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During the early decades of the last century, cities all over America and Europe were fascinated by publicity seekers known as human flys. These spidermen would climb up the side of a building, typically with no special tools for climbing, after arranging for a payoff if successful. Virtually every tall building over 4 stories was a target. Many like Harry Gardiner were quite successful, many others were not as skilled or lucky and fell to their deaths. For example in 1923, a man named Harry F. Young who was hired to climb the Hotel Martinique in N.Y.C. to promote the film "Safety Last" (about a building climber), slipped and fell nine stories to his death.
Before there were many skyscrapers to climb, daredevils leapt from high places into water, did tightrope walks over high places, or simply went over Niagara Falls in a barrel. The most famous of these acrobats was Charles Blondin, who crossed the gorge over Niagara Falls on a tightrope numerous times, sometimes blindfolded, and once with a man on his back. He even went halfway across the gorge, stopped and cooked a egg with a stove he carried with him. I guess people have always gone to amazing lengths to entertain and be entertained. Does anybody have stories of death defying acrobats in the family, perhaps a great uncle who was a human fly? Or maybe a local/regional legend who was a daredevil for fun and profit?
I was at a doubleheader at Candlestick Park in the '70's where between games they had Karl Wallenda walk a tightrope which was stretched about 60 feet above the ground between the two foul poles. He made it okay, even stopped halfway across and made this haunting speech..."...my enemy is the wind.."
It was pretty dang impressive...and it certainly came to mind the following year when Wallenda fell to his death while trying to walk between the two towers of the ten-story Condado Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It was blamed on the wind, but some time later I saw an interview with a family member who said the rope wasn't properly fixed and it wasn't the wind.
There is a natural fascination with the idea of seeing a tragedy. I had always felt that all the space shots were televised live back in the 60s because the viewing audience wanted to see a disastrous failure on live TV. They watched unblinkingly, afraid they would miss that little poof of an astronaut being reduced to gaseous molecules on re-entry. Well, we got one, and most people who saw it list it as one of their most memorable life events.
People didn't stand in the streets to see a human fly scale a building. They stood to see him fall to his death, and were disappointed if he didn't. Nothing attracts a crowd like a jumper. Most people go a lifetime without seeing someone die, even on live TV. They will even pay good money to see a snuff video.
A man named Philippe Petit walked on a wire strung between the roofs of the two World Trade Center towers in 1974. IMO the single greatest wirewalking stunt in history. He elevated it to ART.
There is a wonderful documentary about his feat called "Man on Wire."
Last edited by DewDropInn; 12-19-2011 at 02:42 PM..
A man named Philippe Petit walked on a wire strung between the roofs of the two World Trade Center towers in 1974. IMO the single greatest wirewalking stunt in history. He elevated it to ART.
There is a wonderful documentary about his feat called "Man on Wire."
That is amazing. Just watching some clips of it I could barely watch it, even though I know how it turned out. The wind up there would have been a bit unpredictable.
Back in high school one of my alltime fave classes i ever had taken was ''American History/1900-1939'' especially when we studied about The Roaring Twenties and watching some films in class featuring those skyscraper acrobats including some who were mounted to the top wings of the biplanes flying around in the sky doing flips and circles etc. and being in awe of them .
I like the current underground movement of human spidermen that combines a little bit of art and gymnastics with risky stunts. You know the ones with people leaping between walls to climb a 4 story building and jumping down off a 2 story roof to hit the ground, roll and run off all in a long coordinated sequence set to music. I think it's called "Parkour".
Yes the Wingwalkers were amazing. As jtur88 noted the wing-walkers themselves noted that the point of their trade was to make money on the audience's prospect of possibly watching someone die. Still it was neat to see. And i get vertigo looking at some of these pictures. Also should give credit to the first wing-walker Ormer Locklear, who is now forgotten after dying prematurely in a plane crash while making a movie for Fox.
This threads reminds me of what a huge deal it was in 1974 when Evel Knievel made his attempt to jump the Snake River Canyon while riding a rocket. What made Knieval such an interesting daredevil was his failure rate. He had conditioned us to believe that on any of his stunts, there was an excellent chance of our seeing his body being thrown about and mangled in a spectacular manner. But he kept at it and now here he was trying something which seemed likely to get him killed if it didn't go well.
The event was on a closed circuit broadcast, you went to a movie theater to see it. My interest didn't extend to that, I figured that if they could get a man on the moon, they could probably get one across the Snake River. However, I did listen to the live radio broiadcast..and a few weeks later it was on Wide World of Sports for free.
The jump itself was anticlimatic compared to the buildup. The drone chute deployed prematurely, either by accident or the sudden thrust jolting Knievel's nerves into premature action. As a consequence, the rocket just reached the other rim of the canyon, and then the wind carried it back across and deposited it on the same bank of the river from which it was launched. Knievel had a few bumps and bruises.
To make up for it, the following year he had one of his most spectacular wrecks, the botched jump of 13 doubledecker London buses..which was broadcast live on ABC for free.
The jump itself was anticlimatic compared to the buildup.
Evel Knievel was a P.R. genius. Even his name was genius. Absolutely brilliant in marketing his jumps.
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