Rodman Law

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Rodman Law with his sister Ruth in their Wright Model B. (around 1910-1915) biplane

Frederick Rodman Law , also just Frederick Law (born January 21, 1885 in Lynn, Massachusetts , died October 14, 1919 in Greenville, South Carolina ) was an American skydiver , base jumper, and facade climber who, through his daring actions became famous and became the first stuntman in film history with his jump from the top of the Statue of Liberty . He was the older brother of aviation pioneer Ruth Law .

The name

Local contemporaries usually only knew Law in combination with his first name Rodman. His middle name, Frederick, was so rarely used that it was unknown to many. So one day Law called himself Frederick Law in the hope that it would cover up his identity. That was what he wanted when he became impoverished because of a hospital stay and the family had to leave the familiar surroundings.

biography

Rodman Law came from a wealthy background and was the son of Frederick H. Law, the owner of a small hotel. On the occasion of his death, the American daily The Wichita Eagle published an interview with his father in which he remembered his son as a little "toddler". He did not agree with the passion of his children, had to support himself on a fence because of sheer fear on his daughter's first flight, was very worried and was afraid that one day he would have to find out about his son's death from the headlines .

Rodman's sister, Ruth Law, was a little younger than him, but on a par with him physically and in motor skills, and she was infected by her brother's passion. Like him, she climbed a lot, but then did not become a parachutist, but a pilot. She acquired her flying license in 1912, making her the fifth licensed female pilot in the United States. Ruth Law died in 1970 at the age of 83, outliving her brother by decades. However, she had stopped flying in 1922.

Law was married to Florence Kimball from 1907 until his death. He was the father of two daughters (Catherine and Virginia Ruth) and one son (Bill Rodman). Sometimes the mistake of two children is mentioned. The family lived in Brooklyn . In addition, Law lived temporarily in Chicago and Texas . By the age of 24, he had already completed several professional positions as a seaman , circus rider and steel construction worker in building construction before he began his career in a profession for which there was no name at the time.

In 1914, Law was injured in a stunt, and in 1917 he was so seriously injured that he had to be hospitalized. As a result of the long hospital stay at Kings Hospital , his family got into material hardship because the money he had previously earned from his films was used up over time for hospital bills and maintenance. Law almost gave up skydiving when World War I broke out, enlisted in the American Air Force and served in Kelly Field, Texas .

In Kelly Field, Law contracted tuberculosis and died of it at the age of 34 after months of hospitalization at Camp Sevier in Greenville, South Carolina , although he was convinced of his recovery and had already made plans for parachute stunts again.

Act

Flatiron Building 2004
Ansonia Hotel 1905

According to legend, Law is said to have climbed the facade of the Flatiron Building in Manhattan in 1909 on the basis of a bet and without any security . Since then, the skyscrapers of New York have been "no longer safe" from Law, wrote the journalist Frank Patalong , who remembered the Law siblings with his 2012 Spiegel essay. His stunts have been documented since 1910, because the press was informed, filmed and took photos. Law himself also took a camera with him on his ascent and took photos from above. With subsequent lectures in the city's cinemas, he began to earn money. He became a "local celebrity," according to Patalong.

The stunts of Law, who soon received the nickname The Human Fly , were processed in short films , others in a feature film. In the silent films he appeared with Jean Acker and Claire Whitney, among others . Even as a daredevil (English: Daredevil ) called, he jumped from the Williamsburg Bridge , as well as from the Ansonia Hotel in New York City . The American journalist Hal Erickson said in his synopsis that even “by modern standards” his stunts would have been “impressive”.

In January 1912, Law was preparing to jump off the Statue of Liberty. So that it would be captured on film, he turned to the New York branch of the French company Pathé , at the time “the world's leading producer of newsreel clips”. Five cameramen of the then office manager Leon Franconi were asked to record the jump from all perspectives. On February 2, 1912, Law jumped from the top of the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island near New York, which was then the tallest statue in the world . For this jump, the parachute had previously been opened and deposited on top of the torch of the statue. Law landed eight meters from the water's edge. For this jump he got $ 1,500, said Patalong. The new profession of stuntman and the new journalistic category of infotainment was created for him . Two days later, the Austrian Franz Reichelt jumped from the Eiffel Tower and had a fatal accident.

In 1913, Law made headlines after an accident. He wanted to jump from a self-constructed rocket, but it exploded at a height of about 25 meters. He was hospitalized with broken bones and burns, but had recovered six weeks later and showed the film clips soon after in the sold-out Regent Theater in New York .

In 1916, a spectacular stunt by Law was announced in the Scarsdale Inquirer newspaper , which was planned for a car race in New York City and which he then performed.

