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