Evel Knievel
As the ugly, confusing squabble over Evel Knievel Days continues in Butte, a Colorado filmmaker’s plans for making a documentary about Knievel are moving forward.
Daniel Junge, the director of what will be called “Being Evel,” was awarded more than $94,000 in state incentives by the Colorado Economic Development Commission.
Junge had this to say about Knievel: “Along with Muhammad Ali, he was one of the great icons of the 1970s.” I have to mention that I made the connection between Ali and Evel in a column I wrote several years ago.
The Denver Post article, meanwhile, said Junge will also explore the “darker side” of Knievel. I have been there, too, though I’ll be damned if I can find the column I wrote about the time Knievel addressed the Butte Press Club. He not only delved into his “dark side,” he positively reveled in it, talking about hookers, safe-cracking and taking a baseball bat to the writer who supposedly maligned him.
And then there was my encounter with the whole tribe of Knievel family members, friends and hangers-on at the Pekin Noodle Parlor on the night of Knievel’s funeral. Even though my own excesses on that and several adjoining evenings would lay me low with a bout of viral pneumonia, it remains one of my grandest memories.
A sidelight from the Denver Post story: “Daredevil Johnny Knoxville, known for the ‘Jackass’ series on MTV, is also involved in the film, which is scheduled to air next year.” To refer to Knoxville as a “daredevil” in a story about Evel Knievel seems pretty bold, if you ask me.
I will also mention that the rather sober headline attached to the Post story online apparently was updated. I saw a copy of the headline on the print edition of the story and it read, “Film given the Evel aye.” I think I would have changed it, too.
