A recent post by André Duvall sent me back to read his first “Father’s Art” column, about his father, Billy Charles Duvall, and his art. One particular piece caught my attention. Originally titled “The Death of the Aerialist,” “The Last Man” depicts a man falling from a wire. It reminded me of a movie I watched when I was young.
In 1978, Lloyd Bridges starred in the made-for-TV movie The Great Wallendas. I was ten, but I still remember the tragic tale of a family of tight-rope walkers who were driven to keep going high.
The father, Karl Wallenda, died that same year, falling from a pretty standard walk, high up, between two buildings in San Juan, Puerto Rico. His wife has been quoted since as saying: “All Karl thought about for three straight months prior to the accident was falling. It seemed to me he put all his energy into not falling – not into walking the tightrope.”
To this day, a new generation of Wallendas still perform on the high-wire.
Here is my tribute to Karl, with thanks to both André and Billy Charles Duvall, whose painting “The Last Man” inspired it.
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| “The Last Man” (originally “The Death of the Aerialist”), 1983. 48" x 24". Oil on masonite |
I dreamed of falling,
a drop of rain from an
empty sky
