364. When high-wire tight-rope walkers crossed the Thames river. (Rather them than me!)
It's not an everyday event. But these three daredevils crossed the Thames river high above the water. Without any safety link. (Some were on their day off from the circus.)
The first recorded high-wire tight-roper walked 90 metres across the Thames at Windsor Bridge in 1842 was Signer Duvalla.
Next to complete this feat was Selina Young (aka Pauline Violante) who walked 600 metres above the Thames from Battersea to Cremorne Gardens in 1860. Being a female she wanted to remove any doubts that her high-wire walk was a fluke. So she repeated her walk five times, without incident. News reports called her ‘Madam Blondin’, after the famous circus actors.
Organisers of the 1951 Festival of Britain searched Europe for a dramatic headline act which would attract and entertain the crowds. Frenchman Elleane was selected because he already had a reputation for dramatically walking a high-wire stretched across the rivers Rhine, Elbe and Danube. Elleane performed his walk at Hungerford Bridge, London.
To give the watching crowds something extra to go OOOHH and AAAHH at, he pretended to slip, going down and resting one knee on the wire. He held this position for a few minutes! Then he completed his walk.
The Flying Wallendas
Other high-wire walkers were The Flying Wallendas Troupe who achieved similar feats — walking ten storeys high above Times Square, between two skyscrapers in Chicago, and on a wire stretched across Niagara Falls. When promoters wanted to attract crowds to a ‘grand opening’ they employed the Wallendas.
The Flying Wallendas troupe of circus performers was led by Karl Wallenda (1905-1978) who died, aged 73, when he fell from a high wire during a promotional event in Puerto Rico. A sudden gust of wind was blamed for unbalancing him. The CBC TV news report LINK is here > https://search.app.goo.gl/TVNSMGn
A sad ending to a famous career. But “the show must go on!” Nik Wallenda, Karl's great-grandson, continues the family tradition of performing stunts on the high-wire often without a safety net, but sometimes wearing a connection harness.
Report #364.
My other reports are here > BrianMorris.Substack.com
Two Wallendas cross over, having set off from opposite ends of the high wire.
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