"Among the extra attractions will be Rodman Law, the champion daredevil, who at an altitude of 1,500 feet, will dynamite his balloon and trust to a parachute to bring him safely to earth from the zone of explosion."

"Among the special attractions will be Rodman Law, the daredevil king, who will blow up his balloon at 1,500 feet and trust a parachute to bring it safely back to earth."

- Scarsdale Inquirer (1916)

However, he was also injured in this stunt. Over time, his fame gradually faded and eventually faded behind that of his sister.

As a stuntman Law was Douglas Fairbanks gedoubelt .

The Museum of Hoaxes contributed anecdotes together over Rodman Law. For example, while he was climbing the facade of the Raleigh Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue , he was said to have taken breaks and smoked a cigarette before, at the urging of some hotel guests who felt harassed, stopped climbing the hotel on the ninth floor and then took the elevator again drove down. Once on the ground, he is said to have asked again to be allowed to jump from the Washington Monument , which he was denied. Sometime after that, thousands in Washington, DC had the illusion that they were seeing Law climb the Washington Monument . Over 50 reporters came and let themselves be fooled by a damp patch on the monument. It was a mass pareidolia , that is, a misinterpretation. Law never climbed the Washington Monument .

Retrospectives

Wayne E. Reilly is an award-winning American journalist and author who has published multiple articles on the American city of Bangor and worked for their local newspaper, The Bangor Daily News, for 28 years before retiring. He then published the Remembering Bangor series in the local newspaper and in 2013 wrote an article about Rodman Law under the title Famous daredevil plunged over Stillwater Falls a century ago . Bangor residents, Reilly said, would have been used to celebrities a century ago. But they would have been "solid people" like Teddy Roosevelt or Jack London - names that everyone still knows today. Law, however, is a long-forgotten celebrity. On June 3, 1913, the local newspaper would have headlined An internationally famous dare-devil arrives in Bangor . The 15-minute film about Rodman Law was the first film from this area.

Six years before his death, Law would have told reporters, according to Reilly, that he had "no nerve" and did not know "what the word fear" meant. Occasionally, the press of the time used feint , claiming, for example, that Law was drifting through the Milford Dam , a lock in the Penobscot River , with a tree trunk . Reilly also reported how Law let himself fall down the waterfall on the Stillwater River in a small wooden boat in front of an audience and running cameras , which he survived - albeit slightly injured - although hardly anyone thought it possible at the moment of the impact because the wooden boat crashed against the rocks there. This stunt was captured in the short film Death's Short Cut .

In addition to the extensive retrospective of Reilly, for example Claire Friday in Time in 2008 and Frank Patalong in Der Spiegel magazine in 2012 remembered Rodman Law.

Filmography

  • 1912: A Leap for Love (short film)
  • 1912: The Secret Service Man (short film)
  • 1912: At the Risk of His Life (short film)
  • 1912: Pathé's Weekly, No. 8 (short film)
  • 1912: Animated Weekly, No. 35 (short film)
  • 1913: Saved by Airship (short film)
  • 1913: Death's Short Cut (short film)
  • 1913: His Priceless Treasure (short film)
  • 1913: The Daredevil Mountaineer (short film)
  • 1913: Pathé's Weekly, No. 39 (short film)
  • 1913: Pathé's Weekly, No. 41 (short film)
  • 1913: Animated Weekly, No. 54 (short film)
  • 1914: Fighting Death
  • 1916: Animated Weekly, No. 22 (documentation, together with sister Ruth)

Web links

Commons : Rodman Law  - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files

