I first crossed paths with the 'Globies' (as I called them), when Clark Marshall booked them into several car shows. One of the 'Great' acts. Don't know how many of you are familiar with 'Globe' so I'll explain it. You got a 10-foot across globe made out of strap iron, so you could see through it. It has a stand so it won't roll, and a door. Into the Globe go two guys with 125 cc motorcycles. They then proceed to go full tilt. Round the sides. Upside-down across the top, etc. All the time, of course, weaving in and out of each other's path. An unbelievable stunt of concentration and timing. 

In some shows they used a 12-foot globe, and had three bike riders in there. Saw films they did of three bikes and a cameraman in there. OK all you camera guys in the house. Any takers for that one?

Used several globe teams in the various shows. And I got to know them all pretty good. Besides handling some of the stuff with the show, one of my best buddies was a Daredevil type: Terry Brauner a.k.a. "Terry Star - The Snowmobile Jumping King." So, we all hung together a lot. The best at it and the guy who revived the act was Jody Jorden.

Jody grew up in the Circus. His dad, Jonny, had an Elephant act. Anyway, the story I heard was that Jody found the old globe in a junkyard in Vegas (where they had an act at Circus Circus) and got his dad to drag it out to their ranch (where they kept the Elephants).

The Globe was a remnant of an act that toured in the ‘20s, or ‘30s, and maybe the ‘40s. Just one guy in it on a Harley. So, Jody got it home. He was 10 or 11 at the time, and he and his dad fixed it up. The kind of thing a Circus father and son do together, I guess. Jody started out with his bicycle in the globe. And got so he could do some pretty trick stuff. 

Then he got a Honda 90 and started to get serious about it. Finally, he showed his Dad how to do it too. And then they tried it with both of them in there at once. After a lot of practice, they had an act. Over the years, Jody taught a lot of other guys "The Globe." At times there were as many as ten teams touring the world. Jody must be around 30 now.

I always enjoyed watching Jody riding in the Globe alone the best; he could do some amazing things. Go upside-down across the top -- ease off on the throttle and float across -- with two feet of daylight between him and the Globe. Pure "space magic."