About : standard furniture and appliance portland
Title : standard furniture and appliance portland
standard furniture and appliance portland
announcer: the following program is brought to you in living color. ( theme music playing ) carson: tonight we have evel knievel. he's probablythe only man in history who's become really wealthyby trying to kill himself. it's true.he is somewhat of a legend. he does incredible stunts with motorcycles, and he has broken, i guess, more bones
than anybody in history, and yet he keeps at this. so let us meet the gentlemen.here is evel knievel. ( lively music plays, applause ) johnny knoxville: i grew up in the '70s. and evel knievel was the '70s. he captured my imaginationlike no one else. some of you may have seenthis film before. this is a jump that you madeat caesars palace. what happened?
knievel: the motorcycle landed short, ripped the handlebars out of my hands, and i bounced for 60 yards into the dunes parking lot. carson: god. you're an incredible man. knoxville: i didn't think of him as a daredevil. i thought of him as a superhero. no one ever went for itlike that before. he invented that.
since then, it has taken offin a major way. that's such a large part of our culture now. he inspired all that. but there'll never be another evel. i know i've been called a lotof things by a lot of people, - a crazy man or a con man...- carson: mm-hmm. ...but when you head downthat long white line, you better have hadmade your peace with god, and you better knowwhat you're doing
because a con manain't gonna get there. i didn't knowthe story of the man. and it was, you know,pretty complex. california judge has orderedmotorcycle stuntman evel knievel to serve out the restof a jail sentence behind bars. i'm a grown-ass man, and some of the stuffis tough to reconcile. it's a crazy story. it's just fast, faster,and disaster.
( t. rex's "20th century boy" plays ) ♪ friends say it's fine, friends say it's good ♪ ♪ everybody says it's just like rock n' roll ♪ ♪ i move like a cat, charge like a ram ♪ ♪ sting like a bee ♪ ♪ babe, i wanna be your man ♪ ♪ hey ♪ ♪ well, it's plain to see you were meant for me ♪ ♪ yeah, i'm your boy, the 20th century toy ♪
♪ yeah ♪ ♪ 20th century toy ♪ ♪ i wanna be your boy ♪ ( music fades ) i was a member ofthe sportscasters association of los angeles, and we usedto have monthly meetings on a thursday at a placecalled red tractors. anybody who was anybody came--
tommy lasorda. billie jean king was there. muhammad ali when he was cassius clay, first made his appearance here. they were legitimate athletesin their chosen professions. saltman: all of a sudden, there was this this commotion on ventura boulevard. there was this nutcase going up and downdoing wheelies.
i didn't even knowwhat a wheelie was until they explained it to me. people didn't do wheeliesup and down the road. i mean,that was crazy, on a rear wheel on a motorcyclegoing 80 miles per hour? ( imitates motorcycle engine ) everybody stopped and would go,"oh, look at that." kelly: even the hard-bitten sports announcers of that day and age were taken aback by this guy,
who of course turned out to be evel knievel. if you told me that he was gonna beworld famous, i would say you're nuts. if you're going to try tounderstand evel, you gotta go backto his childhood. his parents split upand left town, and he was basically raisedby his grandparents. bob rowling: grandma and grandpa did the best they could do,
and he was just rambunctious,i guess. maybe he didn't havethat attention as a young boy when he needed it.( chuckles ) truth is, i think,that bobby was kind of angry with his father becausehe didn't get to stay with him. that's what i think. he wanted to be with his father. pat williams: we were up at my grandma's house, and he and i were wrestling around,
and i punched him in the mouth. and he lit on the backof his head. and i said, "bobby?"and nothing. i thought, oh, my god,i killed him. and instantly,he had these wild eyes 'cause he knewwhat had happened. and across the kitchen,there was a door that was slightly open,the pantry door, and he ran at that door
and slammed it shutwith his head. and that half-stunned him again. and he turned aroundsitting down, and he pointed at me,and he said, "did you see that? nobody can hurt me. you can't hurt me.nobody can hurt me." jim blankenship: i think growing up in butte, montana, without a father would-- would be hard to handle,i would think.
knoxville: butte, montana, was just a tough-ass mining town. when the mines were going full,the bars were open 24 hours. there was a lot of prostitution. man: there was about 3,000 whores at that time. man: it was just miners drinkin' and fightin'. williams: you had to learn to cope in butte. sometimes coping meant with your fists. you fought.you stood up like a man.
you fought,and you were taught that. and that's partof the butte credo is you just don't back down. knievel was a fighter from the get-go, even during grade school. he'd get a little obnoxiousat times. you know,you'd have to settle him down. well,you couldn't dare him. if you'd dare him,he'd do it.
i remember when bobgot his first motorcycle. i don't knowwhy he had two tires. he always rode aroundon the back one. you never knew what he was gonnado with that motorcycle in town. i mean, he'd be riding itall over raising-- raising hell with everybody. pat burns: he liked to have the cops chase him. you just couldn't catch himon a bike when you were in a patrol car.
( rock 'n' roll music playing ) linda bork knievel: one day i go run up to the store, and who's up there,but big bad knievel, you know? he was a character.( laughs ) i was scared, but i was kind of flattered, you know? gee,he's paying attention to me, and then one day he just said, "you're gonna marry me."
( laughs ) the storyis that he kidnapped her. rowling: well, i don't know if he kidnapped her or not. you know, that might have been--that might have been something that they were planningtogether anyhow, who knows? yeah, i guess i was kidnapped. i think i was just walking homefrom school that day when he said,"get in the car,"you know? ( laughs )i don't know, i was just--
something just almost likeovertook me, and he drove me downto dillon and, uh, danged if we didn'tget married there. he had some weird ideasabout how life should be lived. and he-- he thought that he should be atthe top of the heap, you know? i figure that's why he didthe stuff he did to make money. he'd run 'em, there'll be a shady side to it. he was happier if there was something a little shady about it.
linda knievel: he made up his own job. actually, he started workingas a security officer at night. he had a routewhere he used to go around at 2:00 in the morning,3:00 in the morning and check all the differentestablishments. you'd pay him to be surethe doors were locked and everything,and if you didn't pay him, you might be robbedwithin a month or so. he broke into my place.
he might have got 40 or $50,something like that, but not that--nothing big. yeah, he was-- he ran a racket.no question about it. the police called me upand told me that there was a known safecracker in town. now i knew they were talking about evel. he was a crook. a con-man,i guess you'd call him. knoxville: at the age of 19,
he starts a semi-pro hockey teamand convinces the czechoslovakian national team to come to butte to play them. ( laughs ) and the czechs kill 'em. like, smoke 'em 22 to 3. but i don't think evel was that upset about the score. pavlovich: i think he left in the middle of the second period, and the money disappeared.
there was no more moneyto pay 'em. so, you know,draw your own conclusions. where did the money go?( laughs ) williams: well, butte likes people who bounce up against the edges of the envelope. they're forgivingabout some criminal activity, but they don'tparticularly like criminals. tonning: he had three kids at the time. he threw all of hisburglar bags in the river
and decided to go straight. so knievel gets this jobselling insurance for combined insurance company, and it was run by this guy, w. clement stone, who wrote a book called "success through a positive mental attitude." i feel healthy.i feel happy. i feel terrific. jay tamburina: i think it really changed his thinking drastically. i mean, he was that wayto begin with,
and it just intensified it. he was a legendary salesman. when he was selling insurance,he was selling insurance, and he was sellinga lot of it. tamburina: i remember he went to the mental hospital in-- in-- i believe it was deer lodge. and he wrote 271 policies in this hospital,mental hospital. this was a super record, nobody had ever written
that many policies in a week ever. and he talked to the president of the company at that time and said, "i'll breakevery record in the company, "every single onethat exists, and you make me a vice presidentafter i do that." and mr. stawn says, "sorry,that isn't gonna happen." well,knievel didn't like that. knoxville: so he picks up his family and moves to moses lake, washington,
where he gets a job selling honda motorcycles. gunn: he was making a good living at it, but it wasn't good enough for him. he says, "i think i needto do something weird, "some kind of a stuntso it'll get people to come down hereand see the motorcycles." so he had this crazy ideaabout doing this jump. he says, "i'm gonna jump overcougars and rattlesnakes" i said,"you gotta be kidding me."
