From the October 26, 2014, Chicago Tribune by Mark Jacob and Stephan Benzkofer, great researchers.
What with Nik Wallenda intending to walk across the Chicago River on a tightrope next weekend as a stunt, here are ten other stunts.
1. The last major stunt in Chicago was perhaps DANIEL GOODWIN "SPIDER DAN" scaling the John Hancock Center on Nov. 11, 1981, and authorities didn't like it a bit. They tried to stuo him, even with him being hundreds of feet off the ground. Firefighters doused him with high pressure hoses and then tried to block his way with a window-washing scaffold and pike poles.
They even broke out windows and tried to pull him inside.
Finally Mayor Jane Byrne decided to allow him to finish his way to the top where he was promptly arrested. Wallenda, of course, won't be arrested for his stunt.
Living in the Chicagoland area, this event was all over the news and most everyone was pulling for "Spider Dan" and not really happy that he was arrested.
2. LINCOLN BEACHEY, one of the first great stunt pilots, was known for his "death dips," his loop-the-loop and his flights around the U.S. Capitol, under abridge at Niagara Falls and inside a building in San Francisco.
At a 1912 air show in Chicago, Beachey dressed as a woman and pretended to be an amateur pilot, flying wildly and buzzing cars on Michigan Avenue.
He came to his end in 1915, when he tried an extreme maneuver and his plane's wings fell off, plunging him into San Francisco Bay. He was found drowned, still strapped into the pilot's seat.
3. SNAPPLE'S attempt to clinch the world record for largest ice pop on the first day of summer in 2005 in New York's Union Square rapidly turned into a sticky mess when the 25-foot tall, 5-foot wide, 17 ton ice pop liquefied in the 80 degree heat and really mucked up everything.
--Cooter
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