Transcript

#13 Kenny · Heavyweight

0:06
Speaker 1: I have a medical related question. You know my toe ring?
0:09
Speaker 1: I think, I think maybe yes, I do have a
0:14
Speaker 1: toe ring. You've never had a ring. When is the
0:16
Speaker 1: last time you saw my bare feet?
0:18
Speaker 2: Three years ago?
0:19
Speaker 1: Since then, I've gotten a toe ring. Why I was drunk.
0:24
Speaker 1: Some people get tattoos. I don't like pain. I can't
0:28
Speaker 1: get it off my toe. And it really is did
0:36
Speaker 1: you not take a hippocratic oath? Fine? I know, Bye?
0:47
Speaker 1: I just hung up on myself or is it hanged
0:51
Speaker 1: up from gimblet media. I'm Jonathan Goldstein and this is
1:01
Speaker 1: heavyweight today's episode Kenny. Like most, when I hear the
1:18
Speaker 1: words tale of betrayal, I think of Judas narking on, Jesus,
1:23
Speaker 1: Brutus icing Julius, Satan cucking the Lord. But recently I
1:29
Speaker 1: heard a story of treachery that not only ranks among those,
1:33
Speaker 1: it might surpass them. While those stories merely have devils,
1:37
Speaker 1: this one has something far better. Dare devils. This story
1:44
Speaker 1: of betrayal takes place in the nineteen seventies, a time
1:48
Speaker 1: when brave men and women mounted motorcycles or got behind
1:52
Speaker 1: the wheels of cars to jump anything in their field
1:54
Speaker 1: of vision. Barrels chuck wagons, cement mixers, Stegmayer beer, truck
2:00
Speaker 1: pits of rattlesnakes, and dens of mountain lions. This was
2:04
Speaker 1: a time when jumping a shark didn't mean jumping the shark.
2:08
Speaker 1: It was a time when daredeviling was not only a
2:10
Speaker 1: viable career path, it was something your parents could be
2:13
Speaker 1: proud of. I grew up in the nineteen seventies in
2:21
Speaker 1: a neighborhood fully infected with daredevil fever. The older kids
2:25
Speaker 1: would lay us younger kids down on the sidewalk and
2:28
Speaker 1: jump us with our bicycles, all of us, from the
2:32
Speaker 1: older kids with bath towels tied to their necks like capes,
2:35
Speaker 1: to us younger kids with tire tracks across our backs.
2:38
Speaker 1: We all wanted to be daredevils, and the daredevil we
2:42
Speaker 1: most wanted to be was Evil Knieval. We ate from
2:51
Speaker 1: Evil Canevl lunch pails and played with Evil Canevl dolls.
2:55
Speaker 1: Evil Canievl was Elvis, Captain America and Liberachi all rolled
3:00
Speaker 1: into one. It seemed like everyone in the world wanted
3:12
Speaker 1: to be Evil Canieval, but there was one man who
3:15
Speaker 1: wanted more than that. He wanted to surpass Evil canievel altogether.
3:21
Speaker 1: That man's name was Ken Carter, aka the Mad Canadian.
3:28
Speaker 1: Before he was the Mad Canadian, Ken was a grocery
3:31
Speaker 1: boy with a grade school education. His dream to beat
3:34
Speaker 1: evil Canevl at his own game is captured in a
3:37
Speaker 1: nineteen seventies Canadian documentary called The Devil at Your Heels.
3:45
Speaker 1: The movie opens at a local Halifax racetrack. The crowds
3:49
Speaker 1: here to watch Ken Carter jump eighteen cars. It's nighttime,
3:53
Speaker 1: and the crowd cheers wildly as Ken Carter barrels towards
3:57
Speaker 1: a ramp in a souped up hardtop convertible. Ken doesn't
4:07
Speaker 1: make it. Instead, he lands with a crash, flat on
4:11
Speaker 1: top of the last car in line. A man runs
4:16
Speaker 1: over to pool Ken from the car, I get an ambulance.
4:21
Speaker 1: Crew arrives and while being carried out on a stretcher,
4:25
Speaker 1: Ken waves to.
4:25
Speaker 3: His fans, okay, take me over to the microphone please.
4:28
Speaker 1: The paramedics carry the stretcher over to a microphone, and
4:32
Speaker 1: while lying injured on his back, Ken makes an announcement, believe.
4:37
Speaker 4: Me, We'll be back here to more light.
4:40
Speaker 2: At eight o'clock sharp. We'll be back here to more light.
4:42
Speaker 2: Thank you very much, thank you, thank you, thank you.
4:46
Speaker 1: Rub on a little Ben Gay, soaked the tootsies and
4:48
Speaker 1: Ebsen salts, and hit it again the next night, for
4:52
Speaker 1: three nights every week. This is how Ken Carter makes
4:56
Speaker 1: his living. But he has plans to change all that.
5:05
Speaker 1: Ken had been watching Evil Canevel on TV for years
5:08
Speaker 1: and he wanted what Canieval had, adulation, respect, and a
5:12
Speaker 1: lot more money. Up until this point, Canevel's biggest stunt
5:17
Speaker 1: was over the Snake River Canyon, a distance of one
5:20
Speaker 1: quarter mile. Ken Carter's plan was to jump the Saint
5:23
Speaker 1: Lawrence River, a distance four times that length a full mile,
5:35
Speaker 1: by applying a little Canadian elbow grease. Ken Carter was
5:39
Speaker 1: going to drive a rocket powered Lincoln Continental offer ramp
5:43
Speaker 1: in Canada and land in the United States, watching the
5:47
Speaker 1: movie as a Canadian. The idea of flying through the
5:50
Speaker 1: air in a Lincoln Continental while listening to Gordon Lightfoot
5:53
Speaker 1: on the eight track player for one mile and landing
5:56
Speaker 1: in America without so much as a Canadian passport written
6:00
Speaker 1: attestation as to whether my rocket car contains fruits or
6:03
Speaker 1: vegetables felt noble. This is my dream. I don't care
6:10
Speaker 1: if I ever jump again.
6:11
Speaker 2: But this I'm going to do.
6:13
Speaker 3: This is my dream. Nobody ever jumped a car a mile.
6:17
Speaker 2: That's what I'm going to do.
6:19
Speaker 1: But right from the jump there are problems. Over and over.
