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Charles Blondin (born Jean François Gravelet, 28 February 1824 – 22 February 1897) was a French tightrope walker and acrobat. He toured the United States and was known for crossing the 1,100 ft (340 m) Niagara Gorge on a tightrope.
Oct 18, 2011 · During the winter of 1858, a 34-year-old French acrobat named Jean François Gravelet, better known as Monsieur Charles Blondin, traveled to Niagara Falls hoping to become the first person to...
Charles Blondin was the very first man to ever walk the wire over the Niagara Gorge near Niagara Falls. However, Charles Blondin‘s real name was Jean-François Gravelet. Born in France, Gravelet was totally absorbed by the “wire” after watching a wire walker at the circus as a young child.
Blondin, French aerialist who owed his celebrity to his feat of crossing the gorge below Niagara Falls on a tightrope 1,100 feet long, 160 feet above the water. In 1861 he appeared in London at the Crystal Palace, turning somersaults on stilts on a rope stretched across the central transept, 170 feet above the floor.
Jun 6, 2009 · Blondin’s first crossing of the Niagara Falls, in 1859, was the most famous feat in a life packed with them and like all the others was painstakingly prepared, organised and exploited for maximum publicity.
The Great Blondin. The most famous of Niagara’s daredevils was Jean Francois Gravelot; better know as “The Great Blondin”. He was born February 28th 1824 in St. Omer, Pas de Calais in Northern France. Blondin first came to Niagara in early 1858 and instantly became obsessed with crossing the Niagara River on a tightrope.
Jun 30, 2016 · For his first stunt, Blondin declared that he would cross the gorge at Niagara Falls on June 30, 1859. He carried out the task with ease, taking a mere 23 minutes for the round trip,...
Jan 31, 2024 · Charles Blondin, (born Jean Francois Gravelet), a French tightrope walker and acrobat, better known as “The Great Blondin,” was obsessed with crossing the Niagara River on a tightrope after he first came to Niagara in early 1858.
Jul 21, 2010 · Jean Francois Gravelet, a Frenchman known professionally as Charles Blondin, becomes the first daredevil to walk across Niagara Falls on a tightrope. The feat, which was performed 160 feet...
Jan 10, 2019 · The most famous nineteenth century tightrope-walking celebrity was the charismatic French showman Jean Fran u00e7 ois Gravelet, or Blondin. Born in Hesdin near Calais in 1824, he was enrolled by his father, a dancer and tightrope-walker himself, in the u00c9cole Gymnase at Lyons, aged five.
