Some people can go up as high as the sky and they don’t think twice about it. On high ladders, cranes, beams on high buildings or climbing up a soaring communications tower these guys never flinch.
Some of the best photos of this behaviour were taken during the construction of the Empire State Building in New York City. Construction of the 102 story building was completed in 14 months. An amazingly fast time for such a giant building.
Excavation of the site began on January 22, 1930, and construction on the building itself started symbolically on March 17—St.Patrick’s Day—per Al Smith’s influence as Empire State, Inc. president. The project involved 3,400 workers, mostly immigrants from Europe, along with hundreds of Mohawk iron workers, many from the Kahnawake reserve near Montreal. According to official accounts, five workers died during the construction. Governor Smith’s grandchildren cut the ribbon on May 1, 1931.
Some photos of the construction workers way way up:
Must be waiting for more girders.
Looks like they ordered out. No pizza back then so this must be cookies.
And today workers still go very high to construct very high structures and for maintenance.
The photo below shows workers doing maintenance on the highest communications tower in the United States. It is a TV tower in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. These guys went up 2,200 feet. That is a 1,000 feet higher than the Empire State Building.
Very strange orb in San Antonio, Texas back in 2012. Computer generated images (CGI) were not all that widespread back in 2012. But if this is a hoax it’s a good one. If it isn’t a hoax, what in tarnation is that bloody thing!?
Tom Cruise is hoping to blast into the Hollywood record books by shooting the first action movie in space.
Nasa is working with Cruise to film aboard the International Space Station.
There are no details of the film, but Deadline – which first reported the story – said it would not be a new instalment of Mission: Impossible.
The report also said Cruise, 57, is also working with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which will transport two US astronauts to the ISS for Nasa later this month.
Nasa administrator Jim Bridenstine wrote on Twitter: “Nasa is excited to work with Tom Cruise on a film aboard the Space Station!”
Musk replied to say the project “should be a lot of fun!”
Cruise played an astronaut in 2013 film Oblivion, when he safeguarded Earth’s natural resources from alien invaders.
He also narrated the 2002 Imax documentary Space Station 3D. It’s not known when the star will blast off to the ISS for real.
Risky business: 4 daredevil stunts from Cruise’s career
By Ian Youngs, entertainment reporter
As well as being one of Hollywood’s most popular action heroes, Cruise is known as a daredevil who does many of his own stunts.
In an interview about his new Top Gun sequel, co-star Miles Teller says: “I think when Tom hears that something’s impossible or can’t be done, that’s when he gets to work.”
That sounds not unlike his Mission: Impossible character Ethan Hunt, who has been seen in many of the most daring scenes.
1. Leaping off a roof (and breaking an ankle)
In 2017, he broke his ankle while jumping from one rooftop to another (attached to a cable) for Mission: Impossible – Fallout.
Despite instantly knowing he was injured, he carried on by hauling himself onto the roof and running off.
“I knew it was broken,” he later told The Graham Norton Show. “I just said, ‘Ugh,’ and I ran past the camera. We got the shot, it’s in the movie.”
His co-star Simon Pegg joked: “Everyone said, when you got up and ran out of shot, ‘Oh, that’s so him. To complete the shot with your foot hanging off – that’s so him.'”
2. Climbing a skyscraper
In 2011’s Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Hunt is seen scaling the Burj Khalifa in Dubai – the world’s tallest building – from the outside.
Although Cruise trained for four months and was wearing a harness – which was edited out – he said he struggled with crosswinds as he tried to swing in through a window.
“It took a while to work out how not to come slamming into the building head first,” he said.
3. Hanging off a plane during take-off
In Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, Cruise hangs from the side of a plane by his fingertips as it takes off. It was really him, and it was a real plane.
He performed the stunt four times over two days, again wearing a harness, but the crew had to scour the runway for the tiniest items that could have been thrown up and hit him.
“While we are going down the runway, we’re worried about bird strikes, any kind of particle that the propellers could pick up, any kind of stone,” Cruise told USA Today.
“I remember I got hit by a stone that was so tiny, you cannot believe. I thought it broke my rib. Lucky it went to my vest and not my hands or my face, it would have penetrated and gone right through.”