6:23
Speaker 1: A date for the super jump is set, and over
6:26
Speaker 1: and over things go wrong. The crew building the ten
6:30
Speaker 1: story ramp miscalculates the measurements.
6:33
Speaker 4: No Ken is deeply disappointed.
6:34
Speaker 1: He was dialed into, as he says, he was dialed
6:37
Speaker 1: in to do it. There's an unexpected rain that turns
6:40
Speaker 1: the ramp to mud. The crew tries to dry it
6:42
Speaker 1: off using a helicopter. You know, I'm just coming to
6:46
Speaker 1: the end of my rope. On another occasion, an hour
6:49
Speaker 1: before the jump, the crew decides to strike, demanding twenty
6:52
Speaker 1: seven thousand dollars in cash before going back to work.
6:56
Speaker 1: I gotta budget here. Fuel tanks explode repeatedly.
7:01
Speaker 3: Holy christ Man, what are we doing?
7:03
Speaker 1: This goes on for five years, again and again and again.
7:10
Speaker 1: The jump is canceled. Over a million Canadian dollars are spent,
7:14
Speaker 1: Investors back out and new investors are found. Countless problems
7:18
Speaker 1: are allayed, doubts are assuaged, gotays are grown, and goatease
7:23
Speaker 1: are shaved. But then Ken's luck turns, ABC's Wide World
7:40
Speaker 1: of Sports wants to air Ken's super Jump on live
7:43
Speaker 1: television for its millions of viewers. Before making the deal official,
7:48
Speaker 1: the network needs to send an inspector over to the
7:50
Speaker 1: jump site to report back on the stunt's viability, and
7:54
Speaker 1: the inspector they send is none other than Evil Canievil.
8:03
Speaker 1: Once Evil Knievel gives it the go ahead, ABC will
8:06
Speaker 1: air the jump, and once ABC airs the Jump, Ken
8:10
Speaker 1: will become an international star and kids will play with
8:13
Speaker 1: mad Canadian action figures and carry Mad Canadian lunchboxes.
8:18
Speaker 4: And it reminds me of the Canyon.
8:20
Speaker 1: How much hires this ram another thirty. It should be
8:24
Speaker 1: noted that while Evil Knevels sports the sideburns of an outlaw,
8:28
Speaker 1: Ken Carter sports the goatee of an assistant professor. And
8:32
Speaker 1: while Evil Knievel looks like a rough and tumble movie
8:35
Speaker 1: matinee idol, Ken Carter at the moment, wearing a leather
8:38
Speaker 1: jacket and a gold chain around this turtleneck neck, looks
8:42
Speaker 1: like your best friend's weird uncle in a turtleneck.
8:46
Speaker 4: This looks like a dangerous jump to me, boy, you
8:49
Speaker 4: got no elevation, You got no.
8:52
Speaker 3: Room for air.
8:54
Speaker 1: Later, ABC airs Knievel's verdict. He delivers it while seated
8:58
Speaker 1: atop a bulldozer at the jump site.
9:01
Speaker 4: I don't think i'd attempt to try this stunt. I
9:03
Speaker 4: think that the time and preparation that's been put into
9:05
Speaker 4: it is much too little. This is maybe a daredevil
9:10
Speaker 4: stunt that might end all their devil stunts.
9:20
Speaker 1: Evil Caneval is essentially saying that if Ken goes through
9:23
Speaker 1: with this super jump, he'll end up killing himself live
9:26
Speaker 1: on national television and in doing so, completely ruined the
9:30
Speaker 1: daredeviling industry for everyone. Ken, sitting on his living room couch,
9:35
Speaker 1: watches as Evil Canevel tears up his dream on TV.
9:40
Speaker 1: I've been saying it for years. I still believe that
9:42
Speaker 1: Evil Knievel's the second best dear devil in the world.
9:44
Speaker 1: And I say that because I feel it.
9:46
Speaker 2: I'm number one.
9:47
Speaker 1: So I also feel that if you don't think in
9:49
Speaker 1: terms of win.
9:49
Speaker 3: You do not win.
9:51
Speaker 1: ABC was out This was a blow, but not a betrayal.
9:56
Speaker 1: The actual betrayal was yet to come. Without the promise
10:07
Speaker 1: of a live televised event, Ken's investors drop out. Desperate,
10:12
Speaker 1: Ken turns to a group of Hollywood producers who offered
10:15
Speaker 1: a fund his super jump with a stipulation, a safety net,
10:19
Speaker 1: if you will, they would distribute it as a pre
10:22
Speaker 1: recorded special. In this way, the whole huge event would
10:26
Speaker 1: take place without an audience, a traumatizable, blood splashable, we
10:31
Speaker 1: want our money backable audience, which meant Ken's dream of
10:36
Speaker 1: grandstands filled with cheering crowds and tables selling Ken Carter
10:40
Speaker 1: Onesie's beer, cozies and go take homes would not come true.
10:44
Speaker 1: All there'd be was a lonely ramp, a small crew,
10:48
Speaker 1: some cameras, and Ken. Months of delays follow, and finally
10:54
Speaker 1: a new date for the super jump is set and
10:57
Speaker 1: once again it rains. But the new investors don't care
11:02
Speaker 1: about safety. They have limited funds and just want the
11:05
Speaker 1: jump to happen. The scene opens on the jump site.
11:09
Speaker 1: We see the ramp, a group of journalists, a man
11:11
Speaker 1: holding out a boom mic, and then the camera moves
11:15
Speaker 1: in on a man wearing a yellow jumpsuit and a
11:18
Speaker 1: cowboy hat.
11:19
Speaker 5: All right, the lights are green, and let's get ready
11:22
Speaker 5: and go.
11:23
Speaker 3: I want to go.
11:24
Speaker 1: The man in the yellow jumpsuit is not Ken Carter,
11:28
Speaker 1: but he poses on the ramp and gives quotes to
11:30
Speaker 1: reporters about the jump he's about to make.
11:34
Speaker 4: I always like to stay to New York, so I'm
11:35
Speaker 4: sure I hope they like me when I get there.
11:38
Speaker 1: The man has the same goatee as ken Carter, the
11:40
Speaker 1: same style of hair, but he's shorter, younger, and brasher.
