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Lathan McKay's Evel Archaeology
Lathan McKay, Co-Founder of the Evel Knievel Museum, CEO of Evel Knievel Enterprises, a.k.a. Color Me Lucky, is the collector, curator and preeminent historian on Evel Knievel-the most notorious daredevil in modern times. While researching and amassing the world's most complete collection of EK memorabilia, McKay has also worn many hats as co-producer and executive producer of films, both narrative and documentary, an impresario of events, a screenwriter, actor, entrepreneur and "manifestor."
Becoming a professional skateboarder at just 14, Lathan McKay found that wheels were to take him down many roads to self-discovery. He earned his keep by traveling across America as a pro boarder for 10 years under the name Erik McKay. Though Evel's last public jump was in March of 1981, a decade before McKay hit the road, Knievel represented to the young skateboarder the daredevil nature, determination, skill, precision, and moxie needed to face one's fears. The king of motorcycle stunt riding in his iconic red, white and blue leathers was the only actual human to be depicted in comic books as a superhero.
The young McKay found many friends and mentors who have become as important to him as his family of origin and Texas roots as he interacted with a kaleidoscope of personalities and locales. Early on, his love for film ignited a passion for creativity that still fuels most of his waking moments. McKay became a '70s-era cinephile, even though he was barely alive in that decade, preferring films like "Cisco Pike," "Two Lane Blacktop," and the essential "Thunderbolt and Lightfoot." He learned to value the gritty realism embodied by talents like Warren Oates, Kris Kristofferson, Lee Marvin, Sam Peckinpah, and his ultimate mentor and friend Monte Hellman.
In fact, back in 2003, McKay had been acting in director Clark Walker's "Levelland" (which was produced by Ann Walker McBay of "Dazed and Confused") in Texas, when a series of serendipitous nocturnal encounters brought him to Hellman's doorstep in Los Angeles. Seems there was an extra room in Monte's house, which McKay was then to rent for years, becoming Monte's longtime friend.
Director Monte Hellman's 1971 road-movie masterpiece "Two Lane Blacktop" was a major touchstone for McKay, ever since he'd watched the (then) out-of-print film on somebody's 5th-generation VHS dub. (It has since been released in the Criterion Collection, and McKay was instrumental in that.) Joining Hellman's production company, McKay participated in the filming of Hellman's 2010 oeuvre, "Road to Nowhere" and set in motion two screenplays he'd co-written with Monte's daughter, Melissa Hellman, McKay's partner in Melhell Productions.
The company is in pre-production on a film co-written with Melissa's brother Jared Hellman called "Falling Forward." The film's script incorporates the actual characters who have populated McKay's life. It depicts people who are finding a way to live fully immersed, surviving the swirl of life on the edge rather than merely existing on the safe side. About his friend, Monte Hellman said, "Lathan, like most of us, is always looking for a way to escape from himself. I think partially morphing into Evel has given him the perfect vehicle."
McKay has of course not "morphed," like a comic book character, into Evel, for he is quite singular human being in his own right. But he has taken a chunk of time out from preparing "Falling Forward" to see the forest for the trees-a lot of forest, trees, and road for the past couple years-in order to spark a revival of Evel Knievel's legacy.
Four years ago, McKay woke up one morning steeped in his admiration for Knievel and wanting to see in person some of the showman's authentic leathers. After some serious homework and months of tricky negotiating, he located his first EK unicorn: a set of 1974 jump leathers. The day they arrived in the mail, McKay put them on, and they fit him to a T. It was uncanny, and only the beginning of the what he calls the "Evel Archaeology" quest he's been on to find the remaining pieces of the Evel puzzle. Along with lifelong friend, artist Robby Hull, he set about beating the bushes. In the fall of 2012, a resurrected Evel Knievel Enterprises crew embarked on a three-year worldwide hunt for Evel Knievel's "scatter-pulted" memorabilia.
"I wondered where his possessions were so I did some research and found that his things were scattershot all over the globe ...a lot of it was hidden, gifted, given away," McKay said. "I found three sets of leathers and eventually acquired them. Then I acquired a helmet next and it just snowballed from there."
Further earnest research and sleuthing had to be done by McKay and his friends to uncover and obtain these rare treasures. "I found it odd that the majority of items had been sold and resold, stolen and auctioned off. It made the hunt more difficult-and more interesting."
Through his efforts, McKay unearthed Big Red, Knievel's show truck, found sitting stagnant in Elizabeth, New Jersey by way of Clearwater, Florida - and he eventually purchased it-another manifestation of one of McKay's chance calls. Big Red, a custom 1975 Mack FS cab-over with an extra-long sleeper and matching trailer, was built in 1975 by one of Evel's major sponsors - Mack Trucks. The rig was used to haul the showman and his bikes around the country in typically flamboyant style. With the help of Historic Harley-Davidson in Topeka and Mack, it became a high dollar, 18-month "passion project" to restore the vehicle back to its vintage glory. It was a bolt-by-bolt restoration bringing together dozens of technicians and artisans to reincarnate a vehicle that McKay calls, "more sky than metal." The amazing story of its restoration has been documented in several trucking journals and online.
