Henry Roland, also known as D.D. Roland, was an American

daredevil Daredevil may refer to: * A stunt performer Arts and media Comics * Daredevil (Lev Gleason Publications), a fictional 1940s superhero popularized by writer-artist Charles Biro * Daredevil (Marvel Comics character), a Marvel comic book superher ...

and "human fly" who became famous for

free climbing Free climbing is a form of rock climbing in which the climber may use climbing equipment such as ropes and other means of climbing protection, but only to protect against injury during falls and not to assist vertical or horizontal progress. Th ...

buildings around the country in the 1920s and 1930s. He began his high flying antics in 1924 to public acclaim. Roland identified himself as ''The Human Fly'', a name that was also used by several other performers with similar acts.

Career

Roland traveled the country with his act and climbed buildings as far apart as Texas and Montana. Roland's high profile stunts included climbs of the Cleveland Hotel, the Davis County Courthouse, the Kearny County Courthouse, and Allentown National Bank. Roland's 1926 climb of the Tribune Building in

Tampa, Florida Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and ...

, attracted more than 15,000 viewers. Roland survived one highly publicized fall in his career: "he fell from the third floor of the McAlpin Hotel in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. He crashed through an awning on the way down and this broke the force of the fall. It nearly cost him his life, however, and only after many months in a hospital was he able to continue his dare devil occupation." Even a close brush with death could not keep Roland from performing, and he worked to make his shows ever more thrilling after his return.

Death

Roland's final act occurred in Greeneville,

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

, in 1937. He again fell during a stunt but this time there was no awning to break his fall. A contemporary trade magazine set up what happened: "It had long been his ambition to develop a new act that would give more thrills than his former acts, and last winter he realized it by bringing out a high trapeze and swaying pole, performed without a safety net, 110 feet above the ground. At the Ottway Fair, Greenville, Tenn., icOctober 7, while completing the finale of his trapeze, a forward somersault to ankle catch, a gust of wind blew his trapeze bar from under him and he fell to his death." His death certificate identified a "broken right

femur The femur (; ), or thigh bone, is the proximal bone of the hindlimb in tetrapod vertebrates. The head of the femur articulates with the acetabulum in the pelvic bone forming the hip joint, while the distal part of the femur articulates with ...

, broken bones of hands, probably internal injuries, probably fractured skull" and concluded that he was killed by a "crush injury" secondary to his fall.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roland, Henry 1894 births 1937 deaths American stunt performers German emigrants to the United States Accidental deaths from falls