Biographer, Novelist, Playwright, Journalist, Screenwriter
Author of The Great Farini - The High-Wire Life of William Hunt
The Lives of Farini-Hunt - Further Adventures (Part Two)
To do this he needed to “warm up”. His target was another
high-wire walk in Port Hope. As before the Port Hope Guide’s Hugh Crea gave “Farini” a big build-up.
Farini would do “two grand ascensions”.
People from all over the area came to see Farini’s performance, and they were
not disappointed! Two weeks after the performance, Bill Hunt-Farini was gone! Shortly
afterwards, Buffalo and Niagara newspapers started reporting that “The Great Farini” was in Niagara Falls
and that he was “laying plans for
spectacular crossings, including the carrying of a “woman” on his back"
… enter Madame Farini! Here is how Shane
Peacock describes it, “The fearless
Mary Osborne, his old friend from the township, had decided to go on the road
with him. Whether she was ever actually married to him, was merely his
professional “wife” or his live-in lover is not certain. They had been close
for a number of years and she had supported him through thick and thin."
Peacock goes on to say “Living across the
road was the socially conscious, eccentric Hunt family, and by far their most
intriguing member, at least to Mary, was the romantic eldest son. With his help
she too learned to walk a high wire and was one of the few township people not
frightened by his feats and his desires. When he returned to Hope in 1861 as a
world-renowned gymnast, their friendship was renewed. They were just one year
apart and obviously both rather unconventional people. When he left home again
after his second Port Hope walk she went with him and publicly took the name
Farini”.
(To Be
Continued)
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