The American Motor Drome Company (AMDC) will be performing their Wall of Death show at Dale’s Wheels Through Time Museum May 23-27, 2019.
Touted as “America’s original extreme motorcycle show,” The Wall of Death is a vintage live action thrill show featuring a motor drome, a silo-shaped wooden cylinder 30 feet in diameter. Inside the drome motorcycle daredevils travel along the vertical wall performing trick, fancy, and acrobatic riding. The show features antique Indian and Harley-Davidson motorcycles along with hand built 4-wheeled racing machines.
Developed in the early part of the twentieth century, the Wall of Death show quickly became a crowd favorite and a mainstay on almost every carnival midway in America. The riders were men and women of bravery as they climbed aboard motorcycles and small custom made cars to ride up to the top of the vertical wall surface.
The AMDC is the only Wall of Death to have two riders inducted into the Sturgis Motorcycle Hall of Fame, Jay Lightnin’ (2014) and the late Samantha Morgan (2006). Jay has been riding the wall since 1969 and still performs in each show. The AMDC is also the largest show of its kind still touring in America, with a diameter of 30ft and a riding surface height of 14 feet.
Despite the ominous sounding name, the Wall of Death is a G-rated, family friendly, heart-pounding thrill show. With no ropes, wires, or other assistance, the show hearkens back to the day when true daredevils performed without the assistance of special effects.
The weekend will also feature special celebrations for Memorial Day, including our annual flag raising ceremony on Saturday, demonstrations of rare bikes all weekend long, and a special awards ceremony for Museum Curator Dale Walksler by the Legends Chapter of the Antique Motorcycle Club of America.
The Wall of Death will be performing free hourly shows each day May 23-27 from 9am to 5pm, at Dale’s Wheels Through Time Museum in Maggie Valley, NC.
