Erwin, Jodie, Olga and Melvin Urias of Sarasota are known throughout the world for their daring motorcycle performances
inside the “Urias Globe of Death.”
The family members have thrilled audiences over the years
with the roar of their engines and their introduction of new,
leading-edge acts. Victor and Geraldo created the death-defying
Split Globe of Steel, or Split Globe of Death, which had a center
gap that opened to a width of 15-feet, or five meters, between
its two halves. They rode parallel to the ground along the top
half ’s outside edge at 50 miles-per-hour on English
motorcycles by Villiers, which were powered with Rolls Royce
engines. This first ever stunt successfully toured both North and
South America. Later similar acts only opened to three meters.
As exciting as this split globe concept was, the Urias family
stopped performing it, not because of its great danger, but
because they felt that the audiences could’t fully see and
appreciate it.
The Urias Family also was the first to place three riders, as
well as to introduce female performers and riders, into their
Globe of Death. Victor’s wife Kathia, an accomplished dancer
from Colombia, whom he had met in Panama, was the first. She
stood and posed inside the Globe while her husband and their
sons Erwin and Melvin sped ominously around her. Victor
included a female motorcycle rider inside the Globe in the early
1960s, and later a second female rider during the 1970s.
Today, the fourth generation Urias Family members still have
Jose, Sr.’s original 1912 Globe, which they keep in storage here
on Florida’s West Coast. They still use it occasionally by special
request, normally for Harley Davidson events, although they
usually perform in newer metal mesh spheres. They continue
to hone their skills to remain the best of the best in their field
and to thrill their audiences. Erwin and Melvin were Gold
Medal winners in Sarasota’s Circus Competition. The Urias
Family’s death-defying Globe of Death act can currently be seen
through the ninth of August, along with nine other top of their
field international acts in the cirque-style production YAYE in
the theater at the Beau Rivage Hotel in Biloxi, Mississippi.
EDITOR’S NOTE: If you have any questions about the people,
places or things in the Tampa Bay area, please send them to “Ask
Margaret” at Tampa Bay Magazine, 2531 Landmark Drive, Suite
101, Clearwater, Florida 33761 or fax them to (727) 796-0527. We
regret that not all questions can be answered.
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