Has Wire Will Travel

The 1974 Headline was:
Stuntman, Eluding Guards, Walks a Tightrope Between Trade Center Towers; Free Performance Due 200 Planning Trips

Combining the cunning of a second-story man with the nerve of an Evel Knievel, a French high-wire artist named Philippe Petit sneaked past guards at the World Trade center, ran a cable between the tops of its twin towers and tightrope-walked across it yesterday morning. On leaving wire, he was arrested

The back story and the stealth preparations made the walk a compelling subject in the film “Man on Wire,” which won an Oscar for best documentary feature this year. Well, he's back. Mr. Petit says he will perform a high-wire walk in the fall in Midtown Manhattan. It will be high, it will be long, and it will be outdoors in a very recognizable location that he is still mum about.

Last year, I saw Philippe speak at the Cathedral of St John the Divine in Manhattan about his unimaginable '74 high wire caper and he was a trip. All street performance and manic energy ready at a moments notice to break into a juggle or hop aboard a unicycle. You could see the madness that had driven him to tight rope his little ass across the span betweeen the WTC towers still percolating his impish megalomania onwards and upwards. In the yawn inducing age of David Blaine stunts and High School Musical, I am happy to see the zany Frenchman drawing up plans for a new challenge. Gotta love stealth.

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