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Technically this would be called a pull off.

Too bad there's no body armor in 1920 . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlZ9_GSSx9U

NickD

ha ahah ahah ahah a hah aha!!!!! I can't believe he was able to crawl away from that!

Whatever, Nick, your ass was standing on the talus, burning a fatty, yelling "Unpacked doesn't count!"

Weren't you like 24 then?

Yeah, but since marijuana wasn't made illegal until 1937 I would have been well within my rights.

My grandfather told me when he was a boy a shoe box full of pot cost only a nickel. He used to get it for the jazz musicians that played clubs in the neighborhood.

The good old days . . .

NickD

Good thing it was that cheap! That poor fucker probably needed a couple of shoe boxes for that ride....
Half a box prior and 1.5 post jump

No ways it was in the 20's. picture quality too good. Also I counted at least six different camera angles, there was commentary and the sound of waves in the background. I don't think even Charly Chaplin could get that good an edit at the time. We see the guy going down and the camera man at the bottom is running which means he has a handheld and the camera isn't on a tripod (edited). I call bluff on the whole thing. I think it was done recently by some paragliders who found a round in their garage or something. The problem with youtube is we will never know what this, and other footage for that matter, really was and it therefore has no historical value whatsoever. But hey, that's just me; who cares really? it makes for some entertainment at least.

Yeah, I would definitely have to agree that wasn't from the 20's. Still, how the fuck did he hit the wall that hard and not get hurt? I've never seen anybody slam that hard twice in a row!

Down South, we called it a 'jerk off'.

BASE359

Better . . .

NickD

I was told that it only hurts on the third strike

On this being fake, or mis-represented: The clip description does say "from" the 1920s not made in the year 1920. And as early as 1911 there's already several Newsreel companies like, Pathe, Movietone, and Paramount. And the sound era began in 1926. Also he only hit the cliff once. The second impact in the film is really the first impact but shot from below. And in none of the shots do I see the camera moving.

It's a good thing you guys weren't doing photo interpretation during the Cuban missile crisis, or it would have been, "Faked, Bullshit, Shopped!"

On how he didn’t get hurt too badly, or at least not so badly he was still moving and waving at the end, go out and slam a wall with square and then do it again with a round and tell me which impact was harder? On this particular jump he was very lucky not to have hit the cliff on the initial pendulum right after launch as that one would have hurt.

But there is another more interesting aspect to this film. Some of you have read my stuff about the steeplejack in New York City who jumped the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge, and a Wall Street building in 1912. And yes there is newsreel footage of that too. For those who don't know - Fredrick Law was looking for publicity for his ailing business and since he was comfortable with heights and rigging he decided these parachutes jumps would get him the attention he wanted. And it worked. The New York Times ran his stories for days at a time and Law became the father of all future glory hounds.

But something else he did was come damn close to jumping all four objects way back in 1912. If we allow the Statue of Liberty to be considered a tower (he did jump from the torch part, and the statue is basically a metal tower clad in copper) then to complete BASE all he needed was a cliff jump. After his three New York jumps Law realized, after one of the newsreel companies paid him $1500 to film his Brooklyn Bridge jump, he should say screw the steeplejack business altogether and go into show business. So he moved out west, to Hollywood, and become one of the first, if not the very first, Hollywood stuntman.

Now over the years we’ve all seen more than a few of these very early parachute jumps from what appears to be California beach bluffs. There's this one, there's the one where the guy rides the motorcycle off the cliff, and there are others I've heard or read about. Law already knew the value of stock footage as the newsreel company that shot his Brooklyn Bridge jump later sold the film clip to Hollywood and it appeared in an early Mary Pickford movie. And they sold it for a lot more than they paid Law.

So I've wondered, and kind of hoped, I could prove Law, then on west coast, made one of these early cliff jumps. And if he did it would indeed technically make him BASE number one. And, in that case, all of us BASE number holders would need to move up by one number.

Sometimes we celebrate certain people in BASE jumping for the wrong reasons. We especially apply the term "pioneer" too easily. For instance Carl Boenish wasn't so much a pioneer as he was a visionary. There were plenty of fixed object parachute jumps made before Carl's time. But Carl saw where fixed object jumping could go and what it could become. Some people call anyone who BASE jumped in the 1980s a pioneer, but I think Law was a true pioneer and maybe our true patron saint, as he came closest so long ago to the types of jumps we are doing today.