gunn: my part in that mountain lion jump was i wore a white coat like a doctor, and evel introduced meas the veterinarian, which was a crock of bull,but... so he brings 'em downand put the cougars underneath. and they're scared to death.they won't come out. they were like kitty cats. but the snakes,holy -- ! we put them in a big refrigerator carton,
and they were pissed off. so he goes around the track, and then he goes up the ramp. and, well, the minute he went up in the air i could see he wasn't gonna make it. by god, he was aboutthree feet short. his back tire hitsthe refrigerator carton. and the snakesgo flipping into the crowd. talk about people running and getting out of there. -- ! ( laughs )
the poor guy from vantage wantsus to help catch his snakes! ( laughs ) i said, "you gotta bekidding me!" and he just rode backon his motorcycle, went up the jump,and waved at the crowd. he didn't-- he didn't care aboutthe snakes. people started talking to him,you know, "what-- you know,what can you do next?" and he started thinking aboutthat kind of stuff. that's when he come upwith the idea
of starting a stunt show. i told him, i said,"they're gonna eat you up, boy. you'll never make it." tim perior: i was a bartender at marty's bar in orange, california, and this fella comes in, sits at the end of the bar, and we start talking. well,he's a motorcycle daredevil, and he hadjumped rattlesnakes, and he wants to do a bigramp-to-ramp jump.
he said,"people will go wild," and he just convinced me. somehow i was able to get two pickups, a tractor, and 40-foot trailer. the logo on the side was "evel knievel and his motorcycle daredevils." well, the name evel came from his wild years in butte. he was given that nameby the cops. he was in jailwith a guy named "knawful."
and they said, "well, better lock up the doorspretty good tonight. we got an awful knawfuland evil knievel in here." blackenship: he heard that, and he liked that. perior: he changed it to e-v-e-l because he didn'twant to sound too evil. what he did is get a bunchof people working with him. good guys like sweet savageand eddie mulder and klesh fargo.
gunn: so he started thinking up different stunts to do. perior: the flaming boards, we'd soak 'em in gasolineand light it on fire. leeuwen: and he'd hit that first board and just go boom! and the sparks,the stuff would fly in the air! and then, boom! hit the second one! sparks would fly! and, boom, hit the third one! hit the fourth one, and the fifth one...
somehow, bob got this midgetcalled butch wilhelm, and talked him into joining the show. bob said, "he will doeverything i do in miniature." and he would crash on every single one. so then it looked like when bobwas going to make his jump, something terribleis going to happen. he was sucha crazy son of a bitch. he'd do these stunts, and he never tried 'em before. one time he had a motorcyclerun at him
about 60 miles an hour,and he jumped up, but he didn't jump high enough. perior: and the motorcycle hit him and flipped him over. he was sprainedfrom his waist to his ankles. man: i think at that point is when he decided he was just gonna stick to jumping the motorcycles. robbie knievel: the equipment my dad jumped on, compared to what'sgoing on today-- unbelievable.
leeuwen: the thing weighed 500 pounds. it'd be like jumping a dumptruck over all those cars, but he'd do it anyway. i was the speedometerfor evel. i had stand thereand watch him and say you're going fast enoughor you're not going fast enough. i guess you'd call itguesswork. perior: bob jumped further and further with each show. the only thing isthose stands were not full.
not by any means. how do you convince people to come to a sport they had never heard of? we were $52,000 in debt. bob kept spending moneywe didn't have. and that's when i decidedi had to leave. well, of course, then he saw that he didn't need the team. he went on his own. now it would just be him looking for his big break.
- ( dramatic music plays ) - announcer: spanning the globe... spanning the globe to bring youthe constant variety of sport. few years, i was singing itin my sleep. the thrill of victoryand the agony of defeat. announcer: and the agony of defeat. knoxville: the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, and they always showedthat skier, where you never knew--the word was he died. tony hawk: the crash, like, that's what you remember from "wide world of sports."
announcer: the human drama of athletic competition. i remember, like,the crazy stuff that they wouldshow once and a while. skateboarding was on"wide world of sports."i remember that. announcer: abc's "wide world of sports..." we were in the businessof sports theater. sports was drama. sports was a story. announcer: the trill of victory. i loved it. like i covered some ofthe weirdest things myself.
as long brought in an audience.america loved it. announcer: the human drama of athletic competition. leeuwen: everybody'd rush home from church and watch abc "wide world of sports" at 1:00, and that wasthe biggest show on tv. announcer: this is abc's "wide world of sports." knoxville: evel knows that the motorcycle race at ascot speedway is featured on "wide world of sports." so he fast-talks the ownerinto letting him do his thing.
before we get back to racing,i'd like to introduce to you a most unusual young man. this is evel knievel,and his specialty in sports is to take a motorcycleup over a ramp and leap through the air some 90 feet. that's what he's gonna try to do today over 15 automobiles. - you're trying 15 today?- well, the parachute's ready. motorcycle's readyand i'm ready. and i'm notgonna miss today.
reporter: and he's set to go. he'll build up speed as quickly as he can. and here he goes! he makes it! a beautiful leap as evel knievel gets the roar approval from the crowd. leeuwen: here here we are at "wide world of sports." biggest race of the year. biggest dirt track raceof the year.
and i won it.i won the race. and you think anybody'dremember it? no. they know knievel. they remember knievelout of that whole deal, not me. and i won 100 laps.road my ass off. so evel got his footin the door, and now he's goingto knock it down. if you was to think of the mostoutrageous thing you could do, what would it be?
it'd be jump those fountains at caesar's palace. robbie: i don't knowwhere it came from, how a guy would go downcaesar's palace strip, look at the fountains-- what was he thinking? where did that come from? knoxville: so evel wants to do this stunt in vegas, but no one knows who the hell he is. so he switchesinto hustler mode. kelly: this guy called every news outlet,
told them that evel knievel, famed stunt motorcyclist, was going to jump caesar's palace come saturday morning, be there. knoxville: so then he calls jay sarno. the guy who runs caesars, and each time he would call as a different person, and each time, he wouldmispronounce his own name. evel knievel: i told him my name was larson. i was with sports illustrated.
i said, "you ever heard of 'evel neevel'?" he said, "who the hell's this 'evel neevel'?" so i waited two more days and i called him back up, and i said, "this is dennis lewin from 'wide world of sports,' do you know evel knievel?" he says, "'avel navel. evel neevel. evel knievel.' who is this crazy guy?" he said, "everybody's calling me up about him. he said, i think we got a deal with him. i don't know. call back." ( laughter )
knoxville: like a lot of his stunts, caesar's palace was one of those that he dreamed up and sold before he even knew it was possible. and then on the day, he's got the crowds there, and he doesn't know if he can make it. he's just got to go for it. robin knievel-dick: i talked with him for a while before he jumped, and he was very unsettledabout the jump.
you could tell he was nervous. he was making runs at the ramp and, you know, we could hear the motorcycle. and we could hear the crowd, and then the doorman-- the doorman got on the phoneand told us what went on. ( woman screams ) tonning: my god. that was horrible. i thought he was gonna-- i thought he was dead.
i was horrified to watchmy friend look like a rag doll. linda knievel: i don't think he was unconscious. but he was hurting. so off to the hospital we went. knoxville: he had a broken wrist, two broken ankles, crushed his pelvis. and then somehow, word gets out that he's in a coma and might not make it.
he told that story,but he wasn't in a coma. in fact,i flew down there, and it hadn't beenbut like two days since he'd had the wreck,and he was awake when i walkedin the hospital room. he had the press come in thereand play it up. "oh, i'm about to die.don't know if i'll make it." well, this was knievel.that's what he did. he played it upright to the end.
knoxville: pretty soon, the crash footage was everywhere. geraldo rivera: we saw him jump caesar's palace. we saw that falland his body flopping and his head hitting,and, you know, all of the agony of thatand the broken bones. that piece of film was amazing,to see him go over and over and then roll all the wayup to the wall and it-- that's one of the greatpieces of footage of all time. boy, he was national newsall over the place.
