Target girl - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Target girl is a term sometimes used in circus

Circus

A circus is commonly a travelling company of performers that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, unicyclists and other stunt-oriented artists...

and vaudeville

Vaudeville

Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...

to denote a female assistant in "impalement

Impalement arts

Impalement arts are a type of performing art in which a performer plays the role of human target for a fellow performer who demonstrates accuracy skills in disciplines such as knife throwing and archery. Impalement is actually what the performers endeavour to avoid - the thrower or marksman aims...

" acts such as knife throwing

Knife throwing

Knife throwing is an art, sport, combat skill, or variously an entertainment technique, involving an artist skilled in the art of throwing knives, the weapons thrown, and a target.-A throwing knife:...

, archery

Archery

Archery is the art, practice, or skill of propelling arrows with the use of a bow, from Latin arcus. Archery has historically been used for hunting and combat; in modern times, however, its main use is that of a recreational activity...

or sharpshooting

Exhibition shooting

Exhibition shooting or trick shooting is a sport in which a marksman performs various feats of skill, frequently using non-traditional targets. Exhibition shooting tends to stress both speed and accuracy, often with elements of danger added.-History:...

. The assistant stands in front of a target board or is strapped to a moving board and the impalement artist throws knives or shoots projectiles so as to hit the board but miss the assistant. The image or character of the target girl has also permeated beyond the impalement arts and become an icon in fiction and visual media.

Introduction

Although some assistants are male there is no common equivalent term for a male assistant. This reflects the fact that, historically at least, female assistants have predominated in the acts in question. The presence of an assistant as a human target provides a powerful element of risk. Without assistants placing themselves in danger these acts would be simple demonstrations of accuracy, but with the potential for injury or death the show is much more dramatic. Target girls often wear revealing costumes, thus adding an element of overt sexuality

Human female sexuality

Human female sexuality encompasses a broad range of behaviors and processes, including female sexual identity and sexual behavior, the physiological, psychological, social, cultural, political, and spiritual or religious aspects of sex...

to an act. In this respect there is some similarity to magicians' assistants

Magician's assistant

A magician's assistant is a performer in a magic act who is not billed as the magician or principal name in the act. The role of an assistant can include holding the props that are used by a magician, shifting props onto and off the stage, and serving as a living prop in illusions that involve...

, although there is a distinct difference in that any apparent danger to an assistant in a magic act is mostly an illusion, whereas impalement acts are demonstrations of accuracy, nerve and calculated risk and the danger is real. While some observers have perceived target girls as masochistic or passive and some feminists criticise the concept as misogynist, several target girls have given accounts of themselves as assertive women and portrayed their experiences as empowering (see Target girls as authors).

Various theories have been put forward to explain the enduring appeal of the target girl. These range from simple awe at the display of steely nerves and complete trust to more complex psychological and philosophical theories. While some point to overtones of sadomasochistic

BDSM

BDSM is an erotic preference and a form of sexual expression involving the consensual use of restraint, intense sensory stimulation, and fantasy power role-play. The compound acronym BDSM is derived from the terms bondage and discipline , dominance and submission , and sadism and masochism...

eroticism, others cite dramaturgical

Dramaturgy

Dramaturgy is the art of dramatic composition and the representation of the main elements of drama on the stage. Dramaturgy is a distinct practice separate from play writing and directing, although a single individual may perform any combination of the three. Some dramatists combine writing and...

works and point to parallels with the story arc of the hero

Hero

A hero , in Greek mythology and folklore, was originally a demigod, their cult being one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion...

in classic drama. In particular the assistant's performance is said to mirror the plot device of the hero's ordeal, in which the hero proves his or her heroic qualities through self-sacrifice or by facing extreme peril. Jim Steinmeyer

Jim Steinmeyer

Jim Steinmeyer is an internationally respected designer of magical illusions and theatrical special effects. His best known illusions include Origami, Interlude, and Walking Through a Mirror. He is also an author, consultant and producer....

, a noted illusion designer who has written well-regarded books on the history of magic, has identified a fashion for female peril as entertainment in the post-First World War period. Steinmeyer has written that P. T. Selbit

P. T. Selbit

P. T. Selbit was an English magician, inventor and writer who is credited with being the first person to perform the illusion of sawing a woman in half...

