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Evel Knievel, 1938-2007
December 13, 2007

It’s been a couple of weeks since the great motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel passed away at the age of 69—his death was brought on by diabetes and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis--but a “deceased artiste” (a term originally coined by my friend and colleague Ed Grant) warrants attention and respect even if it doesn’t come immediately.

 

As a ‘tweener and teen growing up in the Seventies, Kneivel’s various stunts were, of course, necessary viewing for me whenever they popped up on ABC’s Wide World of Sports. Not nearly as mandatory were The Man’s other side projects—namely the feature film Viva Knievel! (1977), wherein he does a poor job portraying

himself (alongside such notable co-stars as Gene Kelly, Lauren Hutton and a pre-comedy Leslie Nielsen.) Now that I think of it, another awful Knievel project didn’t even star Evel—the cleverly titled 1971 flick Evel Knievel featured George Hamilton delivering a terrible performance as the crazy man in the crash helmet. Like’em or loathe’em, both titles are still currently available on DVD.

 

Now on to a title that is no longer available but which hold’s a bit more meaning to me, and that’s Kultur/White Star’s compilation Evel Knievel’s Spectacular Jumps. I attended the release party for Spectacular Jumps when it was released in the fall of 1997 and had a chance to me Mr. Knievel himself, who was a gruffly charming fellow who spoke sincerely (if a bit grandly) about himself and his support of helmet laws. At evening’s end, I snagged an autographed picture for myself and another one for VB TipSheet contributor Chris O’Brien. Mine has been on my refrigerator since that very night and it has come down only once in the past decade: Last week, when I heard that Knievel had died and I wanted to digitally post that image on DVDialog. As you can see through the smudges and coffee stains., it reads “To Laurence, Happy Landings, Evel Knievel ’97.” It’s back on the ‘fridge now, where it will continue to generate smiles, though they'll be a little bit more bittersweet from this point on.

 

 

Posted by Laurence Lerman on December 13, 2007 | Comments (0)