Those were the days, huh?

From Gothamist: Ben Dova (womp womp) came to the States as a young man, with an interest in vaudeville and acrobats, eventually becoming well known for his signature "convivial inebriate" act. In 1933 he brought his "quirky drunkard" act to the city's skyscrapers, where he staggered about on top of the 56-story Chanin Building, located at 122 East 42nd Street, at the corner of Lexington Avenue. There were no nets, no wires, and no camera tricks involved in what you see here. According to lore, audiences were so terrified for Dova's safety, "fainting at the sight of the newsreel was documented."

wonder whut ever happened to him

KingBAD said:

wonder whut ever happened to him

He died of old age in 1986.

From the link in my OP:

On May 3^rd, 1937 he was a passenger aboard the ill-fated airship The Hindenburg. He survived the disaster by climbing out a window and dangling until the airship was close enough to the ground to execute an acrobatic tumble. Physically he suffered only a sprained ankle in the ordeal but long after the disaster, many people wrongfully fingered Dova as a saboteur.

That was crazy...

oh my shit! I almost fainted from watching that!

crazy dude!

YIKES!!!

the closest i get to doing anything even slightly like that is watching the Crazy People who engage in what they call 'extreme sports' :coughmadnesscough: these are folks who devote their time, energy and money to doing things like skiing down or climbing up a sheer cliff. that sort of thing doesn't make me wonder how they do such things, only why. don't get me wrong, i admire a good stunt. however, when i look at a distant mountain it never even occurs to me that it would be fun to climb that sucker. heck no. and when i look up at a cliff face, i neither want to ski, nor rappel, nor climb down that thing. just...no. and here's this dude, looks up at a skyscraper and thinks to himself... yeah. i'm gonna hang like a monkey from that slender thingy at the top. uhhh.. no. good for him and it's amazing to watch but....

[Edited 3/29/12 16:01pm]

KingBAD said:

wonder whut ever happened to him

Efan said:

Those were the days, huh?

From Gothamist: Ben Dova (womp womp) came to the States as a young man, with an interest in vaudeville and acrobats, eventually becoming well known for his signature "convivial inebriate" act. In 1933 he brought his "quirky drunkard" act to the city's skyscrapers, where he staggered about on top of the 56-story Chanin Building, located at 122 East 42nd Street, at the corner of Lexington Avenue. There were no nets, no wires, and no camera tricks involved in what you see here. According to lore, audiences were so terrified for Dova's safety, "fainting at the sight of the newsreel was documented."

Didn't Prince do something like that at a James Brown show?

muirdo said:

Efan said:

Those were the days, huh?

From Gothamist: Ben Dova (womp womp) came to the States as a young man, with an interest in vaudeville and acrobats, eventually becoming well known for his signature "convivial inebriate" act. In 1933 he brought his "quirky drunkard" act to the city's skyscrapers, where he staggered about on top of the 56-story Chanin Building, located at 122 East 42nd Street, at the corner of Lexington Avenue. There were no nets, no wires, and no camera tricks involved in what you see here. According to lore, audiences were so terrified for Dova's safety, "fainting at the sight of the newsreel was documented."

Didn't Prince do something like that at a James Brown show?

lmao

muirdo said:

Efan said:

Those were the days, huh?

From Gothamist: Ben Dova (womp womp) came to the States as a young man, with an interest in vaudeville and acrobats, eventually becoming well known for his signature "convivial inebriate" act. In 1933 he brought his "quirky drunkard" act to the city's skyscrapers, where he staggered about on top of the 56-story Chanin Building, located at 122 East 42nd Street, at the corner of Lexington Avenue. There were no nets, no wires, and no camera tricks involved in what you see here. According to lore, audiences were so terrified for Dova's safety, "fainting at the sight of the newsreel was documented."

Didn't Prince do something like that at a James Brown show?

Prince was at a James Brown show? I don't believe that ever happened.

Efan said:

muirdo said:

Didn't Prince do something like that at a James Brown show?

Prince was at a James Brown show? I don't believe that ever happened.

Me neither. What's next? Is someone going to say Michael Jackson was there, too? smh

RodeoSchro said:

Efan said:

Prince was at a James Brown show? I don't believe that ever happened.

Me neither. What's next? Is someone going to say Michael Jackson was there, too? smh

Crazy. I love the roughness of the old times. So real, so in-your-face and way more emotional than any new shit out there trying to be "crazy" and "dangerous".

He must have done that at least two times. He doesn't have a tophat on around the 1 minute mark, but then it's back for the end...

IT'S NUTHIN, DO THAT SHIT ER'DAY!!!

[img:$uid]http://i910.pho.../img:$uid]

DRUNK DINNA MU'FUKKA

RodeoSchro said:

Efan said:

Prince was at a James Brown show? I don't believe that ever happened.

Me neither. What's next? Is someone going to say Michael Jackson was there, too? smh

Is that the instrumental version of Vicki Waiting playing in the background?

Seriously though, did anyone else get that horrible feeling in their groin watching that vid?

jone70 said:

He must have done that at least two times. He doesn't have a tophat on around the 1 minute mark, but then it's back for the end...

Would've never noticed that

Efan said:

Those were the days, huh?

From Gothamist: Ben Dova (womp womp) came to the States as a young man, with an interest in vaudeville and acrobats, eventually becoming well known for his signature "convivial inebriate" act. In 1933 he brought his "quirky drunkard" act to the city's skyscrapers, where he staggered about on top of the 56-story Chanin Building, located at 122 East 42nd Street, at the corner of Lexington Avenue. There were no nets, no wires, and no camera tricks involved in what you see here. According to lore, audiences were so terrified for Dova's safety, "fainting at the sight of the newsreel was documented."

Like when Penn and the others were posing on the ledge of the top of Trump Tower, I get queasy just lookin' at this.