Wild Ride: How Outlaw Motorcycle Myth Conquered AmericaWild Ride traces the history of the biker movement, from its beginnings in the years following World War II -- when many American GIs found the transition back to civilian life too severe, and opted instead to exorcise their combat demons by forming riding clubs -- to its current (and to many crass) commercialization in the form of Harley Davidson Cafes. The trip from 1940s outlaw to 1990s Rich Urban Biker (RUB) is indeed a wild one, taking the reader through the popularization of outlaw bikers in films like Easy Rider, their symbolic death at Altamont and decline throughout the seventies, and the repackaging and marketing of their image in the eighties nnd nineties, a process personified by billionaire Malcolm Forbes astride bis iron horse. Reynolds interviews many of the leading figures associated with the outlaw movement, from the veterans who helped form the first biker clubs in the 1940s to movie stars anal wild riders like Peter Fonda, Robert Blake, and Ken Kesey. Wild Ride is an enthralling story and in many ways the secret history of post-World War II America. |
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Page 163
... biker films were exercises in pure exploitation , morality tales in reverse . They served absolutely no purpose but to make all motorcyclists look like blood - crazed sociopaths . " Biker films turned it [ motorcycling ] into an ...
... biker films were exercises in pure exploitation , morality tales in reverse . They served absolutely no purpose but to make all motorcyclists look like blood - crazed sociopaths . " Biker films turned it [ motorcycling ] into an ...
Page 164
... biker character featured in the Frankie Avalon - Annette Funicello beach films . ) You know , I didn't even take them seriously . I looked upon them as Three Stooges , Laurel and Hardy , Abbott and Costello . They were a joke . " 88 The ...
... biker character featured in the Frankie Avalon - Annette Funicello beach films . ) You know , I didn't even take them seriously . I looked upon them as Three Stooges , Laurel and Hardy , Abbott and Costello . They were a joke . " 88 The ...
Page 185
... Bikers today remain on the fence as to what the film is " about . " During its heyday , Hopper would expound for hours on what mes- sages could be gotten from it , though more recently he has quali- fied it as just " a biker film that ...
... Bikers today remain on the fence as to what the film is " about . " During its heyday , Hopper would expound for hours on what mes- sages could be gotten from it , though more recently he has quali- fied it as just " a biker film that ...
Contents
Acknowledgments | 9 |
In the Beginning | 31 |
He and Friends Terrorize Town | 45 |
Copyright | |
16 other sections not shown
Common terms and phrases
13 Rebels actor Altamont American beer bike biker films bill Boozefighters Brando Brother Hank Butch café racer California called Captain America Carter chapter Charlie Company Chino concert cops Corman crowd Dave Nichols Davidson dollars drug Easy Rider Easyriders engine Fonda Forkner front fucking gang Gene Vincent going Harley Harley-Davidson Hayward Hell's Angels helmet law Hollister Honda Hopper Ibid INTERVIEWER Jim Cameron Kesey kicked knew Kramer later leather jacket looked magazine Marty Maysles motor motorcycle club motorcyclists movie named never Oakland one-percenter outlaw bikers outlaw club parked Peter Fonda play police racing rally rape Ratso riding rock rockabilly rockers rode Roger Corman Rolling Stones Rosenblum Sacramento says script Sonny Barger speed stage Stanley Kramer started street Thompson thousand told took town track Trash truck trying veterans Vietnam wanted wearing weekend weeks Wethern Wild Wino