11:45
Speaker 5: All right, guys, my advice to get off the ramp.
11:47
Speaker 4: You don't want no tar tracks on you.
11:50
Speaker 1: As I watch it all unfold, I grow increasingly confused.
11:53
Speaker 1: Where's ken Carter? Had I missed something? Was some key
11:57
Speaker 1: scene accidentally cut? Finally, the voice over informs us that
12:03
Speaker 1: this yellow suited man is ken Carter's long time understudy,
12:07
Speaker 1: Kenny Powers. It turns out the investors had begun to
12:18
Speaker 1: suspect that ken Carter had lost his nerve, that some
12:21
Speaker 1: excuse was always going to pop up and he would
12:24
Speaker 1: never make the jump. So they came up with a
12:26
Speaker 1: scheme simply put ditch ken Carter and place Kenny Powers
12:31
Speaker 1: behind the wheel of the rocket car have him do
12:34
Speaker 1: the jump instead. But first they had to get Ken
12:38
Speaker 1: out of the way, so they invited him to a
12:41
Speaker 1: fake business meeting at a hotel an hour from the
12:43
Speaker 1: jump site. With Ken Carter out of the picture, Kenny
12:47
Speaker 1: Powers steps up, and Kenny Powers really seems to be
12:51
Speaker 1: enjoying the attention. The countdown was too long. I think
12:54
Speaker 1: it was too long. Ten second countdown, that's all I need.
12:58
Speaker 1: I'm not ready in ten seconds.
13:00
Speaker 6: I'll never be.
13:00
Speaker 1: Ready, and I'm gonna give it heil. Kenny warns the
13:04
Speaker 1: people of America to get ready. Staring into the camera,
13:08
Speaker 1: he instructs them to clear off their breakfast tables because
13:11
Speaker 1: when he crashes down on their roofs, it might rattle
13:14
Speaker 1: the dishes. Kenny Powers gets behind the wheel of the
13:19
Speaker 1: rocket car, the name Ken Carter emblazoned along its side,
13:24
Speaker 1: and then the car blasts off, races up the ramp,
13:32
Speaker 1: and is airborne. Let's press pause here to consider what's happening.
13:38
Speaker 1: The idea of jumping a mile in a rocket car
13:41
Speaker 1: is completely insane, But as the car soars into the air,
13:46
Speaker 1: so soars my heart. It might only attest to what
13:49
Speaker 1: hopeful creatures we humans are. But in this moment, as
13:53
Speaker 1: the car reaches top velocity, it seems that Kenny Powers
13:57
Speaker 1: that humanity might maybe, somehow possibly make it across. But
14:08
Speaker 1: of course this isn't to be Almost immediately after leaving
14:12
Speaker 1: the ramp, the car plummets into the river. Debris flies,
14:16
Speaker 1: parachutes open, someone screams. During his nine second flight, Kenny
14:25
Speaker 1: Powers made it a total distance of five hundred and
14:28
Speaker 1: six feet. For our Canadian listeners, that's a lot less
14:33
Speaker 1: than a mile, Jim Jam. Because the car was built
14:45
Speaker 1: specifically for Ken Carter, Kenny Powers was too short to
14:48
Speaker 1: reach the gas pedal, so we never gained enough speed.
14:51
Speaker 1: Before leaving the ramp, several members of the crew trudged
14:55
Speaker 1: through the water and pull Kenny Powers from the driver's seat.
14:59
Speaker 1: As though the spinal injury has yet to be invented,
15:02
Speaker 1: they carry him from the river atop their shoulders bar
15:05
Speaker 1: Mitzvah boy style. How Kenny Power says, ow ow later
15:14
Speaker 1: he'll learn he's broken eight vertebrae, cracked three ribs and
15:18
Speaker 1: fractured his wrist after the jump. As Kenny Powers lay
15:33
Speaker 1: bandaged up in a hospital bed, the film's director showed
15:36
Speaker 1: up outside Ken Carter's hotel room door to tell him
15:39
Speaker 1: what happened.
15:40
Speaker 5: Can what the hell you want?
15:43
Speaker 1: But Ken already knows I don't want to talk to you.
15:46
Speaker 5: Get out of here.
15:48
Speaker 1: Eventually, Ken pulls him into the room. Why the camera
15:52
Speaker 1: crew remains in the hallway recording audio through the hotel door.
15:57
Speaker 1: Did you know about this fortune?
15:58
Speaker 2: Look at him.
16:00
Speaker 1: About we fade to black. Then a title card appears
16:07
Speaker 1: on screen. It reads one year later, Ken is shown
16:11
Speaker 1: sitting at the base of the ramp. He promises he'll
16:14
Speaker 1: make the jump someday, and that's it. The credits role.
16:19
Speaker 1: Some song about the power of a man in his
16:21
Speaker 1: dream starts to play, and the movie ends without ever
16:25
Speaker 1: addressing the craziest detail in this whole crazy story. As
16:30
Speaker 1: it turns out, Kenny Powers, the man who hijack Ken's
16:33
Speaker 1: car and his lifelong dream, wasn't just Ken Carter's understudy.
16:38
Speaker 1: Kenny Powers was Ken's best friend. Ken Carter and Kenny
16:47
Speaker 1: Powers have both since died, So I called Bob Fortier,
16:51
Speaker 1: the film's director, to see if I could find out more.
16:54
Speaker 1: When I ask Bob why Kenny would betray his friend,
16:57
Speaker 1: would ruin the dream Ken had spent so many years chasing.
17:01
Speaker 1: Bob mentions a drinking problem and rumors that Kenny had
17:04
Speaker 1: gotten himself into some sort of trouble down in Florida
17:07
Speaker 1: and was desperate for a way to pay his legal
17:09
Speaker 1: fees for Bob. The reason for this betrayal is as
17:13
Speaker 1: classic as they come. Money. The backers offered Kenny a
17:17
Speaker 1: lot of money to betray his friend, and Kenny took it.
17:21
Speaker 1: That's just the kind of guy he was, Bob says,
17:24
Speaker 1: someone who'd betray the guy who'd been supporting him for
17:27
Speaker 1: ten years. Right at the last moment. After the movie wrapped,
17:32
Speaker 1: Bob never spoke to Kenny Powers again. Kenny Powers, he says,
17:36
Speaker 1: isn't the kind of guy you want to keep in
17:38
Speaker 1: touch with. After the Jump, Kenny Powers was effectively run
17:43
Speaker 1: out of Canada. One stuntman website even refers to him
17:46
Speaker 1: as quote Judas in a cowboy hat, and Ken Carter
17:51
Speaker 1: he went back to his old life of racetrack jumps.
