Mr. Write's Page

If you want evidence that American culture is on the decline, take a look at who in society we’ve come to idolize. We make stars, God help us, out of Kardashians, Biebers, and an array of obscenely rich music and sports personalities.

Well, Neil deGrasse Tyson is getting pretty popular lately, but he’s an exception.

We were not always thus. During the 1800s and most of the 1900s, the public was, you’ll pardon the expression, gaga about explorers, adventurers, and daredevils.

I’m talking about brave, stalwart souls such as polar explorer Raold Amundson, mariner Thor Heyerdahl, medical missionary David Livingstone (“Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”), and Monsieur Charles Blondin.

Monsieur Charles Blondin? Who was that, you ask?

Just the most famous tightrope walker in all of history. Blondin, a French daredevil and acrobat with an undeniable flair for showmanship, made  a career of walking across Niagara Falls on a tightrope. The public adored him.

“He was more like a fantastic sprite than a human being,” his manager later wrote. “He could walk the rope as a bird cleaves to air.”

Charles Blondin was born Jean François Gravelet in St. Omer, France, in 1824. Reportedly, at the age of four, he strung a rope between two chairs and walked across it. He soon began training in gymnastics.

As a young man, Blondin was small (5′ 5″, 140 pounds) with blue eyes and blond hair (which gave him his professional name). He soon became a skilled acrobat with a passion for performing and entertaining.

When he came to America in 1855 with a troupe of equestrian performers, he became obsessed with becoming the first person to cross the “boiling cataract” of Niagara Falls on a rope.

Ultimately, Blondin got his chance. On June 30, 1859, 100,000 spectators gathered on both sides of the falls to watch his death-defying attempt. Rubbing elbows with the ordinary folk were politicians, journalists, students, salesmen, artists, and pickpockets. Vendors sold food and whiskey.

Blondin successfully walked across a hemp rope, three inches thick and 1,100 feet long, from bank to bank. He became a national sensation.

Over the next year, as the crowds grew larger, Blondin repeated his walk many times, always with a new and more sensational variation.

He crossed Niagara Falls while blindfolded.

He crossed while pushing a wheelbarrow.

He walked across on stilts.

He stopped along the way to perform tricks.

He crossed at night, rigging a locomotive headlight at each end of the rope.

He crossed while in shackles.

He carried a chair, which he balanced on the rope and stood upon.

He carried a table and chair, intending to sit in the chair and prop his legs on the table. The chair slipped and tumbled into the water below.

Once, he carried a small stove and cooking utensils on his back, stopped halfway across, prepared an omelet, and ate it.

On another walk, he stopped to eat a piece of cake and drink a glass of Champagne.

In probably his most famous stunt, he walked across the falls carrying his manager on his back.

After that crossing, Blondin was introduced to the Prince of Wales, who was in the audience. Blondin offered to carry the Prince across on the return journey. The Prince declined.

Monsieur Blondin became a wealthy man, and he performed his amazing highwire stunts around the world for decades, at regular intervals making omelets for the cheering crowds below. At age 65, he walked a tightrope while carrying his son and an assistant on his back.

By the time of his last performance in 1896, it was estimated that Blondin had walked over 10,000 miles on his rope and had crossed Niagara Falls 300 times.

In spite of the regular perils he faced, Monsieur Charles Blondin died peacefully at his home in 1897 at the age of 75. He was still adored by millions.

Now, that’s a dude who earned his hero worship. On her best day, a Kardashian couldn’t make an omelet if you broke the eggs for her.

Bieber, he’d use them to egg someone’s house.