Dan Meyer started life as a scared, shy, skinny wimpy kid who suffered from social anxiety disorder and was teased and beat up by bullies. He vowed someday to do real magic, real feats and somehow fly around the world like a superhero defying death and saving lives. After a near-death experience with malaria fever as a missionary in south India in the place where sword swallowing started, Meyer decided to put his fears to death and take on risks and challenges. Over 20 years later, he added sword swallowing to his bucket list of goals.

After 14,000 unsuccessful attempts over 4 years, Meyer finally swallowed his first sword in 2001. Since then, sword swallowing has taken Meyer on a remarkable journey to impact lives around the world, on over 100 TV programs, on 9 TED Talks, on 16 Got Talents including the finals of America’s Got Talent and Sweden’s Talang, and live in over 60 countries around the world.

Dan Meyer is one of more than a hundred sword swallowers featured in the book, To The Hilt: A Sword Swallower’s History of Sword Swallowing, coauthored by sideshow historian Marc Hartzman and published by Schiffer Publishing, now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Target, Walmart and more:

For more on To The Hilt book, visit

https://ToTheHiltBook.com

Buy To The Hilt on Amazon:

https://amzn.to/3EbUsQf

Listen to more To The Hilt Podcasts, both historical and modern living sword swallowers:

To The Hilt Podcasts

https://www.swordswallow.com/podcasts.php

#ToTheHilt #ToTheHiltPodcast

#swordswallower #DanMeyer

#swordswallowers #history

#swordswallowing

To The Hilt Deep Dive Podcast Ep 1.29 Ling Look: A Sword Swallower’s History of Sword Swallowing

Ling Look was a master sword swallower and illusionist from the mysterious Far East who travelled the world from 1868 to 1878. In reality, his real name was David Gueder from Budapest Hungary who performed around the world with his brother, until his death… and even for many years after that around Europe by an imposter.

Ling Look is one of more than a hundred sword swallowers featured in the book, To The Hilt: A Sword Swallower’s History of Sword Swallowing, by sword swallower Dan Meyer and sideshow historian Marc Hartzman (Schiffer Publishing), now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Target, Walmart and more:

For more on To The Hilt book, visit

https://ToTheHiltBook.com

Buy To The Hilt on Amazon:

https://amzn.to/3EbUsQf

Listen to more To The Hilt Podcasts, both historical and modern living sword swallowers:

To The Hilt Podcasts

https://www.swordswallow.com/podcasts.php

#ToTheHilt #ToTheHiltPodcast

#swordswallower #LingLook

#swordswallowers #history

#swordswallowing

To The Hilt Deep Dive Podcast Ep 1.28 Toni Del Rio: A Sword Swallower’s History of Sword Swallowing

Toni Del Rio was a snake charmer, dancer, fire eater, hypnotist, clairvoyant, and sword swallower. She was also a he.

Del Rio was born into a gypsy family of wire walkers who came from Andorra between France and Spain in the Pyrenees Mountains to Tampa Florida for a circus booking by way of Cuba in the early 1920s. Del Rio was born there on April 2, 1924, as Nilo Garrido. Nilo grew up as a boy, but was a pseudo-hermaphrodite.

An accident on the high wire led to nerve damage in one leg, but being a kid surrounded by sideshow performers, he soon picked up a variety of skills, including

sword swallowing from his uncle.

Before World War II, he took advantage of his natural anomaly and worked with circuses and sideshows as a "Half and Half."

During the war, while serving in the US Navy as a registered nurse in Hawaii, Garrido's breasts began to grow, and he was given a medical discharge. He underwent transgender surgery and according to stories, became the second person in the United States to become transgendered after Christine Jorgensen’s earlier surgery in Denmark in the early 1950’s.

He changed his name from Nilo Garrido to Toni Del Rio and went back to working with circuses and sideshows as “Half-and-Half” and sword swallower.

In the 1950’s Del Rio enhanced her sword swallowing skills under the guidance of Mimi Garneau while in her winter quarters in Gibsonton, Florida. Armed with some of Mimi's personal swords, Del Rio worked as a female sword swallower throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Standing just 5 feet, 2 inches tall, she would often pull a teenage boy from the audience to hold her waist as she placed a 17½-inch bayonet in her mouth. With the snap of a finger, the blade would drop down her throat. A flick of her pinky finger would thrust it into the air. After catching it in her hand, she'd ask the teen if he'd like a turn.

Del Rio performed with Johnny Meah on the Lou Walters Show during this period and trained both Eddie Miller (1963-64) and Red Stuart (1967) in the art of swallowing swords. Del Rio took in the 16-year-old runaway orphan Red Stuart and taught him sword swallowing and all the other sideshow arts in Louisiana in the spring of 1967.