( cheers and applause ) gunn: he became instantly famous. this guy somehow had capturedwhat america needed. he came alongat the right time. there was a certain cynicism throughout the country. society was changing. man: you had corruption in government. well,i'm not a crook. ♪ when i look out my window... ♪
man: the country had been battered by many years of war. hamilton: america was coming apart at the seams. ♪ must be the season of the witch ♪ ♪ must be the season of the witch. ♪ williams: we were a little down on ourselves, and along comes this kid from butte, montana, who showed us who we were and wanted to be again. ♪ he wears red, white, and blue ♪ ♪ stars and stripes, too... ♪
earle castine: i guess we were looking for some sort of a hero. we had superman and batman and-- but this guywas the real thing. ♪ evel knievel's for god and country, too... ♪ sullivan: most motorcycle people wore black. that was what evel wanted to change, and that's where the red, white, and blue leathers came from. he wore red, white, and bluebecause he was patriotic. he loved his country,
but he also saw that that would give him a boost to his image, and people were respecting him more. wilson: and he came out of those mountains in his star-spangled suit, with his cane, and he said, "i am gonna face death." he opened the doorand invited people to buy a ticketto watch truth. rivera: for that disenchanted, disillusioned generation,
where you didn't trust anybody,because even the president lied, here's a guy,he's gonna risk everything. man: he did it! he did it! knoxville: you know, there was three tv stations back then, and when evel was on abc, everyone knew it. that's what you did that night is watch, and that's what you talked about for the next few weeks afterwards. wilson: he was so popular that out of
the top-ten-rated"wide world of sports" shows in the 37 years of the show, he holds seven of them. announcer: motorcycle daredevil evel knievel! hoffman: he was the talk of the world. he was the greatest reality showbefore reality shows existed. are you ever scaredbefore a stunt? - do you have fear? - i am not scared. when i go off that jump,i will say i have some concern,
but i don't think i've ever beenafraid of anything. if i know something'sgoing to happen, i try and train myselfto where i have complete control over my mind and my body. i relax when i hitinstead of freezing upand being scared. williams: he said to me one time, "you know whati was really good at... was the take off. you know what i was bad at was the landing."
but he said,"it was the bad landings, that's what broughtthe crowds out." you know, bobby used to say, "nobody wants to see me die, but they don't want to miss it if i do." announcer: and just to go up that ramp and take a look at the distance that he's got to, in effect, hurdle aboard his harley davidson machine. gifford: he knew if he wasn't just perfect when he left that ramp, something awfulwas going to happen
between the time he left thereand came down way over here. if he told ya he was gonnado something, he would do it, i mean, even if he knewit was gonna kill him. linda: you know, you were always-- the question of whether or not he might not make it alive. i would think my dad would dieevery time he jumped. it was stressful.it was hard on us. pavlovich: if he crashed, you know, and got hurt, then he'd go out,he's gonna do it again.
and everybody says he's nuts.he got hurt the last time. evel knievel: doctors, especially surgeons, have been amazedat how i can keep going. he had...recuperative powers that were beyondnormal people. knievel-dick: they would say, "you'll have this cast for eight weeks," and he would take it off in three. man: this may look like just some abstract plumbing,
but this is actually the right hip and right femur of evel knievel. evel knievel: i think i've probably become immune to pain. i've learned to live with painfor so long that i think, uh, what would hurt an averageperson doesn't hurt me so much. kelly knievel: when we were growing up and my dad broke bones, and he was in pain, he never bitched about it. he never complained about it.
no, no, i'll be all right.i'm gonna jump some more. it was just he accepted that that's what he had chosen to do and it's somethinghe just had to deal with, and that's the wayhe dealt with it. to be somethinga little extra special, no matter what i want to doif i like to do it. to be a championor to be the best. even though i've been hurtso many times, and live like a lot of people dothat live in a...
a gray twilight world-- these kind of people,they don't even know victory or defeat because they'venever tried anything, and this is somethingthat i feel compelled to do, and i am going to do it. hamilton: i had sort of been brought along the way of a teen idol. mm-mmm. i had enough star power going, but i kept trying to toughen up my act.
i thought, god,if i could get a really good westernor i get good action movie... and i was looking for sort ofa modern day western character. who would that be? i remember seeing the footage from caesar's palace, and i thought,yeah, that's the movie. in my mind there was only one guy that could do this right. john milius, he'd written "dirty harry," "jeremiah johnson,"
and of course later "apocalypse now." milius just wrote it as thoughhe was writing it for patton. it had this sort ofmythic sound to it, you know? and it's got this manwho thinks he's a gladiator. and i was excitedto show evel this. so he tells me to come meet him in hollywood at the saharan hotel that was up on sunset. he's been up all night. got another huge wound.kotex pads all there.
and he's lying therelike a posh in a bad motel. and that's when it allgot crazy. he took a bottleof the wild turkey, and i heard the snapof the turkey, and he drank half that thingdown and he'd sit down. i said, "well, i wanna tell youthat we've got a great script, and i just brought it to you,and i want you to read it." he said, "you read it,"and i said, "well, i have read it,and i really love it.
i think it's great." he said, "no, i want youto read it to me." and i just i didn't wantto read the script. i mean,it was just crazy, the idea of me readingthe script to him. but he was dead serious,and i saw this gun. and he put it right to my head. and i thought,he means this. you know,this is really real stuff.
my performanceon reading that script was the besti've ever given, and i probably should havegotten an academy award. ladies and gentlemen,you have no idea how good it makes me feelto be here today. it is truly an honorto risk my life before you. an honor. before i jump my motorcycleover these 19 cars-- and i want you to note,there's not a volkswagen
or a datsun in the row. ( motor revving ) ron wichman: evel was not happy with it, i don't believe, from what i understandtalking to him. i don't believehe was at all happy with george hamilton in that. hamilton: i don't think evel appreciated me climbing into his leathers and getting on his motorcycle, but what happened is,by osmosis,
when he went to see itin the theater, when he came out, he was saying these things, and they were extraordinary words coming out of his mouththat john had written for him. they told the wright brothersto fly was impossible, and they probably toldneil armstrong the walk on the moonwas impossible. they said that shepardand glenn would neverget around the world, and they said that armstrongwouldn't step on the moon.
you know, he was usinga writer's words. and this is the evelhe's become. i'm all alonewhen i jump those ramps. there's only two thingsthat keep the rest of 'emfrom doing it, and that's fearand the big hole in the middle, and as long as i canstand alone and be the best at what i am doing, i'm gonna continue to do it. wilson: he created a character named evel knievel, and then tried to live the part.
he never broke character. he had the evel knievelpersona, and that's what he presented to the world. we don't want guys in gray hats. we want black and white.evel represented that. he definitely thought of himself as the guy in the white hat, the good guy. if i look like i'm rigging upfor a trip into outer space, you're right.
nobody should ever ridea motorcycle without a helmet. i never do. he was somebody who was seeking what manyof us do in our own way, and that's recognition, and if you get into his background, you can understand that. he wanted identity. he needed that. he just wanted to be loved.
( peter frampton's "show me the way" plays ) ♪ i wonder how you're feeling ♪ ♪ there's ringing in my ears... ♪ thank you very much. believe me,it's a pleasure to be back herein portland, oregon, and on behalfof my sponsors, the mack truck company, the harley davidsonmotor company,
and the bucyrus-erietrain and steam shovel companyin milwaukee... kelly knievel: my dad, he invented the licensing business. i mean, how many peoplecan you think of that had their names on productsbefore evel kn-- i mean, there was a few,but he really elevated the art of the licensing business. knoxville: yeah, he had a deal with everyone-- mack truck, harley davidson, but that's not the onei remember.
announcer: this is evel knievel and his stunt cycle. he's the only rider to do so many stunts, mid-air summersaults... evel knievel has becomea legend in his own lifetime. zeke rose: when 'ideal' came out with the evel knievel toy, the president of 'ideal' called me aside and said, "this is gonna bea really big item for us." boy: it's an evel knievel rally! for me, there was only oneaction figure
when i was growing up,and that was evel knievel. it was as cool as you could possibly get at the time. it came with a motorcycleyou could wind up. when you wind it upand you stop and it takes off-- you just wind it up,and if you're buildingthe suspense, you don't knowwhat's gonna happen, but you know it's gonna blow up,and it's not gonna be pretty, but you're luckythat this toy's evel knievel, - 'cause he can take it.- that's awesome.
wow. go evel! announcer: the evel knievel stunt cycle comes with figure, winder, gt wheelie stand, and front flip bar. new from ideal. rose: the toy sold out. pavlovich: i would say he made more money off of ideal toy then he did on any of his jumps. i was with him one time,he showed me two royalty checks, and both of themat that time
were halfa million dollars each. both of 'em.two checks. i told him, "well, you made it.you're on the pinnacle. "you said you were gonnabe a millionaire. you are a millionaire." wilson: it was an amazing time. the money was rolling in by the millions. kelly knievel: everywhere he went, he went first-class. yeah, my dad likedto spend money.
robbie knievel: all of a sudden, there's five ferraris, two lear jets, five other airplanes. linda knievel: he'd get a boat, oh, he needed a bigger boat oh, how about a yacht? how about another yacht? tracey mccloud: with helicopters on top. leeuwen: he's got "evel eye i" painted on the side of it. reporter: he's no easy rider. he's proud of the material things his money can buy-- his cadillac's, his $140,000 luxury-appointed van.
