On July 18, 1970, a 65-year-old Wallenda performed a high-wire walk, also known as a skywalk, across the Tallulah Gorge, a gorge formed by the Tallulah River in Georgia. An estimated 30,000 people watched Wallenda perform two headstands as he crossed the quarter-mile-wide gap.

Dec 15, 2017 · As he attempted to walk across a high wire strung between the two towers of the Condado Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the 73-year-old Wallenda lost his balance, teetering on the wire for 30 heart-stopping seconds before plummeting 10 stories.

Feb 7, 2022 · Karl Wallenda, founding member of the Flying Wallendas as we know them today, was born in Germany in 1905. At the young age of 11, he began performing in circus acts with his family at German beer halls.

Jun 9, 2021 · Eventually, it was young Karl Wallenda who would start the modern-day version of the troupe in the 1920s as a teenager. He had essentially apprenticed with a more experienced wire walker until he knew enough about the trade to strike out on his own, recruiting multiple members of his family.

Jan 30, 2025 · Troupe founder Karl Wallenda had been born in 1905, to a circus family in Germany, and started performing at age six.

Jun 10, 2012 · From the 1936 demise of Willie Wallenda in a fall in Europe, to the crash of family patriarch Karl Wallenda onto Puerto Rican pavement in 1978, the family's history is noted for its tragedies...

Feb 12, 2017 · Wallenda, then at the height of his own personal career, was in Philly appearing on a twin bill with the late motorcycle stunt-man Evel Knievel. A year earlier, Wallenda had thrilled baseball fans when he walked a tightrope across the top of Veterans Stadium between games of a Phillies doubleheader.

Dec 19, 2024 · The Flying Wallendas go back 7 generations, founded by Nik Wallenda's great-grandfather Karl in the 1920s. Here's what to know about this death-defying family.

Nov 21, 2020 · Karl Wallenda became the best known of the group, and the patriarch of the infamous Flying Wallendas. Born into this family in 1905, Karl began working with a German circus by the time he was 6. Sadly life had not been great as a child, his abusive father, Englebert, has been abusive.

Karl Wallenda (Karl Wallenda, January 21, 1905 – March 22, 1978) was a German-American daredevil and high wire artist, and the founder of the "Flying Wallendas" family enterprise. Born in Magdeburg, Germany, Wallenda began performing circus tricks at the age of six.