COLORADO: The Wire

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For 30 years before World War I, fierce-eyed, mustachioed "Professor" Ivy Baldwin was as famous as many a king. He was a tiny man (5 ft. 3 in., 112 Ibs.), but he had a fine sense of balance and a vast contempt for death. He toured the world making balloon ascensions and parachute jumps. He dived into nets from incredible heights. He walked high wires with the ease and insouciance of a fly.

In 1907, at the height of his fame, he went to Eldorado Springs, Colo, to walk a steel cable which a resort owner, Frank Fowler, had strung across South Boulder Canyon. The cable was 635 ft. long and 582 ft. above a foaming torrent. As fourteen thousand watched, the professor walked the dizzy wire with ease, pausing in mid-passage to stand on his head.

He settled down in Colorado, crossed the high wire 86 times in all. His children grew up; his wife died. The world forgot him. He was old and arthritic. Three years ago, hungry for applause, he looked up at the high wire still hanging rustily across the canyon, decided to walk it once again.

But Resort Owner Jack Fowler, son of the original owner and a brother of Novelist Gene Fowler, was horrified. He refused vehemently. The professor kept pleading. This year Fowler gave in, strung a new and shorter wire (320 ft. long and 125 ft. high) lower in the canyon.

Last week, on his 82nd birthday, the professor put on his tiny, camel-hide shoes. He picked up his 24-ft., 24-lb. balancing pole and stepped out into yawning space. In mid-canyon he stopped, knelt creakily until one knee touched the wire, lurched up, went on. Pale, panting, drenched with sweat, he reached the other side.

Below, crowds applauded and sang Happy Birthday. Fowler, who had charged admission, gave him the proceeds—$415.-25. The professor was invigorated. Next day he walked across again.