Vegas Magazine - Niche Media - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.
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F ront Runners Evel Knievel's motorcycle was a Triumph, but his famous Las Vegas jump was only partially so. Jump Start W ith his all-or-nothing attitude toward life, it was only a matter of time before Evel Knievel found his way to Las Vegas. And what an entrance he made, on December 31, 1967, thrilling a crowd at Caesars Palace by jumping the fountains on his Triumph motorcycle. That sunny New Year's Eve afternoon may loom large in the city's memory, but were it not for Knievel's extraordinary moxie, it may have never happened. The budding daredevil arrived in town all but unknown, not far from his humble beginnings as Robert Craig Knievel in Butte, Montana. A frustrated businessman who turned to staging motorcycle stunt shows to support his family, Knievel was eager for some national acclaim. First, however, he had to convince Caesars CEO Jay Sarno. To get an audience with Sarno, he created a fictitious company and gave it a handful of nonexistent lawyers to make phone calls to the executive, followed by calls claiming to be from national media outlets interested in Knievel's planned jump. Somehow it worked, and the jump was set. In the end, things went famously wrong—a surprise deceleration on the takeoff ramp caused Knievel to botch the landing. His pelvis crushed, his femur, wrists, and ankles broken, and his hip fractured, he wound up in a coma. But when he awoke 29 days later, he was famous, his remarkable career had begun, and Evel Knievel was well on his way to becoming an icon of the '70s. V 18 PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF THE LAS VEGAS NEWS BUREAU EVEL KNIEVEL'S AUDACIOUS STUNT AT CAESARS PALACE NEARLY COST HIM HIS LIFE, BUT IT WOUND UP LAUNCHING A MEMORABLE CAREER. BY KASHTON SIEFER VEGASMAGAZINE.COM 018_V_FOB_FR_Dec13.indd 18 11/19/13 9:25 AM