17:55
Speaker 1: About a year after the Saint Lawrence River Jump, Ken
17:58
Speaker 1: Carter died attempts to jump a pond. He never achieved
18:02
Speaker 1: the legacy he'd hungered, after all, because of his supposed
18:06
Speaker 1: friend Kenny Powers. I watched the failed super Jump over
18:14
Speaker 1: and over and I'm not the only one to be
18:20
Speaker 1: transfixed by it. On YouTube. That one scene from the movie,
18:24
Speaker 1: which has been retitled destroyed in seconds Jet Car Daredevil
18:28
Speaker 1: has over a million hits. Before that, the jump was
18:32
Speaker 1: immortalized in The Gruesome Faces of Death Too, a movie
18:35
Speaker 1: composed of boxing, ring deaths and failed stunts. Ken Carter
18:40
Speaker 1: had spent years training for his stunt, meticulously planning out
18:44
Speaker 1: every last detail. As a professional stunt man, Kenny Powers
18:49
Speaker 1: had to have known the risk of just jumping behind
18:51
Speaker 1: the wheel like he was dipping out for drive through
18:54
Speaker 1: chicken nuggets, even for all the money in the world.
18:57
Speaker 1: He had to have known that trying to fly a
18:59
Speaker 1: rock car across a mile wide river with absolutely no
19:03
Speaker 1: training was a death mission. In a bid to better
19:13
Speaker 1: understand the Daredevil psyche, I bravely jump down a rabbit
19:17
Speaker 1: hole of Daredevil's subculture. I watched stunt video after stunt video,
19:22
Speaker 1: and even learned the distinction between daredeviling, stunt manning and
19:26
Speaker 1: thrill mastering. I read about important industry figures like Spanky
19:31
Speaker 1: Spangler and Spanky Junior, Lucky Teeter, Calvin Scarecrow, Shirk, big
19:36
Speaker 1: Ed Beckley, Jim crash Moreau, Stony Roberts, Daredevil, Doug Klang,
19:40
Speaker 1: Doctor Danger, Mister Dizzy, Cory the Headache Cowl, Froggy Jasper,
19:45
Speaker 1: the Clown, Walt King, Kovaz Bumps, Willard Risky, Rick Cruz,
19:49
Speaker 1: Doug Danger, Earl, the Squirrel, Nicky Mighty, Aphrodite mc Burnett,
19:54
Speaker 1: Don Snake, Prudome Levi, the Kamikaze Kid, Troutman, and Snooks Wenzel.
20:00
Speaker 1: It's while watching my stunt videos that CEO and Gimblet
20:03
Speaker 1: Media founder Alex Bloomberg sneaks up behind my desk and
20:07
Speaker 1: asks what I'm doing research, I say, pausing a video
20:12
Speaker 1: of a flaming station wagon falling from a drawbridge. I
20:16
Speaker 1: close the browser window and open up a ted talk
20:19
Speaker 1: on how to do business, and Alex smiles approvingly. I know, folks,
20:25
Speaker 1: you're wondering, why do you allow Alex to walk all
20:28
Speaker 1: over you like this? But I've got a wife and
20:30
Speaker 1: child now, and podcasting into a chicken drumstick on a
20:34
Speaker 1: Canadian breadline is the last thing I need at home
20:41
Speaker 1: that night, a one room, cold water flat with a
20:44
Speaker 1: screaming baby and a secondhand bassinette. I continue my research,
20:49
Speaker 1: and somewhere around three am, I stumble upon a video
20:53
Speaker 1: that defies explanation to.
20:55
Speaker 6: Auto thrill seekers across North America, The Mad Canadian and
21:00
Speaker 6: Your Madness.
21:00
Speaker 1: I guess that's the way to call you.
21:02
Speaker 3: Well, I'll tell you what you know.
21:03
Speaker 1: The video was shot just a few months after the
21:06
Speaker 1: failed super jump, and Ken Carter is back to working
21:09
Speaker 1: race tracks. Here he is being interviewed before his stunt.
21:12
Speaker 1: There's a lot of kids out there watching. Who look
21:15
Speaker 1: at evil Knieval?
21:15
Speaker 6: Look at guys you're like yourself as heroes.
21:19
Speaker 1: This is where I spot something unbelievable. Strolling in the
21:22
Speaker 1: background right behind Ken Carter is the man who betrayed him,
21:27
Speaker 1: Kenny Powers. Kenny stops, turns to Ken and just watches him, smiling,
21:35
Speaker 1: and then he walks out of frame and is gone.
21:46
Speaker 1: I rewind the moment several times.
21:48
Speaker 2: Who look at evil Knieval, look at guys who look
21:51
Speaker 2: at evil Knieval, look at guys who look at evil,
21:53
Speaker 2: look at guys.
21:54
Speaker 1: And there Kenny is, as clear as day, a warm
21:57
Speaker 1: smile on his face, watching Ken Carter admiringly. By all measures,
22:03
Speaker 1: Ken Carter should have hated Kenny Powers, should have been
22:05
Speaker 1: trying to hunt him down and beat him up. But
22:08
Speaker 1: there they were, happily spending a day together at the speedway,
22:13
Speaker 1: A betrayal as grand as the one we see at
22:15
Speaker 1: the end of the documentary isn't the kind of thing
22:18
Speaker 1: you get over, especially not after a couple months, And
22:22
Speaker 1: so I hop down a new rabbit hole and search
22:25
Speaker 1: for whatever information I can find about Kenny Powers. According
22:32
Speaker 1: to the Internet, Ken and Kenny remain friends after the jump.
22:36
Speaker 1: Not only that, but to quote the Internet, Kenny Powers
22:39
Speaker 1: carried around an eight x ten photograph of Ken Carter,
22:43
Speaker 1: taking it everywhere he went, right up until the very
22:46
Speaker 1: end of his life. Why would Kenny Powers carry around
22:50
Speaker 1: a photograph of Ken Carter, the man he betrayed. I
22:56
Speaker 1: promise to answer this question and possibly other questions, if
23:00
Speaker 1: you promise to patiently sit through these messages from our sponsors.