In addition to gulping blades and performing her other acts, she also created her own attractions, such as the "Man Eating Fish." "When people bought their tickets and got inside, what they saw was a man sitting there eating a can of sardines," she told a reporter in 1976. "It was true-it's all in the punctuation." A similar act was billed as "The boy who plays with a pink rattler." Behind the ticket booth, curiosity seekers found a little boy playing not with a snake, but with pink baby rattle.

"You gotta be able to do everything in the carnival," Del Rio said.

She continued doing everything she could into at least the mid-1980s. On April 28, 1987, however, Del Rio suffered a heart attack and passed away at Tampa General Hospital. As for Toni's swords, they were bequeathed to her star pupil, Red Stuart, who dispersed them on to sword swallowers Dan Meyer and Charon Henning in 2003.

To The Hilt Podcasts:

https://www.swordswallow.com/podcasts.php

To The Hilt Book:

https://ToTheHiltbook.com

To The Hilt Deep Dive Podcast Ep 1.27 Johnny Nugent: A Sword Swallower’s History of Sword Swallowing

In this episode, we discuss sword swallower Johnny Nugent, who ran away from home to join the circus as a teenager in the 1920s, and ended up performing as a sword swallower with dozens of circuses and sideshows over 50 years.

Johnny Nugent is one of more than a hundred sword swallowers featured in the book, To The Hilt: A Sword Swallower’s History of Sword Swallowing, by sword swallower Dan Meyer and sideshow historian Marc Hartzman (Schiffer Publishing), now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Target, Walmart and more:

To buy To The Hilt book, visit

https://ToTheHiltBook.com

Buy To The Hilt on Amazon:

https://amzn.to/3EbUsQf

Listen to more To The Hilt Podcasts, both historical bios and modern living sword swallowers’ jackpots:

To The Hilt Podcasts

https://www.swordswallow.com/podcasts.php

#ToTheHilt #ToTheHiltPodcast

#swordswallower #JohnnyNugent

#swordswallowers #history

#swordswallowing

To The Hilt Deep Dive Podcast Ep 1.26 Dr. Hans Rosling: A Sword Swallower’s History of Sword Swallowing

In this episode, we discuss TED speaker Dr. Hans Rosling, a researcher, doctor, scientist, academic, professor, and sword swallower who went viral on his second TED Talks. Hear about his induction into the Sword Swallowers Association International Sword Swallower’s Hall of Fame in Stockholm Sweden.

Hans Rosling is one of more than a hundred sword swallowers featured in the book, To The Hilt: A Sword Swallower’s History of Sword Swallowing, by sword swallower Dan Meyer and sideshow historian Marc Hartzman (Schiffer Publishing), now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Target, Walmart and more:

For more on To The Hilt book, visit

https://ToTheHiltBook.com

Buy To The Hilt on Amazon:

https://amzn.to/3EbUsQf

Listen to more To The Hilt Podcasts, both historical and modern living sword swallowers:

To The Hilt Podcasts

https://www.swordswallow.com/podcasts.php

#ToTheHilt #ToTheHiltPodcast

#swordswallower #HansRosling

#swordswallowers #history

#swordswallowing

In this episode, we discuss sword swallower Stan Marye, who ran away from home to join the circus at the age of 16, and ended up performing as a sword swallower with dozens of circus sideshows over 10 years and swallowing up to five swords at once.

Stan Marye is one of more than a hundred sword swallowers featured in the book, To The Hilt: A Sword Swallower’s History of Sword Swallowing, by sword swallower Dan Meyer and sideshow historian Marc Hartzman (Schiffer Publishing), now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Target, Walmart and more:

For more on To The Hilt book, visit

https://ToTheHiltBook.com

Buy To The Hilt on Amazon:

https://amzn.to/3EbUsQf

Listen to more To The Hilt Podcasts, both historical and modern living sword swallowers:

To The Hilt Podcasts

https://www.swordswallow.com/podcasts.php

#ToTheHilt #ToTheHiltPodcast

#swordswallower #StanMarye

#swordswallowers #history

#swordswallowing

To The Hilt Deep Dive Podcast Ep 1.24 Johnny Fox: A Sword Swallower’s History of Sword Swallowing

In this episode, we discuss sword swallower Johnny Fox, who performed first as a magician and fire-eater and then as a sword swallower for over 38 years.

