Keeping up family tradition of daredevils
Source: Agencies |
June 16, 2012, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
WHEN Nik Wallenda set out for his tightrope walk over Niagara Falls late yesterday local time, he was adding another chapter to his family's storied daredevil history, which dates back more than two centuries.
Earlier, Wallenda said he was disappointed about being made to wear a tether by event's sponsor, ABC, since his family has performed over the years without such safety precautions.
The Wallendas trace their fearless roots to 1780 Austria-Hungary, when their ancestors traveled as acrobats, aerialists, jugglers, animal trainers and trapeze artists.
John Ringling of the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus recruited the Wallendas after seeing them perform in Cuba. In 1928, the family gave its inaugural performance at Madison Square Garden, earning a 15-minute standing ovation.
The signature performance of the group that came to be known in the 1940s as "The Flying Wallendas" was the seven-person chair pyramid. The pyramid went terribly wrong in 1962 when a misstep at the State Fair Coliseum in Detroit sent two men to their deaths and paralyzed a third performer.
In 1944, the Wallendas were performing at a Connecticut circus when a fire broke out. All the Wallendas slid down ropes to safety, but 168 people died.
The following year, Rietta Wallenda, sister-in-law of family patriarch Karl Wallenda, fell to her death in Nebraska.
And in 1978, Nik's great-grandfather Karl Wallenda fell to his death while attempting to walk a cable strung between two hotel towers in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Angel Wallenda performed with an artificial limb on the high-wire in 1990 after suffering cancer and having her right leg amputated below the knee. She died at age 28 in 1996.
Earlier, Wallenda said he was disappointed about being made to wear a tether by event's sponsor, ABC, since his family has performed over the years without such safety precautions.
The Wallendas trace their fearless roots to 1780 Austria-Hungary, when their ancestors traveled as acrobats, aerialists, jugglers, animal trainers and trapeze artists.
John Ringling of the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus recruited the Wallendas after seeing them perform in Cuba. In 1928, the family gave its inaugural performance at Madison Square Garden, earning a 15-minute standing ovation.
The signature performance of the group that came to be known in the 1940s as "The Flying Wallendas" was the seven-person chair pyramid. The pyramid went terribly wrong in 1962 when a misstep at the State Fair Coliseum in Detroit sent two men to their deaths and paralyzed a third performer.
In 1944, the Wallendas were performing at a Connecticut circus when a fire broke out. All the Wallendas slid down ropes to safety, but 168 people died.
The following year, Rietta Wallenda, sister-in-law of family patriarch Karl Wallenda, fell to her death in Nebraska.
And in 1978, Nik's great-grandfather Karl Wallenda fell to his death while attempting to walk a cable strung between two hotel towers in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Angel Wallenda performed with an artificial limb on the high-wire in 1990 after suffering cancer and having her right leg amputated below the knee. She died at age 28 in 1996.
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