Peter Foy

Peter Foy (11 June 1925 – 17 February 2005) was a London-born stage flying effects specialist and founder of Flying by Foy, a company whose work became synonymous with theatrical flight, particularly through its long association with productions of Peter Pan. He also appeared as a Broadway performer, with a credit in the 1957 comedy Small War on Murray Hill.

Foy's connection to aerial performance began in childhood, when a role as a Sea Witch in Where the Rainbow Ends required him to fly onstage. After serving in the Royal Air Force as a Navigator and Entertainment Officer, he joined Kirby's Flying Ballets, the British company that had originally flown him as a child. In 1950 he sailed to New York to stage the flying sequences for a production of Peter Pan starring Jean Arthur, using Kirby's pendulum system with a compound drum — a method that had been standard practice for over a century. Dissatisfied with what he saw as the system's limitations, which confined stage flight to what he described as nervous stunts or static tableaus, Foy set about developing new equipment capable of producing more natural, music-synchronized movement.

When he returned to New York four years later to work on the musical version of Peter Pan starring Mary Martin, Foy introduced his invention the Inter-Related Pendulum, a system using two suspension points each controlled by a separate operator. The device enabled highly controlled free flight but demanded considerable skill from its operators, as the performer's weight shifted between the two suspension points during movement. The system also required a minimum grid height of forty feet to generate an effective pendulum swing. Foy went on to fly several of Martin's successors in the role of Peter Pan, including Sandy Duncan and Cathy Rigby.

Foy founded Flying by Foy in 1957, the same year he appeared on Broadway in Small War on Murray Hill, and in the 1960s expanded the company's reach into Las Vegas productions. His inventive output continued throughout his career. In 1958 he developed the Floating Pulley to address the challenge of flying performers in venues with low grid heights, such as small theatres and tent shows. Recognizing that the device was sometimes visible to audiences, he introduced the Track-On-Track system in 1962–63, which allowed two operators to independently control a performer's lift and horizontal travel. For the 1966 film Fantastic Voyage, he created the Multi-Point Balance Harness, which featured adjustable attachment points enabling actors to hold any position during flight. He also developed the Inter-Reacting Compensator, an advanced form of Track-On-Track designed for the Ice Capades, which was incorporated into the first fully motorized, integrated touring truss flying system built for the 1977 Ice Capades' Flying Ballet. Foy held patents for multiple flying devices and systems in both the United States and the United Kingdom.

His work extended across stage, film, and television. Broadway productions for which Flying by Foy created aerial sequences included It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman, Jerome Robbins' Broadway, The Who's Tommy, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Angels in America, The Lion King, Disney's Aida, and Dracula, the Musical. Film credits included Funny Girl, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Hair, and The Wiz. Television work encompassed I Love Lucy, Men into Space, The Garry Moore Show, Hanna-Barbera's Jack and the Beanstalk with Gene Kelly, and The Flying Nun. Flying by Foy also provided flight effects for touring productions of the Ice Capades.

Foy died on 17 February 2005 in Las Vegas, Nevada. At the time of his death, Flying by Foy was at work on the flight effects for two Broadway-bound productions, Spamalot and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Subsequent Broadway projects undertaken by the company included 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.