's stage debut of the Sawing Through A Woman
Sawing a woman in half
Sawing a woman in half is a generic name for a number of different stage magic tricks in which a person is apparently sawn or divided into two or more pieces.-History:...

illusion in 1921 marked the beginning of a trend for women as the victims of choice for acts simulating danger or torture. While Steinmeyer focuses on stage magic and attributes some of the trend to practical factors, he also points to a broader pattern in entertainment generally, which he links to social trends. He concludes that: "...beyond practical concerns, the image of the woman in peril became a specific fashion in entertainment". A further view on historical trends is provided by performer and blogger Ula the Painproof Rubbergirl, who has acted as a target girl for New York-based knife thrower The Great Throwdini. In an extensive article on her experiences and philosophical approach to the art she notes: "Knife throwing is an old act. So is high wire. And rodeo. And stone throwing, witch burning, beheading, Roman gladiators, jousting, dog fights,you name it - we, humans, love it. And we love a vulnerable woman. Isn't there something oddly attractive about the woman in danger? I remember seeing lots of soundless black and white movies with a girl tied to the railroad tracks or a girl tied to a sawmill by some evil perverted landlord."

Notable real life target girls

Like magicians' assistants, target girls have often suffered the injustice of not receiving the same recognition and billing as their co-performers. Those that have received equal billing have generally been part of husband and wife acts, which are common in this field. Acts that involve a domestic partnership as well as an on-stage one have tended to have greater longevity than pairings where a thrower recruits an assistant as an employee. It has been suggested that this is because the off-stage domestic ties serve to keep the partnership together in the face of the tensions that can occur within such acts. The lack of individual billing for target girls adds to the difficulty of picking out notable examples. The following is therefore a small selection who are distinguished by particular features of their careers rather than a definitive "hall of fame".

Elizabeth Collins is almost unique in having effectively ended up with top billing in the knife throwing act she formed with her husband Martin Collins. The couple met and married in their native Hungary at around the time of the outbreak of World War 2 and began performing together as "Elizabeth and Collins". For their signature stunt they developed an extremely demanding trick that involved Elizabeth spinning on a "wheel of death
Wheel of death (Impalement arts)
The Wheel of Death, in the context of the impalement arts, is a classic moving target stunt sometimes performed by knife throwers. The thrower's assistant or target girl is secured to a large, generally circular, target board that is free to spin about its centre point...

" target while her husband balanced on a tightrope and threw knives at her. After the war they settled in Britain and toured clubs and theatres around the world. They were one of the first impalement acts to break into television. Elizabeth retired from performing in the early 1960s and was replaced by their daughter who was also named Elizabeth (although additionally known as Agnes). Elizabeth and Collins performed on The Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June 20, 1948 to Sunday June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan....

three times and appeared as themselves in an episode of the 1960s spy series The Avengers
The Avengers (TV series)
The Avengers is a spy-fi British television series set in the 1960s Britain. The Avengers initially focused on Dr. David Keel and his assistant John Steed . Hendry left after the first series and Steed became the main character, partnered with a succession of assistants...

.
Helga and Sylvia Brumbach are a mother and daughter who have both been part of a family act that is regarded by many other artists as setting the standard in their field. The Brumbachs, also known as Los Alamos, began with Fritz Brumbach as a knife thrower and whip cracker and his wife Helga as target girl. Later daughter Sylvia joined the act as a second target girl and then son Patrick became a thrower. Fritz and Helga have since retired but Patrick and Sylvia continue the act. Fritz is a Guinness World Record
Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records , is a reference book published annually, containing a collection of world records, both human achievements and the extremes of the natural world...