23:17
Speaker 6: Steve Yeah.
23:20
Speaker 1: To help make sense of Ken and Kenny's relationship, I
23:23
Speaker 1: reach out to Steve Beelock. Steve knew Ken Carter and
23:27
Speaker 1: Kenny Powers from the very beginning. For years, he spent
23:30
Speaker 1: countless hours with them on the road. You're in your
23:33
Speaker 1: car right now.
23:34
Speaker 3: It's all hands free, so I'm good.
23:37
Speaker 1: Steve also toured in the Mad Canadian Stunt Show as
23:40
Speaker 1: a mechanic. Back then, he went by the nickname Super Wrench,
23:45
Speaker 1: named after I assume the tool that professional mechanics use
23:49
Speaker 1: and not the feeling of sadness caused by a painful
23:52
Speaker 1: parting because I had limited time for our phone call
23:56
Speaker 1: and wasn't looking for drama at first.
23:58
Speaker 3: It was just me and Cat for the first two years,
24:02
Speaker 3: going around the country jumping rapped the ramp, and he
24:09
Speaker 3: was stubborn. He was fair, but he was stubborn.
24:13
Speaker 1: Steve proceeds to pull back the curtain on the version
24:16
Speaker 1: of Ken Carter we see in the movie. According to Steve,
24:19
Speaker 1: he put a lot of pressure on his crew, often
24:22
Speaker 1: requiring everyone to sleep in the same school bus as
24:25
Speaker 1: they jumped over. He aggressively booked shows miles apart, and
24:29
Speaker 1: while his team was forced to drive for days on end,
24:32
Speaker 1: Ken would fly ahead, arriving at the events in a helicopter.
24:36
Speaker 1: But in spite of the cushy travel arrangements and his
24:39
Speaker 1: mister Macho man image, things were getting tougher for Ken.
24:43
Speaker 1: He was only in his late thirties, but in daredevil years,
24:46
Speaker 1: Ken was old, his bones more brittle. With each passing year.
24:51
Speaker 3: Ken fractured his ankles several several times. That's why I
24:55
Speaker 3: walk funny. One jump in Tulsa, he landed past the
25:02
Speaker 3: ramp and split a sternament too when he gets a column,
25:11
Speaker 3: and when Ken was really hurt, it was when Kenny
25:15
Speaker 3: Powers would step in.
25:19
Speaker 1: When Kenny Powers joined the show, he was a young
25:21
Speaker 1: guy in his twenties, so as Ken spent more and
25:24
Speaker 1: more time laid up with injuries, Kenny would step in
25:27
Speaker 1: to perform for him, to the point where he was
25:29
Speaker 1: doing more jumps than Ken, but still getting none of
25:32
Speaker 1: the credit. I wondered if on the day that Kenny
25:35
Speaker 1: got behind the wheel of that rocket car, he saw
25:38
Speaker 1: it as a chance to emerge from Ken's shadow and
25:40
Speaker 1: show the world that he was the better stuntman, because
25:43
Speaker 1: Steve says, even when Ken was in top form for
25:47
Speaker 1: a stuntman, he was surprisingly cowardly.
25:50
Speaker 3: Ken Carter was never really into speed. Okay, he did
25:55
Speaker 3: not like going fast.
25:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, there's a scene in the in the
26:00
Speaker 1: documentary where he's taken into that rocket car for the
26:04
Speaker 1: first time, and when he steps out of the car,
26:08
Speaker 1: you could see that he kind of has his his
26:11
Speaker 1: stomach is just in his throat.
26:15
Speaker 3: He probably had to change his underwear. I don't know
26:19
Speaker 3: if you can say that on radio, but lucky.
26:22
Speaker 1: For us, we're not on the radio. We're on a podcast,
26:26
Speaker 1: and so we could do all the cussing and the
26:28
Speaker 1: fuss and we like butter tart, liking sugarcrotch, kicking spam,
26:33
Speaker 1: dagger dorkin squacker, poo poo platter with a henous that's right,
26:37
Speaker 1: rhymes with anus case of the trots. That's just a
26:41
Speaker 1: few of the things I can say here at Gimlet Media.
26:44
Speaker 3: He probably should his pants tell you the truth. He
26:49
Speaker 3: was scared. I mean, there's no doubt in my mind.
26:52
Speaker 3: Even when we were in the ramp truck together, he
26:55
Speaker 3: did not want me driving all over the speed linder whatsoever.
26:59
Speaker 3: He just not like to go fast.
27:04
Speaker 1: You'd think that a need for only the legally acceptable
27:07
Speaker 1: amount of speed would be a liability for a daredevil.
27:11
Speaker 1: Not only that, but according to Steve, Ken was even
27:14
Speaker 1: scared of water. He never learned to swim, so driving
27:18
Speaker 1: off a ramp at almost three hundred miles per hour
27:21
Speaker 1: over a deep, fast moving river seemed like an odd
27:24
Speaker 1: career move.
27:26
Speaker 3: I don't think Carter had the cohones to do it.
27:32
Speaker 1: So you think that that Kenny Powers had had more
27:37
Speaker 1: cahonys I do. Steve says that Ken Carter was never
27:45
Speaker 1: going to attempt that jump, that it was all in act,
27:48
Speaker 1: nothing more than showmanship.
27:51
Speaker 3: I can't believe any other way, only because of being
27:55
Speaker 3: in the same hotel room with Ken Carter for three
27:57
Speaker 3: and a half years, knowing the promoting that he did,
28:02
Speaker 3: knowing him as well as I did, I just don't
28:06
Speaker 3: think it was his intention to get into that Lincoln.
28:10
Speaker 3: I don't think it was.
28:12
Speaker 1: According to Steve, Ken must have asked Kenny to do
28:15
Speaker 1: the jump for him, knowing that Kenny would do whatever
28:18
Speaker 1: Ken told him to, just like he always did. So
28:22
Speaker 1: to my question of how is it possible that Ken
28:24
Speaker 1: and Kenny made up and became friends again, Steve's answer
28:28
Speaker 1: is simple, they were never not friends in the first place.
