This flying young man on the trampoline is Paul Petersen, teen-age component of The Donna Reed Show.

To get off the ground, he bounces on a special mesh Trampoline; and when he’s off, he treads air, flaps his arms and leans on the ozone, as though resting. It’s a talent achieved in 11 months of three-times-weekly workouts.

 

After Paul joined The Donna Reed Show he found he wasn’t getting much exercise. “When I quit public school to attend classes at the studio,” he says, “I had lots of arithmetic, English and history, but no gym. Boy, I sure missed gym. Then I saw this place called Trampoline, Inc., in North Hollywood—that’s where we were living, but we live in Glendale now [“We” are mother, father, grandmother and two sisters]—and so I went in.” Eleven months later Paul could leap to a height of 20 feet and perform feats called by words that Webster never even heard of—Baranys (front flips with half twist), Codys (back flips off stomach), fliffosis (double front or back flips), half-ins, half-outs, and so on. “But that’s when I was only 13 ½ and shorter,” Paul explains. “Now I’m 15 and 5 feet 7, and I can go even higher.”

And perform even more fliffosis, Codys, Baranys, half-ins, half-outs…

*article from TV Guide, July 22, 1961