Powers, William | Early American broadside documenting contortion and other "Feats of Activity"

Powers, William

Wm. Powers, A Lad of only 14 Years of Age, lately arrived from London, will perform a Variety of very extraordinary Feats of Activity ... Baltimore: Samuel and John Adams, 1789

Broadside playbill (325 x 172 mm). Printed in an assortment of metal types; not examined out of frame, splits to old folds, possibly laid down or reinforced, soiling and a few abrasions, small closed marginal tear. Matted, framed, and glazed with Plexiglas. 

This fourteen-year-old lad from London offered a varied repertoire of stunts for his performance at a coffeehouse in Baltimore. Powers mastered an early form of gymnastic floor exercises: springing, somersaults, and walking on his hands. He performed a number of variants on the hornpipe by balancing his head on the finial of a chair and dancing with his legs in the air; for a diversion he would provide his own percussion by tapping his feet against his head (EE).

Lest viewers peg him as as a one-trick contortionist, in his act he also performed an imitation of the majestic porpoise: "He shews, with great activity, how a porpus tumbles in the sea." Powers, apparently confident in his gymnastic and aquatic antics, offered audiences a money-back-guarantee: "If the performance is not done agreeable to the above, the money will be returned before any person leaves the room." 

REFERENCE:

Exemplars, p. 318; EE, pp. 54-55