![\"Evel](\"http:\/\/idlenot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Evel-in-his-office.jpg\")
<\/a>Evel in his travelling office, busy as usual. (from one of many original Polaroids taken by Lee Ratliff)<\/b><\/p><\/div>\n
When asked to recall some details of Evel\u2019s appearance at the Great Lakes Dragaway in the town of Parish, Wisconsin Lee right away said that it had to be outside. That was because the event took place in the summer, June 22-24 of 1973. Lee recalls that indoor venues were generally limited to the colder months. The Great lakes Dragaway near Union Grove, Wisconsin was no different. Evel\u2019s truck and the equipment it carried almost didn\u2019t make it to Dragaway. Everyone has seen those signs on the freeways that say \u201cWeigh Station, Right Lane; All Trucks Must Enter\u201d. They usually have another sign tacked on to them that says \u201cCLOSED\u201d. Lee wasn\u2019t so lucky this time when he entered Wisconsin. They were just closing in on their motel exit when the weigh station sign appeared with a big \u201cOPEN\u201d sign attached. There was no choice other than to pull in with the obviously overlength 62 foot rig. It was daytime and this time Lee was not able to trick the state troopers who were doing the inspection. Lee was ordered to unhook his trailer because the total length was too long. That left him with just the cab and the permanently attached front flatbed that served as Evel\u2019s dressing room. All the ramps and other equipment would have to be left behind if Lee continued to the motel. He wasn\u2019t prepared to do that so he approached another trucker who had a cab only with no trailer. Lee offered to pay him to tow the Evel Knievel trailer as far as the motel. The trucker was awe-struck that someone was asking him to tow Evel Knievel\u2019s rig. He agreed to help out but he refused to accept any payment. All he wanted was for Lee to take a photograph of him towing Evel\u2019s trailer. How else would his friends be expected to believe the story he was going to tell them? Lee was happy to take the photo and the trailer was promptly delivered to the motel where it was reunited with the Kenworth.<\/p>\n
<\/a>It was party time and Evel took the guys out to a Mexican restaurant. He bought everyone sombreros. From left to right: Jack Stroh, a painter (possibly also called Jack), and Lee.<\/b><\/p><\/div>\n
There was some pre-jump partying in Wisconsin. Lee distinctly remembers visiting the home of the promoter; although, he does not recall his name. Lee was impressed upon entering what looked like a very long house, possibly a sort of ranch. The promoter invited Evel and his men to his trophy room. Everywhere you looked there were heads on the walls. Every big game animal imaginable was represented. Lee had never seen anything like it before. It had the air of a museum but it was in someone\u2019s home. It was a lot to take in for a young man from Kansas. Work, otherwise known as jump time, did eventually come around. Evel was not successful with that first jump over 13 cars. He came down at too steep an angle which caused him to slip off the back end of the bike. Evel \u201clanded on his tail and slid on his butt\u201d. The motorcycle flipped and landed on its handlebars upside down. Evel later explained that the grip pulled out thus causing him to slide backward and then off the bike. Lee examined the grip after the event and he found that it was broken just as one would expect if the handlebars had slammed into the ramp when the bike upturned. That would indicate that the grips never did loosen and pull off as Evel had explained. It is Lee\u2019s opinion that Evel just lost his grip and did not want to admit it; so, he came up with an excuse.\u00a0 It is interesting to note that in present day such a situation is very unlikely to occur. Riders, knowing that the front wheel must hit first, have a special technique for lifting and slowing the rear wheel. They squeeze the clutch which stops the rear wheel from spinning. At the same time they apply the brakes while still midair and this causes the front wheel to descend for a controlled landing. Evel and other jump artists of his era were not aware of this technique. The modern rider has greater knowledge of the physics of jumping and they have much lighter motorcycles. This is why many of Evel\u2019s record jumps have been bested in recent years.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Evel’s inscription to Lee is reflected in the faces of both Lee and Evel. A ‘sure thing’ is not part of a daredevil’s daily life. There was a fair amount of guess work and lots of guts.<\/b><\/p><\/div>\n
Providence, Rhode Island was one of the last shows that Lee worked. Eventually Lee would end up living in the Providence area.\u00a0 It was the end of July in 1973. At that time of year it is usually extremely humid on the East Coast. It\u2019s beer drinking time. That\u2019s just fine for most of us but some folks take it a bit too far and I suspect that\u2019s what happened to some of the people who crowded the stands at Lincoln Downs Race Track that day in July.<\/p>\n
Evel was making his pre-jump approaches down on the field that usually hosted horse races. The dirt on the track was loose and so Evel was driving on a plywood runway that Lee had erected. Lee was crouched alongside the ramp and watching closely as Evel made his practice runs. Suddenly Lee was aware of a commotion behind him. A fight had broken out among some patrons in the stands. Fortunately there was a chain link fence separating the stands from the track and this prevented the commotion from overflowing onto the performance area. Lee stayed focused on Evel and mostly ignored what was going on with the fans.<\/p>\n
