EK was one of my boyhood heroes. I never saw him perform - I knew him only by his playground reputation.
C'mon - the name just sounds cool - "Evel Knieval". "I'm Evel Knieval" was a mantra that boys in the early 70's would shout just before they did something spectacularly stoopid on the playground like going down the slide on our backs - head first - while friends throw water at us.
And, of course, we all had his action figure.
I had even heard that he developed a rocket-car and jumped the Snake River. Imagine! A Rocket Car! A name like Evel! An entire river full of snakes!
As luck would have it, a few years back the wife and I spent 18 months in a town called Twin Falls, Idaho. Twin Falls is a town of about 50,000 that sits smack in the middle Southern Idaho. It is the north-south gateway from Salt Lake City to Sun Valley and the east-west gateway from Boise to Montana.
The north edge of town is bordered by - The Snake River Canyon. THE SNAKE RIVER CANYON WHERE EK MADE HIS MIGHTY JUMP. There is even a plaque commemorating the event.
If you ask the townspeople about EK's mighty jump the response is near universal - a rolling of the eyes followed by a tirade on how the event nearly destroyed the town.
Being a motorcycle stuntman in the early 70's EK had a massive following amongst Bikers (go figure). To hear Twin Falls folk tell it, EK never intended to successfully make the jump. What he did intend to successfully do is make a profit.
Thousands of near-do-wells descended upon Twin Falls in a thundering parade of leather and chrome. Women were running around topless, cats and dogs living together - madness. Someone even rappelled down the far side of the canyon where EK was supposed to land and painted a giant target on the canyon wall about half-way down.
When the melee had reached fever-pitch, in strode the man himself.
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