Evel Knievel Leathers, ca. 1967
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GUEST:
My mother originally made the leathers, and after the jump that Evel Knievel made at Caesars Palace...
APPRAISER:
Uh-huh.
GUEST:
...he brought them in to her to repair, and she repaired them. But he never picked them up or paid for the repairs.
APPRAISER:
Really? Wow. And so here is a picture right here of Evel at one of the jumps. As you see here, everything is all crisp and fresh and looking good. This Caesars Palace jump here was December 1967. I can't confirm that this was in the famous Caesars jump where you see him tumble end over end over end. I mean, that, that video is so hard to watch just because of the outcome.
GUEST:
I think it is, 'cause wherever there he tumbled, there's something on the leather that indicates he fell there, but okay, I hear you.
APPRAISER:
There are tumble marks.
GUEST:
I hear you.
APPRAISER:
I just haven't been able to confirm it.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
Evel Knievel was born in Butte, Montana, and I actually knew Evel. He told me that when he was a kid, he knew he was going to do something great. And so he bought a pickup truck in Butte, Montana, painted his name on the side, drove to California, but he didn't know what he was gonna do.
GUEST:
(gasps)
APPRAISER:
And it took him a little while to do that. He got into the motorcycle daredevil business, and he kept jumping more and more and more cars, and buses and compacted cars. When we look at this, the condition, this has obviously been in a wreck. We look here on the back of the elbow. There's a blow-out there. There's lots of road rash there. There's an over-patch here, which, I believe, there's a puncture on the back side of that. You look down here, and, and the knee is all scuffed up, and not quite blown through. Marks here. And then you go around to the back and looks like he did a huge skid on his behind. You can see where it's worn through the leathers, or, actually, you can see perforations in there. So that suit had been used quite a bit, you can tell. What he did throughout his career is, he did so many jumps and he had such a wild life, that he kind of became... on, on the talk circuit, he became a celebrity in his own right without the jumping. There's lots of great tapes where he's on Johnny Carson. He would do entertainment around the country. Do you have any idea of value on this?
GUEST:
Not really.
APPRAISER:
Yeah.
GUEST:
We were offered something for them about eight years ago, but we didn't... my sister and I didn't really know anything about that, so...
APPRAISER:
Right. How much was that?
GUEST:
$10,000.
APPRAISER:
$10,000, wow.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
I believe that these leathers, at auction, would be $40,000 to $60,000.
GUEST:
Really? That's kind of amazing.
APPRAISER:
It's kind of amazing.
GUEST:
I know!
APPRAISER:
Well, he's a famous guy and a lot of people followed his career and love him now that he's gone. He died in 2007.
GUEST:
Oh, he did, I didn't know that.
APPRAISER:
Yeah. If we could confirm that this was used in that Caesars Palace jump with the video where he tumbles down...
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
...um, the value would increase quite a lot. I think that the value on these would be over $100,000 at auction.
GUEST:
Oh, my goodness! I'd better be careful, aren't I, when I do... or should be when I travel or go with them somewhere.
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