Charles Blondin

Charles Blondin
Jean Franois Gravelet-Blondin (24 February 1824 22 February 1897)
was a French tightrope walker and acrobat.

Early life
Blondin was born on 24 February 1824 at St Omer, Pas-de-Calais,
France.[1][2] His real name was Jean-Franois Gravelet, and he was known
also by the names Charles Blondin, Jean-Franois Blondin, and called the
"Chevalier Blondin", or more simply "The Great Blondin". When five years
old, he was sent to the cole de Gymnase at Lyon and, after six months
training as an acrobat, made his first public appearance as "The boy Wonder".
His superior skill and grace, as well as the originality of the settings of his
acts, made him a popular favourite.

North America
Blondin went to the United States in 1855.[2] He was engaged by William
Blondin carrying his manager, Harry
Niblo to perform with the Ravel troupe in New York City and was
Colcord, on a tightrope
subsequently part proprietor of a circus.[] He especially owed his celebrity
and fortune to his idea of crossing the Niagara Gorge (located on the American-Canadian border) on a tightrope,
1,100ft (340m) long, 3.25in (8.3cm) in diameter and 160ft (49m) above the water, near the location of the current
Rainbow Bridge. This he did on 30 June 1859, and a number of times thereafter, always with different theatrical
variations: blindfolded, in a sack, trundling a wheelbarrow, on stilts, carrying a man (his manager, Harry Colcord) on
his back, sitting down midway while he cooked and ate an omelet and standing on a chair with only one chair leg on
the rope.[3]

United Kingdom
In 1861, Blondin first appeared in London, at the Crystal Palace, turning somersaults on stilts on a rope stretched
across the central transept, 70 feet (20m) from the ground. In 1862, he again gave a series of performances at the
Crystal Palace, and elsewhere in England, and on the continent.
In September 1861 he performed in Edinburgh, Scotland at the Royal Botanic Gardens (then called the Experimental
Gardens) on Inverleith Row.[4]
In 1861, he performed at the Royal Portobello Gardens, on South Circular Road, Portobello, Dublin, on a rope 50
feet above the ground. While he was performing, the rope broke, which led to the scaffolding collapsing. He was not
injured, but two workers who were on the scaffolding fell to their deaths. An investigation was held, and the broken
rope (2inches in diameter and 5inches in circumference) examined. No blame was attributed at the time to either
Blondin or his manager. However, the judge said that the rope manufacturer had a lot to answer for. The organiser of
the event, a Mr. Kirby, said he would never have another one like it. A bench warrant for the arrest of Blondin and
his manager was issued when they did not appear at a further trial (they were in America). However, the following
year, Blondin was back at the same venue in Dublin, this time performing 100 feet above the ground.[5]
On 6 September 1873, Blondin crossed Edgbaston Reservoir in Birmingham.[6] A statue built in 1992 on the nearby
Ladywood Middleway marks his feat.

Charles Blondin

Retirement and reappearance

After a period of retirement, Blondin reappeared in 1880, including starring in the 1893/4 season of the pantomime
"Jack and the Beanstalk" at the Crystal Palace, organised by Oscar Barrett.[7] His final performance was in Belfast in
1896. He died of diabetes at his "Niagara House" in Ealing, London, on "22nd February 1897 in his 73rd Year" and
is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery.[8]

