Blondin: Walked a Tightrope Over Niagara Falls

February 28 is the birthday of pioneering tightrope walker Charles Blondin (Jean-François Gravelet,1824-1897). (A charmed circus day; it’s also the birthday of Adam Forepaugh).

Blondin was only five when he was sent to study acrobatics at the École de Gymnase in Lyon. He was performing in circuses professionally as “The Boy Wonder” soon thereafter. In 1855 he came to New York with the Ravel Family, and performed at Niblo’s Garden. It was a few months into his American stay that Blondin devised the stunt that made him famous: performing a tightrope walk over the gorge at Niagara Falls. This took a year of preparation and was accomplished in 1859, not once, but many times, and with many variations (on stilts, blindfolded, carrying a man on his back, and pausing in the middle to do things like cook an omelet or stand a chair).

The following year Blondin’s Niagara stunt was repeated by The Great Farini, but meanwhile, Blondin moved on to London. England was to be his home for the remainder of his life, performing many of his professional feats in the broad arena of the Crystal Palace. He toured throughout Great Britain, Ireland, and the Continent for many more years. For a time, such was his fame, that Blondin’s name became synonymous with his circus specialty, a term of art, much as trapeze artist Jules Leotard gave his name to the tights that he wore.

After retiring his highwire act in 1880 Blondin continued to perform in holiday pantos.

The Blondin Memorial Trust remains devoted to preserving his memory.

And of course his footsteps were followed by the likes of Berta Beeson, Con Colleano, The Flying Wallendas, and above all Philippe Petit, his heir and equal in showmanship, who walked between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in 1974. 

To find out more about  the history of variety entertainment, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.