“Reunion” (Leitzel) - Inglewood, CA - Funerary Art on Waymarking.com

Lillian Leitzel, whose real name was Leopoldina Alitza Pelikan, was born in Poland to a family of circus performers. The talented Leitzel received a formal education in Germany, could speak six languages fluently and became a skilled piano player but nevertheless chose to follow in her family’s footsteps and became a circus acrobat.

Upon moving to America in 1910, Leitzel performed with the Barnum and Bailey circus and several vaudeville acts before joining the Ringling Brothers circus 1914. When Ringling Brothers joined forces with Barnum and Bailey to become the ‘Greatest Show on Earth,’ Leitzel was their biggest attraction and appeared on numerous circus posters. ‘Dainty (4’9” tall and 95 lbs.) Miss Leitzel’ was described as the “world’s most marvelous lady gymnast.”

One aspect of Leitzel’s act that thrilled audiences, was the one-armed plange: She would flip her body over her shoulder, often hundreds of times while the audience counted. Her record was 249. The stunt was particularly hard on her body as her shoulder would partially dislocate with each revolution.

Sometimes, if you live by the high-wire, you die by the high-wire. During a performance in Denmark in 1931, Leitzel fell over twenty feet to a concrete floor when the swivel of one of her rings broke. Though initially surviving the fall, she took a turn for the worse and died two days later. Her cremated remains were interred at Inglewood Park Cemetery in California.

Her husband, fellow Ringling Brother’s aerialist Alfredo Codona, had a beautiful memorial built for her featuring a 12-foot-tall statue of an angle swooping down to carry off a beautiful young woman in the clouds. It has been variously called ‘Reunion’ or ‘The Spirit of Flight.’ Some have suggested that the angel bears a striking resemblance to the wavy-haired Codona himself and that the statue represents Alfredo becoming reunited with his beloved Leitzel. At the base of the statue are two circus rings, one with a broken rope symbolizing the cause of her death.

The full text on the grave marker is IN EVERLASTING MEMORY OF MY BELOVED LEITZEL CODONA COPENHAGEN DENMARK * FEB. 15, 1931 * ERECTED BY HER DEVOTED HUSBAND ALFREDO CODONA. (Leitzel never actually used the name Codona preferring to be known simply as Leitzel.)

Although this gravesite was originally meant just for Leitzel, it eventually became a kind of Codona family plot. After Leitzel’s death, Alfredo married his current trapeze partner Vera Bruce. But that marriage deteriorated after Alfredo suffered a career-ending shoulder injury in 1933. At a meeting with Vera, her mother and her lawyer to discuss final property disposition after their divorce, 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.

Today, besides the graves of Leitzel and Alfredo Codona, this plot contains the graves of Alfredo’s brother Lalo, his sister Victoria Adolph, his parents and, amazingly, the grave of his first wife Clara Curtin, whom he divorced in order to marry Leitzel in the first place.

The gravesite is located in the Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, CA. It is open to the public from 7:00 am to 5:00 pm daily.

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