Indiana University - Arbutus Yearbook (Bloomington, IN)

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THE g atest He floats through the air with the greatest of ease, that daring young man on the flying trapeze. And once again, the Greatest Show on Earth came to Bloomington. As 31 cars of the Ringling Brother Circus train pulled into town, a parade of 18 elephants, 34 horses, 22 camels, 3 donkeys and 2 llamas marched through the city to Assembly Hall. That night the lights dimmed and the crowd settled back with their cotton candy and balloons to an enjoyable evening with the circus. Both young and old sat wide-eyed in the stands as the tigers roamed restlessly, clowns danced franticaUy and never seen before acts filled the three rings. Photographs David lay

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Evel Knievel If the hero business isn ' t what it used to be — and it isn ' t — there has never been a better met- aphorical statement on its dedine than the loss of innoncence of Evel Knievel. Not only did Knievel fail to jump the Snake River Canyon as promised, he didn ' t even have the decency to die on cue. It was to have been The Event of the Centu- ry, man ' s first attempt to jump a canyon by the so-called last of the gladiators. An estimated 39,000 persons streamed into farmer Tim Quails ' pasture to witness the event, and more than a million more watched worldwide on closed circuit TV. But Knievel ' s Sky Cycle spat out is drogue parachute on takeoff, and the canyon-shot ended not with a bang but with a whimper. The machine, which whooshed off the launching ramp with all the authority of a mooncraft, barely reached an altitude of 1,000 feet before Knievel ' s main chute deployed. As the chute blossomed, the Sky Cycle twisted slowly, slowly in the wind. Then it began its rapid descent, as Knievel struggled frantically with his shoulder harness to bail out. He didn ' t free the harness until the cycle landed on the launch side of the canyon only feet from the Snake River. The crowd at the site, which at first thought the rocket had landed in the river and Knievel had drowned, charged the retaining fences to await the recovery of his body. The closed-cir- cuit replay showed however, that the nose of the rocket ricocheted off a stone ledge and lodged in the mud at the foot of the canyon wall. Knievel never got wet, though he did sustain cuts and scrapes to his face and possible internal injuries. Mr. (Bob) Truax and the other engineers told me that if I saw the canyon wall and not the sky to get out, for chrissakes, grumbled Knievel later. I sat in that thing and gave it my best. I don ' t know what I ' m going to do now. After the immediate outpouring of concern tor his safety, the crowd began to get ugly. Many of the predominately young, predominantly stoned crowd booed Knievel for failing, and only a thousand or so remained at the site after his recovery by a pleasure-boatmg doctor. ' When Knievel threw his walking cane into the crowd of stragglers around the launching ramp, a dozen ot them grappled like savages for the stick. Two people were trampled — though not seriously — in the melee. Las Vegas oddsmaker Jimmy the Greek Snyder was one of the light-weight celebrities that showed up for the jump, and he was one of the few whose skepticism was mitigated by the aborted jump. I thought the whole thing was a joke, said Snyder, but after listening to ABC news com- mentator Jules Bergman and those guys I thought he was nuts. Now I just think he ' s the luckiest guy in the world. If that buggy had drifted just a couple of feet more in either direc- tion he would have either drowned or been splattered all over the canyon wall. Snyder, who refused to give odds on a possible second try because it ain ' t nice to make odds on somebody ' s life, waxed philosophical about the outcome. It was the best thing that could have happened, he said. It showed that the thing was capable of malfunctioning, and that he could have been killed. I imagine he ' ll chuckle all the way to the bank. Knievel stands to gross — an appropriate verb in this case — about $6 million from the live and television gates and assorted souvenir enterprises surrounding the event. That figures out to roughly SI million for every five seconds he was in the air. Knievel refused to speculate on whether he will try the jump again, but the prevailing karma seemed against it. There was too much talk of a rip-off, and not much interest in a Son of Snake River Canyon. Search and Seizure Ah, the evils of vices ... - Is the ' W.T.C.U. influencing Safety? Or is it the Indiana thou shalt not drink on Sunday law being taken to extremes? ' Whatever the reason, it there is a reason, many student voiced disapproval at their being searched for alcohol and drugs outside lU facilities. After purses and personal possessions were searched at the Beach Boys concert, the question on the limits of personal rights was brought up. An IDS cover story went into detail describing how students could go about suing the university for violation of rights. Safety ' Ofticials expressed regret for the searches and Thomas Schreck, Dean of Students, stated the searches wouldn ' t happen again. But the searches took place elsewhere besides Assembly Hall. Outside the gates to football games, students and alumni were checked for team spirit. Parking lot parties were tolerable, but not inside the stadium. Somebody ought to design a Winnebago with closed-circuit television. CHECK fOINTl f r:i;iT ' 3 -r- tiT rl, Dan L nch 25

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— October — Ringling Brothers - Barnum Bailey presents