holder for rapid throwing around a live target.
Irene Stey married into an old established Swiss circus family when she wed Rolf Stey. The couple worked as a knife act called "Two Tornados" between 1965 and 1985 and are notable for being one of only two acts to repeat the combined "wheel of death" and tightrope stunt developed by Elizabeth and Collins. After retiring as a target girl Irene continued in the circus business with an equestrian act.
Barbara Braun began performing with her husband Sylvester as the "Wizards of the West" in the early 1940s. Sixty years later the couple were honoured by the International Knifethrowers Hall of Fame with the "Knife Throwing Pioneer Award" and the title "Wild West Duo of the 20th Century".
Montana Nell was the performing name of Pearl Collins who, between 1929 and 1950, toured with her husband Robert Collins in a western arts act under the billing of "Texas Slim and Montana Nell". She was born Pearl Miller and grew up on a farm, which helped her become a highly proficient horse rider. In 1923 she married a man called Seamor Russell with whom she had a daughter named Doris. Seamor died of an illness in 1925 and Pearl went on to marry Collins in 1929. When Doris was 16 she joined her parents' show as a trick rider and sharp shooter named "Little Miss Peggy". Pearl and Robert Collins were posthumously honoured by the International Knifethrowers Hall of Fame in 2006.
Claude Chantal Blanc is an experienced Swiss aerial and tight wire artist who is unusual for working as part of an all-female knife throwing act named Risk Ladies. The thrower was Caroline Haerdi, who currently works in partnership with a male thrower named Arno Black; she as the thrower and he as the target.
Tina Nagy Is a dancer and aerial artist who featured as a target girl in the 2007 season of the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

television series America's Got Talent
America's Got Talent
America's Got Talent is an American reality television series on the NBC television network, and part of the global British Got Talent franchise. It is a talent show that features singers, dancers, magicians, comedians, and other performers of all ages competing for the advertised top prize of...

. Nagy, who is of Hungarian descent but grew up in Connecticut, performed with knife thrower The Great Throwdini. Her interest in the impalement arts began through working as a target girl for bullwhip artist Robert Dante. She has sought to produce a performance artform that combines dance and whip cracking.
Ekaterina Sknarina is a model, actress, contortionist, aerial artist and former international gymnast. She was born in Russia and competed at world championship level for the Russian rhythmic gymnastics team. She later trained as an aerial artist with Cirque du Soleil
Cirque du Soleil
Cirque du Soleil , is a Canadian entertainment company, self-described as a "dramatic mix of circus arts and street entertainment." Based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul in 1984 by two former street performers, Guy...

. After re-locating to New York she began working as a contortionist in the burgeoning new burlesque scene. She also began working as a model and appeared in magazines including FHM
FHM
FHM, originally published as For Him Magazine, is an international monthly men's lifestyle magazine.- History :The magazine began publication in 1985 in the United Kingdom under the name For Him and changed its title to FHM in 1994 when Emap Consumer Media bought the magazine, although the full For...

, One World, and GQ. She added the role of target girl to her portfolio after meeting knife thrower The Great Throwdini. In 2005 she was one of the stars of the off-Broadway show Maximum Risk, during which she helped set two world records for the number of knives thrown around a human target in a minute. She was Miss Coney Island
Coney Island
Coney Island is a peninsula and beach on the Atlantic Ocean in southern Brooklyn, New York, United States. The site was formerly an outer barrier island, but became partially connected to the mainland by landfill....

2007. She appears in the movie Across the Universe
Across the Universe (film)
Across the Universe is a musical romantic drama film directed by Julie Taymor, produced by Revolution Studios, and distributed by Columbia Pictures. The film's plot is centered around songs by The Beatles. It was released in the United States on October 12, 2007. The script is based on an original...

(2007) and was featured in promotional posters for it.

Tonya Kay
Tonya Kay
Tonya Kay is an American actress, television personality, and performance artist appearing in independent films and episodic television. Her background includes performing stunts and what she refers to as "danger arts", which consist of knife throwing and whip cracking...

is a "danger artist", dancer, film actress and TV personality. She has performed with knife thrower Jack Dagger on The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien, History Channel's More Extreme Marksmen and Nippon Television's Dream Vision in Japan. She performs solo as a "danger artist", throwing knives herself as well as cracking whips, fire dancing, aerial stuntwork, stilt dancing and grinding sparks off a metal bikini. She has been featured on Showtime's Live Nude Comedy, Comedy Central's Secret Girlfriend and NBC's America's Got Talent
America's Got Talent
America's Got Talent is an American reality television series on the NBC television network, and part of the global British Got Talent franchise. It is a talent show that features singers, dancers, magicians, comedians, and other performers of all ages competing for the advertised top prize of...