NickD
BASE 194 (or 195)


This is Fredrick Law in the 1912. A dapper fellow, eh . . .


Is this the same guy getting ready to ride this motorcycle off a cliff? In this film the guy gets line stretch on impact but there's no proof he died. And in fact Law did die of old age.

Naw, he could just get the honourary BASE Zero

Another great post!

Very cool reply Nick, as always. Thanks.

Still, look at his clothing and his helmet. Yes sound was introduced in the 20's but it was very basic. This could have possibly been done in the 50's or 60's; again, it's a youtube not a NickDG, and unlike you, it just can't be trusted...

>>This could have possibly been done in the 50's or 60's;<<

No way, and here's why . . .

Look at this screen grab. First off he's wearing a soft hat which was the fashion of 1920s aviators and jumpers. Hard shell helmets, which he'd surely would have worn in the 50s or 60s, weren't yet available.

Now look at the second smaller red circle. He's not even on a pair of risers. The suspension lines terminate at a single point way above the jumper and this is why he is twisting around so much on the jump. This way of being connected to a canopy is very 1920s.

Also watch the vid again and at one point you get a clear view of the jumper with both hands together and above his head. He is clearly hanging onto a single riser.

Now look at the canopy itself. If familiar with more modern rounds of the 50s, 60s, it looks nothing like those. It looks exactly like a 1920s canopy would look like, very long suspension lines, unmodified, etc.

And finally do you actually think this is how they would conduct a parachute test drop in the 50s and 60s? Parachutes were well perfected by then and they would have never done it this way . . .

NickD

>>Naw, he could just get the honourary BASE Zero <<

You're right, I should have thought of that. Love it!

NickD

Does he have any surviving family that have stories that were passed down about their crazy (great) grandfather?

I think he's related to Mike Muscat! Really, the similarities are all there.

I've looked for any relatives he might have had and I found he had a sister named Ruth Bancroft Law-Oliver. She was born in 1887, but she died in 1970. No slouch herself she was an early female pilot in 1915.

Some other stuff besides the fixed object jumps he made Fredrick Law launched himself in a home made rocket that left him in a heap but didn't kill him (that's him laying in the wreckage below).

I have a friend who's a stuntman's historian in Hollywood and he's looking for stuff on Law for me as he is recognized as the first professional stuntman. And I'm really hoping his sister Ruth had some children. In any case I won't give up looking.

It took me twenty years to find Mike Pelkey and Brian Schubert, the two who first jumped El Cap, but I finally did . . .

You can click for larger versions of the below photos.


Here's an actual photo of Law's 1912 jump. The article also talks about Franz Reichelt. You may have seen his bounce from the Effiel Tower on Youtube. And that failed jump happened the day after Law's jump. A lot of people think Reichelt was jumping some kind of wingsuit, but it wasn't. He was a tailor by trade and it was a parachute of his own design. He built a metal framework that he wore, and he draped the parachute over that. As he fell the parachute was supposed to lift off the framework and open, but it didn't.


Law's home made rocket . . .


And the result . . .


Ruth, Law's sister, in her Curtiss bi-plane, 1916.


Ruth getting it done . . .

NickD
BASE 194

All Muscats, really!

I would be inclined to say that he is wearing a fibreglass helmet and definitely not a leather frap hat which is what aviators would wear at the time (at best).


This was my first point, for all we know it could be some paraglider who found it in his garage. It is very easy, even in an entry level editing program to make something that looks like that film.

Other points:
Some colour which apperaed only in cinema's then around the second world war.
Not very clear but there seems to be a print on his shirt on the back.
He is wearing what appears to be a wrist watch...

Things just don't gel; I would have thought that of all people you would agree that this footage being on youtube, one just couldn't trust the content.


I don't think anyone would ever conduct a test in this manner. Again, it is youtube and just because the commentator says it is a test...

Maybe I have come across as agressive and mocking towards you in my previous posts on this thread; if so, I would like to make it clear that it was not my intention. I do not however trust anything that is posted on youtube. This footage and anything else on youtube for that matter, has no other value than pure entertainment to me.

uh, Cuban what?

time advances quickly. do you realize the Cuban Missle Crisis happened less than 40 years after that video? it's been more than 40 years since...

still a great thread. you may never get your book published, but at least this gem will linger in the archives...

Another very interesting post from Nick.