wilson: he took me into his office, opened up a huge safe he had, and there was a gold-platted,full-sized motorcycle. but you know what? you could hardly see it because it was coveredin cash, like it had been thrown in there like confetti. tonning: he built a big, beautiful home on the 18th green
with this huge iron gatewith a great big "e.k." right in the middle of it was the actual handle. you know, for butte, montana,that was-- that was the stuff. if i'm risking my life for it. i'm gonna spendevery damn dime of it! kelly knievel: yeah, my dad had an affinity for clothes. he liked to dress with flair. he'd walk into a storeand see a sweater he liked, and he'd just buy onein 20 colors.
come on with me and i'lltake you on a little tour of my office and dressing roomand show you what you can buy with a few dollarsif you're willing to jump a motorcycleover 19 cars. man: evel was very flashy. walked with a cane with diamonds in his cane, and his jewelry had diamonds, and he had gold all over. robbie knievel: he always loved elvis. and they traded the belt buckle and the cape.
my dad was a big fan of liberace for being a showman. evel knievel: all the money in the world can't buy your way into heaven. it can't buy your way out of hell. it was made to be spentright here, and i'm gonnahave the best clothes, best boots, best diamonds,best cars, trucks, motorcycles, booze, and womenon the face of this earth just as longas i can keep going.
gene sullivan: when he came into money and fame and fortune, it's like the women became almost an equal part of his... thrust from day to day. part of it was that women were extraordinarilyattracted to him. i know because he and i'd go out drinking once in a while, and, hell, they'd line up. and he'd pick the prettiest one.
he's unbelievable. he's got more fire in him.he's unbelievable. leeuwen: he'd turn the hat trick half the time, because i'd see himdo three a night for a aboutweek when i was there. hang on. bobbie knievel: come on, i mean, back in the '70s, every womanwanted somebody like that. i was always mad 'causehe was maybe cheating on my mom. ♪ i'm the other woman... ♪
linda was aces--aces. i mean,she was the nicest woman that he could have ever married. tamburina: you know, she stood by him, and a lot of times, he didn't treat her right. hi, good-lookin'.you going swimming again? linda bork knievel: he didn't hide anything, and that's probably wherei'd get a little upset with him. he'd come home with a littlelipstick on his collar,
and i'd geta little ticked off. i'd like to take youout to dinner somewhere in a real nicequiet little spot, get you swackedand take you home someplace. i'd think,i married this guy. i don't know, i just-- you don't leave that man unless he wants you to. let's say i diedand landed in heaven. bang, i'm there, okay?
here i'm sitting there in awhite robe on a hard marble slab next to jfk,martin luther king,and some pope. now, what the hellwould evel knievel have to sayto any of those three guys? i couldn't carry onan intelligent conversation with 'em. i want to goto my own kind of heaven. uh... it's got draft beerthat doesn't make you fat. it's got a lot of beautifulgirls like you running around, and my wife won't get madif i go out with any of them.
he was okay before he becameevel knievel, and then, you know, it's-- people just can't handlethat fame, some of 'em. he's was small-town guyfrom a small town in-- really--in the span of seven years, became one of the mostfamous people in the world. i think that he-- he forgot how to be bob. and when he became evel,
it's like the world took him away from us. if you wanna bein this business and you wanna bethe best in the worldand you wanna wear a red, white,and blue number oneon your back, you have to be man enoughto handle the consequences. announcer: king of the daredevil, number one, evel knievel! knoxville: evel was on top of the world, but he was starting to lose his grip a little,
and that thing with the hell's angels didn't help. sullivan: evel was at odds against the hell's angels and the biker image. he used to talkabout the hell's angels a lot,always putting 'em down. evel knievel: they're murderers, thieves, or drug dealers, i mean, these guys are dogs. they belong in penitentiaries. gunn: must of got through to 'em. you know, they got pissed off.
and san francisco was one of their main areas. sullivan: the announcer was the guy that started the whole thing. when he introduced knievel, he says, "if knievel makesthis jump tonight, he's gonna set the hell's angelsback 100 years." wrong thing to say. he barely made that jump, came back around, and i notice a coupleof hell's angels
had come out onto the floor. and this hell's angelgrabbed him. well, i'm--i'm hoofing it. the hell's angel threw him down just when i got there, and i give this guy a body check. and he folded like--just went out. well, then the war started,you know? hell's angels come bowling in over there and the people come out of the stands
and started beating on 'em. they put two of those hell's angels in the hospital. sullivan: after the cow palace incident, evel got a little bit paranoid. he said, "do you have a gun?" i said, "yeah, i got a couple of 'em." well, he says, "those hell's angel's, you never know, they're gonna walk in here with a shotgun," and he says, "i gotta be ready for 'em."
knoxville: the man had crashed numerous times, of courseit's gonna add up mentally and emotionallyin your head. it has to. announcer: watch that right shoulder. broken, right there, the right collarbone. woman: are you ever afraid? if i am, i'm not gonnatell you about it. - woman: why? - i've been concerned.
i'm evel knievel, honey.i'm not supposed to be afraid. sullivan: he was constantly being tormented with the thought of, you know,you're not gonna make this one. you're gonna die at this one. and so he's doing everythinghe can through alcohol, through being flamboyant,through, being, you know, crude or whatever to getthese thoughts out of his head, but they were eating his lunch.
you know, evel,you're shaking a little bit. well, if you did what i did,you'd be shaking, too. i could see it in his eyessometimes when he'd come back by to ask me if he was goingfast enough, i could seethe fear in his eyes. i knew he was scared, but he would never-- he would never say no. you know, he'd go ahead and do it. the medicine that he was taking,the drugs he was taking
for his pain--plus he was drinking-- he became just schitzo... i mean, paranoid. gunn: he got paranoid about protecting his stuff, paranoid about who he let in and... williams: we'd be talking, and almost as if he was schizophrenic, he'd flip and become ugly about things. i had to stand two guys downwho wanted a piece of him,
and they wanted a piece of him because he was being an -- . he was being a jerk. i'm the guy who just, you know,is trying to keep the peace. i'm the guyprotecting the troublemaker from the good guys. you know, and i thought,i can't do this. hamilton: it's really interesting when you-- you are a man like evel knievel,
and you've created this myth, and once you're defined, it's hard to live up to it. he was always resellingwhat he had already sold. how do you getany better than that? how do you get any bigger? williams: throughout his life, he was insatiable. even when he was the most famous daredevil that ever lived, he wasn't satisfied.
he had to make another half a million dollars on a jump. he had to find one more womanprettier than the last. he couldn't satisfy himself. he had to do something else. he had a friend that, uh--they were at the bar talking, and this fellajust made a comment, "what's your next thing?" i think he said,"the grand canyon?" well, of course that startedwheels a-turnin'. kelly knievel: one of the favorite pictures of my dad
is he is on the rim of the grand canyon and there's these two navajo chiefs there. and my dad's pointing at the other sideof the grand canyon, and they're just looking at himlike this man is crazy. evel knievel: my dream was to jump the grand canyon. the secretary of interiortold me that i could. i took his word for it.then he changed his mind. so i told him to go get hosed,and i bought my own canyon,
the snake river canyon in the state of idaho. and the only way they'llget me out of the air is to shoot me outwith an anti-aircraft gun, because i am gonna go,believe me. the jump across the canyon will be approximately a mile. it's somewhere between 1,000 and 1500 feet to the bottom. as you can see, pete,this motorcycle is unlike any motorcycleyou've ever seen in the world. these rockets put out about90 pounds of thrust apiece.
knievel's original conceptwas take a motorcycle, put a rocket on it-- and that's impossible. and so the necessityjust required that he make a rocket vehicle. our partner was bob treaux, and he was known as the father of steam rocketry. and that was our answer for getting evel knievel over the canyon--
basically buildinga hot-water tank and uncorking itand let it go. this machineis powered by steam. steam is the mostreliable source of power we have in the world. and it'll go from zeroto 350 miles an hour from a dead stopin eight seconds flat. reporter: the super stunt, billed as the death-defying event of the century
will be viewed by almost two million people, most of them watching on closed-circuit movie screens. i'd like to say to youwhat evel knievel says wherever he goes,whatever he signs-- if he were talking to youright now, he'd say, "hey, jim, happy landings." when there was an event of any magnitude during that period, i'd probably get the first callto do the promotion. remember,
the first time i saw evel knievel, he showed up on ventura boulevard doing wheelies on his motorcycle. that's when i first met him,but i really didn't know him till we didthe snake river canyon jump when i had control of the publicity and promotion. for a brief moment in our dull, mundane life, here is a man who, vicariously,we can live through. i thought what he was doing was exciting.
