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STORY OF THE WEEK

HALTS ON WIRE OVER NIAGARA

Performer Tries to Cross Gorge
Held 200 Feet over River till Saved

Niagara Falls, New York
June 14th 1910

The Great Houdin, a tight-wire performer, entertained a holiday crowd this afternoon at an international carnival here, but hardly in the manner he intended. He was on the programme for a trip across the Niagara Gorge on a quarter inch diameter cable, holding fast by his teeth. His wire was stretched 100 feet below the Upper Steel Arch Bridge, a point where it was intended his feat would be witnessed by a crowd of 80,000 assembled on the State Reservation, as well as in Queen Victoria Park.

He mounted his wire and began sliding from the New York bank toward the Canadian shore. Houdin was waving the flags of both countries as he slid along the wire. A slope was planned for the wire, but the weight of his body quickly pulled the strand, making it too slack. Houdin had to stop at a point over the centre of the river approximately 1,100 feet from the American shore and still 600 feet away from completing his journey. For a few minutes the immense audience applauded his feat, but when he did not continue toward Canada It was apparent that he was in difficulties, which he indicated by waving flags. Awe-stricken, the crowds looked on while the man, diminutive in form, struggled to retain his hold on the small pulley from which he was suspended. Houdin grabbed the cable with both his hands and then crossed his legs over the wire and hung that way for 45 minutes until he could be rescued. Houdin was not more than 200 feet north of the Upper Steel Arch Bridge that had been closed to traffic sometime before his scheduled trip however there were several hundred people on the bridge watching as events unfolded

Firemen were called and responded with several hundred feet of rope. A loop was tied in the rope around the cable with about 300 feet on one side and several hundred feet on the other. One end was thrown over the bank and the foreman slid it along on the cable by walking along on the bridge. Houdin had shifted his position repeatedly and when the rope finally neared him, he almost lost his balance as he reached for it, so eager was he to accept the succor offered. When it was seen that he had grasped the rope, a cheer went up from the anxious crowd that could be heard above the roar of the great cataract. When it reached Houdin the rope was cast off from the bank and it dropped to the lower river where the steamer Maid of the Mist observing that something was amiss picked up the lower end. The little steamer struggled with the current, but kept well under Houdin, who safely lowered himself hand over hand to reach the boat, a distance of nearly 200 feet. Another great cheer arose when Houdin was hauled safely aboard and sank to the deck completely exhausted.

Houdin's real name was Oscar Williams, a steeplejack from Niagara Falls, NewYork.

Niagara Falls, New York
June 28th 1911

On June 28th 1911, Houdin returned to Niagara Falls to mark the closing of the annual Niagara International Carnival. Other star performers included Lincoln Beachey and Robert Leach. A crowd of 300,000 spectators had gathered to watch the events.

Leach shot the Whirlpool Rapids in a steel barrel where he became stranded in the whirlpool before being rescued. Beachey had flown his bi-plane over the Horseshoe Falls and under the Upper Steel Arch Bridge the day before without incident. Today Beachey battling high winds narrowly escaped crashing into the river below.

Houdin had undertaken to repeat his failed feat from the previous year by sliding by his teeth across the Niagara Gorge situated under the Upper Steel Arch Bridge. This time Houdin began his slide for life on the Canadian shore. Within 100 feet of the American shore, Houdin became stranded once more because of a slack wire. Houdin remained marooned until he was hauled ashore by rope.

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