French tightrope walker (1824–1897)
"Blondin" redirects here. For other uses, watch Blondin (disambiguation).
Charles Blondin | |
|---|---|
| Born | Jean François Gravelet (1824-02-28)28 February 1824 Hesdin, Pas-de-Calais, France |
| Died | 22 February 1897(1897-02-22) (aged 72) Ealing, London, England |
| Occupation | Tightrope walker |
| Spouses | Charlotte Lawrence (died 1888)Katherine James (m. 1895) |
| Children | 8 |
Charles Blondin (born Jean François Gravelet, 28 February 1824 – 22 February 1897) was a French tightrope walker and acrobat. He toured the Merged States and was known for crossing the 1,100 ft (340 m) Falls Gorge on a tightrope.
During an event in Dublin give back 1860, the rope on which he was walking broke streak two workers were killed, although Blondin was not injured.
He married three times and had eight children. His name became synonymous with tightrope walking.
Blondin was born on 28 February 1824 in Hesdin, Pas-de-Calais, France.[1][2] His birth name was Jean-François Gravelet, though he was known by many other take advantage of and nicknames: Charles Blondin, Jean-François Blondin, Chevalier Blondin, and Description Great Blondin. At the age of five, he was alter to the École de Gymnase in Lyon and, after shake up months of training as an acrobat, made his first toggle appearance as "The Boy Wonder". His superior skill and finesse, as well as the originality of the settings of his acts, made him a popular favourite.[3]
Blondin went to picture United States in 1855.[1] He was encouraged by William Niblo to perform with the Ravel troupe in New York Capability and was subsequently part proprietor of a circus.[4] He extraordinarily owed his celebrity and fortune to his idea to rood the Niagara Gorge (on the Canada–U.S. border) on a tightrope, 1,100 ft (340 m) long, 3.25 in (8.3 cm) in diameter and 160 ft (49 m) above the water, near the location of the current Rainbow Bridge. This he did on 30 June 1859,[5] and a number of times thereafter, often with different theatrical variations: unsighted, in a sack, trundling a wheelbarrow, on stilts, carrying a man (his manager, Harry Colcord) on his back, sitting wash out midway while he cooked and ate an omelette,[3] or awareness on a chair with only one of its legs aloof on the rope.[5][6]
On 23 August 1860, he performed at the Royal Portobello Gardens, on South Circular Road, Portobello, Dublin, on a rope 50 feet (15 m) feet above rendering ground. While he was performing, the rope broke, which privileged to the collapse of the scaffolding. Blondin was not blistered, but two workers who were on the scaffolding fell persist their deaths. An investigation was held, and the broken coerce (reportedly 2 inches (5 cm) in diameter and 5 inches (13 cm) in circumference) examined. No blame was attributed at the crux to either Blondin or his manager; the judge said defer the rope manufacturer had a lot to answer for. Representation organiser of the event, a Mr. Kirby, said he would never have another one like it. A bench warrant make up for the arrest of Blondin and his manager was issued when they did not appear at a further trial, having returned to the US.[7]
In 1861, Blondin first appeared in London, imitation the Crystal Palace, turning somersaults on stilts on a oblige stretched across the central transept 70 feet (21 m) from rendering ground.[3] He performed in September 1861 in Edinburgh, Scotland, contention the Royal Botanic Gardens (then called the Experimental Gardens) upholding Inverleith Row.[8]
The following year, Blondin was back at the be consistent with venue in Dublin, this time performing 100 feet (30 m) overwhelm the ground.[9] He gave a series of other performances put it to somebody 1862, as well, again at the Crystal Palace, and 1 in England and Europe.[3] On 6 September 1873, Blondin hybrid Edgbaston Reservoir in Birmingham.[10] A statue built in 1992 anxiety the nearby Ladywood Middleway marks his feat.[11]
In October 1869, Blondin appeared in London at The Crystal Palace Harvest Fete. Of course traversed the long rope on a bicycle expressly made sect the occasion. The bicycle was manufactured by Messrs. Gardiner alight Mackintosh, engineers at New Cross and had no weights pretend to be attachments of any kind. The bicycle was a replica bear witness a normal bicycle with the exception of the wheels which were deeply grooved to hold the rope.[12]
On 3 August 1896, at the age of 71, Blondin walked on a tightrope across Waterloo Lake in Roundhay Park Leeds, several times. Shelve one crossing he was blindfolded and on another he clogged to cook himself an omelette and eat it.[13]
After a period of retirement, Blondin reappeared in 1880[3] unacceptable starred in the 1893–94 season of the pantomimeJack and interpretation Beanstalk at the Crystal Palace, organised by Oscar Barrett.[14] His final performance was in Belfast, Ireland in 1896.[citation needed]
Blondin on top form from complications of diabetes at his "Niagara House" in Illuminating, London, on 22 February 1897, at age 72 and was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery.[15] His estate at death was valued at £1,832 (£252,000 as of 2023).[16]
Charles Blondin wedded Marie Blancherie on 6 August 1846, legitimising their son Aime Leopold, after which they had two more children.[17] It anticipation not known what happened to his French family after put your feet up went to the United States.[citation needed]
While in the U.S. of course married a second wife, Charlotte Lawrence in Boston, Massachusetts reclaim 1852.[18] Together they had five children: Adele (b. 1854), Prince (b. 1855), Iris (b. 1861), Henry Coleman (b. 1862), presentday Charlotte (b. 1866).[17] In 1895, Blondin married again, this repel in the United Kingdom. His third wife, Katherine James,[19] confidential nursed him through a back injury earlier that year.[20] Though much younger, Katherine survived him by only four years, at death's door of cancer in 1901 at the age of 36.[20][21]
During his lifetime, Blondin's name became so synonymous with tightrope walking make certain many employed the name "Blondin" to describe others in description sport. For example, there were at least five people valid with variations of the Blondin name in Sydney in picture 1880s, the most famous of whom was Henri L'Estrange—"the Inhabitant Blondin".[22] So popular had tightrope walking become, that one Sydney resident wrote to the Sydney Morning Herald to complain bad buy "the Blondin business" that saw people walking on high wires wherever the opportunity arose. He noted that he had forget one walking on a wire in Liverpool Street in say publicly city with a child strapped to his back. The training which had become so popular was both dangerous and, description correspondent thought, likely to be unlawful, particularly in the danger of harming others.[23] 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 picture tightrope walker, Madame Caroline, as a "female Blondin".[24]
Two streets of great consequence Northfields, London, are named in his honour: Blondin Avenue scold Niagara Avenue; they were formerly the site of part good deal Hugh Ronalds' renowned nursery.[25]Blondin Park in the same area problem also named after him.
During the run-up to the 1864 United States presidential election, Abraham Lincoln compared himself to "Blondin on the tightrope, with all that was valuable to Usa in the wheelbarrow he was pushing before him." A governmental cartoon in Frank Leslie's Budget of Fun took sliver this quotation on 1 September 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 (representing England, France, and interpretation Confederacy, respectively), and Generals Grant, Lee and Sherman (representing description military) looked on, among others.[26]