Philippe Petit
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Philippe Petit (; born 13 August 1949) is a French highwire artist who gained fame for his unauthorized highwire walks between the towers of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris in 1971 and of Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1973, as well as between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City in August 1974. Since then, Petit has lived in New York, where he has been artist-in-residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, another site of his aerial performances. He has done wire walking as part of official celebrations in New York, across the United States, and in France and other countries, as well as teaching workshops on the art. In 2008, '' Man on Wire'', a documentary directed by James Marsh about Petit's walk between the towers, won numerous awards including the
2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...
Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. '' The Walk'', a film based on Petit's walk, was released in September 2015, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Petit and directed by Robert Zemeckis. Petit was also the subject of a children's book and an animated adaptation of it, released in 2005. He also became adept at
equestrianism Equestrianism (from Latin , , , 'horseman', 'horse'), commonly known as horse riding ( Commonwealth English) or horseback riding (American English), includes the disciplines of riding, driving, and vaulting. This broad description includes the ...
,
juggling Juggling is a physical skill, performed by a juggler, involving the manipulation of objects for recreation, entertainment, art or sport. The most recognizable form of juggling is toss juggling. Juggling can be the manipulation of one object o ...
,
fencing Fencing is a combat sport that features sword fighting. It consists of three primary disciplines: Foil (fencing), foil, épée, and Sabre (fencing), sabre (also spelled ''saber''), each with its own blade and set of rules. Most competitive fe ...
, carpentry, rock-climbing, and bullfighting. Spurning
circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicy ...
es and their formulaic performances, he created his street persona on the sidewalks of Paris. In the early 1970s, he visited New York City, where he frequently juggled and worked on a slackline in Washington Square Park.


Early life and career

Petit was born in Nemours, Seine-et-Marne, France; his father Edmond Petit was an author and an Army Pilot. At an early age, Petit discovered magic and
juggling Juggling is a physical skill, performed by a juggler, involving the manipulation of objects for recreation, entertainment, art or sport. The most recognizable form of juggling is toss juggling. Juggling can be the manipulation of one object o ...
. He loved to climb, and at 16, he took his first steps on a tightrope wire. He told a reporter,
Within one year, I taught myself to do all the things you could do on a wire. I learned the backward somersault, the front somersault, the unicycle, the bicycle, the chair on the wire, jumping through hoops. But I thought, "What is the big deal here? It looks almost ugly." So I started to discard those tricks and to reinvent my art.
In June 1971, Petit secretly installed a cable between the two towers of
Notre-Dame de Paris Notre-Dame de Paris ( ; meaning "Cathedral of Our Lady of Paris"), often referred to simply as Notre-Dame, is a Medieval architecture, medieval Catholic cathedral on the Île de la Cité (an island in the River Seine), in the 4th arrondissemen ...
. On the morning of 26 June 1971, he "juggled balls" and "pranced back and forth" as he crossed the wire on foot to the applause of the crowd below.


World Trade Center stunt

Petit became known to New Yorkers in the early 1970s for his frequent tightrope-walking performances and magic shows in the city parks, especially Washington Square Park. Petit's most famous performance was in August 1974, conducted on a wire between the roofs of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, New York City, above the ground. The towers were still under construction and had not yet been fully occupied. He performed for 45 minutes, making eight passes along the wire, during which he walked, danced, lay down on the wire, and saluted watchers from a kneeling position. Office workers, construction crews and policemen cheered him on.