. She performed for three years in the stage show STOMP
Stomp
Stomp may refer to:*Stomp , a downwards kick using the heel*Stomp , a percussive physical theatre troupe*Stomp Records, a record label now part of Union Label Group*Stomp Entertainment, an Australian entertainment group...

, played Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...

with Panic At The Disco and was a part of the Las Vegas based De La Guarda aerial stunt company.

Target girls as authors

A very small and select group of women are notable for having used personal experience to write about the impalement arts from the point of view of the target girl. They include:

Astrid Schollenberger a middle-aged German single mother with a masters degree in philosophy and a regular job who, at the suggestion of her boyfriend Dr Joachim Heil, volunteered as a target girl for knife thrower Dr David Adamovich (aka The Great Throwdini). Schollenberger worked with Adamovich for a show in New York in 2002 where he first publicly performed the "Wheel of death
Wheel of death (Impalement arts)
The Wheel of Death, in the context of the impalement arts, is a classic moving target stunt sometimes performed by knife throwers. The thrower's assistant or target girl is secured to a large, generally circular, target board that is free to spin about its centre point...

" stunt. Later Schollenberger, Adamovich and Heil wrote a book about the experience titled A Day on Broadway: The art of being a knife thrower's assistant.
Ronnie Claire Edwards
Ronnie Claire Edwards
-Biography:Edwards was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. She has been acting professionally since 1963 and is best known for the role of the bossy "Corabeth Walton Godsey", wife of storekeeper Ike Godsey played by Joe Conley, in the CBS television series The Waltons, created by Earl Hamner, Jr...

is an American actress born in 1933. She is best known for the role of "Corabeth Walton Godsey" in the series The Waltons
The Waltons
The Waltons is an American television series created by Earl Hamner, Jr., based on his book Spencer's Mountain, and a 1963 film of the same name. The show centered on a family growing up in a rural Virginia community during the Great Depression and World War II. The series pilot was a television...

(1972 - 1981). Her substantial and often quirky career is recalled in an autobiography titled The Knife Thrower's Assistant: Memoirs of a Human Target.
Ula the Painproof Rubbergirl started as one half of a duo called The Painproof Rubbergirls who did contortion
Contortion
thumb|upright|Contortionist performingContortion is an unusual form of physical display which involves the dramatic bending and flexing of the human body. Contortion is often part of acrobatics and circus acts...

and various sideshow-type
Sideshow
In America, a sideshow is an extra, secondary production associated with a circus, carnival, fair or other such attraction.- Types of attractions :There are four main types of classic sideshow attractions:...

stunts, such as the Bed of nails
Bed of nails
A bed of nails is an oblong piece of wood the size of a bed with nails pointing upwards out of it. It appears to the spectator that anyone lying on this "bed" would be injured by the nails, but this is not so...

. After her partner left for other work, Ula continued as a solo performer doing various aerial acts as well as a signature routine that involves contortion feats on a bed of swords. In 2003 she worked as a target girl for Dr David Adamovich (aka The Great Throwdini) and later wrote a lengthy article about the act and the philosophy behind her part in it. Ula was featured as a target girl in the US edition of FHM magazine in March 2006.

Celebrity target girls

A small group of target girls are notable for the fact that they are well known celebrities who performed the role for charitable purposes or other reasons apart from their main career. These are examples of the target girl, rather than the thrower, being the main individual in the act. The annual Circus of the Stars
Circus of the Stars
Circus of the Stars was an annual television special, broadcast by the CBS network in the United States, in which celebrities performed circus-type acts. There were 19 shows in total, the first being broadcast in 1977 and the last in 1994. Over the years the series featured many leading movie and...

television special, made by CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

between 1977 and 1994, provided a number of examples. They include:

Lynda Carter
Lynda Carter
Lynda Jean Carter is an American actress and singer, best known for being Miss World USA and as the star of the 1970s television series The New Original Wonder Woman and The New Adventures of Wonder Woman ....

