"In the 1920s, daredevil Gladys Roy played a full-on tennis match against stuntman Ivan Unger on top of a flying plane 3,000 feet in the air. And no, they weren't wearing parachutes. "Why?" you're probably asking. Or even "WTF?!" Fair questions. But back then daredevils were celebrities, probably because planes were still new, terrifying, and glamorous, so doing anything on top of one - let alone something as goofy as tennis - captured the public's imagination."
"As crowds got harder to impress, though, Roy was forced to up the ante: she danced the Charleston mid-flight, walked blindfolded across the wings, and even posed on the tail while the plane nosedived. It won't surprise you that she died at just 31 in a plane accident. What will surprise you is how it happened - she was taking part in a photo shoot on the ground when she accidentally walked into a spinning aircraft propeller and was killed instantly."
Contemporary culture showcases bizarre spectacles like AI-generated images, freerunners, and pop stars in space, yet earlier eras matched or exceeded that unhinged spectacle. In the 1920s, Gladys Roy became a famed daredevil by performing extreme airplane stunts—playing tennis atop a flying plane 3,000 feet high without parachutes, dancing the Charleston mid-flight, blindfolded wing-walking, and posing on a tail during nosedives. Public fascination with novelty and danger drove performers to continually escalate risks to captivate audiences. Roy died at age 31 after accidentally walking into a spinning aircraft propeller during a ground photo shoot, highlighting the peril behind the spectacle.
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