Nathan Boya (July 28, 1924 – August 8, 2022; real name William Fitzgerald) was the first
African American to go over Niagara Falls. Very little is known about Fitzgerald. He claimed to be self-employed, but others have claimed he worked for
IBM. On July 15, 1961, Fitzgerald went over the
Horseshoe Falls in a metal ball he helped design called the "Plunge-O-Sphere". Performing stunts on the Falls could only be performed with permission, following the death of William Hill, Jr in 1951. Fitzgerald did not obtain a permit to do his stunt and was arrested and fined after completing it. After the flurry of appearances after his plunge, Fitzgerald did not make public appearances until 1985, when he attended
Karel Soucek
Karel Soucek (April 19, 1947 – January 20, 1985; né Karel Souček) was a Czech professional stuntman living in Canada who went over Niagara Falls in a barrel in 1984. He lived in Hamilton, Ontario.
Soucek prepared for his 1984 Niagara Fal ...
's funeral and in 1988 protesting discriminatory actions against a scientist he called "Dr. X".
[ Time (21 July 1961). ]Bill Mauldin
William Henry Mauldin (; October 29, 1921 – January 22, 2003) was an American editorial cartoonist who won two Pulitzer Prizes for his work. He was most famous for his World War II cartoons depicting American soldiers, as represented by the ...
, Whittaker Chambers, Nathan Boya : Niagara.
Nathan Boya appeared as a contestant on ''
I've Got a Secret'' on August 30, 1961. His secret was "I went over Niagara Falls in a 6-foot ball." Bill Cullen and Betsy Palmer questioned him. The other panelists,
Henry Morgan and
Bess Meyerson, recognized him. He was later a contestant on ''
To Tell The Truth'' on an episode that aired January 15, 1962. Three of the four members of the celebrity panel (
Tom Poston,
Dina Merrill
Dina Merrill (born Nedenia Marjorie Hutton; December 29, 1923 – May 22, 2017) was an American actress, heiress, socialite, businesswoman, and philanthropist.
Early life
Merrill was born in New York City on December 29, 1923, but for man ...
and
Johnny Carson
John William Carson (October 23, 1925 – January 23, 2005) was an American television host, comedian, writer and producer. He is best known as the host of ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' (1962–1992). Carson received six Pr ...
) guessed him correctly;
Betty White did not.
Interviewed in 2012 for a ''National Geographic'' television special about Niagara Falls daredevils, Fitzgerald revealed his reason for his stunt after decades of silence: He had broken off his engagement to a woman that he felt he had wronged, and he performed the dangerous stunt as a form of penance. Niagara Falls had been their planned honeymoon destination.
Later in life, Fitzgerald moved to
Bangkok, Thailand and authored two novels.
A 1943 graduate of
Kingston High School,
Kingston, New York, at age 93, in 2018, he endowed a yearly scholarship in the names of his parents: Augustus and Sarah FitzGerald.
Fitzgerald died on August 8, 2022 at the age of 98.
Bibliography
*
*
See also
*
List of objects that have gone over Niagara Falls
*
Jean Lussier, the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a rubber ball.
References
External links
Time MagazineNG excerpt
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boya, Nathan
1924 births
2022 deaths
African-American people
People who went over Niagara Falls
1961 in New York (state)
1961 in Canada