, the actress best known as television's Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman is a DC Comics superheroine created by William Moulton Marston. She first appeared in All Star Comics #8 . The Wonder Woman title has been published by DC Comics almost continuously except for a brief hiatus in 1986....

, appeared as a target girl on the very first Circus of the Stars in January 1977, with actor David Janssen
David Janssen
David Janssen was an American film and television actor who is best known for his starring role as Dr. Richard Kimble in the television series The Fugitive , the starring role in the 1950s hit detective series Richard Diamond, Private Detective , and as Harry Orwell on Harry O.In 1996 TV Guide...

throwing knives at her.
Actress and model Ann Turkel
Ann Turkel
Ann Kathryn Turkel is an American actress and model.Turkel studied at the Musical Theatre Academy.She was photographed for American Vogue...

performed the role of target girl for knife thrower Skeeter Vaughan in the second Circus of the Stars in December 1977.
Charlene Tilton
Charlene Tilton
Charlene L. Tilton is an American actress and singer. She is best known for playing Lucy Ewing in the television series Dallas.-Career:...

, the actress best known for her role in the television series Dallas, famously appeared in a gold bikini as a target girl for knife thrower Skeeter Vaughan in the 1979 Circus of the Stars.
Sally Kellerman
Sally Kellerman
Sally Clare Kellerman is an American actress and singer known for her role as Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan in the film MASH , for which she was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.-Early life:...

, the actress who played Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan in the film MASH
MASH (film)
MASH is a 1970 American satirical dark comedy film directed by Robert Altman and written by Ring Lardner, Jr., based on Richard Hooker's novel MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors. It is the only feature film in the M*A*S*H franchise...

, appeared as a target girl for knife thrower Larry Cisewski on the 1981 Circus of the Stars. She was seen holding balloons for Cisewski to burst and also braved being spun around on his "Devil's door" target board as he planted knives around her.
Linda Blair
Linda Blair
Linda Denise Blair is an American actress. Blair is best known for her role as the possessed child, Regan, in the 1973 film The Exorcist, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award and two Golden Globes, winning one. She reprised her role in 1977's Exorcist II: The Heretic.-Biography:Blair...

, the actress who rose to fame as a child star in The Exorcist, appeared as a target girl for knife thrower Paul Lacross on Circus of the Stars in 1983.
Actress Britt Ekland
Britt Ekland
Britt-Marie Ekland is a Swedish actress and singer, and a long time resident of the United Kingdom. She is best known for her roles as a Bond girl in The Man with the Golden Gun, and in the British cult horror film The Wicker Man, as well as her marriage to actor Peter Sellers, and her...

appeared as a target girl for knife thrower Fritz Brumbach on Circus of the Stars in 1986.
Television presenter and actress Ursula von Manescul appeared as a target girl on the annual German charity circus show Stars in der Manege in 1967. She performed with a duo called The Williams Boys.
Actress Simone Thomalla
Simone Thomalla
- Life :Thomalla is the daughter of the architect Alfred Thomalla. She grew up in Potsdam in East Germany. As a child she wanted to be a musician, but instead she attended the Hochschule für Schauspielkunst "Ernst Busch" acting school in Berlin. She gave her debut in the movie "Abgefunden". In 1989...

was a target girl for world-record breaking impalement artist Patrick Brumbach in the final edition of the German television charity show Stars in der Manege, recorded in December 2008. During the act she rode a rotating target board as Brumbach threw knives around her and she also held out targets for him to cut with a whip.

Fictional and artistic representation

The mixture of peril, nerve and sexuality inherent in the idea of a target girl has proved attractive to writers, artists, moviemakers and television executives.

Movie and television

There are many instances of target girls as iconic or emblematic images in film and television. The most notable movie example is the character Adele portrayed by Vanessa Paradis

Vanessa Paradis

Vanessa Chantal Paradis is a French singer, model and actress. She became a child star at 14 with the worldwide success of her single "Joe le taxi"...

in the film Girl on the Bridge (1999), in which the knife throwing act is at the centre of the plot and serves as a powerful erotic metaphor.