4. Falling off a cliff
One of his other famous stunts appears in the opening scene of Mission: Impossible 2, where Hunt climbs – and then almost falls off – a vertigo-inducing cliff, apparently with no ropes.
Cucumber-cool Cruise was actually attached to a thin safety wire, which was later erased – but that did little to calm director John Woo’s nerves.
“I was really mad that he wanted to do it, but I tried to stop him and I couldn’t,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “I was so scared I was sweating. I couldn’t even watch the monitor when we shot it.”
Although the birth of Boner Billy was unexpected, hence the name “Boner”, a Vaudeville term for a “silly mistake.” As you will soon learn, Boner “Bronco” Billy, a true American hero was anything but a silly mistake. Documenting the life and times of American hero Boner Billy is a bit of a challenge due to the fact that Boner Billy’s son, grandson, and great grandson have the same name without a name suffix, Junior, Senior, or Roman numerals, etc. Due to this lack of a suffix in their name, si it can be a little tricky documenting the rich history of this American hero. Here is how the story goes; in the early summer of 1845 a young Boner Billy, along with John Frémont, Kit Carson and 54 other men left St. Louis on an expedition. The stated goal was to “map the source of the Arkansas River on the east side of the Rocky Mountains.” Upon reaching the Arkansas, expedition leader, John Frémont suddenly made a hasty trail straight to California, without explanation arriving in the Sacramento Valley in early winter of 1846.
Records suggest shortly after arriving in the Sacramento Valley, Boner Billy owned and operated a popular trading post on a road leading from San Francisco to Sacramento. It is now believed America’s first hot dog, then called a tube steak was created and sold at Boner Billy’s trading post. This popular food consisted of a specially spiced and seasoned tube steak on a fresh bread roll, and was called the “Big Boner” due to its size, and named after Boner himself. In January of 1847, Boner Billy, his wife, Frannie and young daughter, Bella were traveling to San Francisco on business when they had to make an emergency stop at Sutter’s mill in Coloma, California to give birth to the Billy’s first son, known as, “little Boner.” Folklore has it that a local man, James Marshall, and Boner Billy stepped outside to smoke a cigar to celebrate the birth of the child. James Marshall then spotted a sparkly object in the American River, which ended up being a small gold nugget that launched the great California Gold Rush. That nugget of gold was named after Boner Billy’s new born son and was thereon known as, “little Boner.”
Folklore has it that in the spring of 1858, Boner Billy and ranch hands, Bill “Dirty” Smith and James Finney, nicknamed “Old Virginy” were rounding up stray cattle in the foothills just NE of what is now known as Carson City, Nevada. At this point, ranch hand Finney located and later was credited with discovering the Comstock Lode, one of the largest silver ore deposits in the world. Over the next several years Boner Billy successful partnered in investments in the mining boomtown, Virginia City, Nevada. He also opened, a series of eating establishments serving tube steaks letter known as hot dogs in Nevada and throughout California.
America’s first Hot Dog cart, – Sacramento, CA 1855
Billboard in Flagstaff Arizona mid – 1950’s
Around 1928 a Boner Billy cousin, Betty Bonnie Billy owned a string of Boner Billy’s Hot Dogs stands throughout California. Sadly without the secret recipe that made Boner Billy’s tube steak such a hit the food was run of the mill. A short lived television show, the Boner Billy Play House did drive up sales for a bit but in 1962 the last Boner Billy’s Hot Dog stand closed.
The Big Boner airplane with full bar and glass bottom dance floor was a hit with the Hollywood elite 1950-64
It has recently been announced that Boner “JR” Billy the great, great, great grandson of Boner “Bronco” Billy has stepped forward with support and involvement in the launch of Boner Billy’s new Viva Las Vegas restaurant. In a recent interview, JR stated; “My great grandpapa who from a little trading post on the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains served-up America’s first hot dog to hungry forty-niners heading to the goldfields. “I cannot tell you how proud I am to now help bring the Boner Billy name and the greatest hot dogs in the world to Las Vegas” –Boner “JR” Billy
The risque and suggestive hot dog ads from the 1940’s and 1950’s.
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