Johnny Fox is one of more than a hundred sword swallowers featured in the book, To The Hilt: A Sword Swallower’s History of Sword Swallowing, by sword swallower Dan Meyer and sideshow historian Marc Hartzman (Schiffer Publishing), now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Target, Walmart and more:

For more on To The Hilt book, visit

https://ToTheHiltBook.com

Buy To The Hilt on Amazon:

https://amzn.to/3EbUsQf

Listen to more To The Hilt Podcasts, both historical and modern living sword swallowers:

To The Hilt Podcasts

https://www.swordswallow.com/podcasts.php

#ToTheHilt #ToTheHiltPodcast

#swordswallower #JohnnyFox

#swordswallowers #history

#swordswallowing

#MarylandRennFestival

#MarylandRennFaire

To The Hilt Deep Dive Podcast Ep 1.23 Ricky Richiardi: A Sword Swallower’s History of Sword Swallowing

In this episode, we discuss sword swallower Ricky Richiardi, who learned sword swallowing from Lady Betty Bancroft in the early 1950s, started performing at the age of 23 with Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus, taught sword swallowing to Lady Sandra Reed, worked with Hoxie Brothers Circus and a variety of circuses and sideshows for 15 years from 1955 to his suspicious untimely death in 1970.

Ricky Richiardi is one of more than a hundred sword swallowers featured in the book, To The Hilt: A Sword Swallower’s History of Sword Swallowing, by sword swallower Dan Meyer and sideshow historian Marc Hartzman (Schiffer Publishing), now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Target, Walmart and more:

For more on To The Hilt book, visit:

https://ToTheHiltBook.com

Buy To The Hilt on Amazon:

https://amzn.to/3EbUsQf

Listen to more To The Hilt Podcasts, both historical and modern living sword swallowers:

To The Hilt Podcasts:

https://www.swordswallow.com/podcasts.php

#ToTheHilt #ToTheHiltPodcast

#swordswallower #RickyRichiardi

#swordswallowers #history

#swordswallowing

#HoxieBrosCircus #RinglingBrosCircus #RinglingBrothersCircus

To The Hilt Deep Dive Podcast Ep 1.22 Baron Bill Unks: A Sword Swallower’s History of Sword Swallowing

In this episode, we discuss legendary sword swallower Baron Bill Unks, who started performing at the age of 24, and went on to perform from 1947 to 1997 with Clyde Beatty Cole Bros Circus, Hoxie Bros Circus, Coney Island sideshows, with Bobby Reynolds Sideshow and other circuses and sideshows over 50 years!

Baron Bill Unks is one of more than a hundred sword swallowers featured in the book, To The Hilt: A Sword Swallower’s History of Sword Swallowing, by sword swallower Dan Meyer and sideshow historian Marc Hartzman (Schiffer Publishing), now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Target, Walmart and more

For more on To The Hilt book, visit

https://ToTheHiltBook.com

Buy To The Hilt on Amazon:

https://amzn.to/3EbUsQf

Listen to more To The Hilt Podcasts, both historical and modern living sword swallowers:

To The Hilt Podcasts

https://www.swordswallow.com/podcasts.php

#ToTheHilt #ToTheHiltPodcast

#swordswallower #BaronBillUnks #TheBaron #BillUnks

#swordswallowers #history

#swordswallowing

#ConeyIsland #DreamlandSideshow

#ConeyIslandSideshow

#ClydeBeattyColeBros #HoxieBrosCircus

To The Hilt Deep Dive Podcast Ep 1.21 Lady Sandra Reed: A Sword Swallower’s History of Sword Swallowing

In this episode, we take a deep dive to explore the life of sword swallower Lady Sandra Reed, who started as an albino lecturer in the 60’s and learned sword swallowing from Lady Louise Chevanne and Ricky Richiardi, performing as a sword swallower from 1969 to 1980 with Ward Hall’s World of Wonders, Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus, and many other shows over the years. But Sandra Reed is best known for being the subject of the epic iconic photo taken of her by photographer Diane Arbus entitled "Sword Swallower at a MD Carnival" that sold for more than $25,000 at auction.

Lady Sandra’s story comes from her chapter in the book “To The Hilt: A Sword Swallower’s History of Sword Swallowing” by sword swallower Dan Meyer and sideshow historian Marc Hartzman (Schiffer Publishing), now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Target, Walmart and more:

https://ToTheHiltbook.com

https://amzn.to/47Qqw6p

#ToTheHilt

#swordswallower #LadySandra #SandyReed #SandraReed

#swordswallowers #history

#swordswallowing

#circus #sideshow

#RinglingBrothers #RinglingBros

#WardHallsWorldofWonders

#WorldofWonders

#DianeArbus