ROBERT CRAIG KNIEVEL
“EVEL”
Oct. 17, 1938–Nov. 30, 2007
Butte, Montana
WORDS TO LIVE FOR
“FAITH, HEALTH, EDUCATION, LOVE
WORK, HONORABILITY, DREAM”
BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST
AMEN
Wait. There was more. Walk 180 degrees, go to the other side of the headstone, and, yes, there was more writing. An etching of a rocketlike vehicle, the word “Knievel” along the chassis, three puffs of smoke coming from the back, occupied the top third of this surface. An etching of a fluttering American flag again occupied the bottom third. Again, the writing was in the middle.
ROBERT “EVEL” KNIEVEL
EXPLORER
Motorcyclist & Daredevil
A Mile-Long Leap Of The
Snake River Canyon
From This Point on Sept. 8, 1974
Employing A Unique “Sky Cycle”
A Man Can Fall Many Times In Life
But He’s Never A Failure If He
Tries To Get Up.
The stone, of course, was the six-foot-tall, one-ton memorial donated by the Rock of Ages Corporation of Barre, Vermont, and shipped to Twin Falls, Idaho, in the midst of the frenzy thirty-three years earlier. It finally had a permanent home.
Acknowledgments
Robert Craig Knievel was a one-man tidal wave when he came through more ordinary lives. Thanks to anyone and everyone who talked to me about him. The stories were spectacular.
Thanks to Mike Byrnes and Joe Little for showing me the right places to go in Butte. Thanks to Pat Williams and Loretta Young for their insights into the famous daredevil’s family. Thanks to George Hamilton for his insights into being the famous daredevil himself. Thanks to Bob Arum and Shelly Saltman for their tales from Snake River and beyond.
Thanks, of course, to Linda Finkle, to Leigh Alan Montville, to Robin and Doug Moleux, to the Garden Street Athletic Club, and to all of the usual suspects. (You know who you are.) Thanks to Esther Newberg, Jason Kaufman, and Rob Bloom.
Thanks again—great thanks—to anyone who helped.
A Note on Sources
In twenty minutes, it is said Evel Knievel can tell enough anecdotes about his early life to keep a reporter busy for twenty years just checking them out.
—Robert Boyle, Sports Illustrated
True. Any poor soul who tries to chronicle Robert Craig Knievel’s life—and no doubt there will be more poor souls to follow this one—is doomed to follow one labyrinth after another, uncertain even at the end if he has found the proper spot. The only course I found was to keep whacking at the dense underbrush of exaggerations, strategic deceits, and flat-out lies and see as much as I could see.
For a start, I was able to read three unpublished manuscripts that contained personal observations by Don Branker, Bob Truax, and Brian Cartmell. These were a great help. Thanks to Don, to Scott Truax, and to Gary Cartmell for the privilege.
I seemed to refer often to Evel Incarnate, a fine book by Steve Mandich that lays out the grid of the famous daredevil’s life. Mandich also has a website, SteveMandich.com, that contains all things Knievel. Highly recommended. I also found myself often on a site, CycleJumpers.com, which has all kinds of fascinating information about people who jump over things on motorcycles, sometimes with bad results.
The boilerplate of all biographies is found in the many newspaper stories written about or around the subject. No different here. The door that is opened by a website like Newspapers.com is incredible, not to mention the help from individual sites for other papers. YouTube is an obvious starting point for all video for a subject like this one. An assortment of websites provided an assortment of other basic facts, from the height of the fountains at Caesars Palace to the costars of Viva Knievel! There is even a website for Evel Knievel toys, EvelKnievelToyMuseum.com. Very good.
I talked with well over two hundred people during research for this book. I talked with a few who didn’t want to talk, who had their own projects they want to pursue. Good luck to them. I read a bunch of books, watched a bunch of videos, went through some magazines like Penthouse and Playboy and Oui that normally aren’t in the house. Went through some like Sports Illustrated and Time and Newsweek that are.
Any biography is a collage. All bits and pieces are more than appreciated.
