Charles Blondin

AKA:

The Great Blondin, The Little Wonder

Birth Name:

Jean François Gravelet

Birth Date:

February 28, 1824

Birth Place:

Hesdin, Pas-de-Calais, France

Death Date:

February 22, 1897

Place of Death:

Blondin's "Niagara House", Northfield Avenue, Northfields, London W5 4UG, UK

Age:

Cause of Death:

Diabetes

Cemetery Name:

Kensal Green Cemetery

Claim to Fame:

The Odd and the Interesting

Charles Blondin was a French tightrope walker and acrobat. During the winter of 1858, a 34-year-old French acrobat traveled to Niagara Falls hoping to become the first person to cross the “boiling cataract.” Noting the masses of ice and snow on either bank and the violent whirls of wind circling the gorge, Blondin delayed the grand event until he would have better weather. He always worked without a net, believing that preparing for disaster only made one more likely to occur. Known for his numerous crossings of the 1,100 ft (340 m) Niagara Gorge on a tightrope, he added a touch of showmanship - once stopping midway to cook an omelette and once carrying his manager on his back. Believe it or not, he died in bed at the ripe age of 72.

Cemetery Information:

Final Resting Place:

Kensal Green Cemetery

Harrow Rd

North Kensington, London, W10 4RA

United Kingdom

Europe

Map:

Grave Location:

Grave 13198, Square 140, Row 1

Grave Location Description

After entering through the main entrance, turn right at the first intersection and head west. Continue heading straight along this road for about 1,850 feet until reaching the church. Go around the church. You can either go right to go around or go left, and continue heading west. Charles Blondin’s grave is about 95 feet directly west of the church. After going around the church and heading west, drive about 95 feet and park your car along the road. Blondin’s grave will be on your left and near the road.

Grave Location GPS

51.528554, -0.226546

Photos:

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Videos Featuring Charles Blondin:

The Charles Blondin Wheelbarrow Story

The True Story of Trust and Faith - Blondin; The Greatest Tightrope Walker in History

Tightrope Daredevil Extraordinaire: The Great Blondin

The Great Blondin Trailer

See More:

Quinta Maggia McDonald

popular name: Quinta Maggia McDonald

date_of_death: December 7, 1929

age: 29

cause_of_death: Radium sarcoma, industrial poisoning

claim_to_fame: The Odd and the Interesting

best_know_for: Quinta Maggia McDonald was the middle child of seven Maggia sisters; listed in order of age: Louise, Clara, Albina, Mollie, Quinta, Irma and Josephine. Children of Italian immigrants, Albina, Mollie, Quinta and Irma all worked in the radium-dial factory. Quinta was recruited to work at the United States Radium Corporation in Orange, New Jersey as a dial-painter. Like her sisters she would end up paying the price. The initial effects of radium seemed harmless, and the substance was popular amongst the younger girls in the factory. They would go home from a day of painting with their clothes glowing from the radium exposure. Some would even paint the buttons on their dresses or their nails, but the joy of the radium glow was short lived. Long-term radiation sickness symptoms soon became present among many of the women who worked with radium paint. Common issues included bone cancer, anemia, lesions, and sores. These problems were exhibited in Amelia Maggia, the first dial painter to die from radiation sickness. After Amelia's death, Quinta initially went to the doctor complaining of dental pain where her teeth began to just drop out of her mouth. Unlike her sister before her, she received a diagnoses of radium poisoning and was told there was no cure. Sometime later she noticed pain in her ankles, legs and hips and was put into plaster casts to keep her immobile in the chance this might bring some relieve. Upon her final hospitalization the doctors noticed a large sarcoma on her leg - the kind of bone tumor that killed a fellow Radium Girl a year before. She eventually lapsed into a coma and died at the age of 29 leaving behind two young children.