Cheeky the &;#8216;Wall of Death&;#8217; Chimp

During the mid 1950's the Kursaal became 'the' place to hang out in
Southend for teenagers and holidaymakers alike. One of the reasons for
this was the wide variety of attractions and rides, such as the 'Wild
Mouse' Roller coaster, The 'Whip' and of course, the 'Waltzer'. But
perhaps the biggest attraction of all was the 'Wall of Death'.

For those who don't know, this consisted of a wooden structure
something like a circular cake-tin but on a giant scale, around 20 feet
high and 30 feet in diameter. Riders on motorcycles would gradually
build up speed on the flat floor in the centre before making the
transition to the inside vertical walls of the 'tin'. As long as they
maintained a certain speed, centrifugal force would hold the rider and
machine to the wall where they would perform death-defying stunts such
as sitting on backwards, sidesaddle or no-handed. Often massive crowds
would gather around the rim to watch these daredevils perform.

But by the late '50's the novelty was wearing thin and crowds were
gradually dropping to the levels where it was virtually impossible for
the owner, Ted Harris, to make a profit. What he needed was a gimmick.
Something that would get the public interested again, and Ted had just
the right idea.

His brother Dave had operated a 'Diving Chimp' attraction at the
Pleasure Gardens in Blackpool. This consisted of Cheeky, a male
Chimpanzee, diving 50 feet off a diving board, into a flaming pool of
water, while smoking a cigarette. To make the stunt even more
dangerous, Cheeky would have Florence, a Yorkshire terrier, strapped to
his back. Dave had recently been forced by local animal rights
protesters to shut the attraction down, and while it had been easily
enough to re-home Florence, he was having problems finding somewhere to
take Cheeky.

Ted quickly arranged for Cheeky to be transported to Southend and
within days, was training him to be a 'Wall of Death' rider. Cheeky
turned out to be a natural and with just two weeks training he was
ready for his first public performance.

Cheeky was a sensation and word spread like wildfire. Soon crowds were
flocking back to the 'Wall of Death' to see this fearless ape speeding
around and around, doing handstands, back-flips and standing-up on the
saddle, the whole while smoking his customary cigarette. Unfortunately,
tragedy was just round the corner.

The human riders were now forced to take second stage to the star of
the show, Cheeky, and along with this came a cut in wages. One rider in
particular, Mike 'Chopper' Smith, was extremely put out and vowed to
get rid of Cheeky, one way or another.
One Saturday afternoon Mike arrived at the Kursaal before the rest of
the riders and began to put his evil plan into action. He cut a small
slit into the petrol pipe of Cheeky's machine. The plan was that during
the performance the petrol would gradually leak out causing a sudden
loss of power to the engine. The bike would then fall from the walls
and hopefully Cheeky would be injured enough to make him retire. Mike
chuckled to himself as he wheeled Cheeky's bike back into place.

That evening the performance was going well. It was a very warm evening
and a larger than normal crowd had gathered to watch Cheeky do his
stuff. As the rest of the riders gradually did their routines Ted
prepared Cheeky. Recent scares about the possible link with smoking and
lung cancer had got Ted worried. He didn't want to lose his star
attraction to cancer, so rather than risk Cheeky getting irritable by
stopping him smoking Ted had decided to make him use a cigarette holder
that the makers promised would filter out all the harmful elements in
the smoke. "Cheeky's on next Boss" shouted out one of Ted's assistants.
"Ok, he's on his way" Ted replied. He turned on the petrol tap and
started Cheeky's bike. Cheeky climbed aboard. Ted placed the cigarette
holder between Cheeky's lips and lit the cigarette. With a quick draw
and a puff of smoke Cheeky was off.

The crowd went wild as Cheeky roared into the 'Wall of Death'. He
performed a quick couple of circuits to build up speed and then he sped
up onto the vertical walls themselves. For the next 5 minutes the crowd
was transfixed as Cheeky went through his whole repertoire. Watching
from the floor Mike thought to himself "Any minute now and the whole
lots gonna come crashing down!" and he allowed himself a sly
smile.

It was now time for Cheeky's finale, the handstand. He gradually
manoeuvred himself into position when disaster struck. Because of the
extra length of the cigarette holder, as Cheeky began the handstand the
cigarette hit the tank of the bike and was dislodged from the holder.
It fell and landed on the engine in the exact spot that the slowly
dripping petrol from the slit pipe had collected into a small
puddle.

BANG!!! The whole bike erupted into a ball of flame. The crowd gasped
and ducked as Cheeky was thrown out of the 'Wall of Death'. His thick
furry coat now totally aflame. On the floor Mike had a fraction of a
second of sheer terror and realisation, before the remains of Cheeky's
bike slammed into him, killing him instantly.

Cheeky was now flying through the air like a mini furry comet,
screaming in agony as the flames ate into his flesh. He landed on the
tracks of the 'Wild Mouse' and lay there for 20 seconds writhing and
moaning in pain, before, mercifully, he was beheaded by the next mouse
shaped wagon to come down the track.

The 'Wall of Death' was dismantled after this tragedy and the Kursaal
itself gradually fell into decay until it was pulled down and the site
developed as housing in the '80's. The Main entrance was saved though
and has recently been opened again as an attraction, complete with
bowling alley.

The exact site of the 'Wall of Death' is now a stair-well in a block of
flats and the residents have gotten used to being woken late at night
by the ghostly roar of a motorbike and even though the stair-wells are
strictly no-smoking areas a faint whiff of cigarette smoke and petrol
can be detected the following morning. It's then that they know that
Cheeky's ghost has been riding his own personal 'Wall of Death'.