The Flying Wallendas


The Flying Wallendas is a circus act and group of daredevil stunt performers, who perform highwire acts without a safety net. They were first known as The Great Wallendas, but the current name was coined by the press in the 1940s and has stayed since.

History

was born in Magdeburg, Germany, in 1905 to an old circus family, and began performing at the age of six. While still in his teens he answered an ad for a "hand balancer with courage." His employer, Louis Weitzman, taught him the trade. In 1922, Karl put together his own act with his brother Herman, Joseph Geiger, and a teenage girl, Helen Kreis, who eventually became his wife.
The act toured Europe for several years, and when John Ringling saw them perform in Cuba, he quickly hired them to perform at the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. In 1928, they debuted at the Madison Square Garden. The act performed without a net and the crowd gave them a standing ovation.
In 1944, while the Wallendas were performing in Hartford, Connecticut, a circus fire broke out, killing over 168 people. None of the Wallendas were hurt.
In the following years, Karl developed some of their most impressive acts, such as the seven-person chair pyramid. They continued performing those acts until January 30, 1962 when, while performing at the Shrine Circus at Detroit's State Fair Coliseum, the front man on the wire faltered and the pyramid collapsed. Three men fell to the ground, killing Richard Faughnan, Wallenda's son-in-law; and nephew Dieter Schepp. Karl injured his pelvis, and his adopted son, Mario, was paralyzed from the waist down. Dieter's sister Jana Schepp let go of the wire to fall into the quickly-raised safety net, but bounced off and suffered a head injury.
Other tragedies include when Wallenda's sister-in-law, Rietta, fell to her death in 1963, and his son-in-law Richard Guzman was killed in 1972 after touching a live electric wire while holding part of the metal rigging. Nonetheless, Karl decided to go on. He repeated the pyramid act in 1963 and 1977. Karl continued performing with a smaller group, and doing solo acts.
Karl Wallenda crossed the Tallulah Gorge in Georgia on a high wire on July 18, 1970.
On March 22, 1978, during a promotional walk in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Karl Wallenda fell from the wire and died. It was between the towers of Condado Plaza Hotel, one hundred feet high. He was 73. Nik Wallenda completed the walk on June 4, 2011, with his mother, Delilah.
On March 5, 1993, Karl's grandson Mario B. Wallenda died from AIDS complications at the age of 36. He had tested positive for HIV in July 1990.
On October 15, 2008, Nik broke the world record for the highest and longest bike ride on a high wire live on NBC's Today.
Nik Wallenda became the first aerialist to walk directly over Niagara Falls on June 15, 2012, from the United States into Canada. Wearing a safety harness as required by ABC television, he crossed at the river's widest point.
Nik Wallenda is the first aerialist to walk over the Little Colorado River Gorge at the Grand Canyon. The event was broadcast live on the Discovery Channel. He used a 2-inch wire and made the journey without a harness or safety net. The canyon is wide and deep.
There are several branches of the Wallendas performing today, comprising mostly grandchildren of Karl Wallenda. They still perform regularly and have achieved recognition in the Guinness Book of Records. On November 2, 2014, Nik successfully crossed between two Chicago skyscrapers, the west tower of Marina City and the Leo Burnett Building. After accomplishing this feat, he successfully crossed the two towers of Marina City while wearing a blindfold in cold conditions with strong winds. He set two world records, one for the highest incline, 19 degrees, between the west tower and the Leo Burnett building and one for the highest blindfolded wire walk between the two towers of Marina City. Both crossings were broadcast live on Discovery Channel.
In February 2017, a rehearsal of the troupe's eight-person pyramid highwire act for Circus Sarasota turned awry when the pyramid collapsed, plummeting five of the performers to the ground while three others, including Nik Wallenda, managed to cling to the wire. Miraculously no one was killed, but all five performers were severely injured: Nik's sister Lijana Wallenda suffered the worst injuries, breaking nearly every bone in her face.
Nik and Lijana became the first individuals to successfully cross New York's Time Square on a tightrope 25 stories above street level on June 23, 2019. The duo crossed from opposite ends of the wire, which measured 1300 feet long and was suspended between 1 Times Square and 2 Times Square. The stunt was broadcast live on ABC and marked Lijana's return to live performance since her accident. For the stunt, both Wallendas used safety harnesses, despite the family's long-standing objection to the use of safety devices. In contrast to his statements during his Niagara Falls walk, Nik Wallenda admitted he felt the use of a harness was important for Lijana's first highwire walk since her fall.

Notable family members

In popular culture