BLONDIN'S GIRLS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 53, Issue 133, 17 March 1933, Page 8

BLONDIN'S GIRLS

TIGHTROPE ADVENTURES. BARROW ACT AT FIVE, In an old house hidden; away bohind a builder's yard off Mitcham Lane/ Streatham, S.W., London, live two white-haired little women, whose earliest memories are of being wheeled across a tightrope. They owe their adventurous beginnings to the important fact that their father with the Great Blondin—the man who walked across Niagara Falls on a tightrope with a man on his back! Charles Blondin, a Frenchman, who began his career as an acrobat at the age of s', amazed the world by his feats on the tightrope. He eventually settled in England, and died at Ealing, W., 35 years ago, having made and lost a fortune. 1000 Wonders. His daughters cherish the remembrance of a thousand wonders he performed, though the elder, 'Adelle, is now nearly 79 years old, a widow, and blind. Her sister, Charlotte, who is 66, is well known in the dog world as a breeder of black and tan miniature terriers. Her full name is Mrs Charlotte Blondin Robbiolio. Becently both sisters were able to tell an interviewer —in spite of frequent interpolations by about a dozen sharp-nosed and inquisitive-eared black and tans—some delightful stories of their father's triumphant career. Adelle, her blue-veined hands fondling a couple of the little dogs on her lap, turned her blank eyes to the interviewer and smiled. "I like to remember," she said, "how I used to help Dad in his displays. I suppose I must haye been about eight years old when I appeared with him at the Crystal Palace. "Dear me—what fun it was! Frightened? Bless you, never a bit. There was nothing I loved better than to be pushed by Dad ovev his rope in a barrow. Posies for the Crowd. "When I was half-way across I used to throw down to the crowds little posies of red, white and blue artificial flowers, tied with the ribbon bearing my name. "Dad first let me appear with him when I was five. I think that was in a musie-jiall in Birmingham —but it's a long time ago . . . "I married Frank Pastor, who was famous as a circus rider in the United States. He was the brother of Tony Pastor, the famous American impresario . . . And that was a long time ago,too." She laughed quietly and whispered to the dogs in her lap. Mrs Robbiolio took up the tale. "Yet," she isaid, "we all had some very lively times. I know I enjoyed my appearances with Dad. We went practically all round the globe with him. Once in Rio do Janeiro, he gave his show in a bull-ring. He was dressed as a Roman, in a big toga and I went on his hack as the Goddess of Liberty! Only Once Scared. "People have always said a great deal about his wonderful feat in walking across Niagara Falls, but Dad never thought there Avas anything particularly wonderful in that. He was never scared in his life but once— and that was when he walked a tightrope suspended between the two masts of a ship. "We were voyaging to India, and one clay the sea' was very calm and Dad was asked to give a display for charity. By the time the rope was fixed up, however, a heavy swell had developed and when Dad started to walk the rope, it undulated like a snake! "Dad felt terribly sea-sick—he was never a good sailor—but he stuck to. his task, sitting down for some time after 'every step. It took him two hours to get across. Ordinarily it would have taken him six minutes!" Lost Amid Fireworks. Mrs Robbiolio recalled/ how her father loved to make and cook omelettes on the tightrope, how he would vanish from sight (though still standing on the rope) in a blaze, of fireworks, and how soldier* and sailors fought together for the honour of going across the rope on his back. "Some were really so scared that they drank too much before the show began, and then they would hang to one side so dangerously that Dad had to lean far over the other side. Sometimes he made them sober suddenly by thrcatsni:??; to let them drop."