How French daredevil Charles Blondin inspired an Aussie copycat to dice with death

French tightrope walker Charles Blondin wowed Melbourne with his death-defying antics, but his Aussie imitators weren’t always so lucky.

French tightrope walker Charles Blondin crossing Niagara Falls

After French tightrope walker Charles Blondin wowed the world by performing high above Niagara Falls, a bunch of “Australian Blondins” began emulating their idol.

As each daredevil tried to outdo the last, the hair-raising stunts became increasingly outrageous and sometimes deadly.

Blondin and his Aussie imitators are explored in a new episode of the free In Black and White podcast on Australia’s forgotten characters, with Andrew McConville, from State Library Victoria:

Blondin made his name at Niagara in 1859, walking a tightrope then lowering a rope in mid-air to the tourist boat Maid of the Mist below.

A crewman attached a bottle of champagne, which Blondin lifted and drank.

Other times Blondin piggybacked his manager, walked backwards, and carried a stove and stopped to cook an omelette.

Blondin toured Australia for nine months in 1874-5, performing in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.

A performer hangs upside down from a penny-farthing bicycle balanced on the tightrope. Picture: State Library Victoria

About 3000 people gathered near Government House in Melbourne to see the costumed Blondin perform many of the tricks he’d become famous for at Niagara Falls 15 years earlier.

“He came on with a marching band playing below and he’d dance across the rope in tune to the marching band,” Mr McConville says.

“So even though he was 50 years old, he was still doing his old tricks. He’d piggyback the Australian agent across the rope.”

The first homegrown stuntman to style himself as the “Australian Blondin” was Henri L’Estrange, who was every bit as daring as the original.

Charles Blondin on the high wire, balancing on a wooden chair in 1874. Picture: State Library Victoria

Henri L'Estrange on the cycle he planned to use to cross Bantry Bay. Courtesy State Library of Victoria

Henri L'Estrange’s tightrope walk across Middle Harbour in 1877.

“He wandered out in a suit of armour, he was going backwards and forwards, he was doing bicycle riding, he was walking across in a sack so he supposedly couldn’t see where he was going,” Mr McConville says.

L’Estrange once walked a tightrope over Middle Harbour in Sydney.

“It was pretty spectacular, because he was walking 433m and he was something like 100m above the water, so a very remarkable walk,” Mr McConville says.

L’Estrange then turned to the new sensation of ballooning, a primitive sport that was plagued by disasters.

In one infamous near-deadly incident in Sydney, the basket was too heavy for the balloon so L’Estrange removed it, secured himself to the dangling ropes, and took flight.

“He was just literally skimming across the rooftops,” Mr McConville says.

“The gas was escaping, so he was getting very drowsy, so he had to sort of lash himself to the ropes. The balloon then came and crashed into a house.”

When someone in a house opened a window to investigate the commotion, a candle inside ignited the escaping gas, triggering an explosion and fire that burned several people.

L’Estrange, however, somehow escaped remarkably unscathed.

To learn more, listen to the interview about Charles Blondin and the Australian Blondins including Henri L’Estrange with Andrew McConville in the In Black and White podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or web.

See In Black & White in the Herald Sun newspaper Monday to Friday for more stories and photos from Victoria’s past.