Planning

Petit conceived his "coup" when he was 18, when he first read about the proposed construction of the Twin Towers and saw drawings of the project in a magazine he read in 1968 while sitting at a dentist's office. What was called the "artistic crime of the century" took Petit six years of planning. During this period, he learned everything he could about the buildings and their construction. In the same period, he began to perform highwire walking at other famous places. Rigging his wire secretly, he performed as a combination of circus act and public display. In 1971, he performed his first such walk between the towers of the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris, while priests were being ordained inside the building. In 1973, he walked a wire rigged between the two north pylons of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.''Man On Wire'' DVD, "Philippe Petit's Sydney Harbor Bridge Crossing" bonus feature. In planning for the Twin Towers walk, Petit had to learn how to accommodate issues such as the swaying of the high towers due to wind, which was part of their design; effects of wind and weather on the wire at that height, how to rig a steel cable across the gap between the towers (at a height of ), and how to gain entry with his collaborators, first to scope out the conditions and lastly to stage the project. Petit and his collaborators had to bring heavy equipment to the rooftops. He traveled to New York on numerous occasions to make first-hand observations. Since the towers were still under construction, Petit and one of his collaborators, New York-based photographer Jim Moore, rented a helicopter to take aerial photographs of the buildings. Two more collaborators, Jean François Heckel and Jean-Louis Blondeau, helped him practice in a field in France, and accompanied him to take part in the final rigging of the project, as well as to photograph it. Francis Brunn, a German juggler, provided financial support for the proposed project and its planning. Petit and his crew gained entry into the towers several times and hid in upper floors and on the roofs of the unfinished buildings to study security measures. They also analyzed the construction and identified places to anchor the wire and
cavaletti Cavaletti (also spelled cavalletti, singular (rarely used in English) cavaletto) (Italian: "little horse") are small jumps, originally made of wood, used for basic horse training. Most consist of rails that are about wide, and long. The rai ...
. Using his own observations, drawings, and Moore's photographs, Petit constructed a scale model of the towers to design the needed rigging for the wire walk. Working from the ID of an American who worked in the building, Petit made fake identification cards for himself and his collaborators (claiming they were contractors who were installing an electrified fence on the roof) to gain access to the buildings. Prior to this, Petit had carefully observed the clothes worn by construction workers and the kinds of tools they carried. He also took note of the clothing of office workers so that some of his collaborators could pose as white-collar workers. He observed what time the workers arrived and left, so he could determine when he would have roof access. On the night of Tuesday, 6 August 1974, Petit and his crew had a lucky break and got a ride in a freight elevator to the 104th floor with their equipment. They stored it 19 steps below the roof. To pass the cable across the void, Petit and his crew had decided on using a bow and arrow attached to monofilament, attached to a rope. They had to practice this many times to perfect their technique. They first shot the fishing line, which was attached to larger ropes, and finally to the steel cable. The team was delayed when the heavy cable sank too fast, and had to be pulled up manually for hours. Petit had already identified points at which to anchor two cavaletti ( guy lines) to other points to stabilize the cable and keep the swaying of the wire to a minimum.


Event

Shortly after 8 am local time, Petit stepped out on the wire and started to perform. He was above the ground. He performed for 45 minutes, making eight passes along the wire, during which he walked, danced, lay down on the wire, and knelt to salute watchers. Crowds gathered on the streets below. He said later that he could hear their murmuring and cheers. When New York Police Department and Port Authority of New York police officers learned of his stunt, they came up to the roofs of both buildings to try to persuade him to leave the wire. They threatened to pluck him off by helicopter. Feeling that he had "trespassed long enough into these forbidden regions", and because the wire was starting to become dangerous to walk on due to rain, Petit left the wire and surrendered to the police.


Aftermath

There was extensive news coverage and public appreciation of Petit's highwire walk. District attorney Richard Kuh dropped all formal charges of trespassing and other items relating to his walk on condition that Petit give a free aerial show for children in
Central Park Central Park is an urban park between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City, and the first landscaped park in the United States. It is the List of parks in New York City, sixth-largest park in the ...
. On Thursday, 29 August, he performed on a highwire walk in the park above Belvedere Lake (now Turtle Pond). The
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, (PANYNJ; stylized, in logo since 2020, as Port Authority NY NJ) is a joint venture between the U.S. states of New York (state), New York and New Jersey, established in 1921 through an interstate c ...
gave Petit a lifetime pass to the Twin Towers' observation deck. He autographed a steel beam close to the point where he began his walk, which was later destroyed in the September 11 attacks. Petit's highwire walk is credited with bringing the Twin Towers much-needed attention and even affection, as they initially had been unpopular.. Critics such as historian Lewis Mumford had regarded them as ugly and utilitarian in design, and too large a development for the area. The Port Authority was having trouble renting out all of the office space.


Representation in other media

Petit's World Trade Center stunt was the subject of Sandi Sissel's 1984 half-hour documentary, ''High Wire'', which featured music from
Philip Glass Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimal music, minimalism, being built up fr ...
's '' Glassworks''. Mordicai Gerstein wrote and illustrated a children's book, '' The Man Who Walked Between the Towers'' (2003), which won a Caldecott Medal for his art. It was adapted and produced as an animated short film by the same title, directed by Michael Sporn, produced by Weston Woods and released in 2005, which won several awards. The documentary film '' Man on Wire'' (2008), by UK director James Marsh, tells of Petit, his collaborators, and his 1974 WTC performance. It won both the World Cinema Jury and Audience awards at the Sundance Film Festival 2008. It combines historical footage with re-enactment and has the spirit of a heist film. It won awards at the 2008 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in
Durham, North Carolina Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County, North Carolina, Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County, North Carolina, Orange County and Wake County, North Carol ...
, and the Academy Award for Best Documentary in 2008. On stage with Marsh to accept the Oscar award, Petit made a coin vanish in his hands while thanking the academy "for believing in magic". He then balanced the Oscar by its head on his chin to cheers from the audience. The same stunt was fictionalized in a biographical drama entitled '' The Walk'' (2015), directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Petit. Author Colum McCann fictionalized Petit's appearance above New York as a unifying thread throughout his 2009 novel '' Let the Great World Spin''.