Other examples include:

The fourth season of the television series Bones
Bones (TV series)
Bones is an American crime drama television series that premiered on the Fox Network on September 13, 2005. The show is based on forensic anthropology and forensic archaeology, with each episode focusing on an FBI case file concerning the mystery behind human remains brought by FBI Special Agent...

, featured an episode (first aired in 2009) in which title character Temperance "Bones" Brennan goes undercover as a target girl with Special Agent Seeley Booth
Seeley Booth
FBI Special Agent "In charge" Seeley Joseph Booth is a fictional character in the US television series, Bones , portrayed by David Boreanaz. Agent Booth is a co-protagonist of the series alongside Dr...

as a knife-thrower.
Cameron Diaz
Cameron Diaz
Cameron Michelle Diaz is an American actress and former model. She became famous during the 1990s with roles in the movies The Mask, My Best Friend's Wedding, and There's Something About Mary. Other high-profile credits include the two Charlie's Angels films, voicing the character Princess Fiona...

's character Jenny Everdeane acts as a target girl in a scene in the film Gangs of New York
Gangs of New York
Gangs of New York is a 2002 historical film set in the mid-19th century in the Five Points district of New York City. It was directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Jay Cocks, Steven Zaillian, and Kenneth Lonergan. The film was inspired by Herbert Asbury's 1928 nonfiction book, The Gangs of New...

(2002) which was used in promotional clips.
In the television series Nikki
Nikki (TV series)
Nikki is an American sitcom that aired on The WB from 2000 to 2002. Nikki was a starring vehicle for Nikki Cox, who had previously starred in another WB sitcom, Unhappily Ever After, which ran for five seasons...

, an episode aired in 2001 featured the characters played by Nikki Cox
Nikki Cox
Nicole Avery "Nikki" Cox is an American actress known mostly for her roles on the television series Unhappily Ever After, Las Vegas, and Nikki.-Early life:...

and Susan Egan
Susan Egan
Susan Egan is an American actress and singer known for her work on the Broadway stage.-Early life and career:Egan was born in Seal Beach, California. She attended Orange County High School of the Arts and UCLA. In the meantime she started her career touring with the performance group The Young...

taking jobs as target girls.
The television play The Act (1987) revolved around a knife throwing act and a girl who applies for a job as the assistant. It was made for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

and was a co-production involving the Royal College of Art
Royal College of Art
The Royal College of Art is an art school located in London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s only wholly postgraduate university of art and design, offering the degrees of Master of Arts , Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy...

. It starred Caroline Embling and Bill Rourke. Real life knife thrower Jay Ruffley provided throwing skills in one scene and also appeared as the owner of a club.
Courteney Cox
Courteney Cox
Courteney Bass Cox is an American actress, she is best known for her roles as Monica Geller on the NBC sitcom Friends, Gale Weathers in the horror series Scream and as Jules Cobb in the ABC sitcom Cougar Town, for which she earned her first Golden Globe nomination....

's character in the 1987 television movie If it's Tuesday it still must be Belgium becomes a target girl in a circus knife throwing act.
In the movie Bronco Billy (1980), actresses Sondra Locke
Sondra Locke
Sondra Locke is an American actress, singer and film director.She made her film debut in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter , for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress...

and Tessa Richarde are both seen as target girls for a sharpshooter and knife thrower played by Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood
Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...

. Locke's role in the act is central to the plot.
In the television series Charlie's Angels
Charlie's Angels
Charlie's Angels is a television series about three women who work for a private investigation agency, and is one of the first shows to showcase women in roles traditionally reserved for men...

, Cheryl Ladd
Cheryl Ladd
Cheryl Ladd is an American actress, singer and author. Ladd is best known for her role as Kris Munroe in the television series Charlie's Angels, hired amid a swirl of publicity prior to its second season in 1977 to replace the departing Farrah Fawcett-Majors...

