1913 – 1976
Mills Brothers Circus said Koringa was from India and the “Only Female Fakir in the World”. Her billing also claimed that she was orphaned at the age of 3 and brought up by fakirs who taught her the arts of sorcery and magic, mesmerizing people and animals, walking over broken glass with her bare feet, and to be buried in a snake-infested sand pit.
Actually she was born Renee Bernard in Bordeaux, and was in discovered by the Mills Brothers working in a small touring circus in France in 1937. Where she was dancing barefoot on a ladder of razor-keen sword blades. By 1938 she was the leading act for Mills Brothers. She earned more than the Prime Minister.
She often visited Newcastle & Fenwick’s shop. She performed alongside four female assistants, all dressed in Eastern costumes, and five live crocodiles, the largest named Churchill. She wore green tinted make up and collected glass for her act from Newcastle’s Public Houses. She was also a member of the French Free Forces who performed secret missions in World War II.