so it's never hard to sell something you believed in. and i believed in it. we did a 30-day tour, which was my idea, to do press conferences at, like, literally 90 airports. how are you? reporter: when knievel flies into town each day in his two lear jets, his pilot, whacha macullum, and his co-pilot wear crimson crushed-velvet dinner jackets. you ought to seeour socks and underwear.
every day was a party. there were close to 2500 press credentials given out. it was bigger than any ali fight, and i did them all. bigger, bigger than a presidential entourage. don e. branker was in charge of all the logistics. don e. branker: i was a concert promoter. i did acts like the stones,the doors, the who, and then evel comes along with a pay-per-view
closed-circuit-- you know, and this wasthe biggest event of its kind in the historyof entertainment. the unknowns were magnificent. this sundaya daredevil hustlernamed evel knievel will try to cross a canyon in idaho riding a rocket. if he makes it, he'll be many times a millionaire. if he doesn't, he'll be dead.
rivera: he was a hero of mine in many ways. i was a little crazy. he was a whole lot crazy. and you justhad to dig his courage. it just didn't seem to methat courage would be enough. ( chuckles ) i'm tellin' ya, that looks a lot further thani thought a mile would look. it was the kind of stunt where you would actually see, probably,a guy kill himself. it was so audacious.it was so daring.
it was so almost impossiblein many ways but for his confidence. what about the g-forces? i mean, when you start somethingthat's gonna be going 350 miles an hour,aren't you gonna beknocked out almost? yes, i'll wake up, see the other side ofthe ground way over there, wherever the hell i'm at,and i'll pull a rip cord and open a parachutebehind that sky cycle.
are you saying thatyou're gonna be unconsciouswhen you're up in the air? to 2,000 feet,i probably will be, yes. so that means you have to regain your consciousness. that's right,but i can do that.i'll do it. doug malewicki: evel had no training. he had no trainingfor pulling gs like a centrifugeor even in an airplane, zero parachute experience. sprow: he had a dead stick kind of thing
where it was spring-loaded, and if he passed out and let go of the handle,the parachute would come out. go! rivera: there were actually three of the steam-powered sky cycles built. the original, called the x1, was tested without a pilot about three weeks ago. it ended up at the bottom of the canyon. evel knievel: that was a test shot. we made some mistakes.
if i'd have been in it,i'd have ended up dead, but i don't thinkthat's gonna happen. campoy: what the press did not know is that the first one was designed to fail. we purposefully underpowered the rocket so it wouldn't make it to the other side. he wanted itas a promotional thing. he wanted it to crashin the water and let people see that.
campoy: eventually, we did convince evel to do a real test, but he'd only do it if it was done in secret so the press wouldn't get any pictures of it or anything. we thought it would make it. but there was a problem with the parachute. it deployed early... and it also landed right in the middle of the river. saltman: knievel was there to see that.
i saw it, and i was wonderingat that time what was going through his mind. i was thinking to myself that he was really looking at his mortality, and thinking, you know, this might not be such a good idea. however, give him credit, he was going through with it. branker: at this point, we're batting zero for two, and the world is watching us.i mean, i-- i felt that.
man: you'll make it! you will! you will! saltman: he became more and more surly, screeching orders at everybody that he could, belittling-- he belittled little people. he was just mean. branker: about a week out is when we started sensing things not going our way with the press,
'cause the press is up here living now, an the press started to see the real evel. do one thing for me. i do notask for your respect,i demand it. shelly gathered everybodyaround evel's trailer and says, "why don't you just have himstand up so we can see him?" 'cause there was a big crowdof people there. and evel heard thatand came out, and, uh... - i said have a smile on your face.- i don't smile at anybody.
all right, get him out.get him out. out. go on, get out of here. watt: that's when he came down the stairs with his cane, and he grabbed my camera, and he's a pretty strong guy. and grabbed my cameraand started pushing me back and whacking me and the camerawith his cane. man: are you going to apologize to that cameraman for roughing him up? i wouldn't apologize,
and if i see the littleson of a bitch again, i'll throw him out of here,how's that? saltman: as hard as we tried, a lot of evel's true temperamentcame out to the press. man: i think you should apologize. well, i wanna straightenyou out right now. number one, i was inthe sky cycle all day. number two, you are a guestof mine in my press area. do you understand that?and so was he.
number three,when i've been upthere all day and all the blood's come outof my legs and my feet and gone to my head,and i come down to want to get some restand get along with you people, you don't tell me to come outand stand up and smile! if i want to come outand try and get along with you, you should at least allow meto sit down and smile! so tell him i saidto kiss my ass! kazikas: there was a point where we were all
kind of sitting around and saying, "the guy's a jerk. he's just a jerk.he's a bully. he's a bore.what are we doing here? the rest of the presscan now thank you because i am going to leave.how's that, boys? sayonara. man: people started coming in, and it started getting crazy. every biker in the united states that didn't have a job was there.
branker: you have umpteen different motorcycling groups, none of which you'd invite to your house for dinner. they gonna have a good time.everyone gets loose around here. high: you could say it was like a woodstock, but the evil twin of woodstock. it was like not a happy flower children sitting around in the rain. those guys were--i mean, they were really rough. tonning: wackos with tattoos all over their bodies
drinking beerand screwing in public and all kinds of-- yeah, it was-- it was bedlam. ( whistle blows )roach clips! papers! hash pipes!come get them while they're hot! rundle: they had a marching band from butte high school that was there. it was not a placefor a butte high marching band to be that day,i'd have to say. right when we pulled in,
there was a manand woman naked, uh-- you know, having sexright there under a tree. i saw all the peoplethat were drinking and smoking pot,and they were pretty wild. ( band playing "the starsand stripes forever" ) we fired up the band. it's likethe whole place arose. oh, they--the crowd went wild, yeah. absolutely, they were totallyprepared for a celebration.
lisac: the crowd just started mingling and just wanted to playour instruments. they tugged and pulled,and next thing we know we're separated a good 100 yardsaway from the rest of the band. so we were basically fightingfor our lives, as far as i was concerned. at that point,they just stuffed my tuba full of everything-- beer bottles, popcorn,
peanuts, rocks. i pulled a bra out of there. i never played a note. we also had with us the drill team, and the drill team, their name was the purple bees, and a good friend of mine, they tore her dress right off. totally tore her dress off. i guesswe all thought of this as something different thanwhat it was really gonna be.
john hood: the crowd were given oh, beer, and when the beerwas closed up, that's when it gotkind of rowdy. rundle: they actually rolled the beer trucks over-- the semis, over on their side,shot the locks off, and everybody was walking through the camps with cases of beer. next thing you know, they took the outhouses, and they took 'em down,and they started
just dumping them over,and they lit them on fire. the place was absolutely out of control at that point. things got as bad as it couldget bad without somebody dying. that's as simple as that--just as bad as it could be. i could hear out in the darkness, i can hear the girlsbeing raped. i can hear fights going on. you know, i can hear gunshotsgoing off, you know, but there's nothingi could do.
and finally i reached the point where i said, "you know what? i'm gonna call the national guard in." so i called them up,and he says, "don, i'm sorry, "but our men are split up, "and i just can'tcome out there to help you. you're on your own, son." and i hung up that phone,and i felt like crying. reporter: there were more than 33,000 paid admissions. as you can see, they needed control.
they were perilously close to the edge of the canyon some 600 feet straight down. what i was concerned aboutis that there was this canyon. there's this killer canyonin front of you, and they put up a standard cyclone fence. i mean, just push it,and it'd fall over. and i thought to myself, everybody's gonna rushto that edge of the canyon to see what happens.
and then you're gonna havepeople pushing from behind, and like the lemmingsin the sea, they're gonna go right over the edge. campoy: you know, i thought it was pretty ironic how don e. solved the security problem. he went down to where the hell's angels were camped and hired them to come up and provide securityfor us there. i went there and i explainedto them what i'll do.
"here's what i'll do--i got $1,000 in cash, "and i want youto guard the fence and keep the peopleon that side of the fence." and the guy said,"are you bullshitting me?" i said, "am i gonna bullshitwith you guys here?" "okay, you got a deal,mister." ( band playing "the star spangled banner" ) saltman: on the morning of the jump, i looked at him and i saw a very pensive,
very reflective,very quiet man. he didn't look comfortable. i don't know why he would look comfortable, climbing into a tin can to fly over a canyon. reporter: there is bob treaux himself, the chief engineer testing the wind. sprow: the 15-mile-an-hour wind was not the right direction. we recommended to knievelhe delay the launch. pavlovich: i just said, "you know, bob, i don't think you ought to do it.
