Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127662
fated N~on, who was being assaulted by the usual Harley-Davidson horde. Yet Mulder - Squirrel - was growing rich, nonetheless. Thanks to Ekins, Carey Loftin, Everett Creach and h is other friends, he was himself a Hollywood stunter. One month he was out in the Mojave desert, shooting an outlaw biker epic starring the Hell's Angels, who named him a pussy for not joining them in the pleasure of biting the heads off live ch ickens and drinking the blood for refres hment. The next month, Squirrel was in the bay area of San Francisco joining Clint Eas twood and the crew of Magnum Fo rc e . H is $5000 assignmen t w as to dress up like a policeman and catapult a Kawasaki ~op bike 150 feet - fro m the deck of one aircraft carrier to another. Having measured th e distance beforehand, Squ irrel calculated he could do it. But the tide 's going out altered the distance between the two ships, and in the middle of the jump Squirre l realized he was a dead man unless he pulled off the magic act of his career. He di d. He hit the carrier deck with eight inches to spare, trashing the hand le bars and squaring both wheels. Other stuntmen walked him around for half an hour to make su re he was all right. Squirrel was more tha n all righ t; he was high as the moon, g iggling, be having as if the whole episode ha d been a big joke. So then they told him it was time to make a second jump. This one Squirrel nailed so perfectly that when Eastwood saw it he paid him another $5000. Squirrel never got over how people continued exhorting - lecturing - him in the matter of applying himself an d winning the Grand National Championship . At Triumph of Burbank one da y in 1971, he was accosted by a man loosely known as Dr. Black - he was some kind of fringe eccentric with a d ebonair goatee and a ma tching set of Tr iumph Bonn ev illes and Carrera Porsches - all black. This Dr. Black inqui red if he still wanted to race motorcycles. Squirrel was between stunt jobs and his van transport was about to be repossessed. Having no id ea what was to follow, he told Dr. Black, "su re" . Special Value OfferJGet a Vanson Limited Edition Leather Jacket Free! plus an Eclipse nylon tank bag and a deluxe motorcycle stand with the purchase of a newOucati* The red steel bike stand is filted with wheels. It's adjustable and attaches easily. Yourpartcipating Ducati dealerhas i an exciting offer on selected new motorcycles. For a limited time... while supplies last ... youcan'get a handsome tailored leatherjacket with the purchase of a new Ducati. 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Please ride responsibly - don't ride under the inffuence of drugs or alcohol. Always wearproper protectveriding gear. CO 1994 Cagiva North America. Inc. i An enormous rubber-banded wad of money appeared . Five bills o f $1000 denomination popped out. "I want you to start your own team," Dr. Black told him. "I'll bankroll it." Eddie Mulder Ltd. became that team. The initial $5000 was just the start. It was th e operating exp en ses Dr. Black was paying every week. Squirrel purchased mot orcycles and hired mechanics, assembling a rogue team. He enrolled himself in a gym and became physically firm . He needed to, because, at age 27, he suddenly was a senior citizen. Motorcycle racing was now a child 's sport overrun with prodigies. Hi s winning Big Bear at 16 had apparently started a trend. At the 1972 Hous ton Astrodome Steeplechase, Squ ir re l defea ted one teenager - his nam e was Kenny Roberts but lost to a second, Little John Ha teley. . A form ula change had ope ned up the displacement of road racers and mile trackers, making Squirrel competitive in both forms . He was flirti ng with the championship points lead, much as he had in 1966. It was Dr. Black's conceit that Ed die Mu lder Ltd. exist on the road as well as the factory teams. So Squirrel rented who le hotel suites . He flew first class. He just we nt to the airport and purchased tickets. All Dr. Black requested was that he be allowed to operate the stop watches and perform the race. timing. But one Friday at four in the morning, Mulder's phone rang. A voice said : "Dr. Black is dead." There were rumors of firearms and foul play. It had occurred to Squirrel that his benefactor had been keeping company with one of the barons of the blackmarket drug trade, but he never knew it for sure. In the prevailing atmosphere, what he didn't know, he didn't want to know. Eddie Muld er Ltd. disbanded in haste, In 1974, Squirrel entered a regional Steeplechase at San Jose which became his last victory and start. His passage through the remainder of the Seventies, the Eighties and now the Nineties has been marked by successful an d unsuccessful attempts at marri age, fatherhood, earning a living operating a po lice imp ou nd garage in the earthquake-rocked San Fernando Valley, and becoming one of the titans of Hollywood stunt work. Universal, Wa rner, 20th Cen tury Fox - if you have seen a movie, commercial, TV show, or almost anything else involving motorcycles or automobiles m o ving at hurtling speed, chances are Squirrel had a hand in it. . And his motorcycle racing? "All fairly frivolous stuff," Squirrel remarked recently, in reflection. It really makes him laugh when people still accuse him of squandering his career; his ra cing . gifts. Aside from Kenny Roberts, he has arguably rea li zed more money and income from Hollywood than any Grand Na tional Champ ion of the American Motorcyclist Association ever realized from being No.1. Perha ps. Yet not long ago , during a nos tal gi a m eet u p in Ventura , some st ranger from the gra ndstands asked h im if he w as Eddie Mu ld er , and he admitted that he was. Then the stranger said , "Well, I have to tell you something. I bet I watched every Ascot Steeplechase you were in. And seeing you race were the most enjoyable nights of my life, I'll never forget them, or you . Thank you." Those weren't th e remarks he had been expecting to hear, and the revelation tha t all those manic racing years had really mean t somethi ng afte r a ll, p rod uced an astonishing reaction. Squirrel cried . a .... l-< ~ 25