Legacy
During his lifetime, Blondin's name was so synonymous with tightrope walking that many employed the name
"Blondin" to describe others in the profession. For example there were at least five people working with variations of
the Blondin name in Sydney in the 1880s, the most famous of whom was Henri L'Estrange - "the Australian
Blondin".[9] So popular had tightrope walking become, that one Sydney resident wrote to the Sydney Morning
Herald to complain of "the Blondin business" that saw people walking on high wires wherever the opportunity arose.
He noted that he had seen one walking on a wire in Liverpool Street in the city with a child strapped to his back. The
practice which had become so popular was both dangerous and, the correspondent thought, likely to be unlawful,
particularly in the risk of harming others.[10] In reporting on the fall of a woman from a tightrope at an 1869
performance of Pablo Fanque's Circus in Bolton, the Illustrated London News described the tightrope walker,
Madame Caroline, as a "female Blondin."[11]
Two streets in Northfields, Ealing, London are named in his honour: Blondin Avenue and Niagara Avenue.
A well-known play has been written inspired by Blondin's feat of going across the Niagara River with a man on his
back. Crossing Niagara by Peruvian playwright Alonso Alegra ends with a plausible replication of the feat itself but
invents the character of the manin this case a boywho took the ride. The play had its premiere in Lima in 1969
and, since then, has been performed in about fifty countries, most recently in Spain (2006) and Venezuela (2008). In
an English translation, the play premiered in London at the National Theatre (c. 1975) and in New York at the
Manhattan Theatre Club (c. 1982).
Australian singer/songwriter Gareth Liddiard of The Drones has written a song "Blondin Makes An Omelette",
inspired by Charles Blondin's crossing the Niagara Falls. It had been reported that on a subsequent crossing, Blondin
pushed a wheelbarrow containing a small stove made of sheet iron across the gorge. He proceeded to light a fire and
cook an omelette while suspended on the rope, and then lowered the omelette down to passengers on the Maid of the
Mist who ate it before Blondin continued his crossing. The song is the opening track on Liddiard's debut solo album,
"Strange Tourist" (2010).
During the run-up to the Presidential election of 1864, Abraham Lincoln compared himself to Blondin on the
tightrope, with all that was valuable to America in the wheelbarrow he was pushing before him. A political cartoon
appeared in Harper's Weekly on September 1, 1864 depicting Lincoln on a tightrope, pushing a wheelbarrow and
carrying two men on his back - Navy Secretary Gideon Welles and War Secretary Edwin Stanton - while John Bull,
Napoleon III, Jefferson Davis, and Generals Grant, Lee and Sherman, among others, looked on.

Charles Blondin

References
[1] Blondin - His Life and Performances. Edited by George Linnaeus Banks. Published by Authority. London 1802. p. 20 books.google.de (http:/
/ books. google. de/ books?id=JZtJAAAAIAAJ& pg=PA20& dq)
[2] Irish Times, Dublin, 25 May 1861
[3] http:/ / www. nflibrary. ca/ nfplindex/ show. asp?id=89311& b=1
[4] Eccentric Edinburgh, JK Gillon
[5] Irish Times, 1861, 1862
[6] Birmingham Daily Post, Monday, 8 September 1873 "Blondin at the Reservoir"
[7] (http:/ / www. backstage. ac. uk/ cgi-bin/ query. pl?view=full_single& query=type=item+ and+ any=bic. ox. 1038872776) Backstage.ac.uk Blondin
[8] Grave of Jean Francois Gravelet - Blondin nflibrary.ca (http:/ / www. nflibrary. ca/ nfplindex/ show. asp?id=91836& b=1) - Obituary THE
NEW YORK TIMES, 23 February 1897 (http:/ / query. nytimes. com/ gst/ abstract.
html?res=F7081EFB355911738DDDAA0A94DA405B8785F0D3)

Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Blondin". Encyclopdia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

External links
American Heritage magazine article on Blondin (http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/
1958/5/1958_5_34.shtml)
Biography (http://www.peopleplayuk.org.uk/guided_tours/circus_tour/circus_performers/blondin.php)
Birmingham statue (http://www.bplphoto.co.uk/imagefiles/F23/pages/F23-056.html)
Images from the Historic Niagara Digital Collections at Niagara Falls Public Library (http://www.nflibrary.ca/
nfplindex/Search.asp?search=1&db=5&idx=ti&query=blondin)
Findagrave.com for Charles Blondin (http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=102)
"Blondin" (http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/theatre_performance/features/history_of_circus/
circus_performers/blondin/index.html). Theatre and Performance. Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved
2011-02-15.
This Wikipedia article includes content copied from the essay " L'Estrange, Henri (http://www.dictionaryofsydney.
org/entry/lestrange_henri)" in the Dictionary of Sydney
written by Mark Dunn, 2011 and licensed under CC by-sa. Imported on 19 December 2011.

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