"i think this is crazy. i think this thing isn't gonna make it." he says, "i can't back out now.too much has been said. they'd call me a coward."he says he's not gonna do that. "i'm going and that's it." i've got a team behind mewith mr. treuax and all of those boys are 100%,and... i think we'll do it. i wish the windwasn't blowing so hard, but i think we'll do it.
saltman: there was no braggadocio. there was no bravado. as the time counted off, he'd said to his family,"let's pray." robbie knievel: yeah, i remember my dad brought me in the trailer and that... truck...( sniffles ) the whole family. and he hugged meand says, "i love you."
and he didn't knowwhat was gonna happen. he was like,"god, take care of me." linda and the childrenwere crying, especially the little girl. yeah, that was a very sobering moment. you know,suddenly i realized... have i had a handin getting a man killed? reporter: there he goes up the ramp toward the launch site
and towards the vehicle. and he's being introduced to the crowd now. i've never been afraidin my life of dying. i think that a manwas put here on earth to live, not just to exist. and todayis the proudest dayof my life. i'm living a dream that they thought could neverbe done, but it'll be done. saltman: and then instead of a roar, a silence--
like an eerie silence fell over the crowd because this guy trulymight be going to his death. branker: evel got out of the crane and into the sky cycle, and the whole time, patriotic music is being played, and at that time, even i got emotional a bit. sprow: fecundo and i strapped him in, and got a couple of pictures of him in the cockpit.
campoy: he looked a lot different than he did when we started this project. his hair was gray, and he was really serious. saltman: we had a big clock-- 10 seconds, nine seconds. branker: eight, seven-- you look at the audience, no one's even breathing. five... four... announcer: three, two, one.
saltman: immediately, something failed. it fizzled. it went down like a bullet. reporter: the parachute is out. the main chute is out. there she goes. reporter: it's going to crash. just missed the rocks! david, i can't see anything. berg: i had my camera. i'm taking--click click click click.
( whooshes )right into the canyon. i turn around, and the firstfence just goes flat. just, shwoop. man: it was a stampede, that's exactly what it was. branker: i saw bikers pluck people out of the sky. it was right out of a movie, you know? reporter: robert craig knievel appears to have landed in the snake river. evel definitely tried to get out, but he couldn't.
reporter: even i am very scared. pavlovich: i thought he's gone. they're not gonnaget to him in time. he's gonna drown. tonning: there was people running up looking over the edge, and linda was scared, and the boys were scared. robbie knievel: i thought my dad was dead. i was screaming, crying.
saltman: i got into my helicopter, got over the canyon,and there from the muddy banks on the side of the river... was evel waving. and i said this-- thank god that son of a bitch is alive. reporter: evel knievel is standing in the boat and waving. he is alive and well.
( reporters overlapping ) i don't know what happened.i don't know what happened. just-- i think--i don't know. i just can't say. i'll have to let boband the fellas examine it. bob, what happened? well, this right hereis the cover to the parachute canister. it obviously came loosemuch too soon, right on the pad. campoy: what had happened is it went up.
i knew immediately that the chute had been deployed. malewicki: it came off because of a mechanical problem with the design. you didn't doa damn thing wrong. the can is wrongon the thing. it blew up right thereon the launch. - blew up by accident?- yeah, it was our fault. it's not your fault.these things happen. yes, we should have runone more test.
campoy: it was clear to me, or to us, that it was a mechanical failure, but there was another story being banded about back at the press tent that perhaps evel had released the chute early. i told peoplethat that's what happened. when i went to the press tent after the jump, the press was asking for me to come and make a statement. i told the press that he--his hand came off of the bar.
i really liked the rocket crew. they're just a bunch of nice guys. i just knew that the m.o. of how he treated people nothing was ever his fault. and if by chance that tooka little bit of the pressure off of the rocket team,then so be it. campoy: so it got out that it was evel's fault. reporter: but the nagging question remains-- was this the legitimate attemptof a brave man,
or was it the great rip-offof 1974? wilson: then the press tore him up. 'cause they think that he,along with me, had perpetrated a fraud. hero or hustler? or for americans,are those the same thing? reporter: it was evel knievel against the snake river canyon, and the canyon was the sentimental favorite. evel would have liked his jump
to have been hugefront-page news, but it was overwhelminglysquashed by the big news of the day, which was the pardon of nixon by president ford. that was a major transition in the country. maybe he had outlivedhis novelty because i think peoplejust might of got tired of listening to it. and that's when he came backto butte and--
an he was-- i don't knowif he was depressed or what. he just, uh... i thought sure he'djust give up after that, say, "well, you know, i'm done." ( roger miller's "england swings" plays ) ♪ england swings like a pendulum do... ♪ gunn: he had never been to england before. he thought a new crowd, new group. i can snow them a littlemore than i can the americans.
rose: well, they hadn't heard the teddy roosevelt speech, be good to your parents,wear a helmet. ♪ two by two ♪ ♪ westminster abbey, the tower, big ben... ♪ reporter: evel knievel is alive, well, and back in action in famed old wembley stadium, london, england, for a jump that will be made over 13 london buses. wilson: when he arrived in london,
he had only sold 3,000 seats for a 100,000-seat stadium, and he was in trouble. there was some press there to meet him. he looks at the press, and what did he do? "i'm so glad to be here in england where we came and won the war for you." holy... oh?and they start writing. he knew his job, which was to get peoplein wembley stadium.
we drove around london, just making friends. how you doing?what's your name? stephen. reporter: so the yankee pied piper collected the young and the old and led them all to wembley stadium. 80,000 people showed upto watch the man do it. gifford: so we walked into the arena of wembley where the buses were lined up,
and he said,"i can't do that." i said, "what do you meanyou can't do that?" i said, "pull a few busesout of there. come on, it won't hurta thing to do that." now i go overand grab our producer, i said, "doug," i said,"evel says he can't do that." he really didn't thinkhe was gonna make it. gifford: so i went over to talk to evel, and talk him out of it, and he was in a trailer.
we knocked on the door,and he said, "oh, no. i'll give it a go.i'll give it a go." it was always,"i'll give it a go." and he was right.he couldn't make it. announcer: here is evel knievel! gifford: you know, evel, one has to wonder after the snake river, one has to wonderwhy you continue? well, i sometimes thinkthat maybe i should quit, but you alwayswant to keep going,
and i'm kind of proud of thatred, white, and blue number one i wear on my shoulder,and i want to keep it on there. i'm glad you're here today. you know,i've never had an accidentwhen you're around. - good luck.- thanks. gifford: he told me earlier that outside of the jump at caesar's palace where he was severely injured, that this will probably be the most difficult jump he has ever made.
he hurt himself in indio 1967 caesars palace. here he goes. and he will go. wilson: it was almost eerie, though. the motorcycle was ghostly. it was tumbling after him, sort of. then eventually, it landed on him. gifford: he's down and he is hurt. oh, my god. ( motorcycle revs )
the man you see now leaning over evel is john hood. that's his chief mechanic. hood: i knew, well, he's gotta be hurt on this one. and i kneeled down and said, "are you okay?" i got his helmet offand he said, "help me up." and he wanted the microphone. i wanna stand up and walk.now, help me up. he wants to talk.he's gonna talk. ladies and gentlemen...
of this wonderful country... i've got to tell you that you... are the last peoplein the world who will ever see me jump. because i will never ever,ever jump again. i am through. knoxville: that crash was one of the worst as far as injuries would go.
he broke his hand, back, re-broke his pelvis. after wembley,i went home to edit. phone rang."hello, doug? evel." he's calling me fromhis hospital room in london. "doug, you can't use that quote." "what do you mean, evel?" "you can't use that quote, that quote where i saidi wouldn't jump again." and i said, "well, why?""'cause i may jump again."
when the jump was overin london, i said that i'dnever jump again. that was the pain in my bodyoverpowering the brains that i'm supposedto have in my head. i will jump again, but 13 is an unlucky number. this timei'm gonna jump14 buses. somehow he gets the idea-- i am not gonna go outwith a crash.
