Philion, Achille | A headlong rush down a tower enveloped in flame

Philion, Achille

An Attraction Without a Parallel. Achille Philion the Marvelous Equilibrist and Originator. Buffalo: The Courier Co., 1899 (no. 2656)

Color lithograph poster (27 1/8 x 40 3/4 in.; 690 x 1038 mm). A couple of light marginal stains. Framed and glazed with Plexiglas.

A stop-motion–like depiction of Philion's globe ascension act, described on the present poster as "The most perilous performance ever devised by mortal man. Upon a globe twenty-eight inches in diameter the fearless Philion ascends and descends a spiral tower fifty feet high on a roadway only sixteen inches wide, and mounted upon this unsteady footing, he ventures out upon a slender cable forty feet from the ground, performing the most difficult feats on his dangerous journey, finishing his wonderful exhibition by rushing headlong down the tower enveloped in flames and fireworks."

Philion was an accomplished manager and promoter, as well as a performer. Ricky Jay noted that when Ringling Brothers first played Chicago in 1895, they hired Philion "as an additional attraction to generate publicity and draw spectators" (LP&FW). Philion also appeared with the Adam Forepaugh and Sells Brothers Circus.

REFERENCE:

Exemplars, p. 314; LP&FW, pp. 204–05 & color plate; cf. Circus, pp. 505–07, for the Adam Forepaugh and Sells Brothers adaptation of this poster