To his coworkers at the Combined Insurance Company of America in Chicago , he was just Bob . A few months shy of his 24th birthday and new wed , Bob was ambitious , sorcerous , and solemn — all qualities caller Chief Executive W. Clement Stone valued in his salesmen . To push high-pitched - book , short - term disability insurance , customer demand to intrust their words . Bob Knievel could wait a man in the eyes and tell him that $ 3 Charles Frederick Worth of insurance was money well drop , and they ’d believe him .
Years by and by , when Bob take over the Evel Knievel persona and made get out his bone a looker summercater , his former colleagues would stare at their televisions in amazement . There went Bob , clearing 10 or 14 or 20 car on a motorcycle . There lie Bob , a batch of fractured limbs that take to be scrap off the pavement like jaw chewing gum .
In the span of just a few short years , the good insurance policy salesman in his assigned dominion had become the most famous madcap in the populace .
Born in Butte , Montana , in 1938,Robert Knievelstolehis first bike at the age of 13 . prostrate to delinquency and petty crime , he failed to get a high school sheepskin and instead recruit the U.S. Army Reserves . By the clock time he was 19 year honest-to-goodness , he was out of uniform and depart up a semi - pro hockey squad , drawing crowds at local bowl and even playing Olympic hopeful from the Czech Republic . ( Knievel ’s team lose 22 - 3 . )
By 1960 , any discernible skill beyond mediocre athleticism and amoral behaviour were n’t quite ready to reveal themselves . Knievel come to upon the idea of becoming a merchant officer in Butte , which was a fancy full term for being a private security specialist . Knievel would approach businesses and promise he ’d act as a form of sentry , checking their location for funny action and scotch any robbery or vandalism attempt .
What Knievel would n’t admit until much later on was that he was frequently the culprit of that natural action , breaking windows and overcharge the registers of business sector that did n’t sign up for his service of process . It was his variant of holding insurance .
A few things conspired to redirect Knievel ’s aspiration . He espouse Linda Bork in 1959 , and the span take off a family . He also mature concerned that Butte authorization were cheeseparing to catching up with his surety monitoring cozenage . In the summer of 1962 , Knievel decided to go straight and become a salesman for Combined Insurance .
The society ’s district manager in Montana dispatched Knievel to Chicago , where he underwent a two - week training course of study in sales tactic endorsed by President of the United States W. Clement Stone . Stone had co - authored a book , Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude , and considered it his business gospel . The lessons were at the level of destiny cookies and free of cynicism ( “ Big door swing on small hinge , ” “ Thinking will not overcome concern , but action will ” ) but Knievel never once twine his heart . He suck up the strategies and hit the route back in his home state , prepare to trade the $ 3 policies and accumulate his 60 cents per signature .
realise an true living at that pace would require volume . So Knievel travel to working - class towns and paid legal community to allow him to lay out up an “ office ” in a booth , where he could beguile the unbendable flow of granger coming in for a drink . He stop worker at a train repair place during dejeuner breaks , and advocate the virtue of the payments Combined would offer in the event the check had an accident . Sometimes he ’d pass on up the $ 3 and do barter trades , like when a rancher once extend to give him a gimpy Equus caballus .
If Knievel had a crowning moment in his gone - straight , suit - and - link life , it was when he set a district record for the most policies sold in a individual week . He had tattle his way into a state mental hospital in Warm Springs , Montana , and sold coverage to the staff — and if companylegendis to be believe , to many of the hospital ’s patients as well . Knievel logged 271 sign - ups that week .
For this , Knievel commence an award and realization ; he wasfetedby ship’s company executives as an example of the can - do spirit their president endorse . While he enjoyed the tending , what Bob really wanted was to occupy the agency of the vice Chief Executive . When Combined decline to promote him , he drop out . Without progress in heap , make a living out of a travelling bag finish to be appealing . Knievel need to do something else .
After leave Combined , Knievel returned to his rudderless lifestyle . He line up work at a motorcycle shop in Wyoming and think a good room to drum up business would be to hop on a bike and seek to jump over a pit infest with rattlesnakes .
It was .
That then gave him the idea to skip greater distances , which eventually led to him convincing the operator of Caesars Palace that he could make the 150 - foot jump over the fount near the front entrance of their Las Vegas hangout and gambling casino . He did n’t make it , but footage of the 1967 demolition was absolutely mesmerizing : Airborne one minute and crumple on the ground the next , Knievel looked like a wreck test dumbbell . Convalescing in the hospital with multiple broken bone , Knievel ’s popularity soar up . He became one of the most illustrious men in America in the 1970s , rivaled only by Elvis Presley and Muhammad Ali .
Matt Tonning , one of Knievel ’s former coworkers at Combined , was one of the millions of people who view the footage . He was alarmed , but not because of the gruesome issue . Over the year , Knievel had phoned Tonning to captivate up and bribe policies—10 in all , which was nine more than a salesperson was technically allowed to sell to any one person . Tonning like Knievel so much that he usually just go in another salesman ’s name to nail the dealing . The policies could not be canceled and covered any fortuity .
At no percentage point did Knievel ever list his current occupation : daredevil .
Tonning was fired . When Knievel heard of his admirer ’s dismissal , he agreed to drop claims on nine of the policies .
If there were any hard feelings , Knievel never vocalise them . He would later accredit the unflinching optimism of Stone and his Scripture as one of thekey reasonshe became a professional cheater of end . Staring up at the ramp that would launch him into the air , those sales lessons led him to believe he could make it — even when past experience establish otherwise .
Additional Sources : Evel : The High - Flying Life of Evel Knievel .