i'm gonna go backto the united states, and i'm gonna jump 14 buses. that's just who he was. you can't do it and sayyou're the best in the world and then fall offand get up and say, i quit. not if you'rean evel knievel you can't. reporter: the king's island family entertainment center, located just outside of cincinnati, ohio, is jam-packed with people who have come to watch
evel knievel out of retirement, and here he comes right now, robert craig knievel, evel. knoxville: a lot was riding on this jump. uh, it was a different evel. i mean, he actually did practice jumps. i'm gonna go, frank. there's no wind gonna stop me,not even a hurricane. wilson: it was a very gutsy jump. the doctors told him just don't ever do that again.
you know, one little slip,wrong thing, and he'd probablyhave been paralyzed. reporter: everything is go. and the total concentration now is getting that bike off the approach ramp and on to the landing ramp. and he's not hesitating. he'll go. boy, busted the motorcycleright in half, frank. boy, it did come apart,didn't it? - boy, did i hit hard.- yeah, i know.
thank you. this motorcycle is the finestmachine in the world, as far as i am concerned. it broke in half,but it held me up, and all i can sayis thanks to number one, thanks to harley davidson. you've been so goodto me through the years. i would like to tellall of you something, though, that-- that as far asi am concerned,
i have jumped far enough. today i'm gonna walk awayfrom here with you, and i feel that's beinga professional. that's what i'm gonna do. knoxville: king's island was the longest jump of his career. it was the biggest television audience he ever had, and it was the highest-rated episode of "wide world of sports" ever. he did some small jumps after that,
but he never went that big again. king's island was... the gunfighterputting away his pistols. if you were on a bike, you'd do stupid shit, but you would do stupid shit in the name of evel knievel. hoffman: i thought that's why you had a bike. i didn't knowyou just rode bikes around.i thought the whole purpose of bikes were to hit thingsand fly off of 'em. seth enslow: we'd line up the neighbor kids
and see who could jump more neighbors without landing on 'em and things like that, but we just dreamed of havinga motor between our legs. i loved just going down steps, and i crashed all the time. you're like, yeah, i'm gonna bejust like evel knievel only not as good. there's no waythat a youngster is not goingto not want to try to dowhat his hero does.
i don't think there'sanything wrong with a kid wanting to be an evel knievel any more than he'd wanna bean o.j. simpson or frank gifford or be any kindof a professional athlete. - reporter: do you view him as a hero?- yeah. - do you really?- yeah. he's one of the greatest heroes. robbie knievel: he was a hero to so many kids, but his own son was his biggest fan.
reporter: this is robbie. look at this little guy go. wouldn't you know it would be the young one who would steal it. he's the one that's got to have the longest wheelie. robbie knievel: he totally saw me and him, and it was like,"i'm gonna be you, dad." and the legend continues. i'm gonna jump the fountainsat caesar's palace before i end my career. that was for you, dad.
knoxville: yeah, robbie broke all of his dad's records. i mean, hell, he could jump fourteen buses with no hands. but robbie was jumping on lighter, more powerful bikes that were designed for jumping. leeuwen: he could jump farther and longer than evel and all that stuff, but it didn't matter. robbie couldn't tell a story. you know,he was not a showman. knievel is the ultimate showman.
a guy could sing longer and louderthan elvis presley, but who gave a damn? he was elvis presley.my dad was evel knievel. ( applause ) williams: even when bobbie wasn't jumping anymore he still wanted to be in the spotlight, and he had to findother things to do to get himself attention.
yeah, one of his projectswas hollywood. - ♪ viva ♪ - ♪ viva ♪ ♪ viva knievel ♪ hamilton: in the end, there was one guy meant to be evel knievel, and that was evel. evel had a movie-star quality about him. there's no doubt about it.uh, not when he tried to act. look at you, you're tryingto destroy yourself. if you don't believe me,here's the proof.
i'm not gonna let youcommit suicide around me. he performedfor the audience, but when it cameto the acting part, i guess there's a difference. - that was too far!- stop it! - all right...- stop it! - any way you want it, man!- stop it, stop it! hood: once it came out, it was a movie that wasn'treally well-received.
♪ viva ♪ i guess the exciting part'sis the jump, huh? you know, we've gotthe wallendas on the highwire, and the mentalist on the edgeof the canyon on a motorcycle... saltman: when i knew i was gonna take on the snake river canyon event, i decided somethingvery important-- that i would write a book, a legacy,that people could read
about the evel knievel promotionof the snake river canyon. and knievel, he was my 50/50 partner, and he says, "don't forget, just tell the truth." so with permission, i carried an audio-cassette recorder during the evel knievel tour. if you listen to the tape, you can form your own opinion. and so when i wrote my book, i kept out a lot of things, stuff i would never write about,
'cause remember,when the book was coming out, i was still protectinghis image. evel's attorney,he checked everything, told me that it hadevel's approval in writing, and then the bookwas published. little: i was at evel's compound one day, and he throws me this book, and he says,"here, keep this. it'll be worth some moneysomeday."
i open it up, here's allhis footnotes in there. the first part of the book--"x-rated evel." he writes in there,"constitutes adultery." so right from the get-go,you could tell he was mad. it just starts,and you can tell by the-- the farther it gets in the book,the madder he got. "this is a lieand not accurate." "lies, lies, lies." i read the book,and you know what?
i said, yeah,what's the problem? he could of said a lot moreworse stuff. ( laughs ) i read the book a couple times. i didn't seeanything in it bad.nothing. it was very factual.very, very, very factual. i think that shelly,that wrote it, was, uh, accurate. and... it made him really mad.
saltman: i was on the 20th century fox lot, when all of a sudden,i saw evel, with a big smile coming at me,loping along. and i was actually glad to see him. the book was out,and i was like, maybe i could even talk him intodoing some promotion with me. i said, "hey, evel,"and all of a sudden, my hands,they were held behind my back. they tell me it was two men.i didn't know them.
it may have been one.it may have been two. and he, uh--he came at me with a bat, an aluminum baseball bat, he said, "i'm gonna kill you,you son of a bitch." i did everything i could to defend myself. and i remember putting my hand up, i said, "what're you doin'?what're you doin'?" i was fightingfor my life.
and he was wailing on me,and then i passed out. reporter: knievel came to court accompanied by his wife linda and his attorney. the 38-year old daredevil faces charges of felony assault in the baseball bat attack on television executive sheldon saltman. tonning: knievel could've gotten away with it. he could've if he would've just stopped being knievelfor 10 minutes.
reporter: it was a very interesting hour at division 91 of municipal court in which evel knievel fired his attorney and entered a plea of guilty. he fires themand says to the judge, "judge, i did it,and i'd do it again. do what you will with me." you know,this old frontier justice thing. you know, in butte, montana, you settle thingsout in the street.
you don't settle 'emwith lawyers. and evel always settled itwith his fists, or sometimes a tool helped. not with a baseball bat. that's not butte. i never knew of anybodyin butte that did that. if i did not thinkthere was a muchstronger judge someday that i willstand before called god than the judge i stood beforein that courtroom
in san monica, california, i would have killedthat lousy little bastard. i broke his armswith a baseball bat, and i think that'sjust what he deserved. i'll guarantee you one thing-- he doesn't writeanything else about me. - ( laughter ) - but i mean-- i think i was a sophomorein high school at the time, and i was not proud of my dadfor doing that...at all.
stuntman evel knievelgot a jail sentence yesterday for beating his formerpress agent with a baseball bat. reporter: the judge told the 39-year-old motorcycle daredevil that while as a judge he found knievel's admission of guilt as refreshing, at the same time, rafeedie said, "long ago we abandoned frontier justice in california." with that, rafeedie sentenced knievel to six months in jail
and three years probation. judge is a good judgeand he's a fair judge. rundle: course, when he was in jail, it was like-- i think in his own way, he played it as a game. knoxville: so he's in jail, but he's on work release. so he's only in there at night. and he would have his chauffer
pick him up every morning and take him to the bar. reporter: knievel believes in sharing the wealth. so this morning he hired a dozen limousines to transport his fellow work release inmates to their jobs. you know,putting him in jail, he got more pressthan anything else. there was no end to the shenanigans that guy would pull. reporter: the inmates were amazed,
but the authorities were not so enthusiastic. knoxville: well, the judge got pissed, and he revoked evel's work release privileges. tonning: i was pissed off at him. he started believing the hype, that he was totally impervious, and he could get away with anything. i don't thinkhe thought about the public. well, maybe if he did,he thought that, "that's what theyexpect of me."
the ideal toy company, which manufactures the evel knievel toys, says it has already lost $1.6 million since evel knievel went into the county jail. we had a meeting at idealthe next day or the day after. and i said, "you know-- you know, we don't--we don't sell toys of murderers or gangsters or stufflike that, and so therefore, we are going to suspend salesin the united states."
