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Peter Foy, 'Airographer'
Flight Director for Stage Actors Looks Back on a Long Career
 Listen to Scott Simon takes a flying lesson from theatrical flight pioneer Peter Foy above the set of Peter Pan.
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Having sprinkled the requisite amount of pixie dust, Scott Simon takes to the air. Photos: Chris Iatesta.
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Oct. 5, 2002 -- At just about the same time that Orville and Wilbur Wright were taking wing in Kitty Hawk, N.C., a man named George Kirby was making his character Peter Pan fly across the stages of London's West End theaters.
Whereas the Wright brothers needed to contrive wings, wheels and ailerons, Kirby's Peter Pan needed only faith, trust and a sprinkling of pixie dust.
Kirby taught stage flying to his son, who taught it to Peter Foy, who later lifted Mary Martin into the skies above Broadway stages in the 1950s.
At the age of 77, Foy today is regarded as the world's leading "airographer" -- a word of his coinage. He's a man who uses a tested and secret combination of cables and pulleys to make Peter Pan and the Darling family children appear as if they could just will themselves into the air.
It's stage magic. Except of course that, unlike most magic tricks, the audience expects to see Peter Pan fly -- they even look for the cables.
Still, it is magic, of a sort. A flat-footed Peter who rides Greyhound into Never-Neverland just would not be able to convince the Darling children of the magic in his world.
For Weekend Edition Saturday, Scott Simon talks with Foy about his long career, from working with Mary Martin half a century ago to the upcoming non-musical production of Peter Pan at the Center Stage Theater in Baltimore. Simon also takes a turn as Peter himself, donning a harness and taking to the skies.
Other Resources
 The Web site for Foy's company, Foy Inventerprises.
George Kirby's Flying Ballet Co. is still at it.
Nobody is sure how much irony is intended by this Web site, created by a 48-year-old Tampa, Fla., man living as Peter Pan.
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