Alvera - Escape Artist in the flames
Alvera’s real name was Reg G. Perry and he was from a family local to the Orange (NSW) area. He seems to have been an occasional performer of magic and was an aspiring Escape Artist and daredevil. His semi-professional but apparently under-prepared stunts reached an unhappy result when in mid-November, 1911, he was performing at a charity carnival in aid of the Blayney Hospital.
Announced to appear in the “Devil’s Deathtrap”, he was to be bound with chains before being put into a large tin trunk and then lowered into a large tank containing fire. In theory he would remain in the tank for just long enough to make the spectators anxious for his safety, then emerge unscathed. Nothing of the sort would happen in actual performance.
A roaring blaze was set in the tank, into which Alvera was lowered (in the tin trunk) by means of pulleys. It had been thought that Alvera had probably, by some means, escaped in advance, but he was actually inside the trunk and “soon felt himself getting singed. Sharp cries of pain proceeded from the luckless performer, praying to be released from his predicament”. The trunk was rapidly removed in a state which the newspapers described as “red-hot, and the solder bubbled from the seams.”
Alvera was taken to hospital in a serious condition and, although he eventually made a recovery, perhaps he should have changed his name to Aloe Vera. The story flew around every newspaper in the country.
Undaunted, though perhaps a little more circumspect, Alvera went away in 1912, touring with a ‘leading theatrical manager, giving exhibitions in conjuring’ in conjunction with Wright’s moving pictures. The Molong Express said “Alvera is one of the few entertainers who risks his own life to please and audience…” He was seen in 1912 giving a successful exhibition in Orange of chain and handcuff escapes, and an escape from a locked trunk (minus the fire). By 1915 he was giving drawing room magic shows around Orange, and was said to have exhibited at White City in Sydney.
Unfortunately, the times were against Reg Perry, and he signed up to fight in France, in the Great War. By September 1916 he was reported as wounded, while in 1917 he ended up in hospital a second time, with a shattered hip bone from action at Pozieres. His brother Steve, one of the first to enlist at the outbreak of hostilities, and a soldier through the Gallipoli campaign from start to finish, was also fighting in France and received a piece of shrapnel in his eye.
Fortunately, both Reg and Steve were invalided back home despite their requests to return to the fray, and in September 1917 were welcomed at a dinner for family and friends. It is to be hoped that Reg “Alvera” Perry lived a long and prosperous life away from all danger.