28:32
Speaker 3: And I can just see the conversation going on. Ken's
28:36
Speaker 3: standing there, going Kenny, you're going to sit in that seat?
28:42
Speaker 3: Do you think you can do it? And Kenny saying yes,
28:45
Speaker 3: I think I can. And I truly believe that Kenny
28:50
Speaker 3: powers did this just out of the love of his
28:55
Speaker 3: heart for Ken.
28:58
Speaker 1: The idea that Kenny had attempted the sun not out
29:01
Speaker 1: of hatred, but out of love explains everything. Is what
29:06
Speaker 1: I thought for all of two minutes before realizing it
29:08
Speaker 1: made no sense at all. Don't get me wrong, I
29:12
Speaker 1: believe in love and have plenty of it. If a
29:14
Speaker 1: friend asks me to pick him up at the airport,
29:16
Speaker 1: while I never do it, I do make a point
29:19
Speaker 1: of apologizing profusely, really scrunching up my face, as though
29:23
Speaker 1: my refusal is causing me as much agony as it
29:25
Speaker 1: is them. I'd even go so far as to say
29:28
Speaker 1: that this is because my Mama raised me right, but
29:31
Speaker 1: we all know she hasn't. But even if she had,
29:35
Speaker 1: going off a ten story ramp only to plummet to
29:38
Speaker 1: my death because I wanted to do a pal a
29:41
Speaker 1: solid for that, I'm afraid my heart as well as
29:45
Speaker 1: my cajones, are far too petit. When I ask Steve
29:53
Speaker 1: about the photo of Ken that Kenny carried around with him,
29:56
Speaker 1: he didn't know anything about it, but he says that
29:59
Speaker 1: Daredevil share a special bond. Well, I could, of course
30:02
Speaker 1: imagine the love that unites a Spanky Spangler and a
30:05
Speaker 1: Spanky Jr. Or even Evil Canievel at his Laverda Eagle motorcycle.
30:10
Speaker 1: This fell deeper, somehow, and more complicated. Kenny nearly died
30:14
Speaker 1: for Ken. What was the power that Ken exerted over Kenny.
30:18
Speaker 1: What made Kenny so loyal that he was willing to
30:21
Speaker 1: speed off a ramp and into oblivion just because he'd
30:24
Speaker 1: been asked to? To find out, I phoned Beverly powers.
30:29
Speaker 2: Let me give you the landline where I am because
30:31
Speaker 2: I'm in the mountains right now.
30:34
Speaker 6: Oh sorry, after break speak, the next.
30:49
Speaker 1: A love break.
30:57
Speaker 2: Hello, Beverly, Yes, let me turn off the television. Oh great, okay,
31:04
Speaker 2: and the television is all.
31:06
Speaker 1: Beverly is Kenny's widow. She grew up in the same
31:10
Speaker 1: South Carolina town as Kenny. I knew him back when
31:12
Speaker 1: he was the star halfback on the school football team
31:15
Speaker 1: when I was in.
31:16
Speaker 2: The sixth grade. Kenny was a senior in high school,
31:19
Speaker 2: and I had a crush on him then, But you know,
31:23
Speaker 2: he didn't know I existed.
31:25
Speaker 1: Years later, after Kenny had already been married seven possibly
31:29
Speaker 1: eight times, No one seems to be too sure, they
31:32
Speaker 1: found each other again. Kenny asked Beverly for a ride
31:35
Speaker 1: home one day and then asked her if she wanted
31:38
Speaker 1: to stay for Jumbalaya.
31:40
Speaker 2: Oh. He was a wonderful cook, and he was a
31:44
Speaker 2: barber in the Navy. He cut my hair better than
31:47
Speaker 2: anybody has ever cut my hair in my life. He
31:50
Speaker 2: should have just stuck to barber and instead of the
31:53
Speaker 2: stunt man.
31:55
Speaker 1: If he had, says Beverly, he'd have avoided all the
31:58
Speaker 1: pain of the super jump.
32:00
Speaker 2: That he received a compensation for his jump was his
32:04
Speaker 2: paid medical bills.
32:07
Speaker 1: And that was it. There was no there was no profit.
32:11
Speaker 2: No, Kenny didn't make anythink.
32:12
Speaker 1: No, why do you think like he chose to remain
32:18
Speaker 1: relatively in the background with Ken Carter as the.
32:22
Speaker 2: Mean that has always been a mystery to me, because
32:26
Speaker 2: Kenny had a tape personality that was totally out of
32:31
Speaker 2: character for Kenny to stay in the background.
32:36
Speaker 1: Well, there's a lot Beverly still doesn't understand about Kenny.
32:39
Speaker 1: Like Steve the mechanic, She's certain that Kenny attempted the
32:42
Speaker 1: jump not to betray Ken, but to protect him. In
32:46
Speaker 1: Beverly's telling, the investors were out of money and they
32:49
Speaker 1: were getting threatening.
32:51
Speaker 2: Kenny and Ken should have never become involved with these men.
32:54
Speaker 6: But what do you mean, I can't.
32:56
Speaker 2: It's not something over the final that I could discuss.
33:03
Speaker 1: You'd think about that for a while, and so I
33:07
Speaker 1: thought about it for a while. You're talking about if
33:12
Speaker 1: I can say over the telephone the mob Oh, so
33:18
Speaker 1: you're wrong. So Kenny Powers knew someone had to make
33:22
Speaker 1: that jump, and he also knew that, because of his
33:25
Speaker 1: youth and physical condition, he stood a better chance of
33:29
Speaker 1: surviving it than Ken. That's why, according to Beverly, Kenny
33:33
Speaker 1: decided to step up. But unlike Steve the Mechanics version
33:38
Speaker 1: of the story, Beverly says there was no secret plan,
33:41
Speaker 1: no plan at all, just Kenny deciding on his own
33:44
Speaker 1: spur the moment to help his friend. And if that's true,
33:49
Speaker 1: Ken's getting angry back at the hotel might have been
33:52
Speaker 1: less about having the jump stolen out from under him
33:55
Speaker 1: and more about being scared for Kenny and angry that
33:58
Speaker 1: Kenny would just up and try something so impetuous. In
34:02
Speaker 1: the documentary, when we first see Kenny posing beside the ramp,
34:06
Speaker 1: the voiceover explains that Kenny always wears his back brace
34:09
Speaker 1: when making jumps, but that day he'd left it behind.
