name was William Leonard Hunt. Born in the Canadian outback, this adventurer, circus performer and daredevil, first became famous for repeatedly crossing Niagara Falls on a wire. After that, his career included other super-dangerous stunts, one of which cost the life of his first wife. By the age of forty, the Great Farini had settled down, stopped risking his own life and began to risk the lives of younger artists, in particular, the blonde Lulu. And the catapultist Lulu, pe
rforming in a tightly tightened corset and short pantaloons, was enormousky popular and earned a lot of money, until one day she missed the trapeze, fell and ended up in the hospital. Where it was discovered that this was not Lulu, but Farini’s grown-up son Sam, with whom he had performed as an acrobatic duo several years earlier, when he was still a very young boy. This revelation did not discourage the Great Farini in the least. And he actually reinvents this number. He wants the gymnast - may
be this time not Lulu, but a real girl - not just to be catapulted to the circus dome , but to be shot out of a cannon. And in 1871, he received a patent for “a device for projecting people and objects into the air” - in the form of a fake cannon stuffed with an ejection device. That is, it was not a real gun. It was a spring catapult, shaped like a cannon. The fuse, boom and smoke were purely decorative. In principle, Farini would later file another patent for an "improvement of a cannon by usi
ng gunpowder to release the latch" - but thank goodness it was never used. The spring cannon was quite dangerous and effective. We put wet gunpowder in the cannon. Why wet gunpowder? Well, we are not murderers. Just at that time, the Royal Aquarium in London - there was such a now defunct entertainment complex, which included, in addition to the aquarium itself, a theater and a concert hall, realized that it would go bankrupt if it continued to regal the public with classical music and art exhib
itions. And they hired Farini to come up with some kind of profitable entertainment program that the audience would actually go to. And Farini decides that this is the ideal site to test his new attraction. He is looking for a performer in London for this trick. And his attention is attracted by London's Lulu - Rossa Richter. Rossa's father, Ernst Richter, knew Farini well - they were colleagues and moved in the same professional circles. And he was very familiar with his working style. Ernst pu
blicly stated that he would not have lent his dog to Farini for his attractions, much less his daughter. “What do you think the Humane Society would say if Farini shot a donkey with a cannon?” - he asked. However, his wife, Suzanne, was a very determined woman and she did not believe that risk should stop her daughter on the path to career growth. And she tricks her husband into signing a contract for the underage Rossa to work for Farini. Ernst was sure that he was signing a contract to perform
in the show of another producer, whom he knew well and had nothing against. I don't know how the women pulled off this trick, but the circus is such a circus. And so, by deception, seventeen-year-old Rossa ended up in the troupe of the Great Farini, who made the first human cannonball out of her . Well, let's confess: On April 10, 1877, in the theater of the Royal Aquarium in London, seventeen-year-old Rossa Richter, who was given a new pseudonym - Zazel - first climbed into the barrel of a hu
ge fake cannon. Here's how the New York Clipper describes the stunt: "The girl, with the greatest composure, crawls into the huge barrel of the most realistic-looking gun, and instead of flinching in horror, we applaud heartily, and then continue to watch and wait, holding breath. The torch rushes by and touches the fuse. We hear the loud sound of a gunshot, and lo and behold! our vision is amazed by the sight of a living rocket flying through space and landing safe and sound in a huge net sprea
d out to receive her. Before the smoke from the huge barrel cleared, the girl had already walked through the net, and now she bows and smiles at the audience.” I repeat once again that all this bang and smoke was purely decorative. There was a spring inside the cannon barrel, which was compressed by some kind of mechanism. Rossa climbed there - Mademoiselle Zazel, I beg your pardon - after which the spring was released and she was pushed out by a piston. As one newspaper put it, “she was thrown
out of the clutches of death into the arms of glory.” Just before the ejection, the gymnast had to strain all her muscles with all her might, turn into a rigid, streamlined object, and if she hesitated for a second, she would fly out of the barrel uncontrollably and break her limbs or worse. Contemporaries' accounts of her performance differ greatly: some say that she flew 20 feet - that is, only 6 meters, while others generously stretch this distance to 70 feet, which is already 21 meters. Most
likely, the first ones are right. Zazel's performances saved the Aquarium from financial collapse. The trick became extremely popular. She gave two performances a day in front of a full house. One performance could attract tens of thousands of spectators. From eight in the morning to ten is a feat. Thanks to enthusiastic newspapers and clever advertising, Zazel quickly became famous, and Farini arranged for her to tour throughout Europe. And everywhere spectators admired her courage and physica
