A Visit from the Great Blondin
A close look at this image tells the story of an exciting day in Manitowoc in the year 1874. The man seen perilously perched upon the tightrope in downtown Manitowoc is Charles Blondin, widely considered the greatest and most famous tight rope walker of all time.
The story begins halfway across the globe nearly 50 year earlier with the birth of Jean-Francois Gravelet in France in the year 1827. After seeing a tightrope walker at a traveling circus, a young Jean-Francois rushed home and proceeded to string a rope up in his yard to begin practicing. His skill grew quickly and he soon began performing his own tight rope act. After the tragic death of his father, the boy of just nine years was left to provide for himself. He became involved with a traveling show that toured Europe and eventually across America. It was at this time that he would take the name Charles Blondin. The course of his young and adventurous life would change forever when his travels took him to beautiful Niagara Falls.
It takes a certain person to perform on the high wire, the same sort of person that sees Niagara Falls and becomes obsessed with crossing 160 feet above the raging waters on a three inch thick hemp cord. Arrangements for the feat were made and Blondin successful crossed the falls before a crowd of 10,000 onlookers. He would go on to duplicate the feat 16 more times. However, each crossing became more and more of a spectacle. He pushed a wheelbarrow across, crossed on stilts, walked blindfolded, carried his manager on his back and even carried a small stove with him only to stop halfway across and prepare and omelet.
Blondin became quite famous and amassed a fortune through the promotion of his remarkable feats. Though small of stature, his personality was larger than life. It was his reported self-admiration that led to his criticism by Mark Twain who famously referd to him as “that adventurous ass”.
How was it that this world famous showman performed in downtown Manitowoc in 1874? Unfortunately, the answer is not all that clear. The picture appeared in the 1936 Centennial Edition of the Manitowoc Herald. That article reported “When Dare-Devil Blondin, the “Human Fly”, walked the tightrope from the old Glover building over to the the Windiate House, he gave the town something to talk about. Blondin, who with a little ballyhoo and expert barking, attracted quite a crowd to watch him perform. When the picture was snapped, he had lost his footing…quite expertly too….” He later repeated the act with the rope from “Schuette’s store to the bank building.”