Wall of Death - History of the Wall

"Driving Himself Up a Wall"
Motorcyclist makes his living on the Wall of Death

Kalamazoo Gazette
Michigan

By Rosemary Parker

Allegan - The way Rhett D. Giordano tells his story, he was just a guy who loves antiques, looking to perhaps add to his collection of vintage kitchen wares, when the classified ad in a New York newspaper caught his eye.

For Sale: Wall of Death.
And thus a star was born.
Five shows a day, eight months a year, the 30-year-old Giordano defies gravity, death and, less successfully, injury, as he races 'round and 'round the 12-foot vertical wooden walls of the giant barrel that is his 1941 motorcycle race track.

Under the stage name Rhett Rotten, Giordano travels from his home in Florida all across the country. This week he's at the Allegan County Fair, performing throughout the evening beginning at around 5 p.m. every day in the daredevil stunt-riding routine that was the surprise hit of last year's 150th fair.

Fair Manager Terry Bonnell said Giordano was invited to be part of the fair's anniversary celebration last year because the Wall of Death act had been a huge fair attraction in past decades, and he is one of the few riders still performing the routine.

Giordano was invited back this year because the act was such a smash hit. "It was the talk of my son's school," Bonnell said. "The lines were so long he was putting on shows after closing so everyone had a chance to see him."

On opening day last Friday, Giordano was straight off 10 days with Harley-Davidson's 100th anniversary tour and gearing up for an appearance on David Letterman later this year. He was busy securing the cables that hold the rack and discussing a welding repair with his assistant, Robert Hintze, but he took a break to talk a bit about how he came into the Wall of Death gig.

He was already an antique motorcycle flat-track racer when he saw the ad and knew he wanted to add the vertical ride to an extreme-sport repertoire that includes surfing, skateboarding and go-cart racing. "I knew the history of it," Giordano said.

So he bought the dilapidated track and hauled it to Reading, Pa. "I set it up in my Nana's back yard.

"I love my Nana," he said, digressing for a moment to consider how homesick he gets when he's on the road and to reminisce about how supportive his grandmother had been through similar adventures. Still, this, he said, "took the cake."

It took quite some effort to rebuild the track and months of practice and consultation with European riders before he was able to sustain a steady ride.

He's broken both ankles and his left wrist and has cracked his ribs too many times to count, he said. He's been nursing a torn knee since a go-cart mishap two months ago, an injury that's left him sore and limping but undaunted.

His motto: "No matter how many times you fall, you will never be a failure if you get back up."

His high-speed precision rides are accompanied by the cranked-up blare of Kid Rock and Uncle Cracker—"or my wife might pop in some J. Lo." His logo, which depicts a topless skull with a tiny motorcycle racing around inside, was designed by the proprietor of Willie's Tropical Tattoos, the same dermographics artist who designed the patterns that adorn Giordano's body.

Giordano's stage persona might seem to make him an unlikely spokesman for higher education, but he gives a powerful lesson on the laws of gravity and the centripetal forces upon which his routine is based. His fondness for history is clear in his reverence for both the vintage track and the authentic 1927 Indian Scout and 1957 Harley Hummer motorcycles that are the backbone of his show. And his Web site at www.wallofdeath.com features a thank-you not from a Michigan kindergarten teacher who caught his act last year and arranged for a science field trip for her students, courtesy of a toned-down Rotten, who explained and then demonstrated the physics involved. "I've been there and seen the lines," said Andrew Isola, a physics teacher at Allegan High School whose class includes a chapter on circular motion. "I think it's the whole motorcycle thing."

Please Click Event to View Article

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2006

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Rhett Rotten Work can be a barrel of fun
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Another round trip along Wall
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Puerto Rico Bike Weekend
Metal @ Work
February, 2006

Circular Sicko
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"Indian Larry He was my Friend"
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"The Wall of Death is His Life"
June 19, 2004

"Biker Barrel"
October 4, 2003

"Driving Himself Up a Wall"
September 12, 2003

"'Baddest Man on Two Wheels' Wows Crowd"
August 7, 2003