Bibliography
Bailey, Beth, and David Farber. America in the ’70s. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas Press, 2004.
Barker, Stuart. Life of Evel Knievel. London: Collins Willow, 2004.
Cardoso, Bill. The Maltese Sangweech and Other Heroes. New York: Atheneum, 1984.
Cavett, Dick, with Christopher Porterfield. Eye on Cavett. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974.
Collins, Ace. Evel Knievel: An American Hero. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2000.
Conrad, Harold. Dear Muffo. New York: Stein and Day, 1982.
Cosell, Howard, with Mickey Herskowitz. Cosell. Chicago: Playboy Press, 1973.
_____. Like It Is. Chicago: Playboy Press, 1974.
Edison, Mike. I Have Fun Everywhere I Go. New York: Faber and Faber, 2008.
Eszterhas, Joe. American Rhapsody. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000.
_____. Hollywood Animal. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004.
Everett, George. Butte Trivia: The Most Incredible, Unbelievable, Wild, Weird, Fun, Fascinating, and True Facts About Butte, Montana—The Richest Hill on Earth! Helena, MT: Riverbend Publishing, 2007.
Flowers, Gennifer, with Jacquelyn Dapper. Gennifer Flowers: Passion and Betrayal. Del Mar, CA: Emery Dalton Books, 1995.
Gifford, Frank, with Harry Waters. The Whole Ten Yards. New York: Ballantine Books, 1994.
Gross, Michael. My Generation: Fifty Years of Sex, Drugs, Rock, Revolution, Glamour, Greed, Valor, Faith, and Silicon Chips. New York: Cliff Street Books, 2000.
Hamilton, George, with William Stadiem. Don’t Mind if I Do. New York: Touchstone, 2008.
Hill, Napoleon. Think and Grow Rich. Chicago: Combined Registry Company, 1962.
Hill, Napoleon, and W. Clement Stone. Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude. New York: Pocket Books, 1960, 1977.
Hillen, Andreas. 1973 Nervous Breakdown: Watergate, Warhol, and the Birth of Post-Sixties America. New York: Bloomsbury USA, 2006.
Howard, Joseph Kinsey. Montana: High, Wide, and Handsome. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, Bison Books, 1983.
Kearney, Pat. Butte Voices: Mining, Neighborhoods, People. Butte, MT: Skyhigh Communications, 1998.
Kisselburg, Orval. Orval the Daredevil Clown. Author, 2005.
Knievel, Evel. Evel Ways: The Attitude of Evel Knievel. Minneapolis: Graf/X Publishing, 1999.
Mandich, Steve. Evil Incarnate: The Life and Legend of Evel Knievel. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 2000.
Murphy, Mary. Mining Cultures: Men, Women, and Leisure in Butte, 1914–1941. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997.
Pirsig, Robert. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values. New York: William Morrow, 1974.
Rickey, Les. The Bad Boys of Butte. Butte, MT: Old Butte Publishing, 2004.
Rowe, Chip, ed. The Book of Zines: Readings from the Fringe. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1997.
Saltman, Shelly, with Maury Green. Evel Knievel on Tour. New York: Dell Publishing, 1977.
Saltman, Shelly, with Thomas Lyons. Fear No Evel: An Insider’s Look at Hollywood. Rancho Mirage, CA: We Publish Books, 2007.
Scalzo, Joe. Evel Knievel. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1974.
Schulman, Bruce J. The Seventies: The Great Shift in American Culture, Society, and Politics. New York: Da Capo Press, 2002.
Smith, Giles. Midnight in the Garden of Evel Knievel: Sport on Television. London: Picador, 2000.
Spence, Jim, with Dave Diles. Up Close and Personal: The Inside Story of Network Television Sports. New York: Atheneum, 1990.
Spiegel, Marshall. Evel Knievel: Cycle Jumper. New York: Scholastic Book Services, 1978.<
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Tompkins, George. The Truth About Butte … Through the Eyes of a Radical Unionist, edited by Mike Byrnes. Butte, MT: Old Butte Publishing, 2003.