reporter: on the toy front, it may not be a merry christmasfor daredevil evel knievel. the contracts were canceled, and he losta lot of money, yeah. it all--it all started coming apart. ♪ anymore it doesn't matter ♪ reporter: knievel says his experience in jail was a good one, but that it has set him back financially.
i hated to see him loseeverything he worked for in 10 minutes. when it was falling apart,it fell apart very quickly. mccloud: the cars, the boats... robbie knievel: the lear jets, ferraris, everything to go down the drain? that was hard. the house that we all loved got repossessedbecause my dad didn't paythe property taxes.
bank came and got itand the irs sold it. we loaded upall the furniture, everything of any value,from the saddles to guns, and we would just bringso much out at a time, and we'd have a garage sale. the arc of the sky cycle is likewhat happened to his career. he was at the pinnacle, and then he destroyedhis whole life. evel knievel: i just dropped out of sight and played golf.
i just completely withdrew from the public. when i met him, he was in a bit of a low point. i mean, he was kindajust getting by. hustling golf-- he might makea couple hundred here, a couple hundred here. he lived day to dayat that time. he didn't keep the fact that he was married a secret or anything,
and in two weeks i packed upwhat i wanted to take with me, and we went on the road. linda knievel: and i just let it go. i thought,the heck with it,you know? you know,after 38 years of somebodytelling you what to do... i didn't like him. ( chuckles ) ♪ nobody wins ♪
you could see thathis health was declining, you know,he was getting worseall the time. he had a hip replacement,a pelvis reconstruction, a spinal fusion,a liver transplant, seven or eight boutsof staph infection. evel knievel: i have hepatitis c, and i got it through blood transfusions, and i've been told by the doctors five years ago that i didn't have five years to live.
i'm taking it one day at a time. yeah, you really felt sorryfor him, i did, really. i said, "you're really hurting." ♪ if you're gonna be dumb, you've gotta be tough ♪ ♪ when you get knocked down, you gotta get back up ♪ ♪ i ain't the sharpest rig in the 10 pack ♪ ♪ but i know enough to know ♪ knoxville: then the '90s come around and motorcycle jumping was just one part
of this whole new huge thing called action sports. pastrana: it's amazing how quickly the sports progressed. this multimillion motorcycle jumping, skateboard riding,surfing industry as definitely come a long way from daredevilsto professionals. in 2006, i was able to land the first double back flip on a dirt bike. no one ever thought that that was possible.
the bikes have evolved. the riding has evolved. they have coaches. they have schools. they have camps, but the spiritwill never die, and evel was the one that setour foundation for the future. the thing about the knievelsthat's really captivating and inspiring to all of usis the showmanship side of it. i stay awake at night, and i dwell on how to do what i do in the biggest, most grandest way
and to continue this legacy. announcer: matt's definitely-- oh! hoffman: the extreme sports or action sports, whatever they're commercially referred to, is definitely a result from the way evel dreamed in the '70s and how he wantedto push the limits. ( "jackass" theme song plays ) you can do stuntson television?
( bull grunts ) ( crowd groans ) ( crash, laugh ) evel had to make his jumps. the stunts i do,i know they're gonna fail. mat hoffman and i did a tribute to evel. hello,i'm johnny knoxville, and i'm about to back flipthis bike. hoffman: i think we should push the limits,
get some of our friends together and just set some records and just celebrate evel's life. and, uh, that's what we did. ugh! -- ! and i broke my --in that tribute. - oh! oh!- are you gonna okay? oh, yeah,i feel great. no, really, i tore my urethra. thanks a lot, evel.
yeah, i've definitelybeen compared to evel knievel. i think that's because of the fact that i have had some big crashes. so i figured i'd see how far i can fly the harley davidson in honor of evel knievel. knoxville: when seth enslow did that record-breaking harley davidson jump, he dedicated it to evel. and when robbie maddison set the new world record for distance by jumping over an entire football field,
he did it on the 40th anniversary of evel's caesar's palace jump. ( cheers and applause ) evel knievel was alwaysin the back of my mind, like,-- and it wasn't likewe had forgotten about him. we just didn't really knowwhat he was up to, and i think that people startedasking what he was up to. announcer: the one and only o.g.! evel knievel!
hawk: it was great to see a new generation understand how important he was to us. somehow we raisedhis profile again, but he deserved thatall along. krystal knievel: he greatly appreciated that the kids paid their respects to him, and they did, and he was amazed by that. don't ever forget-- you can fall many timesin life,
but you will never be a failureas long as you try to get up. kelly knievel: i think my dad liked his role as a elder statesman at the end of his life. he thought it was really cool,and where he deserved to be, deservedly so. i'm looking forwardto seeing what happens in the next 20 years, if i am so luckyto live that long. i had to have a hip replacement,a complete hip replacement.
i had to have a-- you guys,i'm really having problems. why don't we--please. knoxville: after a lifetime of injuries and surgeries, the thing that really kicked his ass was lung disease. williams: if you'd asked him, "would you rather have livedthis long, bobby, and be this sick or died at the end of the ramp?"
i think he would have chosenthe end of the ramp. wilson: the last couple of years of his life were hell. he was having trouble breathing, and being in that living hell, he put his lifein perspective. i think he probablythought a lot about the things he'd done and thought about how badlyhe treated some people. krystal knievel: he was preparing for the end
on every level. he righted a lot of wrongswith people because he feltlike that was important. it became important to him. frey: he told me that he had led a life that he was ashamed of in a lot of ways, and he was just trying to talk to the peoplethat he truly-- that truly meantsomething to him
was the way he put it,and put it right. mccloud: he said to me, "i was so sick." he said, "i was justa sick person with women. it was so wrong," and i said, "ah, dad, it's so goodto hear you say that." knoxville: he tried to make amends with people at the end, and that's great, but it's kind of tough to put the toothpaste back in the tube at that point.
he caused a lot of hurt. well, first time i everheard him say "i'm sorry," he was pretty muchon his death bed. yeah, he just said"i'm sorry." that was it. you know... the most important thingin life, uh, that really countsis your scorecard with god. the real bob knievel,the bobby knievel,
that's the guy i knew,and that's the guy that i loved. and that's the guy that wasemerging back out of the slime. ( laughs ) and, uh,i was moved by it. blackenship: i talked to him the night before he died. he said,"you gotta do me a favor," and i says, "okay, what?" and he said, "say a prayerfor me once and a while." and i said,"okay, all right, all right." and he says,"i'm worse than you think."
i was on the phonewith evel, and he started coughing,and the phone dropped, and he went unconscious. ( voice breaks )so that was it. but it was hard. i wasn't ready. he was ready. and that's what was important. you just never thoughtthat evel was gonna die.
knoxville: you know, he was indestructible, and then... it... it just reminded youthat he was human. i didn't lose the daredevil. i lost this little kid who at one time i thought was my brother. that's the indelible knievelto me. knoxville: i still think he's a superhero. and, yeah, i know a more complete story now,
and some of the stuff is really heartbreaking, you know? but to me, what he did transcends that. most of us don't take chancesin our lives. most of us weren't willingto lay it on the line, so to speak, like he was. what my dad did,nobody's ever gonna do again. but there is a little evelin all of us. i guess i'd like to have himremembered as, um...
a man who,when he was down, got back up. you know, he never quit. saltman: i think, in fairness to him, they should not rememberthe evil that evel did. instead he should be rememberedfor the good things he did. in times of stress, i believe somebody on a white horse wearing a white hat will arrive.
that's the american way. life's pretty tough.( laughs ) life can be pretty -- tough. and, uh... you need your heroes, man. rundle: he used to always say to me, he says, "that canyon has not moved one inch, and i do not see a big long line of daredevils waiting to jump it."
♪ there's ringing in my ears ♪ ♪ and no one to relate to 'cept the sea ♪ ♪ who can i believe in? ♪ ♪ i'm kneeling on the floor ♪ ♪ there has to be a force ♪ ♪ who do i phone? ♪ ♪ the stars are out and shining ♪ ♪ but all i really want to know ♪ ♪ oh, won't you ♪
♪ show me the way, yeah ♪ ♪ i want you ♪ ♪ to show me the way, yeah ♪ ♪ well, i can see no reason ♪ ♪ you're living on your nerves ♪ ♪ when someone drops a cup and i submerge ♪ ♪ i'm swimming in a circle ♪ ♪ i feel i'm going down ♪ ♪ there has to be a fool to play my part ♪
♪ someone thought of healing ♪ ♪ to show me the way ♪ ♪ day after day. ♪ ( song fades )