l endurance. It was said that the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII - the great-grandfather of the current king - was her ardent admirer. Firing a cannon wasn't her only trick. As a rule, she performed it at the end of her show. And at first she performed on the trapeze, jumped into the net from under the dome, walked on a tightrope, often without a balancing pole. On the rope she could dance, sit, stand on one leg, lie down, and spin with her knees hooked. The apparent ease with which
Zazel performed all the tricks gave a special charm to the event . Her serene smile and graceful curtsey at the end invariably caused a storm of applause. The audience was delighted with the apparent ease and carelessness with which the young girl risked her life. And some of the audience began to protest. Not only Zazel's own father, many sensible people were not so much admired as horrified by the level of risk to which Zazel exposed herself. They tried to ban the show. For example, in the ne
wspaper “Pravda” - I’m not kidding you, there was such an English investigative newspaper, “Truth”, which mainly exposed all sorts of scammers, but also generally fought against abuses - so in the newspaper “Pravda” dated May 22, 1879 years wrote: “This should not be allowed in a country that calls itself civilized. We stigmatize Spaniards who attend bullfights, but the matador or picador is simply putting himself in a risky situation that directly depends on his skill... Note that back then no
one cared about what situation the bull was put in. I continue the quote: However, if in Spain, hustlers hired children and forced them to fight bulls in the arena, this would cause a general protest. At the same time, in England we allow - moreover, we vote with money - for a child to fall from a great height or be shot out of a cannon for the profit of a huckster.” Complaints from concerned people reached the Home Secretary, Richard Cross, who promised the Aquarium manager, Mr. Robertson, that
he would be personally responsible if an accident happened to Mademoiselle Zazel. In response, the impudent Robertson invited Cross to take her place himself - he is ready to shoot even the minister out of a cannon! He was so happy that he did not have to declare bankruptcy that he was ready to believe that this trick was completely safe, as Farini assured him. However, accidents were not long in coming. The first happened at the Aquarium, the second - more serious - during a tour in Portsmouth
in 1879, where the safety net where Zazel was landing broke. She was able to absorb the energy to some extent, and Zazel did not break anything that time. However, her condition was so serious that she was unable to perform the next day. Zazel's father Ernst Richter was beside himself and was very worried about his daughter. By that time, he had already separated from his wife, who lived with her daughter, did not object to her work at all and even encouraged her. Later that year, on December 1
5, 1879, Zazel fell from a trapeze and slipped off the edge of the safety net. She was again lucky not to receive serious injuries, although immediately after the fall the girl seemed stunned and was carried from the stage in her arms. At subsequent performances, her hands were bandaged and her obvious nervousness could not be hidden from the audience. The poor girl struggled with the fear of falling; her former lightness and carelessness left her. The newspapers were very indignant, demanding t
hat the managers be punished, and even insisting that the Home Secretary impose restrictions on the dangerous, sensational acrobatics . They also stigmatized those who go to such performances, thereby encouraging their organizers and inciting foolish children to risk their lives for money and fame. In 1880, the Acrobats and Gymnasts Bill was introduced into the House of Commons to prevent dangerous acrobatics. There was a lengthy debate in the two Houses of Parliament , much of which focused on
how to draw the line between dangerous and acceptable stunts. In general, Victorian England was a country of very free capitalism and it was very difficult to prohibit people from earning money in any way . You may know stories about girls with phosphorus matches causing jaw necrosis, and poisonous dyes poisoning workers. In continental Europe they began to be banned much earlier than in England. It was extremely difficult to impose a ban on any commercial activity in the UK, even if it entailed
obvious dangers for the participants. Zazel herself, having learned that Parliament was seriously considering a law that could prohibit her from speaking, was in despair. Despite all the risk and pain, she did it voluntarily and willingly. “I loved risk! - she said later. “These gentlemen had no right to take away from me what I loved more than life.” I had ambitions. I wanted to be great. This was my art! At the same time, the question of whether Zazel was exploited by her manager, the Great F
arini, was not without merit. Farini did not pass off his teenage son as a girl for fun: he knew what he was doing. Many viewers sarcastically noted that the success of Zazel’s act largely lay in the fact that in order to squeeze into the cannon, she had to take off most of her clothes. She constantly had to fight off annoying admirers, among whom were princes, refusing whom was probably not easy. Meanwhile, Farini kept most of the proceeds from her highly profitable shows. In 1879, a reporter n
oted that when traveling, Mademoiselle Zazel always traveled in second class carriages. “One would think,” he writes, “that those who make huge profits from her graceful and dangerous performances... could pay a very small difference for her first-class ticket.” F.T. Barnum, the owner of "The Greatest Show on Earth" - the most famous circus revue in America - came to London especially to look at Zazel. And he claimed that she complained to him about her low salary and begged him to buy her contr