Later life

Petit has made dozens of public highwire performances in his career. For example, in 1986 he re-enacted the crossing of the Niagara River by Blondin for an
IMAX IMAX is a proprietary system of High-definition video, high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and movie theater, theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (image), aspect ratio (approximately ei ...
film. In 1989, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution, mayor Jacques Chirac invited him to walk an inclined wire strung from the ground at the Place du Trocadéro to the second level of the
Eiffel Tower The Eiffel Tower ( ; ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower from 1887 to 1889. Locally nicknamed "''La dame de fe ...
, crossing the
Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plat ...
. Petit briefly headlined with the Ringling Brothers Circus, but preferred staging his own performances. During his stint with the circus and a practice walk, he suffered his only fall, from , breaking several ribs. He says he has never fallen during a performance. "If I had, I wouldn't be here talking about it." Petit regularly gives lectures and workshops internationally on a variety of topics and subjects. He single-handedly built a barn in the
Catskill Mountains The Catskill Mountains, also known as the Catskills, are a physiographic province and subrange of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York. As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined a ...
using the methods and tools of 18th-century timber framers. In 2011, he published his eighth book, ''A Square Peg''. He has also created an ebook for TED Books, entitled ''Cheating the Impossible: Ideas and Recipes from a Rebellious High-Wire Artist''. Petit divides his time between New York City, where he is an artist in residence at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, and a hideaway in the Catskill Mountains. Among those who have associated with some of his projects are such artists as Mikhail Baryshnikov, Werner Herzog,
Annie Leibovitz Anna-Lou Leibovitz ( ; born October 2, 1949) is an American Portrait photography, portrait photographer best known for her portraits, particularly of celebrities, which often feature subjects in intimate settings and poses. Leibovitz's Polaroid ...
, Miloš Forman, Volker Schlöndorff, Twyla Tharp, Peter Beard, Marcel Marceau,
Paul Auster Paul Benjamin Auster (February 3, 1947 – April 30, 2024) was an American writer, novelist, memoirist, poet, and filmmaker. His notable works include '' The New York Trilogy'' (1987), '' Moon Palace'' (1989), '' The Music of Chance'' (1990), ' ...
, Paul Winter, Debra Winger, Robin Williams and Sting. Director James Signorelli assisted with creation of Petit's book ''To Reach the Clouds'' (2002), about the Twin Towers walk. Petit not only wrote about his feat, and events that led to the performance, but also expressed his emotions following the September 11 attacks, during which the Twin Towers were destroyed. He wrote that on that morning, "My towers became our towers. I saw them collapse – hurling, crushing thousands of lives. Disbelief preceded sorrow for the obliteration of the buildings, perplexity descended before rage at the unbearable loss of life."''To Reach the Clouds: My High Wire Walk Between the Twin Towers'' – Philippe Petit – Google Books. Books.google.com. Retrieved 27 June 2012. Petit paid tribute to those who were killed and supported rebuilding the towers, promising that "When the towers again twin-tickle the clouds, I offer to walk again, to be the expression of the builders' collective voice. Together, we will rejoice in an aerial song of victory." However, a different complex of buildings has been developed on the site, and does not offer this opportunity.


Legacy and honors

* James Parks Morton Interfaith Award * Streb Action Maverick Award * The Byrdcliffe Award