34:14
Speaker 1: When I first saw the movie, I chalked it up
34:16
Speaker 1: to vanity that as he enjoyed his moment in the spotlight,
34:20
Speaker 1: he wouldn't want the brace visible under his tight jumpsuit.
34:24
Speaker 1: But thinking on it now, how last second. The whole
34:27
Speaker 1: thing was he probably didn't even have time to put
34:29
Speaker 1: it on ten second countdown.
34:32
Speaker 5: That's all I need.
34:33
Speaker 1: I'm not ready in ten seconds.
34:35
Speaker 5: I'll never be ready.
34:37
Speaker 1: If Kenny had taken any time to consider the insanity
34:39
Speaker 1: of the jump, he probably wouldn't have been able to
34:42
Speaker 1: do it. Kenny Powers, standing alone on the ramp in
34:46
Speaker 1: his yellow jumpsuit and cowboy hat must have been terrified.
34:56
Speaker 1: Beverly says that Kenny's relationship with Ken was more complicated
34:59
Speaker 1: than just a special bond between stuntmen. For Kenny, she says,
35:04
Speaker 1: the story begins much earlier.
35:06
Speaker 2: He was always an injured soul because of his abusive upbringing.
35:13
Speaker 2: He never could escape that as his father was a
35:17
Speaker 2: binge drinker and his father was often very abusive to him.
35:23
Speaker 2: He talked about his father swinging around by his testicles,
35:26
Speaker 2: walks through the air. I think at one instant was
35:31
Speaker 2: pretty traumatic for him.
35:34
Speaker 1: Do you know how old he was.
35:36
Speaker 2: It must have been before he was eight years old.
35:41
Speaker 2: I think he might have gotten things from Ken Carter
35:43
Speaker 2: that he never got from his father and that he
35:47
Speaker 2: really needed emotionally, just spending time with him is showing
35:55
Speaker 2: him affirmation and teaching him things and helping him to
36:02
Speaker 2: grow is a person and it's professional and making Kenny
36:07
Speaker 2: feel good about himself. When the car was floating in
36:13
Speaker 2: the water, even with a broken vertebrae, he was getting
36:18
Speaker 2: his self out And the first thing that he said,
36:24
Speaker 2: did I do well? Are you pleased? He wanted to
36:29
Speaker 2: please people.
36:38
Speaker 1: Beverly says that after the failed jump, Ken visited Kenny
36:41
Speaker 1: in the hospital and that they made amends. And the
36:44
Speaker 1: thing about the photograph that Kenny carried around in an
36:47
Speaker 1: eight by ten picture of Ken for the rest of
36:49
Speaker 1: his life, Beverly says that not only is it true,
36:53
Speaker 1: but that she gave Kenny a special leather portfolio that
36:56
Speaker 1: he used to carry it around in everywhere he went.
37:00
Speaker 2: He had a briefcase before the end, and he used it,
37:03
Speaker 2: but he started using another portfolio.
37:07
Speaker 1: Were there were there other photos in there that he
37:10
Speaker 1: had no just Ken Carter's Yes? Why why do you
37:17
Speaker 1: think that was?
37:19
Speaker 2: I guess true love forgives King. He never quit loving Ken.
37:26
Speaker 2: I who love Ken?
37:33
Speaker 1: But in the end, all that love got Kenny powers
37:36
Speaker 1: was the role of Judas in the Ken Carter life story.
37:40
Speaker 1: But while most stories of betrayal begin as love stories.
37:43
Speaker 1: This is the rare tale that ends as one. It
37:47
Speaker 1: takes guts to risk your life for glory, but it
37:49
Speaker 1: takes even more guts to risk your life for someone else,
37:52
Speaker 1: knowing that risk will only lead to obscurity and shame.
37:57
Speaker 1: A jump that big needs to be fueled by something
37:59
Speaker 1: bigger than money or the spotlight. The greatest leaps always do.
38:13
Speaker 1: After the failed super jump, Kenny continued performing stunts on
38:17
Speaker 1: his own, but he never achieved even a fraction of
38:19
Speaker 1: the fame and respect that Ken Carter had. In two
38:23
Speaker 1: thousand and nine, Kenny died and Beverly planned his funeral.
38:27
Speaker 1: Everyone ate hot dogs and watched videos of Kenny stunts,
38:31
Speaker 1: and of course they traded their craziest Kenny Power stories.
38:35
Speaker 2: Kenny could be hilarious. You never knew what Kenny was
38:38
Speaker 2: going to do. Kenny had a loaded down mote and
38:43
Speaker 2: he drove up into a horse barn of one of
38:46
Speaker 2: his friends and they maybe get it out real quick.
38:52
Speaker 2: He just never knew what Kenny was going to do.
38:58
Speaker 2: He had to be there.
39:00
Speaker 1: A lot of Kenny Power stories end this way. You
39:03
Speaker 1: just had to be there. For the time he snuck
39:06
Speaker 1: up behind a friend at the urinal and kissed him
39:08
Speaker 1: on the lips, or the time he wore his best
39:10
Speaker 1: suit to visit the dogs at the town dump. It's
39:13
Speaker 1: while listening to one after another of these stories that
39:16
Speaker 1: something occurs to me. It's a crazy thought, but when
39:20
Speaker 1: I'm compelled to share with Beverly. Did you ever? Did
39:23
Speaker 1: you ever see this TV show called Eastbound and Down?
39:27
Speaker 2: I did? And this is interesting, you asked me. You
39:31
Speaker 2: cannot tell me the writers did not know my Kini Powers.
39:36
Speaker 1: East Bound and Down was a comedy series on HBO.
39:42
Speaker 1: The main character is a brash, foul mouthed, and washed
39:45
Speaker 1: up athlete from the South and his name Kenny Powers.
39:52
Speaker 5: Come on raising up? Who come on?
39:55
Speaker 2: Go too?
39:56
Speaker 5: Look at your fucking ball?
39:58
Speaker 2: WHI okay, okay? Where he's going to fuck up?
40:04
Speaker 1: But it's not just that his name is Kenny Powers.
40:07
Speaker 1: The TV Kenny Powers macho swagger is eerily similar to
40:11
Speaker 1: the real Kenny Powers, and so is his physical style,
40:15
Speaker 1: right down to the goatee.