Much appreciated

John

i posted a link for the mentioned motorbike jump with a round in this thread...but NickDG didn`t like that i "stole" his attention with the video, so he pm`d me and asked me to remove my post from his thread... so i did it..(do i smell grumpy old man here?)

That's a pile of BS . . .

You quoted my entire post but screwed up the links to the photos. This made the entire thread slew off the screen to the right. I asked you to fix that so the thread wasn't so hard to read. I never asked you to remove the link you provided of the MC jump . . .

Here's the entire PM I sent you:

>>Go ahead and delete my post from your reply. Without the photos it's slewing the thread off the screen.

And besides in the forum like this you don't have quote someone's entire post . . .

Thanks,
Nick<<

So what the fuck are you talking about?

NickD

yeah right....twist it your way.
is just me who have a bad "attitude" as you wrote me in your 2nd message...whatever
what a enjoyable guy u are...

Sure, I asked why you were giving me an attitude after you sent me this . . .



NickD

One other thing that's fake about that video is the sound effects. Just like it doesn't make that loud of sound when you punch someone in the face as it does in the movies. There's no way you could here that loud of a thud when he hits the cliff from that far away over the sound of the ocean, which seems to be very loud too wherever they are.

Could it be someone made a sound editing later on?

Do you believe it is a fake stunt, or just a fake time?

"Sometimes we celebrate certain people in BASE jumping for the wrong reasons. We especially apply the term "pioneer" too easily. For instance Carl Boenish wasn't so much a pioneer as he was a visionary"

First of all I have to say Carl was my first and only hero in this life! Carl was the only one I knew when I was a kid, and had to learn that 4 finnish Jorma Öster, Pentti Pukkila, Timo Liukkonen og Jukka Heikkinen did the jump from Troll first! I dont know when Carl did his jump from troll, only know the press loved him from first moment! Carl made a world record from the troll, but in fact a sweedish made 5 seconds longer delay than him, and could not tell since the press realeese was all about an American base hero made it! Still Carl was one of the most impartand persons for my base career!

this could be one of those syndroms http://www.dropzone.com/...nt;postatt_id=98652;.........it happens to me and happens to many other persons in forums like this..all you have to do is add some rainy days with nothing to do than surfing around the web

This place looks a lot like Torrey Pines Gliderport and Black's Beach in San Diego...

Preamble:

"Just step off the edge, the rest is easy."
"What if it won't work as planned?"
"If it lets you down, it'll be great success. If not, you get a new parachute absolutely free."
"That's a good deal!"
"Ok, boy. Let's go."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8CA4wo6jpc

That's a videonugget!

Good stuff. http://www.youtube.com/user/gizmofan

>>This place looks a lot like Torrey Pines Gliderport and Black's Beach in San Diego...<<

Yes, that's exactly what it looks like.

NickD

that video of the guy slammin' the cliff reminded me of this one

  
Is this the same guy getting ready to ride this motorcycle off a cliff? In this film the guy gets line stretch on impact but there's no proof he died. And in fact Law did die of old age.


I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before, but the guy in the clip is Shorty Osbourne. Shorty was a stunt man and an aircraft mechanic who worked with guys like John Tranum and Dick Grace. The hydro wires he hit on the cliff jump saved his life, but he no longer did stunt work after that. His friends were able to keep him employed by giving him work as an aircraft mechanic on their stunts, since their was no workman's comp at the time for injuries.

The stunt by Osbourne where the parachute caught on the bike's fender was what gave Tranum the idea to put a protective device over that part of his bike before he did his own motorcycle jump in Colorado (possibly canyon de chelly). Tranum meant to repeat the feat off Table Mountain in South Africa on his african tour for Irving parachutes, but may not have done it before dying of a heart attack on a world altitude record attempt in Denmark.

Ruth Law was way more famous than her brother, setting many records for women's aviation. The car/plane race picture is from the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto.

I never heard Law moved out west to pursue Hollywood dreams. I do know he worked at Dayton packing parachutes in the Air Force during the First World War (not on the parachute development team) and died in the late teens (possibly early twenties, I'd have to check) from lung cancer, an embittered man.

The video of the jump off the cliff using the fan was on a video documentary on TV back in 82 called "Gizmo" about many old aviation stunts. Smitty first gave me a copy in mid 1982, but I think he got it off TV with his new fangled "Betamax" video tape player.
Rick H