Death of a Daredevil: Evel Knievel, RIP
by Joal Ryan
In a decade largely absent of heroes, Evel Knievel was a real-life superhero.
Knievel, the caped 1970s showman who, thanks to a trusty chopper and sheer abandon, jumped land and water masses with a single bound (and sometimes a few bounces), and landed among the Watergate era's pop-culture elite, died Friday.
Knievel was 69—not ancient, but not bad for a man who bragged about making the Guinness Book of World Records on the strength, as it were, of 35 broken bones.
"Every time I make a jump, I thank God when it comes down, no matter how far I went," Knievel told ABC Sports in 1973.
From his roots as a high-school ski jumper in his native Montana to his rise on Wide World of Sports, the premiere TV sports showcase of its day, Robert Craig Knievel went a very long way.
If one could judge the folk heroes of the 1970s by walking a toy aisle, one would conclude that Knievel ranked among the giants: Muhammad Ali, the Six Million Dollar Man and Fonzie.
So big was the Knievel toy line—by the daredevil's own estimate it sold more than $300 million worth of action figures, model kits, Super Jet Cycles, and more—that the New York Times once reported its namesake superstar reputedly made as much money from its royalties as he did from his motorcycle stunts.
And, rest assured, Knievel made a lot of money from his motorcycle stunts: $1 million to clear 13 double-decker buses at London's Wembley Stadium in 1975; $6 million to rocket across Idaho's Snake River Canyon in a self-styled "Skycycle."
Knievel didn't always land cleanly—in London, he broke his pelvis; at Snake River Canyon, he was victimized by premature parachute ejaculation. Truth was, landing cleanly wasn't the point. The spectacle was.
Clad in a white-spangled jumpsuit, Knievel would enter an arena with a cape and walking stick. When the Rocky routine was over, the superhero donned his cowl—a matching white-spangled helmet—and went up, up and away. The show was so good that, according to Knievel's official biography, a 1975 leap over 14 buses at Ohio's Kings Island amusement park captivated more than half of all TV viewers that day.
The ride began on New Year's Day 1968 when Knievel, three years into his career as a professional death-defier, came into prominence by jumping the fountains at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas—and landing in a coma for 30 days.
By 1974, his Montana-man-made-good story was fodder for a Hollywood movie, Evel Knievel, starring George Hamilton. (CSI's George Eads starred in a 2004 TV-movie version with the same name.)
Since nobody could really be Knievel but Knievel, he played a fictionalized version of himself in the action movie, Viva Knievel!
Friday, November 30, 2007
Why the free press for Willie Horton?
Willie Horton?
Willie Horton is in the news again? What, did someone let him out again or something? Nope, Willie Horton is still in jail, in Maryland though.
On April 18, 1996, Horton was transferred to the Maryland House of Correction Annex, a maximum security prison in Jessup, Maryland, where he remains today
There's two parts to the Willie Horton story. Which one you prefer will probably turn on your basic politics.
In one scenario, it's all about the way that Willie Horton was used in the campaign adds for the election of Bush I.
Republicans would pick up the Horton issue after Dukakis clinched the nomination. In June of 1988, Republican candidate George H.W. Bush seized on the Horton case, bringing it up repeatedly in campaign speeches. Bush's campaign manager, Lee Atwater, predicted that "by the time this election is over, Willie Horton will be a household name."[1] According to one political writer, Horton never went by the name "Willie"; Atwater called him that "hoping to get more racial mileage".[2] Media consultant Roger Ailes was reported to remark "the only question is whether we depict Willie Horton with a knife in his hand or without it."
There have been accusations of negative campaigning, racism and generally sleazy politics (all of which are pobably true) over the way in which the issue was made into a political football. Here's the actual Willie Horton ad:
The second way of looking at the whole willie Horton thing is how incompetent government (no, not specific politicians, thos whole edifice) can be. Horton was in jail for life no chance of parole. Life really was meant to mean life. But they let him out for the weekend.
Hunh? You let somebody out of jail for the weekend, thinking he'll come back, when he knows that he's in that jail until the day he dies? Of course Horton legged it: any other rational being would have done the same.
Now why is all of this back in the news again? Ah, boring stuff.
Pundits and opponents may be drawing parallels, but the case of a killer released by a Mitt Romney judicial appointee won�t likely hurt the GOP candidate the way Willie Horton haunted Michael Dukakis.
Rudy Giuliani�s camp seized on the controversy almost immediately. Giuliani last week said Romney was accountable for convicted murderer Daniel Tavares Jr.'s release from prison last July.
Tavares was set free by Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Kathe Tuttman, a Romney appointee, despite protests from prison officials who said Tavares has assaulted other inmates and might still be dangerous.
Tavares has since been charged in the Nov. 17 murders of Brian and Beverly Mauck of Graham, Wash.