Remarks

  1. ↑ Frank Patalong mentioned in his Spiegel essay about the Law siblings Franz Reichelt's death leap, which he erroneously transferred to the "day after Law's leap". Actually jumped Law on February 2 at 14:45 and Reichelt in a different time zone on February 4 at 8:00 am in the morning.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Law, Frederick Rodman; Law, Ruth B. (Oliver); Wright (Co) Model B. In: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum . Accessed August 29, 2018 .
  2. ↑ https://www.newspapers.com/clip/9211221/rodman_law_obit/
  3. ^ A b c Rodman Law Hurt, Spent Fortune, Now Family is in Want. In: The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. February 22, 1917, p. 1 , accessed on August 28, 2018 (English).
  4. ^ NN: Thrill World But Their Dad Is Not So Much Impressed. In: The Wichita Daily Eagle. November 2, 1919, p. 39 , accessed on August 28, 2018 (English).
  5. ↑ Eliza McGraw: This Ace Aviatrix Learned to Fly Even Though Orville Wright Refused to Teach Her. In: Smithsonian.com. March 22, 2017, accessed August 31, 2018 .
  6. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Frank Patalong : The tired of life and the aviator ace. In: Spiegel Online. December 28, 2012, Retrieved August 28, 2018 .
  7. ^ A b Rodman Law Biography. In: imdb.com. Retrieved August 28, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Rodman Law, Defier of Death, succumbs to White Plague. In: Brooklyn Daily Eagle. October 14, 1919, p. 2 , accessed on August 28, 2018 (English). Rodman Law Hurt, Spent Fortune, Now Family is in Want. In: Brooklyn Daily Eagle. February 22, 1917, p. 1 , accessed on August 28, 2018 (English).
  9. ^ Death Claims Rodman Law. In: Keowee Courier. October 22, 1919, p. 2 , accessed on August 28, 2018 (English). Rodman Law Dead. Famous for Daring Death in Movies. In: New York Daily Tribune . October 15, 1919, p. 10 , accessed on August 28, 2018 (English).
  10. ↑ Rodman Law, Defier of Death, succumbs to White Plague. In: Brooklyn Daily Eagle. October 14, 1919, p. 2 , accessed on August 28, 2018 (English). Death Claims Rodman Law. In: Keowee Courier. October 22, 1919, p. 2 , accessed on August 28, 2018 (English).
  11. ↑ Rodman Law, Defier of Death, succumbs to White Plague. In: Brooklyn Daily Eagle. October 14, 1919, p. 2 , accessed on August 28, 2018 (English). NN: Thrill World But Their Dad Is Not So Much Impressed. In: The Wichita Daily Eagle. November 2, 1919, p. 39 , accessed on August 28, 2018 (English). Rodman Law Biography. In: imdb.com. Retrieved August 28, 2018 .

  12. ^ Death Claims Rodman Law. In: Keowee Courier. October 22, 1919, p. 2 , accessed on August 28, 2018 (English).
  13. ^ Hal Erickson : Daredevil Rodman Law (1914). Synopsis. In: Allmovie . Accessed August 29, 2018 .
  14. ↑ a b Claire Suddath Friday: BASE jumping. In: Time . October 17, 2008, accessed on August 31, 2018 (English, the age of Law is erroneously given here as 35 years).
  15. ↑ Un saut depuis la Statue de la Liberté. In: Ecole du Prachutisme Français. Retrieved August 31, 2018 (French).
  16. ↑ a b The Damp Spot That Hoaxed DC In: Museum of Hoaxes. Accessed August 31, 2018 .
  17. ↑ FAM Convention will be held July 4 . In: Scarsdale Inquirer . tape  XV , no. June 25 , 24, 1916 (English, hrvh.org [accessed August 31, 2018] scan of the newspaper clipping).
  18. ^ Wayne E. Reilly: Hidden History of Bangor. From Lumbering Days to the Progressive Era (=  Hidden History ). Arcadia Publishing , The History Press , Maine 2013, ISBN 978-1-62619-010-8 (English, arcadiapublishing.com [accessed September 1, 2018]). Wayne E. Reilly: Remembering Bangor. The Queen City Before the Great Fire (=  American Chronicles ). Arcadia Publishing, The History Press, Maine 2009, ISBN 978-1-59629-590-2 (English, arcadiapublishing.com [accessed September 1, 2018]).
  19. ↑ About the author. Customer Reviews. In: Arcadia Publishing, The History Press. Retrieved September 1, 2018 . About the author. Customer Reviews. In: Arcadia Publishing, The History Press. Retrieved September 1, 2018 (English): "Wayne E. Reilly worked for the Bangor Daily News for 28 years as a reporter, and editorial writer, and an assignment editor. His free-lance writing has appeared in many other publications, and his work has won many professional and civic awards. Using family diaries and letters, he has edited two books, Sarah Jane Foster: Teacher of the Freedmen and The Diaries of Sarah Jane and Emma Ann Foster: A Year in Maine During the Civil War. Since his retirement from the Bangor Daily News, he has written more than 250 columns on Maine and Bangor for the newspaper. He holds a BA from Bowdoin College and an MA in journalism from the University of Missouri. "
  20. ↑ a b Wayne E. Reilly: Famous daredevil plunged over Stillwater Falls a century ago . In: BDN (=  Remembering Bangor. The Queen City Before the Great Fire ). June 23, 2013 (English, archive.org [accessed September 1, 2018]).
personal data
SURNAME Law, Rodman
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Law, Frederick Rodman (full name); Law, Frederick
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American parachutist, base jumper and facade climber
DATE OF BIRTH January 21, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Lynn (Massachusetts)
DATE OF DEATH October 14, 1919
Place of death Greenville, South Carolina