The quest to collect EK artifacts, which McKay originally coined as "Evel Archaeology," solidified connections with the entire Knievel family, Evel's friends Earle and Brenda Castine and Bill Rundle, fabricator Carl Green, and Chris Agajanian, son of Evel's long-time promoter J.C Agajanian. McKay also received help from Knievel crew members Ray Gunn, Lee Ratliff and Mike Draper, plus artist George Sedlak, the original painter of Evel's motorcycles and helmets. He met others who Evel inspired, such as daredevil jumpers Doug Danger and Louis "Rocket" Re. Through these connections McKay was able to network, research and travel throughout the U.S. and overseas to secure and then restore or preserve each item. McKay also credits lifelong pal and artist Robby Hull, business partner Marilyn Stemp and Knievel wizard Scott Wiley for their invaluable input.
"It's a lost-and-found story the likes of which has never been seen," McKay said. "To me and many others, Evel Knievel was the embodiment of living one's dreams, the manifestation of nothing into everything, and failing into flying high."
The year 2015 for McKay was the crowning and most fortuitous, yet most arduous hill he had climbed, for a number of reasons. The inaugural tour of Big Red (partnering with Mack Trucks) came in the nick of time! A personal goal of McKay's was to have the truck lead the parade at Evel Knievel days in Butte, Montana that year. And because Doug Danger had scheduled the world record 22-car jump on Evel's own Harley Davidson XR750 at the 75th Anniversary of the Sturgis motorcycle rally at the Legendary Buffalo Chip, Big Red traveled there. Then McKay hauled to California to make the Hollywood premiere of "Being Evel" (see below.) 2015 also saw the partnering yet again with the Knievel family on Evel Ale, a custom beer out of South Austin Brewery.
In the same vein as Evel's mantra: to never give up and to keep your word, McKay was hell-bent on bringing Evel's life-long dream of a museum to fruition. Knievel's widow, Krystal, and his daughter Alicia Knievel Vincent have been instrumental in this effort, offering significant influence and inspiration as they welcomed McKay into the family. The family had told McKay that Evel envisioned having his lost treasure amassed in a museum, and they had tried no less than five times to get the job done. Now, along with Mike Patterson and the Historic Harley-Davidson team, who had worked tirelessly on the preservation of Big Red, McKay has ensured there will be a museum dedicated to Evel Knievel in Topeka, Kansas, housed at Historic Harley-Davidson. It is set to open at the end of 2016.
Evel Knievel had a larger-than-life, complicated personality, and suffered from some bad decisions. Though this has been well documented, in 2014 and 2015 several high-profile film projects brought EK's story to a new generation. These included Johnny Knoxville's Emmy nominated film "Being Evel," on which McKay was a co-producer/archivist, and the documentary "I Am Evel Knievel" for Spike TV, on which McKay was a consulting producer, archivist and cast member. McKay has also executive-produced the Leo award winning feature-length documentary "Chasing Evel: The Life of Robbie Knievel" which premiered at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival and Nashville Film Festival in 2017. It was released worldwide in 2018
In 2018 editing began on Resurrecting Evel and Evelution. Both films documenting the arduous undertaking that was the restoration of Evel Knievels Mack truck and the six year journey that lead to the opening of the Museum. Also in 2018 Mckay co-produced and was featured in both the Austin, Texas based film "Off The Record" and Reelz channel's Collision Course.
Along with many of his close friends and peers, McKay is a survivor. That trait informed his depth of character before he ever considered acting in the latter part of his twenties. Evel Knievel would say: "Keep your word... You're never a failure in life until you refuse to get back up again...I believe people were put on this earth to LIVE, not just exist." McKay's father would say many of the same things to him. The words have resonated.
Monte Hellman, among others, drove home to McKay the realization that it's important to "spend time authentically." Hellman also inspired McKay to embrace his other talents, including production. It was good, McKay found, to become proficient at other things besides acting.
Of the many movie quotes that replay in McKay's psyche, there's one from the teacher character, Gwen French, in "Some Came Running" when she addresses her students. She tells them, "Artists are different than most people. They have bigger appetites and are more complicated, so try to understand them instead of judging them."
Like other performers and artists who have created lasting impact, Evel Knievel was a risk-taker. Instead of judging such characters as aberrant or inconvenient we're better served trying to understand what motivates them and appreciate how their defiance of convention resonates to the benefit of society. The world needs people like this, and thanks to the vision of one such personality, the legacy of another, one of epic Americana proportions, is being preserved.
Julie Christensen is a singer and writer who has lived in Iowa, Austin, Los Angeles, Ojai, and on the road. She and her longtime husband, the actor John Diehl, now live in East Nashville, TN.
"The finest compliment you can pay a man is that his word was as good as gold" Evel Knievel
