Evel Knievel tributes flood in

Evel Knievel, the American stuntman who succumbed to lung disease on November 30, has been given an extraordinary send-off in the American media.

Literally hundreds of tributes and profiles have been published, nearly all of which portray him as a rogue who earned sometimes grudging admiration.

That he lived to 69 may have qualified as a medical miracle. As the Independent reported, his physical problems included: diabetes, pulmonary fibrosis, two strokes, hepatitis C, a hip replacement, arthritis, liver transplant, 38 formerly shattered bones, including a seven-times-broken back, twice-crushed pelvis and frequently fractured legs, plus several comas, one lasting 29 days.

Knievel, who was raised by his grandparents and spent much of his early life as a small-time thief, began his working life in underground mining but eventually saw stunt shows as a more lucrative and interesting gig.

He built quite a business, and it was the spectacular failures which turned him into a world-famous showman.

They included an horrific crash at Ceasar’s Palace in Las Vegas that put him in a coma for a month, plus an aborted attempt to jump the Grand Canyon in a rocket-powered motorcycle.
Here is a smattering of what has been said about him:

“When I was a kid, the main activity was to go up and throw rocks at the whores, bang on the doors and have the pimps chase us down the street. When I was 8, I saw Joey Chitwood's Auto Daredevils at Clark Park, in Butte. A guy jumped a motorcycle over a car. That night, I stole a motorcycle from a neighbor." Knievel, explaining the start of his criminal career, to New Yorker magazine.

“It's plain, therefore, that to call Evel Knievel a stuntman is not really correct. He was, in reality, a highly paid accident victim.” Independent.

“In 1977, Mr Knievel was convicted in California of beating his former press agent with a baseball bat and sentenced to six months in a jail…Mr Knievel was forced to spend the entire six months in prison after a judge learned that Mr Knievel, under a work-release program, was commuting from prison to his job in a chauffeur-driven Stutz convertible and providing other inmates with limousine transportation to their work-release jobs.” NY Times.

“Glib, shrewd, arrogant and charming, he promoted himself and his dangerous pursuits so successfully that Evel Knievel emerged as a millionaire and a household name in the 1960s and '70s.” LA Times.

``With America in the midst of the Vietnam War quagmire, the country was looking for a hero, and Knievel's heroic, death- defying feats and his popular messages to the world's youth, promoting abstention from drugs and a healthy lifestyle with positive mental attitude quickly transformed him into a national icon.'' Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum, USA.

"America was down on its ass when I came along, and it needed somebody who was truthful and honest, somebody who would spill blood and break bones and suffer brain concussions, someone who wasn't phony.” Evel Knievel.

"He was a heck of a guy. Evel Knievel was not supposed to die in an ambulance on the way to a hospital or in a house, he was supposed to crash somewhere." Larry King, CNN presenter.

Our pick of the profiles: The Independent
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article3215780.ece

(Pics: Knievel publicity shots)