1965. The "Hollywood Palace" show moves to a parking lot

 

Since some acts you see on Hollywood Palace need elbow room, to say the least, they have to move to a parking lot for their performance. Which can raise a few complications. 

On an unusually cool evening the cannon had to be warmed. If the barrel were not about 71 degrees, it would land the human ammunition, the Zacchinis, short of the net, 75 feet away.

At night the poles became too damp, and thus slippery and unsafe, so the Nerveless Nocks had to perform in the afternoon. 

Then there were the crowds—in the tot (where bleachers for 400 had been set up) and in the streets outside. 

"If the people in Hollywood could get used to stores and houses around them being built like hot dogs and doughnuts," said executive producer Nick Vanoff, "we figured they could get used to anything. Yet we had to have city policemen plus page boys to manage the crowds. 

"Myself, I can't stand to watch. I have acrophobia. When these aerial acts perform I make sure we have the phone numbers of about four doctors, an ambulance service and a hospital. When the Wallendas performed for us, after their tragic accident, they wouldn't use a net. So I had some men walk around underneath them with a net. know it wouldn't have done much good, but still it made me feel better." 

Above, the X-15, in which a brother and sister are shot from a cannon. Below, the Armors, a trapeze family. Note the bleacher spectators. 

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TV Guide 1965-03-20 Northern California