�The governor is going to have to explain his appointment,� Giuliani said. �And the judge is going to have to explain her decision.�
But campaign watchers say efforts to equate the case with the infamous Willie Horton incident fall far short.
Horton had been sentenced to life imprisonment and was incarcerated at the Concord Correctional Facility in Massachusetts when he was released in June 1986 as part of a weekend furlough program.
While on furlough in April 1987, Horton twice raped a woman in Oxon Hill, Md. He stabbed and pistol-whipped her fianc�.
At the time, Michael Dukakis was the Democratic governor of Massachusetts. While Dukakis had not initiated the furlough program, he supported it as a measure to help with criminal rehabilitation.
After the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that this right extended to first-degree murderers, the Massachusetts legislature passed a bill prohibiting furloughs for such inmates. However, in 1976, Dukakis vetoed this bill.
Thus, the program remained in effect, and Dukakis continued to support it.
In 1988, allies of Republican George H.W. Bush broadcast a demonic photo of inmate Horton in ads against his opponent Dukakis. The spots accused Dukakis of being soft on crime.
Not that I thought Bush I or Dukakis were amazing politicians but compared to hte mental pygmies running this time around they were at least interesting.
http://timworstall.typepad.com/timworstall/2007/11/willie-horton.html
Willie Horton is in the news again? What, did someone let him out again or something? Nope, Willie Horton is still in jail, in Maryland though.
On April 18, 1996, Horton was transferred to the Maryland House of Correction Annex, a maximum security prison in Jessup, Maryland, where he remains today
There's two parts to the Willie Horton story. Which one you prefer will probably turn on your basic politics.
In one scenario, it's all about the way that Willie Horton was used in the campaign adds for the election of Bush I.
Republicans would pick up the Horton issue after Dukakis clinched the nomination. In June of 1988, Republican candidate George H.W. Bush seized on the Horton case, bringing it up repeatedly in campaign speeches. Bush's campaign manager, Lee Atwater, predicted that "by the time this election is over, Willie Horton will be a household name."[1] According to one political writer, Horton never went by the name "Willie"; Atwater called him that "hoping to get more racial mileage".[2] Media consultant Roger Ailes was reported to remark "the only question is whether we depict Willie Horton with a knife in his hand or without it."
There have been accusations of negative campaigning, racism and generally sleazy politics (all of which are pobably true) over the way in which the issue was made into a political football. Here's the actual Willie Horton ad:
The second way of looking at the whole willie Horton thing is how incompetent government (no, not specific politicians, thos whole edifice) can be. Horton was in jail for life no chance of parole. Life really was meant to mean life. But they let him out for the weekend.
Hunh? You let somebody out of jail for the weekend, thinking he'll come back, when he knows that he's in that jail until the day he dies? Of course Horton legged it: any other rational being would have done the same.
Now why is all of this back in the news again? Ah, boring stuff.
Pundits and opponents may be drawing parallels, but the case of a killer released by a Mitt Romney judicial appointee won�t likely hurt the GOP candidate the way Willie Horton haunted Michael Dukakis.
Rudy Giuliani�s camp seized on the controversy almost immediately. Giuliani last week said Romney was accountable for convicted murderer Daniel Tavares Jr.'s release from prison last July.
Tavares was set free by Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Kathe Tuttman, a Romney appointee, despite protests from prison officials who said Tavares has assaulted other inmates and might still be dangerous.
Tavares has since been charged in the Nov. 17 murders of Brian and Beverly Mauck of Graham, Wash.
�The governor is going to have to explain his appointment,� Giuliani said. �And the judge is going to have to explain her decision.�
But campaign watchers say efforts to equate the case with the infamous Willie Horton incident fall far short.
Horton had been sentenced to life imprisonment and was incarcerated at the Concord Correctional Facility in Massachusetts when he was released in June 1986 as part of a weekend furlough program.
While on furlough in April 1987, Horton twice raped a woman in Oxon Hill, Md. He stabbed and pistol-whipped her fianc�.
At the time, Michael Dukakis was the Democratic governor of Massachusetts. While Dukakis had not initiated the furlough program, he supported it as a measure to help with criminal rehabilitation.
After the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that this right extended to first-degree murderers, the Massachusetts legislature passed a bill prohibiting furloughs for such inmates. However, in 1976, Dukakis vetoed this bill.
Thus, the program remained in effect, and Dukakis continued to support it.
In 1988, allies of Republican George H.W. Bush broadcast a demonic photo of inmate Horton in ads against his opponent Dukakis. The spots accused Dukakis of being soft on crime.
Not that I thought Bush I or Dukakis were amazing politicians but compared to hte mental pygmies running this time around they were at least interesting.
http://timworstall.typepad.com/timworstall/2007/11/willie-horton.html
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