Now I do think daredevils are a good thing. America was built on risk-takers and daredevils epitomize that - and sell a lot of tickets when they do their stunts.
Does anybody remember Evil Kneivel? I do. I was only a kid when he was doing most of his stunts. But I was hooked. I had the Evil Kneivel lunchbox and everything. Now that lunch box usually had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (because peanut butter wasn't banned from schools yet and besides, people would find peanut allergies silly), a banana and maybe a Hostess Twinkie or cupcake.
Everytime ABC Sports featured an Evil Kneivel stunt (usually announced by Howard Cosell), I was glued to the television. Now back in those days, you didn't have DVR and ability to rewind so you just got the once chance and you didn't want to miss it.
Now I remember clearly the big Snake Canyon jump on September 8, 1974. Elton John was all over the radio and Sanford & Son was the hottest show on TV. Richard Nixon was forced from the White House. just a month prior. And I was just starting 7th grade and boys were expected to wear tight pants and platform shoes to school (don't ask, but this was right around the time glam-rock was shifting to disco). But I was still too young to care about being stylish so I was content to play with my erector set and Evil Kneivel toys.
So anyway, I wish I could tell you that I was one of the millions watching the stunt that day - it was certainly the talk of our school. But no! You see, back in those days, when they really wanted to rip you off, they had something called "closed-circuit TV".
Now this was the 1970s equivalent of "Pay per View" but it wasn't like you could just dial it up on your home television and pay the $8.95 or whatever. No! You had to go some bar that subscribed to this "closed-circuit TV" scam. Which pretty much sucked for a 12-year-old kid because my parents weren't going to take me to a bar just so I could see Evil Kneivel jump the Snake Canyon.
So on the day of the jump (which was a Sunday and also the day Ford pardoned Nixon), I was reduced to hearing about it on the radio, where the DJ announced, in between "Billy Don't Be A Hero" and John Denver's "Annie's Song", that Evil Knievel did NOT make the jump successfully but that he "appeared" to be alive, somewhere in the Snake River.
Anyway, the Evil Kneivel phenomenon could only have happened in the wacky 1970s. Evil was the perfect counterpoint to Elvis Presley, who by then took to wearing star-spangled jump suits of his own. Only Evil looked much cooler in them.
Is it me, or did 1973-era Evil have more then a passing resemblance to Archie Bunker?
As Seen on TV!! This toy lasted me about 20 minutes before it broke. Just like 468 of Evil's bones.