Daredevil Alley addition
Daredevil Alley in Niagara Falls has a prominent new tenant.
Jay Cochrane, the legendary wirewalker who made Niagara Falls his second home, has been memorialized with a large display at the Queen Street attraction.
Though it has been up for a few weeks, the display will be officially unveiled at a ceremony on Thursday, starting at 4 p.m.
The project was spearheaded by the Downtown BIA and Cochrane’s former sister-inlaw Constance Cochrane, who has lived in downtown Niagara Falls for four years. The sign is actually on the side of the building she lives in.
She says Jay would be thrilled to see the city he loved recognize him with a permanent display.
“He’d be glowing,” she said. “Smiling from ear to ear.”
The display features several photos of Cochrane taken by his manager, Mark Phillips, along with a bio describing his early exploits and eventual triumphs in Niagara Falls, where he did regular summer wirewalks in 2002, 2005 and 2008 before his greatest feat – a walk between the Skylon Tower and Hilton Fallsview Hotel, nearly 600 feet in the air. At age 68, Cochrane did this walk 48 times during the summer of 2012.
That same summer, famed American wirewalker Nik Wallenda did what Cochrane always dreamed of: Walking a tightrope over Niagara Falls, albeit with a safety harness. For more than a decade Cochrane had pleaded with the Niagara Parks Commission to relent on its anti-stunting bylaws to let him do the one-time walk, to no avail.
Instead, Wallenda did the walk to a worldwide television audience of about half a billion viewers. But it never drove a wedge between the two friends. “He was amazing at his craft and I truly miss him,” said Wallenda a year after Cochrane’s death. “Hard to rank wirewalkers, but he was definitely up there with the best.”
He’d be glowing. Smiling from ear to ear.” Constance Cochrane, Jay Cochrane’s former sister-in-law
Over the span of 11 years, Cochrane did more 800 walks in various Niagara Falls locations. As with every walk, he donated a large portion of his earnings to charity, with Tender Wishes receiving most of his attention. He died from cancer in 2013.
Niagara Falls Downtown BI A chairman Julio Bat res says a Cochrane exhibit has been in the works virtually from the day Daredevil Alley opened downtown, in an alley between Ontario Avenue and St. Clair Avenue. When he took over as Downtown BIA chairman last year, one of his first phone calls was from Constance, wondering when something would go up.
“He has a longstanding history with Niagara Falls, he’s done so many things for the city,” says Batres.
The $1,000 display was created by Bob Bolibruck of Celebrate Old Downtown and Cre-8-it Signs of Welland. Downtown BIA project manager Richard Gilbert expects more additions to Daredevil Alley “on an ongoing basis.”
Unveiled in 2013, the attraction features panels and plaques commemorating the likes of Blondin and Farini.