Works and performances


Major performances


Bibliography

All books by Philippe Petit. * ''Two towers, I walk'', (New York: Reader's Digest, 1975), ASIN B00072LQRM * ''Trois Coups'', (Paris: Herscher, 1983). * ''On the High Wire'', Preface by Marcel Marceau, Postface by Werner Herzog (New York: Random House, 1985). * ''Funambule'', (Paris: Albin Michel, 1991) * ''Traité du funambulisme'', Preface by
Paul Auster Paul Benjamin Auster (February 3, 1947 – April 30, 2024) was an American writer, novelist, memoirist, poet, and filmmaker. His notable works include '' The New York Trilogy'' (1987), '' Moon Palace'' (1989), '' The Music of Chance'' (1990), ' ...
, (Arles: Actus Sud, 1997), , (in French / en français) * ''Über Mir Der Offene Himmel'', (Stuttgart: Urachhaus, 1998) * ''Trattato di Funambolismo'', (Milano: Ponte Alle Grazie, 1999) * ''To Reach the Clouds: My High Wire Walk Between the Twin Towers'', (New York, North Point Press, 2002). ASIN B000UDX0JA, , * ''L'Art du Pickpocket'', (Arles: Actes Sud, 2006) * ''Alcanzar las nubes'', (Alpha Decay, Barcelona, 2007) * ''Man on Wire'', (Skyhorse Publishing, New York, 2008) * ''Why Knot?: How to Tie More Than Sixty Ingenious, Useful, Beautiful, Lifesaving, and Secure knots!'', (Abrams Image, New York, 2013) * ''Creativity: The Perfect Crime'', (Riverhead Hardcover, 2014) * ''On the High Wire'' Re-release, Preface by Marcel Marceau, Postface by Werner Herzog (New York: New Directions, 2019).


Filmography


In popular culture

* The song, "Man on Wire" by the band 27 is a tribute to Philippe Petit. * The song, "Sleepwalking," by Danish composer Ste van Holm is a tribute to Petit's World Trade Center walk. * The Low Anthem's song, "Boeing 737", from their 2011 album '' Smart Flesh,'' refers to Petit's Twin Towers walk. * American rock band Incubus used a photo of Petit as the cover art for their album, '' If Not Now, When?'' (2011). * Colum McCann's
National Book Award The National Book Awards (NBA) are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. ...
-winning novel, '' Let the Great World Spin'' (2009), features Petit's Twin Towers walk as its opening passage and a centrepiece to which numerous characters are connected. * "Funambulist", a song by American metal band Cormorant, is about his walk between the Twin Towers. * The song "Step Out Of The Void" by musician Howard Moss is a tribute to Philippe Petit, in the album ''Outside the Pale'' (2013). * The song "Man On A Wire" by
The Script The Script are an Irish Soft rock, soft-rock band formed in 2001 in Dublin. The band currently consists of Danny O'Donoghue (lead vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards), Glen Power (drums, percussion, backing vocals), Benjamin Seargent (bass, backin ...
on their fourth album, '' No Sound Without Silence'', is influenced by Petit's highwire legacy. * The song "Stand Up Comedy" by U2 on their twelfth album, '' No Line on the Horizon'', references "The wire is stretched in between our two towers". * Petit was the inspiration for the 5th Anniversary 9/11 cover of ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...
'' magazine (11 September 2006), "Soaring Spirit", by John Mavroudis (concept) and Owen Smith (art). That cover was named Cover of the Year by the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME). The two-part cover was a first for ''The New Yorker''. * He's briefly referenced by Spider-Man in the Marvel comic ''Amazing Spider-Man Annual'' #10 (1976).


See also

* Harry Gardiner * Dan Goodwin * Ivan Kristoff * Owen Quinn * Alain Robert * The Flying Wallendas * George Willig


Notes


References


Further reading

* Mordicai Gerstein, '' The Man Who Walked Between the Towers'' ( Roaring Brook Press, 2003) * David Chelsea, '' 9-11: Artists Respond'' feature entitled "He Walks on Air 110 Stories High" (
DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...
, 2002) * Ralph Keyes, ''Chancing It: Why We Take Risks'' ( Little, Brown & Company, 1985) * Angus K. Gillespie, ''Twin Towers: the Life of New York City's World Trade Center'' ( Rutgers University Press, 1999) * James Glanz and Eric Lipton, ''City in the Sky'' (New York: Times Book, 2003) * Colum McCann, ''Let the Great World Spin'' (New York:
Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...
, 2009)


Articles and interviews

* Rosenthal, Adam (1 September 2012). "Suspended Reading: ''Man on Wire'', 9/11 and the Logic of the High-Wire." ''Screening the Past''. * * * * * * * * * * * *


External links


Columbia Artists Management Inc. — Philippe Petit


Co-produced by Michael Sporn Animation and Weston Woods Studios
Philippe Petit Signature visible in the 1980s

photos of Philippe Petit crossing the Twin Towers
along with others

TED2012, Filmed Mar 2012, Posted May 2012. {{DEFAULTSORT:Petit, Philippe 1949 births Living people French emigrants to the United States French magicians French stunt performers Jugglers People from Nemours Tightrope walkers Unicyclists