Marjorie Dare (Doris Smith) riding hands free around the ‘Wall of Death’ sideshow at the Kursaal amusement park in Essex, England.
 
Born from board track racing and velodromes (a popular sport featuring motorcycles racing on a wooded track) as well as early bicycle stunt racing (also done on a wooden track), the “Wall of Death” was a wildly popular carnival attraction that made its first carney appearance in 1911 at one of the United States epicenters of weirdness, New York’s Coney Island.
 

Look Ma! No Hands! Motorcycle stunt rider, Cookie Ayers (aka, ‘Cookie Crum’).
 
What made this dangerous attraction especially attractive was the fact that female riders were a huge part of the carnival motorcycle stunt scene. One of the first pioneers of the sport was Margaret Gast. Calling herself “The Mile A Minute Girl” Gast nearly met her maker several times during her career and was once carried out on a stretcher, presumed dead. Another early rider was Hazel Eaton who joined the carnival after running away from home when she was fifteen. Like Gast, Eaton also nearly met her end while riding on the wooden motordrome when her bike’s rear brakes locked up leaving her with serious injuries to her head and face as well as broken ribs. Weeks later, Eaton left the hospital like a badass—in an open wooden casket.

The most famous of the dozens these vintage rebellious women riders was probably Agnes La France. When she got into the game of motorcycle stunt riding at the age of 30, La France lost her first name, changing it to Lillian and billed herself as “The Girl Who Flirts With Death,” quickly becoming one of the most daring riders the sport (and the Wall of Death) had ever seen. I’ve posted loads of images of the fearless women who rode the Wall of Death and lived to tell the tale, as well as other stunt riders doing anything but sitting on a motorcycle properly, that I know you will dig looking at, too. I’ve also included a short vintage video of sixteen-year-old female rider, Maureen Swift riding a Wall of Death at Kursaal Amusement Park in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, back in 1949 that will probably give you the bedspins but it’s totally worth it!
 

Lillian LaFrance and her tricked out motorcycle.
 

 

 

 

Hazel Eaton on her bike in front of the ‘Wall of Death.’
 

 

A motorcycle stunt woman riding the ‘Wall of Death.’
 

 

 

 

Footage of a sixteen-year-old rider Maureen Swift on the ‘Wall of Death’ at Kursaal Amusement Park in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, back in 1949.
 
H/T: Rusty Knuckles

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
The wild wild world of Japanese rebel biker culture