This crazy Frenchman has put me off tightrope walking | Steve Canavan

I’m considering taking up tightrope walking.I mean, how hard can it be? And it’s so cheap to get into – all you need is a rope, a stick, and a bandage in case you fall.
Highwire artist Philippe Petit walking between the steeples of Notre Dame in Paris in June 1971. Picture: Getty Images.Highwire artist Philippe Petit walking between the steeples of Notre Dame in Paris in June 1971. Picture: Getty Images.
Highwire artist Philippe Petit walking between the steeples of Notre Dame in Paris in June 1971. Picture: Getty Images.

The reason for my possible career change – I’m heading to the Job Centre later today to see if there are any tightrope walking vacancies locally – is because I watched an excellent if not slightly terrifying film called Man on Wire.

It’s about a chap called Philippe Petit, who, in the 1970s, as you may recall, and after years of planning (because the whole thing was totally illegal), walked between the Twin Towers in New York – standing on a swaying rope, buffeted by winds, 1,300ft above the ground.

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The film features actual footage of the walk and I – a person best described as a complete wimp – watched the majority of it with hands over my eyes, peeking at the screen through sweaty, clammy fingers.

It led me to read a book about the history of tightrope walking (I’ve clearly got too much time on my hands), a past-time which became increasingly popular in the 1800s, with Frenchman Charles Blondin the first real star.

Blondin’s parents sent him to a gymnastics class at the age of five and within six months he was performing as an acrobat. He hit the big-time aged 25, in 1849, when he came up with the idea of walking across Niagara River, just yards from that really scary bit where it gushes over the edge and turns into a humongous waterfall. If you’ve seen the river you’ll know how wide it is – the rope was 1,100ft long. People called the French guy crazy and flocked to watch, certain he’d plunge to his death.

But Blondin, dressed in just a loin cloth (it’s just as well there wasn’t a sudden gust of wind – the spectators might have been scarred for life), stunned the crowd by not only succeeding but then doing it again in a number of different ways – blindfolded, in a sack, on stilts, pushing a wheelbarrow, carrying a man on his back (his manager, a very trusting individual clearly), and, best of all, sitting down midway while he cooked and ate an omelette. He went on to complete many daring feats and was still tightrope walking at the age of 71, a year before his death – rather tamely – from diabetes.

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Back to Petit, he of Twin Towers fame. He was also French and a Blondin fan, although he was into juggling and magic tricks before deciding, as a teenager, to have a bash at high wire walking. A couple of years later, he went to the dentist – by car, not on a tightrope – and while in the waiting room read a magazine article about the construction of the Twin Towers in the US.

‘I froze,’ recalled Petit. ‘Everybody was watching but I needed that page. And so what I do is under the cover of a sneeze, I tear the page out, put it under my jacket and leave. I had toothache for a week but what’s the pain in comparison that now I had acquired my dream?’ Fair enough, but personally I think I’d rather have had my filling seen to.

For the next six years Petit learned everything he could about the Twin Towers and began practising at other famous places – walking between the towers of the Notre Dame Cathedral and strolling from one side of Sydney Harbour Bridge to the other.

Basing himself in America, he formed a team of six collaborators who used fake IDs and disguises to get access to the towers and using their own observations, drawings and photographs, constructed a scale model of the towers to design the rigging needed for the wire walk.

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On the night of August 6, 1974, they used a bow and arrow attached to a rope to fire a 450-pound cable across the void (although they were delayed when the heavy cable sank too fast and had to be pulled up manually, which took several hours). Shortly after 7am the next morning, Petit stepped out on the wire (that first step the only point, he said, when he felt nervous) and began walking 1,350ft off the ground.

Now I’m terrified of heights – I had a panic attack in the lift halfway up Blackpool Tower and had to be taken straight back down (true story) – but this Petit fella, one misplaced step from a certain and pretty painful death throughout, ran, danced, lay down and knelt on the wire for more than 45 minutes. Huge crowds of amazed onlookers gathered below, while NYPD officers rushed to the roof and pleaded with him to stop, threatening to pluck him off by helicopter. He ignored them and only came off when it began to rain .

Extensive news coverage of the event followed and Petit was hailed a hero. As a result the district attorney dropped all charges of trespassing if Petit, in exchange, gave a free aerial show in Central Park.

He is also credited with making the Twin Towers popular. Prior to his walk they were criticised as ugly, utilitarian and too large and the owners were having trouble renting out the office space. That wasn’t the case afterwards.

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Asked later why he did the Twin Towers walk, the Frenchman replied: ‘Because life should be lived on the edge of life. You have to exercise rebellion, to refuse to tape yourself to rules, to refuse to repeat yourself, to see every day, as a true challenge’.

Which is all very well but I’ve got two kids to get to bed, a dog to walk, the grouting in the bathroom to do, and just haven’t got the time to carry out a death-defying stunt.

Petit, still going strong now at the age of 71, fell only once during his career, while practising during a brief stint at a circus. He plummeted 45ft and broke several ribs.

He says he has never fallen during a performance. ‘If I had,’ he added, ‘I wouldn’t be here talking about it.’

Which is a very fair point.

I recommend the Man on Wire film, though you may want to have a cushion handy from which to watch it behind.

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