Ben Dova was born in Ben Dova was perhaps best known for his signature ‘convivial inebriate’ act. His act consisted of Dova playing a quirky drunkard. He would swaggeringly stagger out onto the stage, dressed in a rumpled top hat and wrinkled tails, and would feign falling into the audience while perform wonderfully limber moves. It appeared to the audience as though Ben Dova would topple at any moment and he teased such a disaster, only to steady himself and proceed. He would search, for a comical length of time, through his pockets for a cigarette which was in his mouth during the entire time. Then, at this point, he would climb a street lamp to light his cigarette.
While perched atop the lamp the lamp would begin to sway back and forth, eventually to an alarming degree. Dova would hold on and begin an astounding acrobatic routine heighten by his seemingly intoxicated state.
To some, Dova’s act was comedic and entertaining fluff, however in 1933 that all changed. For the benefit of American newsreels Ben Dova performed his act atop
Here, in all its unbelievable glory is the great Ben Dova performing atop the
Dova’s remarkable survivability did not stop there. On May 3rd, 1937 he was a passenger aboard the ill-fated airship The Hindenburg. He survived the disaster by climbing out a window and dangling until the airship was close enough to the ground to execute an acrobatic tumble. Physically he suffered only a sprained ankle in the ordeal but long after the disaster, many people wrongfully fingered Dova as a saboteur.
Dova continued performing his ‘convivial inebriate’ act well into the 1970’s before retiring to simple acting jobs. His most notable role was opposite Laurence Olivier in the 1976 film
Ben Dova eventually succumbed to old age in September of 1986. He had lived his long life as a successful entertainer, daredevil and survivor.
image: Watch Ben Dova defy death atop New York's
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
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i believe it should be feign not fain.
don't post such unnessessary and dumb comments on a blog like this.
anyways, i've been reading your blog for quite some time and i'm intrigued by it. greatly infact. i've seen this video of the above man and it just amused me. :P
Several things make me suspicious. For example: We see him slipping and sliding around on the "edge of the building" from the point of view of the "roof", shooting upwards. This is an odd camera angle. Why is that? For all we know, there's a 3-ft. drop on the other side, as we don't get to see what's on the other side, except in shots edited in later. It would be far more impressive were we to get that over-the-head angle again to show some depth on the other side.
There are a number of genuine newsreels from the same time period showing people roller skating on platforms atopt flagpoles, tapdancing on I-beam girders on buildings under construction, etc. etc., that are shot with a single, steady camera positioned in such a way as to emphasise the height and danger involved. Why does this one look so different from the others? Why so many "closeups"? It may not be staged, but it sure looks staged.
Where can I find independent records of this? Was it written up in the papers? Were reporters present?
I realize that in this day and age it is common to question that which appears extreme. There has been a lot of fakery and trickery in cinema and even in 5 o’clock news. People, like you, have grown cynical to what they see. This newsreel was shot the way it was shot because the documentarian didn’t have to prove anything. The intended audience was not distrustful out of habit or necessity. It was shot to emphasis drama and the participant.
This was, after all, a publicity stunt.
Even without outside sources, it would be inconceivable for this stunt to be staged as Mr. Dova continued to put his life in extreme danger for decades after this footage was shot. Video of him performing similar and even more dangerous stunts can be found online an in library archives. The man worked without a net in situations where error would mean certain death. I do not see why he would take such risks – especially later in life whist not in his prime – yet fake the same act in front of newsmen. Whether he was 50 feet above a crowd or 52 stories above the ground – a mistake would mean death either way.
Mr. Dova was an extraordinary acrobat and contortionist. So much so that I would say that regardless of the situation, he was never truly in any real danger due to his incredible and unfathomable skill.