40:17
Speaker 2: There's so many things that he said in that is
40:20
Speaker 2: just exactly verbatim what Kenny used to say.
40:24
Speaker 1: Do you remember what those moments were in the show?
40:28
Speaker 2: I don't think I can repeat it.
40:30
Speaker 1: Oh, please go ahead, After all, it is a butter
40:34
Speaker 1: Tartan podcast.
40:35
Speaker 2: Oh I don't talk this way, I can. He's say,
40:40
Speaker 2: Kenny motherfucking Powers. This example, Kenny could use a F
40:45
Speaker 2: word as a noun, verb, adverb, conjunction, adjective, all in
40:50
Speaker 2: one sentence, in every sentence of the paragraph, quite effectively.
40:55
Speaker 1: I'm not kidding, I'm fucking in and you're fucking out.
40:58
Speaker 1: I get the fuck out of my chair.
41:02
Speaker 2: But just after Kenny did, Yeah, my son and I
41:06
Speaker 2: used to sit and watch it and laugh it with
41:09
Speaker 2: just like Kenny Kenny. It was hilarious. It really about comfort.
41:14
Speaker 5: To me, the.
41:15
Speaker 1: Idea of Beverly sitting on a couch in the days
41:18
Speaker 1: after Kenny's death and taking solace in the antics of
41:21
Speaker 1: possibly one of the crudest, most offensive characters in the
41:25
Speaker 1: history of television was enough to warm my heart and
41:29
Speaker 1: my researching fingers. I'm looking at the Wikipedia page for
41:35
Speaker 1: Kenny Powers, the character from Eastbndon Down. Okay, yeah, it
41:39
Speaker 1: has all of his nicknames here, the Peopil's Champion, the
41:42
Speaker 1: Shelby Sensation, the man with the Golden d c k
41:48
Speaker 1: uh doctor. Okay, some of these I can't even I
41:53
Speaker 1: can't even say something. Even a podcast has its limits.
41:56
Speaker 1: But as I continue to read, I see that Wikipedia
41:59
Speaker 1: support it's our theory. The name Kenny Powers, it says,
42:03
Speaker 1: was inspired by a real life American automotive stuntman in
42:06
Speaker 1: the nineteen seventies by the same name. But there's no citation,
42:11
Speaker 1: no way to confirm whether it's true. So before getting
42:15
Speaker 1: off the phone with Beverly, I promise her I'll deploy
42:18
Speaker 1: all of my journalistic learnings and all of Alex Bloomberg's
42:21
Speaker 1: bitcoins to track down the truth. Eventually, I get a
42:29
Speaker 1: hold of an executive at the production house that makes
42:32
Speaker 1: eastbounden Down. He forwards my question about the Kenny Powers
42:36
Speaker 1: character onto the show's creator and star, Danny McBride. The
42:41
Speaker 1: executive says that mister McBride quote wants to take the
42:45
Speaker 1: time to formulate a good answer for the next few weeks.
42:50
Speaker 1: I send emails checking in to see if there's anything
42:52
Speaker 1: I can report back to Beverly. Even a simple yes
42:55
Speaker 1: or no would be fine, I say, but I never
42:58
Speaker 1: get an answer. In the end, I decided to take
43:01
Speaker 1: mister McBride's unusual response to mean that the real Kenny
43:05
Speaker 1: Powers did receive a legacy, after all, For what greater
43:09
Speaker 1: homage can a person be paid than to be immortalized
43:12
Speaker 1: in a hit TV show in such a way that
43:16
Speaker 1: there's just enough ambiguity to avoid possible litigation over the
43:19
Speaker 1: non consensual use of their identity and or likeness.
43:25
Speaker 2: I'm Jenny Powers. I don't mean a benu.
43:27
Speaker 5: Wayne.
43:28
Speaker 1: You have fucking pissed me off, So I'm gonna go
43:30
Speaker 1: ahead and go. But I'm not gonna stop yelling, because
43:33
Speaker 1: then that'll mean I lost the fight. I love y'all
43:35
Speaker 1: very much. Pains out. So maybe, somehow, possibly Kenny Powers
43:43
Speaker 1: did land that jump into America after all.
44:19
Speaker 5: Now that the furnitures returning to its goodwill home, now
44:28
Speaker 5: that the last month's rent is skeeding with the damage
44:33
Speaker 5: to poss take this moment to dissolve.
44:39
Speaker 6: If we meant it, if we.
44:40
Speaker 1: Tried, were felt around for far too.
44:47
Speaker 2: Empty from things that accidentally Talk.
44:54
Speaker 1: Heavyweight is hosted and produced by me Jonathan Goldstein along
44:57
Speaker 1: with Khalila Holt. The senior producer is Aitln Roberts, editing
45:01
Speaker 1: by Jorge Justin Alex Bloomberg. Special thanks to Emily Condon,
45:04
Speaker 1: Risky Rick Cruz, Cody Glive John Bolton, Freddie Sibley, Anna Sasnowski,
45:09
Speaker 1: Lee Fordenberry, Tony As mccoppolis, Adam Simansky, Low Ann Leonard,
45:13
Speaker 1: Dick Keller, Harry Simpson, Gordon Katik, Sayid T, John Thomas,
45:16
Speaker 1: Blythe Terrell, Jessica of Weisberg, Devin Taylor, and Jackie Cohen.
45:21
Speaker 1: The show was mixed by Kate Bolinsky, music by John K. Sampson,
45:24
Speaker 1: Stephen Page and the amazing Christine Fellows. Additional music credits
45:28
Speaker 1: for this episode can be found on our website, Gimbletmedia
45:31
Speaker 1: dot com slash Heavyweight. Our theme song is by the
45:34
Speaker 1: Weaker Than's courtesy of Epitaph Records, and our ad music
45:37
Speaker 1: is by Hailey Shaw. You can watch the wonderful National
45:40
Speaker 1: Film Board of Canada documentary The Devil at Your Heels
45:44
Speaker 1: at NFB dot TA, follow us on Twitter at Heavyweight,
45:47
Speaker 1: or email us at Heavyweight at gimletmedia dot com. We'll
45:50
Speaker 1: have a new episode in two weeks
45:55
Speaker 5: Sun on in an Empty Room m HM