Apparently one biker noticed another biker who had a chain draped over his shoulder. This somehow offended him so he pulled it off and began whipping its owner with his own chain. If that wasn\u2019t enough of a sideshow a female spectator promptly joined the fight and just as quickly lost her blouse. Unfortunately for her, though maybe not the crowd, she was not wearing a bra (a common apparel decision in the 1970\u2019s). This only served to heighten the excitement of the crowd. The young lady seemingly enjoyed here sudden fame so she trotted on up to the highest level of the grandstands where she put on her own show. (I\u2019m not sure if anyone other than Lee was watching Evel at this point). The security officers were obliged to give her a personal escort off the field.<\/p>\n
The Lincoln Downs show was actually a great venue. There was Evel Knievel, the girl in the stands and the fight between bikers. The company next moved on to Stafford Springs, Connecticut.\u00a0George Chitwood was there with his Joie Chitwood Thrill Show. Chitwood was an accomplished stunt person who often worked in various Hollywood movies. 1973 was the year that he did stunt work and acting in the James Bond thriller Live and Let Die<\/em>. Lee knew it was going to be a good show so he made a point of inviting Gary Selby, an old friend and coworker, to attend the performance. Lee used to work with Gary at Kaman Aircraft in Connecticut. Gary was now living in Rhode Island so Lee connected up with him and gave him enough tickets to accommodate his entire family. Gary brought along his mom, wife, and two daughters. He did not bring his sister, Joyce. Why is that important? Joyce eventually became Lee\u2019s wife; but, that\u2019s another story.<\/p>\n After the show Lee took Gary and his family to meet Evel. Gary\u2019s mom was a huge fan of Evel. She was very quick to remove her two white gloves (remember when women wore those?) and ask Evel to sign them. Of course Evel was happy to sign the gloves and today Lee has one of them since it was left to his wife, Joyce. So how big a fan was Gary\u2019s mom? She loved the guy but she liked Lee even better and always referred to Lee as her \u201cadopted son\u201d. Evel left soon after the show but the Selby family stayed for the grand tour. Mike kindly drove Gary\u2019s car while Lee packed the whole family into the big rig and drove it to the motel where they were staying. It\u2019s not everyone who gets a ride in Evel Knievel\u2019s travelling dressing room!<\/p>\n So where did Evel go after the Connecticut\u00a0show? He immediately flew down to Georgia to play golf. Lee naturally assumed that things would be calm for a while since the boss was off relaxing and not constantly looking over his shoulder. That assumption was soon proven wrong when Lee received a telephone call from Georgia.<\/p>\n \u201cLee, get my nine iron and put it on a plane for Georgia\u201d was Evel\u2019s directive.<\/p>\n Why in the world would Evel suddenly need a nine iron? It seems he had destroyed his regular club while raising a bit of a commotion on the links.<\/p>\n Evel was enjoying a round with a foursome. Only one of the guys was a friend who knew Evel well. The other two were just happy to be playing golf with the world\u2019s greatest motorcycle daredevil. As Evel walked along he sported the cane that Lee had given him. You may recall that this special cane had a hollow area that concealed several vials. Evel usually filled the first vial with whiskey. The others would contain just colored water. Evel was drinking from the vials throughout the game. As they moved from hole to hole Evel got \u201cdrunker and drunker\u201d; at least that is how he acted.<\/p>\n The pivotal moment arrived when Evel was making a nine iron chip to the green. He stubbed the chip shot and then slammed his nine iron on the ground, thus bending it.<\/p>\n One of the golfers, Evel\u2019s partner, laughed at the bad shot that Evel made.<\/p>\n Evel promptly pulled out a .38 Special handgun and shot the guy who had dared to laugh.<\/p>\n He then turned to one of the invited players and while pointing the gun at him said \u201cYou laughed too!\u201d<\/p>\n At this point the laughing man ran off as fast as he possibly could.<\/p>\n Of course Evel was shooting blanks and his buddy (the dead guy) was in on the prank.<\/p>\n Evel just loved practical jokes. I\u2019m not sure all of his victims did.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t always easy for Evel to get the bookings he wanted. He once sent Lee to the Seven Springs Mountain Resort in Seven Springs, PA. Lee\u2019s mission was to interest the management in an Evel Knievel Daredevil show to be held on their spacious ski resort grounds. Lee stayed for a week and tried to sell the enterprise on the idea. It was a no go. The only interesting, and unfortunate, event was when Lee went for a ride with one of the employees. They ended up hitting a deer. Chalk that one off.<\/p>\n That wasn\u2019t the only accident associated with the trip to Pennsylvania. Lee left the resort and attempted to get on the freeway. Unfortunately he ran over a curb near a toll booth. This was enough to cause the booth operator to single Lee out for an inspection. The operator was suspicious about the length of the rig (a familiar story to Lee). Lee was ordered to pull up to the white stop line on the ground. He knew that if he did as requested the rear end of the truck would shoot some five feet beyond legal length as marked by a second stop line at the other end of the truck.<\/p>\n Lee was already pulled up beyond the front stop line so he proceeded to back up and as he came to a halt he released the 5th<\/sup> wheel so that the rear trailer would override it and push forward against the back of the first trailer. He then pulled forward slowly and overshot the front line once more. At this point the booth operators became frustrated with Lee and one of them questioned \u201cWhat is that guy doing?\u201d They waved him through just to get rid of him.<\/p>\n