EDITOR’S NOTE: This story originally appeared in Heart of Ohio Magazine in 2013. It is being republished through a cooperative agreement with Richland Source. To read more stories on Heart of Ohio Magazine log on at www.heartofohiomagazine.com.
If it had not been for a speech by Adolf Hitler to tens of thousands of Austrians in Vienna in March of 1938, this story would never have been written. In that mass of humanity some 75 years ago was a young boy and his family who had relocated to Austria from the United States some 10 years earlier. Otto Schmidt, along with his mother, father and brother, listened to the German fuhrer’s rant which preceded by just one day the official annexation of Austria by Germany.
Otto’s father didn’t like what he heard that afternoon and acted quickly to get his family out of the country and back to the United States. Because all of them possessed dual citizenship, they were allowed to leave; what a wise decision it turned out to be. Otto’s father had grown up in Austria but came to America, the first time, just before 1920.
He located in Mansfield and met a young girl from Shiloh named Edna Baer. They married, had a son and, less than 10 years later, and decided to move back to the father’s homeland. Their second son, Otto, was born just after their ship docked at the port in Europe.
Getting back to the return of the Schmidt family to America, they lived for a short time in New York City before moving again to Mansfield. Otto was 11 by this time; slight of build but extremely athletic. When he wasn’t learning to speak English or taking piano lessons from his classically trained pianist mother, the younger Schmidt was usually climbing anything he found to be a challenge.
Since they lived on W. 2nd Street, one of the nearby challenges was the cross at the top of St. Peter’s Catholic Church, which he tried to climb, much to chagrin of the parish priest.
One of the things that Otto especially enjoyed was doing hand stands. He would practice them anywhere at any time. That talent for balance and his gymnastics ability combined to help young Otto Schmidt excel in the sport of diving. Locally, he did most of his diving in the summers at the pool in Liberty Park.
However, to improve his competitive skills, he would often hitchhike to Columbus for diving sessions with some of the Midwest’s best at the Olympic Pool on Indianola Avenue. His diving also took him to Panama, where he competed in the world championships. Otto continued to make splashes from hand stands long after he quit competing. In fact, his last official dive before an audience came at age 70.
Otto’s multiple talents in diving, gymnastics; body building and playing the piano would eventually lead him to realize that he might be able to make a living in “show biz.” After all, there weren’t many entertainers who could execute a one-armed hand stand on top of the LeVeque Tower in Columbus (which Otto did) and then use those same hands to play a magnificent rendition of the Warsaw Concerto on a piano.
So he signed on with booking agent, Sam Howard, and did his first Aquashow in Davenport, Iowa. He was seen on the Ed Sullivan Show. In another appearance did a high dive into a shallow pool before over 90,000 people at Soldiers Field in Chicago.
Around 1950 Otto discovered another audience for his act, school kids. If you grew up in the 1960s or before you probably remember high schools would have assemblies two or three times each year. Most of the student body didn’t care whether they featured poetry reading or fire eating, they were just happy to get out of class for an hour or two.
Well, if it was Otto Schmidt doing the show they were in for a real treat. His shows combined tumbling, feats of strength and piano playing with his Victor Borge like banter. Few, if any, of the teens, pre-teens or teachers in attendance ever left the auditorium without a smile on his or her face.
It was at an assembly program at a high school in Illinois that Otto had one of his most memorable performances. He met a young girl named Sandy, a senior who had been assigned by the principal to show the assembly entertainer around the school. That chance meeting would blossom into a romance and in a matter of months Otto and Sandy were husband and wife. Besides joining the family, she also joined Otto’s gymnastics act.
Later, after a couple of years and hundreds of assemblies around the Midwest, Otto and Sandy decided that the travel was just too much and they preferred a more family friendly life for son, Joey and themselves in Mansfield, Ohio. Otto decided to exchange his entertainment career for one that involved taking pictures. He went to school, learned the trade and then spent a couple of years snapping pictures for the Mansfield News Journal.
He later decided to strike out on his own with Otto’s Studio. That was in the early 70s and he was at it until retiring in October, 2014.
As I surveyed his studio in preparation for this story, I asked Otto, “What made you more nervous; holding your partner in a handstand atop a multi-story building or making sure that you didn’t miss the cake cutting shot when you photographed a wedding?”
After some reflection, he told me that it probably would be the handstand since it was definitely more life threatening than photography miscues.
Otto knows about life threatening events too. In 1955 he was almost killed when the motorcycle he was driving was stuck by a car that turned in front of him. Although badly injured, within a year he was back on stage entertaining audiences without so much as a limp.
Perhaps you were in one of them.
