10 Things We Learned About Evel Knievel from Being Evel, the New Documentary About the Daredevil’s Unbelievable Life

Esquire recently posted Ryan Bort’s 10 Things We Learned About Evel Knievel from Being Evel, the New Documentary About the Daredevil’s Unbelievable Life.   Here are three of my favorites…

2. He was a legendary insurance salesman.

Knievel’s success was due just as much to his ability to sell himself as it was to his fearlessness. And if he could sell the appeal of a guy running his motorcycle off of ramp, you could damn well bet he could sell some insurance, which he did while still living in Butte, where he famously went into a mental hospital and sold 271 policies. But when he asked the president of the company if he could be the VP if he broke every sales record and the president said no, Knievel quit and moved to Moses Lake, Washington, to sell motorcycles.

4. There’s a story behind his name.

This may come as a shock, but “Evel” is not Knievel’s real name. Born Robert Craig Knievel, the future daredevil once found him in jail with a man named Knofel, where together they became known as “Awful Knofel and Evil Knievel.” The nickname stuck, and Knievel changed the “i” in evil to an “e” because he didn’t want it to sound too evil.

5. He conned his way into his famous jump at Caesar’s Palace.

Before Knievel could jump over the fountains at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, he was going to have to convince the casino to let him make a spectacle of the death-defying feat on their property. Because at this point no one had heard of him, this was going to be difficult. Before even pitching the event to Caesar’s, Knievel called every news outlet he could think and told them that he’d be jumping the fountains and to make sure they came out and covered the event. Once he had the media interested, he called the casino owner repeatedly, pretending to be a different person clamoring to see the jump each time. Word spread to such a degree that Caesar’s had to let Knievel attempt the jump. He didn’t make it, of course, but in the long run it was for the best; the cringeworthy footage of his body tumbling across the concrete made him famous.