Remembering Dar Robinson's CN Tower Jump

As I've confessed more than once, I have a sort of nostalgic addiction to souvenirs from the 1980s. Not being knick-knack collector, however, this compulsion is satisfied almost exclusively through the perusal of photographs and video, the majority of which I find online. Surely one of the best sources for such material is retrontario's YouTube channel. A veritable treasure trove of 80s memories, I regularly browse the channel to see what new gems Ed Conroy has found and uploaded.

With his collection nearing 1200 uploads, there's obviously hours of entertainment to be had for those feeling wistful for past times. But, even for those not so inclined to bouts of nostalgia, there's a number of quirky and noteworthy videos that just shouldn't be missed.

The video of stuntman Dar Robinson's jump off the CN Tower is one such gem.

With Chuck Norris at the helm as narrator, some awesome background music, Robinson's Adidas-esque attire and a decidedly sparse looking Toronto core, this clip satisfies much of what I look for in these glimpses of the Toronto of a quarter-century ago. And, it's pretty captivating to boot. It reminds me of a low-budget version of the documentary Man on Wire just a little bit.

It also sparks a few questions...chiefly, how in the world did he get a permit to do the stunt in the first place?

But those are for another day. At some point I'll get around to taking a look the various stunts involving the CN Tower, but on this lazy Sunday I'm content to enjoy this bit of Toronto history.

Sadly, Dar Robinson was killed doing a far more routine stunt in 1986. But as far as legacies go, how many stuntmen can say they've jumped off what was, for a long time, the world's tallest structure? Twice, no less.

Pretty remarkable.

Thanks to retrontario for another great find.