When Nik Wallenda starts out across a cable strung near the brink of Niagara Falls Friday night, he will be walking into history in more ways than one. If successful, Wallenda will add his name to the record books as the first tightrope walker ever to balance on a high wire so close to the falls.

But in a sense, he will also be walking back in time, to an era of larger-than-life daredevils and stuntmen.