's character Kris Munroe
Kris Munroe
Kristine "Kris" Munroe is one of six female fictional private detectives in the 1976-1981 television series Charlie's Angels. She was portrayed by Cheryl Ladd. She worked for the Townsend Agency for four seasons of the show's entire five season run, taking the place of her big sister Jill when she...

goes undercover as a target girl in an episode titled "Circus of Terror" (1977).
The spy thriller Masquerade (1965) features Marisa Mell
Marisa Mell
Marisa Mell was an Austrian actress who became a cult figure of 1960s Italian B-movies. She was born as Marlies Theres Moitzi in Graz, Austria.-Biography:...

as a target girl named Sophie.
Target girls were iconic figures in a series of horror films set in circuses that were made in the 1960s. These include:
- Circus of Horrors (1960), in which Vanda Hudson played a target girl called Magda von Meck.
- Circus of Fear (1966), which features British actress Margaret Lee as an assistant facing danger in a knife act.
- Berserk! (1967), in which Judy Geeson
  Judy Geeson
  Judith Amanda "Judy" Geeson is an English actor.-Early life:Geeson was born in Arundel, Sussex, England on 10 September 1948. She came from a middle class family; her father edited the National Coal Board magazine. Her sister, Sally Geeson, is also an actress and is known for her roles in British...
  
  played a target girl in a circus knife act.
The film Phantom of the Rue Morgue (1954) has an early scene featuring one of the female leads as a target girl.
In "Lucy Tells the Truth" (1953), an episode of the television series I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy is an American television sitcom starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley. The black-and-white series originally ran from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, on the Columbia Broadcasting System...

, a white lie leads to Lucille Ball
Lucille Ball
Lucille Désirée Ball was an American comedian, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life With Lucy...

's character ending up as the assistant in a knife act.

Theatre

The play Pin Cushion, by Clay McLeod Chapman is based around a husband and wife knife throwing act and consists of the target girl delivering a monologue while her husband throws knives around her. It was performed as part of Chapman's Pumpkin Pie Show at The Red Room Theatre, New York, in May and June 2002. The performance involved a genuine knife throwing act, with actress Niabi Caldwell as the target girl and professional knife thrower Dr. David Adamovich (aka The Great Throwdini) playing her husband.

Photography

The target girl has also been used as an image in fashion and art photography. Examples include:

Model Karen Elson
Karen Elson
Karen Elson is a British model, singer-songwriter and guitarist.As a child, Elson attended North Chadderton School in Chadderton with her twin sister, filmmaker Kate Elson. She began working as a model as a teenager....

is seen spinning on a "wheel of death" target in a picture by photographer Steven Meisel
Steven Meisel
Steven Meisel is an American photographer, who obtained popular acclaim with his work in US and Italian Vogue and his photographs of friend Madonna in her 1992 book Sex...

that formed part of a series titled "The Greatest Show on Earth" in the April 2007 issue of the Italian edition of Vogue
Vogue (magazine)
Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...

magazine.
Model Kate Moss
Kate Moss
Kate Moss is an English model. Moss is known for her waifish figure and popularising the heroin chic look in the 1990s. She is also known for her controversial private life, high profile relationships, party lifestyle, and drug use. Moss changed the look of modelling and started a global debate on...

appeared on a "wheel of death" target in two of a series of fashion photos by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott in the April 2006 issue of W magazine.
Actress Jennifer Ellison
Jennifer Ellison
Jennifer Lesley Ellison is an English actress, glamour model, television personality, dancer and singer...

appeared strapped to a "wheel of death" target and surrounded by knives in the UK edition of Maxim magazine in 2005. The picture was reproduced in the Daily Star newspaper on 1 December 2005.
Drummer Meg White
Meg White
Megan Martha "Meg" White is an American drummer best known for her work in the Detroit rock duo The White Stripes.-Early life:...

appeared as a target girl on a "wheel of death" target in a photo of The White Stripes
The White Stripes
The White Stripes was an American rock band, formed in 1997 in Detroit, Michigan. The group consisted of the songwriter Jack White and drummer Meg White . Jack and Meg White were previously married to each other, but are now divorced...

by Annie Leibovitz in 2003. The picture was part of a series that appeared in a book and an exhibition, both titled Annie Leibovitz: American Music.
Singer and musician Shakira
Shakira
Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll , known professionally as Shakira , is a Colombian singer who emerged in the music scene of Colombia and Latin America in the early 1990s...

