Peter Foy was the stage flying effects specialist who founded "Flying by Foy", most widely known for its work flying actors in the play Peter Pan.
10 Facts About Peter Foy
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Peter Foy flew many of her successors in the role, including Mary Martin, Sandy Duncan, and Cathy Rigby.
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An innovator, Peter Foy constantly tinkered with improvements and invented new systems of staged flight for both greater freedom of movement and greater safety.
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Jean Arthur's Peter Foy Pan was flown on a Kirby pendulum system with a compound drum, the standard method of flying actors for more than 100 years.
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Peter Foy wanted to create flying sequences that looked more natural and soon began to develop new equipment that would allow actors' movements to be more easily synchronized with music and seamlessly integrated into the action of the play.
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Peter Foy founded Flying by Foy in 1957; in the 1960s he branched out from Broadway to Las Vegas shows.
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Peter Foy solved the problem of flying actors in low height situations with his invention of the Floating Pulley in 1958.
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Peter Foy holds patents, in both the United States and the United Kingdom, for a number of flying devices and flying systems, including an advanced form of Track-On-Track developed specifically for the Ice Capades, which he called the "Inter-Reacting Compensator".
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At the time of his death, "Flying by Peter Foy" was producing the flight effects for two Broadway-bound shows: Spamalot and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
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Recent Broadway projects involving "Flying by Peter Foy" include: Mary Poppins, Billy Elliot the Musical, Equus, You're Welcome America - A Final Night with George W Bush, American Idiot, and Priscilla Queen of the Desert.