Top Story: Shelly Saltman

Of all the bones Evel Knievel broke over the years, the costliest may have been the left arm of a PR man by the name of Shelly Saltman.

Shelly is also the author of various books including EVEL KNIEVEL ON TOUR by Sheldon Saltman with Maury Green and FEAR NO EVEL: An Insider’s Look At Hollywood as told to Thomas Lyons by Shelly Saltman.

Saltman won $12.75 million in damages against Knievel after the motorcycle daredevil attacked him with a baseball bat in 1977 in a rage over a book Saltman had written about the showman.

Sheldon “Shelly” Arthur Saltman is a promoter of major sports and entertainment events including the worldwide promotion of the Muhammad Ali / Joe Frazier heavyweight championship boxing matches, creating the Andy Williams San Diego Golf Classic, helping to arrange the independent NFL Players Association games during the 1982 NFL season Strike, and bringing cellular phone technology to the former Soviet Union.

Shelly Saltman broadcasting from Japan for the U.S. Army’s Far East Network during the Korean War.

“We are going hot and heavy after his estate,” Saltman told The Associated Press after Knievel died Friday at 69.

He and Knievel never spoke after the attack, Saltman said, though he said the showman approached him over the years through third parties, expressing remorse and offering to settle the judgment.

Knievel, who broke nearly 40 of his own bones during his many motorcycle stunts, served six months in jail and would never again enjoy the public acclaim he had when he tried unsuccessfully to jump Idaho’s Snake River Canyon on a jet-powered motorcycle in 1974 an event Saltman had promoted.

Although little remembered today, the incident made headlines worldwide when the death-defying motorcyclist approached Saltman in the parking lot of 20th Century Fox on Sept. 21, 1977, and suddenly started swinging a bat.

Shelly is also among the founders of several professional and amateur sports organizations including the Phoenix Suns and the New Orleans Jazz basketball teams and was the first President of Fox Sports.

Knievel complained at the time that Saltman’s book, “Evel Knievel on Tour,” insulted his family and portrayed him as “an alcoholic, a pill addict, an anti-Semite and an immoral person.”

Whether Knievel’s estate has that kind of money is unclear.

“Because of this foolish act, he ruined his career.”

His father and his Uncle Louie both played football for the Boston Indians , his Uncle Eddie pitched for the Boston Braves baseball team , and his Uncle Miltie played for the Philadelphia Athletics.

“I’ve always felt pity for him,” said Saltman, 76.

Shelly has created, written, and produced shows for television such as Pro-Fan, Challenge of the NFL Cheerleaders , and the movie Ring of Passion about the fights between American boxer Joe Louis and German champion Max Schmeling in the years leading up to World War II.

Shelly also handled the worldwide promoion of the Muhammad Ali / Joe Frazier boxing championships, was co-creator of the 1970’s “Challenge of the Sexes” TV shows, a key promoter and business partner in the failed Snake River Canyon rocket-cycle jump by motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel, and for a time managed the careers of such sports stars as Canadian NHL hockey player Wayne Gretzky and American boxing champion Thomas Hearns.

His arm was shattered and is held together to this day with a steel plate and screws.

Saltman, then a studio executive, raised his arm protect his head, a move he says doctors told him probably saved his life.

Shelly left MCA and New York after several years, accepting an offer from the Los Angeles talent agency of Bernard, Williams, and Price to focus his talents on promoting the international career of singing and recording star Andy Williams.

He would go to be a professional sportscaster and play-by-play announcer under the name of “Art Sheldon” with a career that included stints as a basketball coach, a baseball umpire, and a boxing ring announcer.

Shelly Saltman and champion Muhammad Ali at a public sparring demonstration in Century City, California a few days before the “Thrilla in Manila”.

After serving in Japan as a sports announcer and radio broadcaster for the Far East Network of the U.S. Army during the Korean War, Shelly came home to the U.S. and began a career working for the Gillette Cavalcade of Sports.

He went on work as an executive for WBZ-TV in Boston and WJW-TV in Cleveland, making his mark as a promoter by doing such things as holding a press conference in a submarine underneath Boston Harbor for the TV show The Silent Service, picking up the press in helicopters to promote the show Whirlybirds, and broadcasting the world’s first “live birth” on television from a hospital in Cleveland, an act which brought him national attention.

A civil lawsuit was then filed; the civil court judge called Knievel’s acts “cowardly” and awarded Saltman $12.75 million in damages.

His father Nate Saltman was very involved in Boston area politics and Shelly’s godfather, his father’s best friend, was Thomas P. Tip O’Neill, who went on the become the famous and influential Speaker of the House in the United States House of Representatives.

Shelly Saltman grew up during the Great Depression years as the child of Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox Jewish parents in Cambridge, Massachusetts.