I thought the space above the Falls resembled Grand Central Station these days, crowds jostling back and forth on tightropes constantly, but apparently the walk on high wire directly above the Falls has never been done before and Nik Wallenda will be the first if he manages it on Friday.
OK, good for him. Here’s the thing though. Because ABC will be televising it live the network has insisted that Wallenda be tethered to the tightrope so if he falls he falls not like Lucifer, never to rise again, but dangling in an undignified manner from the rope patiently awaiting rescue.
To be fair to Wallenda, this isn’t what he wanted, but the only way to get the financing from ABC was to agree to those terms/
Here’s the rub though, at least for me. Without any risk the whole exercise becomes mundane and rather pointless. He might as well ride across sitting comfortably in a chopper. Remember that French guy who set up a tightrope between the Twin Towers and walked back and forth while his buddy filmed, no safety devices whatsoever? That was incredible viewing. Screw ABC, one of the cable channels should have approached Wallenda and said if you’re willing to risk your life then we’re willing to film you
You know, in Chicago there are water taxis run by a company called “Wendella Boats.” I always thought, “Wow, I wonder how that tightrope walking family got involved in that,” until I recently heard about tonight’s event and paid close attention to the name.
I read that ABC insisted on it since they didn’t want the risk of anyone dying on real TV. One link I read said that if he refused to wear it, they were going to stop the production immediately.
So he may have been faced with the choice of wearing it or not having the TV coverage, in which case, I can understand why he’d wear one.
There is an outstanding documentary about the Twin Towers tightrope adventure called Man on Wire. They filmed a surprising amount of the planning and rehearsals they did for it in the years before finally pulling it off. Petit also covertly entered and wire-walked from many noted public buildings around the word, but none IMO came close to his WTC escapade. My (oddly) favorite thing is the on his way out the door from detention by the NYPD, he let himself get picked up by a mystery woman who fucked his brains out that night.
In actuality the tether made his walk all the more difficult. It’s not a matte of falling but a matter of the skill involved to be successful. To me if he failed he would be just another statistic. However, he did under constraints. Good for him.
The tether slightly mars the accomplishment. But I think this guy would have done it without the tether, he just didn’t have a choice. I just have one piece of advice for the Wallendas, send your kids to regular school, not circus school. I admire this family’s dedication to art, but it’s a dedication that makes it remarkable that the Wallenda line even continues. They have a century of deadly and crippling falls behind them.
Missed the Edit window: Looking at the story linked to in the OP, I’m wondering if the BBC got confused about tightrope acts at other parts of the falls.