Walsh, Tim. Timeless Toys: Classic Toys and the Playmakers Who Created Them. Kansas City, MO: Andrews McNeel Publishing, 2005.
Writers Project of Montana. Copper Camp: The Lusty Story of Butte, Montana, the Richest Hill on Earth. Helena, MT: Riverbend Publishing, 1943, 2002.
Photograph Credits
Title page: PR shot, 1974
Insert:
i1.1 Courtesy of Loretta Young
i1.2 Courtesy of Loretta Young
i1.3 PR shot, 1974
i1.4 © Bettmann/Corbis
i1.5 Courtesy of Harry Ormesher
i1.6 Courtesy of Harry Ormesher
i1.7 The Everett Collection
i1.8 Heinz Kluetmeier/Sports Illustrated/Getty Images
i1.9 Associated Press
i1.10 Heinz Kluetmeier/Sports Illustrated/Getty Images
i1.11 Associated Press
i1.12 Associated Press
i1.13 Express/Archive Photos/Getty Images
i1.14 Courtesy of Harry Ormesher
i1.15 Associated Press
i1.16 PA Photos/Landov
i1.17 Express/Archive Photos/Getty Images
i1.18 Bob Thomas/Getty Images
i1.19 David Ashdown/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
i1.20 © Bettmann/Corbis
i1.21 PA Photos/Landov
i1.22 Associated Press
i1.23 © Metropolitan/Zuma Press
i1.24 Courtesy of Harry Ormesher
i1.25 Courtesy of Harry Ormesher
i1.26 Associated Press
i1.27 Associated Press
About the Author
Three-time New York Times bestselling author Leigh Montville is a former columnist at the Boston Globe and former senior writer at Sports Illustrated. He is the author of Ted Williams, The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth, The Mysterious Montague, and At the Altar of Speed: The Fast Life and Tragic Death of Dale Earnhardt, among others. He lives in Boston.
The young Bob in his grandmother’s kitchen, next to the cabinet door he hit with his head. (photo credit i1.1)
Bob (left), brother Nic, and their mother, Ann, on a visit to Reno. (photo credit i1.2)
Caesars Palace. Warming up. (photo credit i1.3)
High above the fountains … trouble ahead. (photo credit i1.4)
The trailer was his dressing room. His refuge before and after he went to work. (photo credit i1.5)
Now, listen to me … (photo credit i1.6)
George Hamilton saw his movie as a commentary on American values. Critics mostly were not entertained. (photo credit i1.7)
He didn’t want to go to the bottom of the canyon to pose, but the Sports Illustrated cover became the picture that was remembered from Snake River. (photo credit i1.8)
The long day at Snake River. (photo credit i1.9)
Five, four, three, two, one—Lift-off! Uh-oh … (photo credit i1.10)
The wrong side of the canyon. (photo credit i1.11)
Survives! Surrounded by mayhem upon his return. (photo credit i1.12)
He told Harry O he wouldn’t pose with the gun and the bullets, but if Harry wanted to take a picture as he went to bed … well, that might be okay. (photo credit i1.13)
He played daredevil golf. Every shot was worth big money. (photo credit i1.14)
Selling, selling, selling. The talk shows seemed to have been invented just for him. Here he is on The Tonight Show with guest host Sammy Davis Jr. (photo credit i1.15)
(photo credit i1.16) (photo credit i1.17)
(photo credit i1.18) (photo credit i1.19)
Wembley (photo credit i1.20) (photo credit i1.21)
Actress Ann-Margret visits the famous daredevil in his London hospital room. The famous daredevil likes this. (photo credit i1.22)
Viva Knievel! The movie was supposed to start acting careers for both Knievel and model Lauren Hutton, but didn’t do the job in either case. (photo credit i1.23)
The family gathers at Kings Island. Kelly, Linda, and Tracey visit the trailer before the show. (photo credit i1.24)
Robbie, ready to appear with Dad at Kings Island. (photo credit i1.25)
Evel heads to jail. (photo credit i1.26) Inset: Shelly Saltman after surgery, after the beating. (photo credit i1.27)
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