Alfredo Codona - Inglewood, CA - Grave of a Famous Person on Waymarking.com

Alfredo Codona was born on September 7, 1893, in the Mexican state of Sonora. Both of his parents were travelling circus performers with trapeze and high wire acts (and other show business experience) so perhaps it was inevitable that young Alfredo would be destined for fame as an aerialist. By their mid-teens, Alfredo Codona, his older sister Victoria and younger brother Lalo were all performing in their father’s circus which toured northern Mexico and the southern U.S.

In 1909, Alfredo and Victoria Codona were recruited by the Ringling Brother’s circus as a trapeze artist and slackwire performer respectively. After a couple of years, Alfredo returned to Mexico, but Victoria continued on with Ringling Brothers and eventually the Sells-Floto circus where she became the star attraction, appearing on their posters as ‘Princess Victoria.’ She met and married race car driver Billy Adolph and retired from performing in 1920 when she became pregnant with their first child.

Meanwhile, Alfredo, along with his brother and other aerialists, were performing in Australia, Mexico and Cuba with various circuses and other travelling shows. In 1919, the ‘Flying Codonas’ rejoined their sister Victoria in the Sells-Floto circus and by 1920 had perfected a trapeze act that included a triple somersault. Soon they were back with Ringling Brother’s and Barnum & Bailey’s ‘Greatest Show on Earth’ performing alongside ‘Dainty Miss Leitzel,’ the world-renown aerialist who was the marquee attraction of the show.

Throughout the 1920s, Alfredo Codona and the ‘Flying Codonas’ were at the top of their game. Loved by audiences and critics alike, Alfredo had become a living legend with his elegance, precision and beauty. So graceful was Alfredo in the performance of his act, that fellow aerialist, Arthur Concello, once said “If Alfredo had been run over by a truck, he’d have done it so gracefully your first instinct might have been to applaud.” He was the original ‘daring young man on the flying trapeze.’ Besides appearing in circus acts all over America and Europe, Alfredo Codona also performed as a stunt double for several early Tarzan movies.

Although Codona’s trapeze act was the epitome of perfection, his personal life was anything but. Alfredo first met Lillian Leitzel, the prima donna aerialist, when they were both teenagers working for Ringling Brothers in 1910. That early infatuation was rekindled when they were again working for Ringling Brothers in the mid-1920s. The trouble was that Alfredo was married to Clara Curtin, a member of his trapeze act. (Leitzel herself had already been married and divorced twice.) But the two circus stars were eventually married in 1928 after Alfredo and Clara divorced.

Tragedy struck in 1931 when Leitzel, while performing her aerial act in Copenhagen, Denmark, fell 20 feet to a concrete floor and died a couple of days later. The fall was caused by a broken swivel on the ring she was holding. A distraught Alfredo buried his wife’s remains in this plot and had the beautiful angelic sculpture placed over them. At the base of the sculpture are two rings, one with a broken rope signifying the cause of her death. Alfredo Codona subsequently married his current trapeze partner Vera Bruce.

In 1933, Alfredo, who had become somewhat reckless after Leitzel’s death, suffered a career-ending shoulder injury which only further worsened his mood. His marriage to Vera Bruce had disintegrated and they were divorced in 1937. At a meeting with Vera, her mother and her lawyer to discuss final property disposition, Alfredo pulled out a revolver and shot Vera five times before emptying the last chamber into his temple. In a suicide note, Alfredo expressed the desire to be buried next to Leitzel who he claimed was the one true love of his life.

This plot was originally meant just for Leitzel but it eventually became a Codona family affair. Not only is Alfredo buried here but also his brother Lalo and sister Victoria as well as his parents and his first wife Clara! About the only one not buried here is Vera Bruce whom he murdered: She’s buried in Calvary Cemetery in Los Angeles.
(Sources: biography.com, circopedia, lillianleitzel.com)

Description: See Long Description above. Date of birth: 10/07/1893 Date of death: 07/30/1937 Area of notoriety: Entertainment Marker Type: Monument Setting: Outdoor Visiting Hours/Restrictions: 7:00 am - 5:00 pm Fee required?: No Web site: [Web Link]

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