bfmc_history

BOOZEFIGHTERS
Motorcycle Club
"THE ORIGINAL WILD ONES"

The "Original Wild Ones"
SONY

Back in 1954 a new black & white movie came out by COLUMBIA PICTURES, a STANLEY
KRAMER PRODUCTION. Actors featured were MARLON BRANDO and LEE MARVIN.
The name of the flick was
“THE WILD ONE.”

The movie was determined to be so violent that it was banned in England and some
other countries. Many theaters in the USA refused to show it for fear of corrupting their
children.

Well let’s see…there was a fistfight between Brando and Marvin. A bike got knocked
over, a storefront window broken, and a man accidentally run over and killed by a rider-
less motorcycle. And oh yeah…Johnny said “WHAT HAVE YOU GOT”? When asked what he
was rebelling against. An obvious blatant response from a leader of a vicious biker gang.
How would that measure up to present day (violent) movies?

Frank Rooney wrote a fictional novel called “CYCLIST RAID” in which appeared in Harpers
magazine in 1951. It was loosely used as the script for the Kramer movie. By the way I’ve
read it and it was an exciting action filled story. Bikers hit this little sleepy town and
raise a lot of harmless hell. They’re all wearing WWI airplane type leather buckle down
caps and green goggles. And get this…they never take them off! NEVER EVER!! Well one
biker did lift his goggles when he was saying good-by to the girl just before high-tailing
it out of town…but he was a moon-eyed PANZY!

Rooney’s story was vaguely based on news reports from the July 21, 1947 LIFE
MAGAZINE entry called “CYCLIST’S HOLIDAY.” They featured a full page picture of an
obvious drunk biker astride a fire-breathing Harley, beer in each hand and numerous
bottles neatly piled up under and around the machine (a proven staged shot). The
caption stated in effect, “He and friends (4000 members of a motorcycle club) terrorized
a town (Hollister, calif.) for three days, ramming into restaurants and bars, breaking
furniture and mirrors, etc, etc, etc,” it stated.

The San Francisco Chronicle had contributed

that

(staged) picture. They

ran a very similar

one in their

paper with a lengthily article about

the

Hollister July 4th

melee. Sounded pretty

rough and tough too.

Unfortunately that

reporter and his photographer got

there too

late to

actually view the excitement. Other than

that (staged) shot the best they

could do was

to snap a

few pictures of people sleeping it off

while lying

on some

lawns.

But their reputations were at stake and they

had to

justify their time and

expenses for their

trip so they did

the natural all American

thaaang…they

sensationalized

the story. And

in the process they focused on the BFMC

the RODIES. Well dugh…the name

“BOOZEFIGHTERS

MC” was painted

in big

letters all over the club’s travel

trailer, parked

in the downtown

area.

From that time on the Boozefighters’ name has been referred to as “THE

ORIGINAL WILD ONES” that inspired the movie “THE WILD ONE.” Actually

I think it is the other way around. But anyway our club inherited an

infamous reputation in the history of the AMERICAN BIKER legend. As

result that negative tag has turned out to become a good thing.

NOW FOR THE REST OF THE STORY:

The SONY company was commissioned to digitize a DVD re-make of the classic movie
“The Wild One”, too include a sort of documentary introduction. Their research led them
to the Boozefighters, and our book. We received an invitation (and we excepted) to play
a significant roll in that exciting project.

March 18, 2007 approximately 15 motorcycles roar up a hilly road into a movie set, in
which had the camera roll’n (so to speak).

After coming to a stop for a close up shot

Karen Kramer

(Stanley Kramer’

s widow)

shouted out in a jubilant voice

(from back of

`Knuckles’ ride)

comments about how

excited it

was to be riding with the

BOOZEFIGHTERS!

Then Karen dis-mounted and sat on the side