Evel Knievel almost died after Caesars Palace jump. Well, not exactly

Jay Sarno Jr. was in a myth-debunking mood Sunday afternoon at the Roman-themed resort his father founded.

Sarno appeared alongside Las Vegas author David Schwartz in a presentation titled “Two Sides of Jay Sarno.” The event capped the fourth annual Duck Duck Shed design and culture festival hosted by The Neon Museum.

Sarno, the oldest child of the Caesars Palace and Circus Circus founder, straightened the record of Evel Knievel’s infamous jump over the Caesars fountains on New Year’s Eve, 1967.

To cut to the chase (or jump), Sarno said Knievel was not admitted into ICU that night. He was certainly injured, with multiple fractures in his pelvis, femur and hip.

But the reports of him being near death were, as Mark Twain would say, greatly exaggerated — by Sarno himself.

“My dad said, ‘Moron Blows Jump!’ is not a good headline,’” Sarno said. “But, ‘Man Almost Dies After Jump!’ looks a lot better.”

It was an early lesson in marketing for the younger Sarno, who was 9 years old when Knievel and his dad concocted the motorcycle, and also publicity, stunt.

“My dad said, ‘I’ve got this crazy person who’s really going to get us a lot of press, and he’s going to risk his life,’” said Sarno, who watched the jump alongside his dad and younger brother, Freddie, from Caesars’ porte-cochère.

Sarno referred to Knievel by his real first name, Bob, in the retelling.

“We watched Bob land funky on the little ramp and bounce out of control, then disappear into the crowd,” he said. “We knew something was wrong immediately.”

The Sarnos followed Knievel’s ambulance to Southern Nevada Memorial Hospital on West Charleston Boulevard, today’s University Medical Center.

“My father parked us on a bench and said, ‘Don’t move, keep your brother here and wait for me,’” Sarno said. “There were a lot of weird people around, the place was a nut house.”

An hour and a half later, Sarno returned.

“We were scared and disoriented, I was crying, and I said, ‘Is Mr. Knievel going to die?’” Sarno said. “My dad said, ‘No, no, he might walk with a limp. He’s going to be fine.’”

Sarno then said, “But that’s not going to be the report you’re going to read in the paper tomorrow.”

The younger Sarno grinned as he told the story.

“My dad went around and basically pulled out $100 bills and bribed all the food servers and janitors — not the medical people. They take oaths and they won’t tell information to the press,” Sarno said. “But my dad gave all the people who were not doctors and nurses the story that he was just barely hanging on.”

Sarno the elder’s seedlings grew a forest of misinformation, still sprouting today.

“All these false stories got reported the next day,” Sarno said. “And what happens is, anybody who writes a book about Geneva history, they look for microfilm records of the newspaper. Once you anchor some (BS) like that, it never goes away.”

Sarno said Knievel returned to the hotel three weeks later for dinner. He walked with a cane but was on the ramp to recovery, and would make several more jumps, including his attempt in a rocket cycle over the Snake River Canyon in 1974.

“They were both crazy gamblers, wild daredevils,” Sarno said. “My dad was a daredevil, financially. He was a daredevil, physically.”

On the clock at 13

Sarno wore a name tag saying simply, “Call Me Jay.” It was issued to him at age 13, when his dad hired him to work at Circus Circus. The barely teen-ager lorded over the bumper cars.

“The ride opened at 10 o’clock, and I came in at 9,” Sarno said. “My job was to sweep the floor, check the cars, set up the microphone, turn on the power, get the ride all up and running, and then check the maintenance logs to see what cars were inoperative.”

He then fixed the cars.

“I was a mechanic, I did the repair work and get as many up and running as possible before 10 o’clock,” Sarno said. “We helped people get out who got into trouble, and get the cars back in position.”

The member of Vegas resort royalty says he’s likely the youngest employee ever in a Las Vegas casino. We’ll go with that.

Might We Recommend

“Grandissimo: The First Emperor of Las Vegas,” Schwartz’s 2013 biography of Sarno. As the author said during Sunday’s presentation, it’s incredible Caesars Palace was ever built, funded by a loan from the Teamsters and pushed through by Sarno’s guile and will. An unrealized resort concept, Grandissimo was to follow Caesars and Circus Circus. It’s 6,000 rooms were grander even than MGM Grand. Its name described Sarno entirely.

Cool Hang Alert

Staying on the Caesars campus, Caspian’s in the former Cleopatra’s Barge space rolls with Radical West on Thursday, Indie Florentino on Friday and Justin Carder and the Southern Language on Saturday. No cover for these fine live acts, but reservations encouraged. Intel at caspianslv.com.

John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.