On March 22, 1978, the world watched in horror as the 73-year-old staggered 10-story steel cable for 30 seconds before falling, the legend with 11 Guinness World Records fell.
The fall of the legendary Carl Valenda
Carl Valenda was trying to walk through the steel cable hanging between the two towers of a hotel, and as a professional tightrope walker, failure was not allowed to fail, and failure meant the end of life.
More than 10 years before his death, many of his family members and performing partners died in the performance, but this did not deter him. And after his death, his descendants also unswervingly inherited his adventurous career, and there is a tendency to be blue, which is a family that cannot be defeated for the ideal of not fearing death!
Carl Valenda and his teammates perform
Karl was born in 1905 to a circus family in Germany. From the age of six, he trained in stunts and performed. He was trained in tightrope walking, high-altitude cable walking, and balance, and rarely used safety nets. When he was about 17 years old, he began to officially take on the lead role, and for him, nothing seemed insurmountable.
Karl and his team are best known in Europe for their four-man pyramid and cycling on high-altitude steel lines, and they are known as the Great Wallendas.
Pyramid of Four
In 1928, they moved to the United States to perform as freelancers. Their arrival immediately attracted the attention of American circus owner John Ringling, who immediately invited Carl to perform. In the same year, their debut performance at Madison Square Garden in New York City caused a sensation and the audience stood up for a standing ovation.
In 1947, they developed The Flying Wallendas, an unparalleled flying sky, and their amazing performances quickly made them international celebrities. It's a three-story pyramid of sevens, in which the bottom team walks a tightrope and the tallest members maintain balance in the air, usually in chairs, and are one of the most dangerous performances he designed. In fact, Karl had this idea as early as 1938, but it was not until 1946 that he had enough and the right people.
Flying Valenda
The Great Wallendas, a 1978 television series starring Carr, tells the story of a pyramid of seven people on the 3rd floor who gets back on their feet after a fatal accident with several family members, in fact, bringing his family's real-life experience to the screen. Unexpectedly, Wallenda was accidentally killed in a high-altitude steel cable just 38 days after the first broadcast.
After the marriage, Carl had many children, all of whom joined the team as well as other important figures of the team and their descendants.
The performances of Carl's team are truly breathtaking, but they are really putting on a performance with their lives.
Ordinary people have soft legs when they see photos, right?
In 1962, their famous Pyramid of the Seven had an accident and bad luck followed.
On January 30, 1962, Karl's adopted son, Mario Wallenda, fell with Karl while trying to perform the Pyramid of 7, paralyzing him from the waist down.
Carl's nephew, son-in-law, and Carl's sister-in-law were accidentally killed during the performance.
Despite so many tragedies that occurred in his family while performing, Karl persevered and continued to perform alone or in a small number of collaborations.
Carl Wallenda
Karl has made a lot of history, he holds 11 Guinness World Records.
On July 18, 1970, 65-year-old Carl took a high-altitude zip line walk, also known as the Skywalk, in Tallura Canyon, a canyon formed by the Tallura River in Georgia. About 30,000 people watched Valenda's performance, and he stood upside down twice as he crossed a 1/4-mile-wide gap.
Tallura Canyon
In 1974, at the age of 69, he set a world skywalk distance record of 1,800 feet (550 m) on Kings Island, which remained until July 4, 2008, when he was broken in the same place by his great-grandson Nik Wallenda.
In 1978, Karl traveled to San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico, where he is still challenging himself after more than 50 years of his career. He was going to try to stroll through the 10-story high-altitude cable that hung between the two towers of the Plaza Condado Hotel on March 22.
On the same day, a local filming team came to the performance site, originally to film this feat and broadcast it on television, but it turned out to be a live death broadcast.
A generation of legends has fallen
The cause of Carl's unfortunate death was ultimately attributed to strong winds and the line was not properly fixed.
Before the performance, Carl knew the importance of this time on the stage, the audience was full of well-known American figures, this success will not only establish his position in the acting industry, but also bring unprecedented support and benefits to the acting team. Valenda had been pondering it carefully since the day before, and every action, every detail, was repeated.
But the reality is often like this, the more you care, the more you suffer from gains and losses, the more likely you are to make mistakes. On such an important occasion, Lunda played abnormally and unfortunately died of a stumbling foot.
Fancy, bicycles walking steel cables
His wife said afterwards that Karl kept telling himself before he went on the show that the show was too important to succeed and not fail. In his previous decades of acting career, he only thought about the performance process of walking a tightrope, and did not consider the results of the performance.
Psychology refers to this psychological phenomenon of not concentrating on doing things in itself, but repeatedly considering the possible consequences of doing this, and thus suffering from gain and loss, called the "Wallenda mentality".
The inheritance of the family business
Karl's niece, Sandy Wallenda, said: "I think that's where he wants to go, he's going to go all the time and he can't stop. ”
In New York, Kenneth Feld, producer of the Barnum and Bailey Circus who has worked with the Valenda Circus for many years, expressed similar sentiments.
"If someone were to choose the path they had to take, I would say that would be Karl's way," Feld said. "Karl was a genius and a performer. He has a way of attracting audiences, and for many years he has been a great inspiration for young performers. ”
Karl is dead, but his descendants bravely inherit his legacy without fear of death, which is really touching!
Carr's great-grandson, Nick Valentine, travels through Niagara Falls
Carl and his two daughters, Jenny and Carla, founded the Wallenda dynasty.
Jenny's children, Tino, Delilah and Tammy, form their own performance team.
In 1986, Carr's grandson, Enrico Wallenda, successfully completed the high-altitude zipper that took his grandfather's life. On June 4, 2011, Carr's great-grandson, Nik Wallenda, also completed the zip line with his mother, Delilah. The two men walked from both ends to meet in the middle.
Nick and his mother successfully crossed Carl's path to death
On July 4, 2008, Karl's great-grandson, Nick, completed the 2,000-foot skywalk (610 m) on Kings Island, breaking the world record he held in 1974.
Today, Carl's great-grandchildren continue to perform by the Valenda family: Nik, Alida, Andrea, Aurelia, Alessandro "Alex", Lijana and Lyric.
Among them, Nik is already blue than blue, he was born in 1979, and now has 6 Guinness records.
Nick successfully crossed Niagara Falls
On June 15, 2012, he became the first person in history to successfully cross Niagara Falls by walking a tightrope.
On June 23, 2013, he crossed the Grand Canyon on a steel cable without a safety rope, becoming the first person in history. The cable for the day was only 2 inches (50.8 mm) in diameter, and he walked the 426-meter-long cable in less than 23 minutes about 457 meters above the Colorado River.
Successfully crossed the Grand Canyon
On November 2, 2014, he managed to walk a blindfolded tightrope between Chicago skyscrapers, challenging a 19-degree tilt.
Carl Wallenda was Nick's most admired role model and hero in his life. He felt that it was an honor to be born into this well-known acting family, and Nick was determined to continue the legendary performance of this family
Nick Wallenda
Nick said it was a huge honor to be able to follow in his (Carl Wallenda)'s footsteps and I did it for him as I did for my family, and Nick said he wasn't scared throughout the show.
Editor's feelings: After learning about the deeds of this family, I was deeply shocked by their spirit, most of us are pursuing a long life, and the end of life is the ending that most people expect, but there are some people who use their actions to profoundly interpret what is called "life lies in depth, not in length".