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Washington, D.C., 1917. "Reynolds, J., performing acrobatic and balancing acts on high cornice above Ninth Street N.W." Our fourth glimpse of "Jug" Reynolds at work atop the Lansburgh furniture store. Harris & Ewing. View full size.
Waaaaaaaaaaaaay too windy for that stunt. The guy is clearly crazy. I wonder what that netted him?
That's what this pic gave me and I love heights.
Two years later, Jug Reynolds appears to have moved to New York, where he was still thrilling them from the rooftops. Here is an admiring little feature about him in the October 1919 issue of Popular Science Monthly.
Who says that cigarettes don't make one look cool?
we really should be getting back to the taxi, the traffic is bad this time of day.
Stunts like this were common back then.
There was one fellow named George Polley who was known as the human fly. He would scale any building as a grand opening stunt, or for a promotion. Once, a haberdasher had just put a new suit on a window mannequin, and was out front admiring his display when Polley came along. George said "I would stand on my head on the roof for a suit like that!" to wich the shopkeep replied, "If you can climb to the roof, I'll give you that suit."
George Polley got the suit.
However, his life was cut short at the age of 28. Not from a fall, but from a brain tumor.
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