rom Evel Knievel to today’s Freestyle jumpers, the motorcycle sport has seen many daredevils through the years. With a career that dates back into the 1930s, the king of the stunt riders before Knievel was Putt Mossman. Putt was a flamboyant performer who barnstormed the country for some 40 years with a troupe of male and female associates with exhibitions held on almost a daily basis, usually at local fairgrounds. He was known as “The Man of a Thousand Skills,” having participated in horseshoe pitching, motorcycle stunt riding, boxing, wrestling, baseball, basketball, acrobatics, music, radio and TV, auto racing, marksmanship, big game hunting and many other sports and activities in his career. He died in 1994 at age 88.


Mossman was not the only principle performer at his shows. Here one of his assistants, Grace Conrad, performs a popular stunt of the day, a crash through a burning wall of fire. Photos from Don Emde Collection


In a 1947 performance at Beaver Falls, PA with two female assistants, Mossman performs a one-handed, one-leg seat stand on an inline 4-cylinder Indian. Photos from Don Emde Collection