appeared standing against a target with knives around her in a photo in the April 2002 issue of FHM
FHM
FHM, originally published as For Him Magazine, is an international monthly men's lifestyle magazine.- History :The magazine began publication in 1985 in the United Kingdom under the name For Him and changed its title to FHM in 1994 when Emap Consumer Media bought the magazine, although the full For...

magazine (UK edition).
Actress Goldie Hawn
Goldie Hawn
Goldie Jeanne Hawn is an American actress, film director, producer, and occasional singer. Hawn is known for her roles in Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Private Benjamin, Foul Play, Overboard, Bird on a Wire, Death Becomes Her, The First Wives Club, and Cactus Flower, for which she won the 1969...

appeared in a circus costume strapped to a "wheel of death" target for a magazine photoshoot in the 1990s.
The cover of Stick It to Ya
Stick It to Ya
Stick It To Ya is the debut album from hard rock band Slaughter. It was released in 1990 by Chrysalis Records. It sold over 2 million copies...

, the debut album by heavy metal band Slaughter
Slaughter (band)
Slaughter is an American heavy metal band formed in Las Vegas, Nevada by lead vocalist/rhythm guitarist Mark Slaughter and bassist Dana Strum. The band reached stardom in 1990 with their first album, Stick It to Ya which spawned several hit singles including "Up All Night", "Spend My Life", "Mad...

, was infamous for featuring a photo of former Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...

playmate Laurie Carr wearing a swimsuit, strapped to a target board and surrounded by knives. The cover of a subsequent release, Stick It Live
Stick It Live
Stick It Live is a live EP released by hard rock band Slaughter. The EP was released by Chrysalis Records shortly after the release of the band's debut album...

, featured an image apparently from the same shoot as the first but this time showing the target girl walking towards the target board hand-in-in-hand with a knife thrower.

Literature

Steven Millhauser
Steven Millhauser
Steven Millhauser is an American novelist and short story writer. He won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel Martin Dressler. The prize brought many of his older books back into print.-Life and career:...

's short story The Knife Thrower features a thrower who specialises in nicking those who stand at the target board for him, including his female assistant. It was published as part of a collection that bears the same title. At least one edition features as its cover a painting of a girl standing in front of a target board.
The relationship between a target girl and a circus knifethrower is the central motif in the poem cycle Das Mädchen und der Messerwerfer published in 1997 by noted German poet Wolf Wondratschek
Wolf Wondratschek
Wolf Wondratschek is a German author. He was born in Rudolstadt in Thuringia.-Life:Wondratschek grew up in Karlsruhe. From 1962 through 1967, he studied literature, philosophy and sociology at the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, Georg-August University of Göttingen, and the Johann Wolfgang...

.
The novel Knives of Desire by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Marion Zimmer Bradley
Marion Eleanor Zimmer Bradley was an American author of fantasy novels such as The Mists of Avalon and the Darkover series. Many critics have noted a feminist perspective in her writing. Her first child, David R...

(writing under the pen name Morgan Ives) is about a woman who becomes involved in a lesbian relationship after joining a circus to be the target girl for a female knife thrower. The cover of the original edition, published in 1966, shows two women in skimpy bikinis, one standing against a target board and the other throwing a knife.

Music

Tom Waits
Tom Waits
Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...

's song Circus from his 2004 album Real Gone
Real Gone
Real Gone is an album by Tom Waits, released October 3, 2004 in Europe, and October 5 in United States on the ANTI- label.The album features some of the few political songs Waits has ever written, the most explicit being "Day After Tomorrow", a song Waits has described as an "elliptical" protest...

features a knife throwing act as part of the eponymous travelling show.
Gretchen Peters
Gretchen Peters
Gretchen Peters is a singer-songwriter in the folk/country genre. She was born in New York and raised in Boulder, Colorado, but moved to Nashville in the late 1980s...

uses the target girl as a central metaphor in her song Woman on the Wheel, which was debuted on her 2010 tour in support of her Circus Girl album.