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 - Further Adventures (Part Three)

He announced plans for several wire walks, but due to the financial climate of a war torn country, he financially wasn’t available. Finally he revised his plans and “presented weekly shows at Moffat’s Grove, the pleasure ground just north of Buffalo”. The shows didn’t all go smoothly, but Farini was able to work his way through the problems. One of his walks featured the debut of Signora Farini. Here is Shane’s description, “The exciting prospect him carry “a live woman” brought out another big crown. They watched him step out onto his rope with Mary on his back and head toward his “crow’s nest” in the tree. He had invented a new apparatus for carrying her, a kind of side-saddle made of leather, steel bands and stirrups that strapped onto his shoulders and rendered her ride comfortable and as safe as possible. She was described as “a pale and rather interesting looking person of twenty-two years, or thereabouts” and despite the poor condition of the rope that day she performed her task without fear and was cheered heartily when they reached the crow’s nest and she was lowered safely to the ground”. Farini and Signora Farini three more times and then left town. Farini “was about to temporarily leave show business and plunge himself into the bloody mess that was the American Civil War.”

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)

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 - 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”.

 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)

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 - Further Adventures (Part One)

With the season over and Blondin gone from Niagara (forever), Farini left the area and headed south. Along the way he performed in various cities. After a number of performances, he ended up in New Orleans. Times in America where changing. Abraham Lincoln was elected and signs of a split were in the air! Farini put together a company of acrobats to perform in New Orleans, but with the onset of Civil War, the city became a very dangerous place to be. Ultimately Farini made his way up the Mississippi and then made his way by steamer to Cuba and  on to New York City. Normally Farini would have loved to stay in this exciting city, but having arrived “in the midst of war fever”, he decided to head north for “the quiet countryside of Hope Township”.

Here is how Shane describes Farini’s return “Somehow Farini was able to be Bill Hunt again and live in the same house with his father for three months. Thomas turned much of the farm operation over to him and in a few years would sell him all his land and begin plans to retire permanently to Port Hope. Bill Hunt settled in and by April he was busy with crop planting and other chores." However, according to Peacock, “living in Hope Township would never work for him. The energy that had possessed him since birth just wouldn’t rest. He had to head out in the world again after adventure”.

 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)

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 - The Duel

“The Invincible Signor Farini” shouted the broadside, “Will not be Outdone”. And so “The Duel” began! Farini with “The length and slackness of his cable”, “the greater height and weight of the man he would carry” and the fact “that he would unload and reload his companion as he walked (across the cable)”! Blondin, for his part, “lowered himself to a short slack rope slung about twenty feet under his cable and on this rope he stood on his head, lay face down and imitated a swimmer” and then he “performed a startling series of a dozen or more lightning fast somersaults”. To finalize his performance "he appeared on the loading platform with little manager on his back and then proceeded to walk the wire!” All this to the delight of the crowds who had gathered! The Duel continued throughout the season, each performer trying to outdo one another! They even tried to convince the Prince of Whales (later King Edward VII) to take a trip on their backs across Niagara on the wire! It was an amazing period and one that would be remembered for a long time! It is interesting to note that although Blondin was the better known of the two performers, Farini prospered financially while Blondin struggled. Farini was showing one of his many talents, he was financially astute! As Shane Peacock summarizes in his Farini Niagara adventure, “He (Farini) had gone to the Falls to compete with the man whom everyone said was a superman. No one, they said, could do the things that the immortal Blondin did. Now, they knew different”.

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)

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 - Sky Walking (Part Five - continued)

 Here is how Shane describes it … “The jerking motion of the rope made the upward climb terribly difficult and at the halfway point, rapidly tiring, he signaled for the men on the steamer to let go of it. Now the jerking stopped and he was left “gently swaying backwards and forwards like a pendulum.” All the time, he had to squeeze the rope in an unusually tight grip, and his hands were turning numb. He began considering a plan for falling: hew had to release at the right moment and hit the water or he would brash into the steamer’s deck. But before he resorted to anything desperate he tried an old gymnast’s trick: wrapping the rope securely around a leg in order to rest his arms. Looking up, the distance to the cable seemed as daunting as the drop beneath him. He tried moving again, and despite his shaking limbs, was able to maintain a slow pace upward, hand over hand, climbing for dear life. Soon he was so close that his nose touched the cable. Desperate to move that inch, unsure he could, he heard nothing, not the crowd, the steamer of the falls, just the sound of his own breathing against the rope. Then, “using every particle of power left…”he raised one leg over the cable and used it to hoist his wilting frame onto the narrow walkway.” Over the season Farini and Blondin tried to out do one another. Farini’s doing headstands, somersaults, hanging by one hand, walking enveloped in a sack. Blondin was just as daring! It was truly a test of great danger and coverage! This, however, was just the start! The Duel was really about to begin and was certainly about to “Get Dangerous”

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)

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 - Sky Walking (Part Five)

After a period of time, rested, Farini returned to the wire and back to the United States. Blondin, who had also performed that day was not happy with the competition. Here’s a short passage from Peacock’s book, “From the whirlpool at Devil’s Hole he had seen signs of activity near Farini ’s rope in the distance, so he had loaded up his stove (the one he would take out on his rope that afternoon in order to fry on omelette at mid-wire) and performed the humiliating chore of displaying himself and his apparatus, like a sandwich-board advertisement, to the masses. Blondin turned in front of the Clifton so that both he and his stove were visible to everyone and headed back downstream. Stealing a glance behind, he noticed that no one had followed him. Some day, he thought, Farini will pay for this.” Before completing his return, however, Farini had one more card “trick” up his sleeve! Farini dropped a cord down to the water below, fastened it onto his wire. The “Maid of the Mist” steamer then edged over the cord. A thicker rope was sent back up to Farini and attached. Farini then descended and ultimately arrived safely onto the steamers deck. Here he drank a glass of wine with a friend and then ascended the rope back to the wire.

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)

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 - Sky Walking (Part Four)

Shane describes his final efforts before reaching the Canadian side! “Soon the spectators on the Canadian side had such a good view of him that they could see the blue of his eyes. He came up the cable towards them struggling, his legs shaking slightly but his attitude tenacisous. He seemed to be falling forward with each step as though there were a hevy weight pressing him down. He climbed the final few yards in near desperation until his foot finally touched wood…and safely. Forty minutes after starting out on the longest and most perilous high wire ever strung at Niagara Falls twenty-two-year old Bill Hunt was alive and standing on Canadian soil. The huge crowd erupted in cheers. At that age he valued praise above almost anything: this was his “kind of glory”. The shouts of Port Hope and Bowmanville people in the crowd touched him even in the intensity of the moment. He was just the second human being to do this and a righteousness swelled up inside him: he wished all his doubters could see him now.”

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)