Flashback Photos: Karl Wallenda's 1970 Tallulah Gorge skywalk

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Flashback Photos: Karl Wallenda's 1970 Tallulah Gorge skywalk

Karl Wallenda, founder of the Flying Wallendas, dazzled onlookers with his high-wire skywalk across Tallulah Gorge in north Georgia on July 18, 1970.

On July 18, 1970, circus star Karl Wallenda of the Flying Wallendas "walked 1,000 feet toe-to-heel 700 feet above the jagged bottom of the gorge in 17.7 minutes -- 22.3 minutes less than had been predicted," according to Atlanta Journal-Constitution staff writers Ron Taylor and Chip Callaway, who penned the next-day story on the walk.

Wallenda performed two headstands on the tightrope during the skywalk.

Karl Wallenda points out where his tightrope walk will take place.

Wallenda is barely visible in this distant photographic view of his tightrope walk. AJC staff writers Taylor and Callaway described the 65-year-old's skywalk as "541 fast but careful steps across Tallulah Gorge ."

When AJC writer Bob Harrell asked Karl Wallenda's older brother, Herman, why the younger Wallenda made such daring skywalks, Herman Wallenda replied "It is what he knows best. His ego. Money. He is best for it."

From the 1970 AJC story on Wallenda's walk: "Tapes of the microphone monologue of Wallenda indicated he joked most of the way. Once he directed his remarks to his wife, Helen. 'Darling, are you there? I am coming.' Then, 'it's martini time. I'd better hurry.' Wallenda had said [the night before the walk] that he wanted a martini as soon as he completed the trek."

"As Wallenda stepped off the catwalk, dust rose behind him," the 1970 AJC article states. "The car taking his wife to the destination tower was leaving. Helen [Wallenda] had avoided watching her husband perform after near tragedy in a Hartford, Conn., circus fire in 1966. She wanted to see as little of [the] walk as possible."

Despite the AJC headline, "Wallenda Makes Walk Look Easy," the story pointed out that the performer had still faced peril. "Only once did Wallenda seem in danger of falling," the article says. "As he reached the middle of the wire, a gust of wind caused him to stagger slightly."

From the 1970 AJC article on Wallenda's skywalk: "Though always expressing confidence, Wallenda must have had doubts for at one point he assured himself, 'Karl, you're going to make it. When he reached the end, among his first words were, 'I made it.'"

Eight years after his Tallulah Gorge skywalk, Wallenda died during another skywalk attempt, this time between the two towers of the ten-story Condado Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico. High winds caused the 73-year-old stunt performer to fall 121 feet to his death on the pavement below. In the 1970 AJC article on Karl Wallenda's Tallulah Gorge skywalk, writers Ron Taylor and Chip Callaway noted the reaction of Wallenda's wife, Helen, after his successful feat. "'When I drove up here alone, I thought I might be driving back alone. Now I have someone to go back with me. I am so happy.'" Karl Wallenda's great-grandson, Nik, currently continues the family tradition of high-wire skywalks.

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On July 18, 1970, circus star Karl Wallenda of the Flying Wallendas "walked 1,000 feet toe-to-heel 700 feet above the jagged bottom of the gorge in 17.7 minutes -- 22.3 minutes less than had been predicted," according to Atlanta Journal-Constitution staff writers Ron Taylor and Chip Callaway, who penned the next-day story on the walk.