Jackie Stallone really did run away and join the circus, at 15, rather than stick around the house and fulfill her lawyer father's dream of her becoming a lawyer. Forsaking further education and law school of course eliminated her from being a circus aerialist—which she was with the Flying Wallendas—and being present when accidents actually occurred. What better spot to be in than being a lawyer when someone missed the net. Oh well.
Reading of her life gives you insight into why her son Sylvester is as obsessed with fitness as he is. Growing up, the famous bodybuilder Charles Atlas lived with her family. Gymnastics, weight lifting and jogging were on the bulletin board of daily things to do.
Perhaps it was as a celebrity astrologer that she gained the most fame. She had already operated gyms, had her own TV exercise shows and promoted women's wrestling before she found her true calling as an astrologer.
Apparently at one point she was famous enough at a gathering that the obituarist, Julia Carmel, tells us the society columnist for the New York Times, Bob Morris, commented that she worked the room spinning out predictions "like food from a lidless Cuisinart."
It's a great metaphor. Imagine getting splattered with a prediction that was an imaginary pureed radish. Who got the carrot splat?
Perhaps understandably, a woman as kinetic as Jackie had three husbands, survived by one of them. She also leaves two sons, Frank and Sylvester, a sister, six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. If my father had ever met her, I'm sure he would have said "she was quite a gal."
We'll never know which of her buttock dimples, folds or crevices predicted the life she had. Would a prediction vary if you were standing up vs. laying down?
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