ENID, OK - Enid resident, Melinda Fletchall, was watching the NYC live tightrope event on Sunday evening with her 88-year-old mom. Her mother told her that her grandparents Clark and Augusta Keepers lived at 701 E. Cedar, and used to watch out their front door as a man would practice tightrope walking right here in Enid.
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That man was Hubert Castle, born in 1913 in Enid, Oklahoma, as James Albert Hal Smith. Smith changed his name to Hal Silvers during the depression and began to hone his aerial act. One account online claimed Smith was an Oklahoma Baptist but changed his name to Silvers so the Jewish booking agents would keep him working.
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Silvers eventually became a famous tightwire aerialist with Ringling Brothers Circus. During his time with the Ringling Show, John Ringling North renamed him Hubert Castle and he became one of the 3 greatest legends on the tightwire, on a level with Harold Barnes and Con Colleano. He appeared on the cover of Life Magazine in July 1941.
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Castle was also an actor, known for the movie Sensations of 1945 (1944) and appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and Jackie Gleason Show. According to one movie website he even toured for Col. Tom Parker on the Elvis Presley Show in 1957.
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In the movie Sensations of 1945 he played the wire-walker Olaf, The Great Gustafson. The picture starred Dennis O’Keefe and Eleanor Powell, bickering over getting publicity for a wire-walker. Circus acts included The Pallenberg Bears, The Cristianis, The Flying Copelands, Mel Hall, Starless Night, and The Huberts. The film is further noteworthy as featuring the last screen appearance of W.C. Fields.
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Castle later performed for his own circus for 20 years, known as the Hubert Castle International Circus.
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James Albert Hal Smith aka Hubert Castle died at the age of 76 on January 28, 1989 in Warwick, NY.
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There is a 1949 home movie by Max Kitson (The Maxwells) on YouTube. Hubert Castle is on the low tightwire, first as a tipsy gentleman, then in his acrobat costume. The video footage is below.
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Life Magazine Cover in July 1941
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