The Great Farini

Shane Peacock
Biographer, Novelist, Playwright, Journalist, Screenwriter
Author of The Great Farini - The High-Wire Life of William Hunt

The Lives of Farini-Hunt - Tragedy  (Part One)
From the War torn United States the Farini’s traveled to Cuba. Here Farini would once again thrill audiences and display his “high wire” talents. His choice of venue was in Havana at the city’s ball-ring, Plaza de Toros de la Habana. Farini “had strung a rope from one side to the other of the bull-ring roof”. He was going to amaze the crown “by standing on his head, hanging by his feet, walking in peach baskets and inside a sack, and going through maneuvers with a chair”. The night of his walk, “things started well’ he walked back and forth without incident.” Here is how Shane Peacock describes what happened next. … “Then Mrs. Farini appeared and he lifted her onto his back and started out on the long journey across the huge expanse. The introduction of a woman into a dangerous performance always frightened audiences, without a doubt the reason why there were so many such acts, and the crowd at the bull-ring that day was noticeably nervous, watching the pair moving slowly along the high wire, the gentleman’s muscles showing through his tights and the lady looking fragile and feminine in her translucent dress. Out they went, sixty feet over the seats and down the incline across the ring, and then up again over the other seats toward their perch on the opposite wall. As they approached safety the crowd began to relax, and in a communal feeling of relief and admiration, a burst of spontaneous applause rose throughout the stadium. The Farinis were just four feet from the perch; they could almost touch it. At that instant Mary made a deadly decision: she decided to wave. It was just a slight motion to the crowd, meant to be casual, but a rope-walker’s cardinal sin: a jerking action that was unrehearsed. She loosened her grip on her husband’s neck and in the instant her hands came up and her weight shifted, she was falling. She screamed as she tipped away from his back and felt herself dripping, head downward, shrieking for his help so loudly that the audience could hear each word. A sense of horror transfixed the crowd as Farini tried desperately, in the split second available to him, to save his dearest friend. In a lightning move he released the balance pole and shot his arm back, his hand searching for the descending body...and caught her!  One would hope that this was the happy end to an almost tragedy, but life’s not like that!

NOTE: Mr. Peacock has written several books. His latest series is about "The Boy Sherlock Holmes" This is a wonderful look at the legendary Sherlock Holmes, in the beginning! To learn more about Shane and all of his works, please visit his website at www.shanepeacock.ca.

(To Be Continued)