Alexandre Patty featured with Ringling brothers, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

The circus has always been a place to showcase remarkable and unimaginable skills. Perhaps one of the most unusual stunts performed was achieved in the early 1900s by Alexandre Patty, the man who walked on his head.

Patty and his brother were acrobats in France—students in the Paris Latin Quarter—when, as one newspaper put it, Alexandre “discovered his ability to reverse the order of nature by walking upside down.”

The act, not surprisingly, generated excitement around campus and news quickly spread of Patty’s strange talent. He soon cashed in on it, particularly with a Ringling Bros. Circus booking in 1907 to perform across America.

With Ringling Bros., they presented “an exhibition of hand-balancing and acrobatic feats,” which was highlighted with Alexandre’s ability to walk “up and down a flight of steps on his head”—as seen in the photos above.

Among his other feats was drinking water while standing on his head and standing on his head on top of his brother’s head.

Alexandre Patty did what no other human has. This ad in Montana’s Butte Miner newspaper promoted a show in August, 1911.

Though it’s not how most people use their head to earn money, it proved successful for Patty. By 1908, he reportedly earned “more money than the average metropolitan bank president.”

Billed as “The Man Who Walks on His Head,” Patty continued performing for decades around the world with the circus and in vaudeville. He was also featured in Ripley’s Believe It Or Not!

The Man Who Walks on His Head was featured in this Ripley’s cartoon in 1931.

Acrobats have always pushed the limits of what the human body is capable of, but Patty’s astonishing feat has yet to be duplicated or expanded upon.

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