act from Farini. Barnum, by the way, paid his artists very well and some of his circus performers retired as millionaires in the literal sense of the word. But Farini did everything to secure the copyright for the cannon trick to himself, and he began secretly training young acrobats to replace Zazel. It is very likely that at some time several “Zazelas” performed simultaneously around the world, only one of which was real. I couldn't find the details, but somehow, early in 1880, Barnum convince
d Farini to join his "World's Greatest Show", and Farini with his best artists, including Zazel, left England, where he was already much criticized. And during these year-long tours in America, Rossa Richter married George Oscar Starr, who worked as a press agent for Barnum's circus. Farini made sure to squeeze the maximum benefit out of this marriage for himself: otherwise rumors began to circulate again that Zazel was a man in disguise. People simply couldn't believe that a woman could physica
lly perform some of her acrobatic feats. After the American tour, Farini will return to London, where he will begin a new activity for himself: showing strange people for money. Barnum, by the way, made his reputation with his “ freak shows.” And Farini decides to try too. The most famous exhibit of his "human zoo" was his adopted daughter Krao - a girl with hypertrichosis, who had hair growing all over her body, and Farini showed her - for money - as "the transitional link between ape and man."
Rossa became completely incompatible with him and she and her husband would leave the circus for a while and try to create their own opera troupe, with which they would tour America. And Rossa will demonstrate that she is a quite capable operetta artist, she can sing and dance. But their idea did not last long. In the late eighties, George Starr was offered the position of director of Barnum's circus and the couple returned to circus life. Simultaneously, Rossa begins to use her experience to p
romote circus safety nets to catch people jumping from burning buildings. Dressed in ordinary street clothes, she threw herself from the windows of multi-story buildings into the net in front of an admiring audience. “Never was there a more fearless female gymnast than this Zazel,” the newspapers wrote, “who nonchalantly jumped from a fourth- story window to illustrate the power of the acrobatic net as a means of saving lives. She tied a thick cord around her skirts and jumped into the center of
the net as confidently and gracefully as a lady jumps from a carriage.” For her bravery and educational efforts, Zazel received a personal commendation from the New York City Fire Department. But in 1891 her luck ran out. That day, Zazel first flew out of a cannon, and then had to dance on a tight wire. The wire was about 8 meters above the ground and ran from the side of the circus tent to two pillars in the arena, between which there was a platform. As interviews with witnesses later revealed
, these pillars were supposed to be fastened together with steel wire, but for some reason this was not done that day . When Zazel stepped onto the wire, the pillars began to separate, the wire weakened and she fell into the arena. She landed on all fours and one of the support pillars collapsed right on top of her, across her back. The platform, ropes and everything else fell on top . When the place was cleared and they tried to lift Zazel, who was covered in all this, it became clear that her
body was bent in half in the most unnatural way. Now we all know very well that if you have even the slightest suspicion of a spinal injury, you do not touch the person. And then two assistants began to stretch her by the shoulders and legs to straighten her into a normal position. She screamed, the audience fell into panic. ... ... She spent several months in a full cast, suspended by stretch marks. She was 31 and her career was over. Nothing is known about her further life. Zazel - Rossa Richt
er-Starr - Cannonball Girl - died on December 8, 1937 in London at the age of 67, completely forgotten. But her trick continues to be repeated by daredevils around the world. The guns are getting larger, the speed and flight range are increasing. Neither England nor any other state has banned this trick, although, of course, there are local regulations that provide some kind of safety for stuntmen. Despite this, the last of the human cannonballs died in 2011 when his network collapsed before he
landed on it. And this poses the question: What is more important: life or life according to your own rules? Should society control people who strive to overcome the limits of the possible, despite the danger that threatens them? Public safety is certainly important, but does this mean that the state is always obliged to protect people from all possible dangers? Maybe Baron Munchausen in a helmet and life jacket is no longer the same Munchausen? And you, of course, understand that the film, whic
h I have repeatedly quoted today, is not about whether it is possible and necessary to take risks, but about whether the state has the right to dictate to people what they should do and how they should think, and what stories they should tell. That's all I have for today. Thank you for attention. Separately, I want to thank my subscribers on Busti and Patreon for supporting this channel. If you don't know what this is, stick around for the promotion of my other projects. All the best to you and
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