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This is what my late father Leslie James Speechly did, in his life time. And he went under the name of Jack (Volto) Speechley.

The following story is from the Adelaide Mail 11 May 1946 p.4

"He Risked Death For A Living - by Jack Edmonds

LAST week I wrote in a story on this page, "the Repatriation Commission has had applications for financial assistance from a would-be magician, a waste paper salvager, and a chap who wanted to open up a fish-and-chip shop."

That's how I came to meet Leslie Speechley, 45, of Wright street, City— the "would-be magician" and no ordinary citizen. He came to tne office to explain that he is a showman of the real old school, mentioned that he has

Been chewed by a bear.

Slid off the top of Sydney Harbor Bridge on a wire, hanging by his teeth.

Had 80,000 people pay 2/ each just to go and look at him.

He said he had been in the show business almost ever since he ran away from home at the age of nine. His mother died when he was 10 days old. His father belonged to the British Army, took him to India with him. Then young Speechley ran away, joined a ship which took him to Hamburg, struck trouble there when he couldn't pay for a meal he had in a cafe. But in the cafe was a man named Hackenberg, who owned a big circus just outside Hamburg.

Mr. Hackenberg paid for the run-away's lunch, asked him if he would like to become an apprentice in the circus. Leslie Speechley jumped at the chance.

In that circus he learned the circus business from A to Z — clowning, trapeze work, magic, animal training. Then he left Hackenberg's circus to go to America for Barnum & Bailey as
apprentice to Captain Schroeder, lion tamer.

In 1923 he came to Australia as animal trainer for Wirths Circus, was mauled by bear in Sydney in 1931, and had to shoot the bear as they struggled in the cage, spent the next nine months in hospital. After that he earned a living as an aerial stunt artist, working in travelling shows. One of these shows took him to Queensland.

While there, he met Mick Stephens. Mick approached him, said he was an electrician, had invented a machine which he thought would interest the stuntman. It was a fearsome looking machfne which was designed to feed 20,000 volts into the body of a person standing on a platform — without doing him any harm. The idea was that a person carrying such a charge could produce sparks from his head, an electrical discharge from his mouth and could light an electric light bulb by holding it in his teeth.

Mick's proposition was that they should team up. Mick would work the machine and Speechley would take the charge. It was perfectly safe, said Mick — and all he wanted was £15 a week for working his invention. So Leslie Speechley, showman and stuntman, tried it out. Mick was right. It did seem perfectly safe. He got no shock from the 20,000 volts. But anyone who touched him got a kick like a mule which would throw a man across the tent. That's how Leslie Speechley became "Volto."

They cleaned up with that invention, taking as much as £50 or £60 in a night. But Volto gave it up when Mick died. He sold the machine for £200.

"I never heard what happened to he chap who bought it," he told me.

Then Speechley went back to his aerial stunts, still sticking to the name of Volto. It was as Volto that he slid from the top of Sydney harbor Bridge into Luna Park hanging by his teeth to a wire 1,000 ft. long. After this slide, 80,000 paid just to see what sort of of man he was. In 1936 he came to Adelaide. to perform his wire-sliding stunt at the Centennial Exhibition, repeated it again at the last Henley-on-Torrens before the war.

He was married in Adelaide, has lived here since 1937. When war broke out Volto was travelling with a tent show of 35 artists. In 1941 he joined the A.I.F., served with the 2/43 Battalion in Tobruk. He began putting on a one-man conjuring show with home-made props for the amusement of his mates, finished up a member of the 9th Division concert party.

Now he's back in civvies, Leslie Speechley, trapeze artist, magician, lion tamer, fire eater, aerial stunster — better known as "Volto"— is battling to make a come back in the show business, hopes to work up his own travelling show again, though the Repatriation Commission has refused to make him a business loan. He'll be the backbone of the show, says he can put on 1 half hour show of magic and illusions himself, that he's too old for the rest of the stuff he began learning in Hackenberg's Circus when he was nine.

His manager is Bert Francis, 29, of Chapel street, Thebarton. Before the war Bert was with Gill Bros. Circus, was also a rough rider in a rodeo show, fought 37 fights in South Australia under the name of "Von Fraser." He intended his ring name to be Don Fraser, but there was a misprint the first time his name was announced. So right through his fighting career he was "Von Fraser." Bert was going to go back to the fighting game when the 2/48 was through with him. But at Tel el Eisa Bert was wounded in the hand. That was the end of his fighting career. That's how he has come to be manager and comedian in Volto's show.

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55935054