Submitted by Bruce Hewston (BHEWSTO%twcs0@relay.nswc.navy.mil) April 12, 1993 (BFMC refers to the Boozefighters Motorcycle Club.) The following is from my ex's dad who lived in Hollister; Wino, JD & Jim, Lance & Johnny Roccio, original Boozettes; 2 HA books & Sonny Barger. BFMC was #1 when outlaw meant non-AMA not criminal. They created a real biker image that newsmen then Hollywood fags perverted into the one wanabes worship. BFMC is riding 500 miles, winning races then having so much fun all of the locals joined in. Perversion is dopers with Brando attitudes in biker drag! Frontier ethics persisted into the 60's: we welcomed risk as part of having fun. Men afraid of guns or motors were cowards not sensitive! Vets wanted the freedom they'd earned & the fun they'd missed - fun like in Lee Marvin's part of The Wild One - and folk they saved didn't mind them having it. Quarrels between different kinds of bikers didn't exist cuz everybody raced, toured, partied & bikes broke so often we depended on each other. Weekly rags provided news & folk entertained each other. Talent made you popular, a motor made you a hero. Fairs offered Prizes to attract guys who raced for pure fun plus "Pro's" who made a living racing. AMA only sanctioned profitable races; "fun" races were "outlaw" races, run by outlaw clubs & anyone who raced for fun was an outlaw. In 46 The 13 Rebels rode to a race at El Cajon. It was dull so a well-oiled Bro named Willy Forkner crashed the fence to join the main. The crowd loved it but AMA did not: Willy went to jail & his bros left him there. So Willy nastied his rags & headed for the All American. The Biker image was literally born there, on Firestone East of Central in South-Central LA: a meeting place for bikers. Willy, George Menker, "Fat Boy" Nelson & Dink Burns went out to start a club that'd know how to have fun & found Walt Porter puking in a box. A name? Walt gagged: "Booozefighters - aswha' dey mad about, yer Boozin 'n fightin" - a name right out of the gag box. That unique ability to laugh at themselves let them accomplish things while having FUN. For years they toted a Gag Box & t o this day all real Boozefighters have GB on their jersey to remind us to HAVE FUN! BFMC was an outlaw club because AMA refused to charter the name. Most original members were racers so they sired Yellow Jackets. BOOZETTES (a separate women's club) held "outlaw" races that became so famous JC Agajanian rode their success to open world-renown Ascot Park. Clausen's strokers pushed THE BRUTE to 227 MPH (in 46!) under Keltor & Hunter, Lance won the Jack-pine & Jim Cameron not only won Catalina & Big Bear on BSAs but pioneered the art of riding thru bars. Wino retired the side car trophy on JD's rig & the near win at Daytona on JDs factory Goose took the Roccio boys to Europe (Johnny, an ex-rebel is still active). After warnings, one GB'r rode his hill climber through the crowd. Police arrested him. Spectators gathered to protest. A Bro on a Triumph pushed through to ask what happened. The cops ran him off - with his hand cuffed bro on the back! By the time the crowd let the cops thru they w ere gone! That's real class! It involves people, makes them part of the joke not ducks. Hollister was like any Grapes of Wrath Ca. town. Boozefighters took it over by having so much fun that everyone had to join in! Imagine 20 BFrs then 4000 bikers & then 50,000 citizens joining a party that went down in history! That's what GB is all about! Dagwood is easy to intimidate. Making him party is the challenge! Then he's on your side & welcomes you back. Hollister still hosts annual races & hill climbs . ..? Rags that got rich reporting WWII were going broke for lack of news & bogeymen so reporters created both: paid Fat Boy (Jim cameron says it wasn't even Fat boy) to pose, reported a riot & blamed it on BFMC. That sold so many rags they did it again: Rampaging BFrs cut wires & took over Riverside only in the headlines! The sheriff published letters putting the lie on the slander but Boozefighter replaced Nazi on Dagwood's dread list & Otto went home to clone the next bogeyman: HAMC. Then came T he Wild One. Marvin set his role on Wino but Brando got the lead &, too dull to have fun let alone create it, taught 1000's of impersonators how to act. 20 years later Thompson wrote: Boozefighters kicked off the riot that lead to THE WILD ONE but those most influenced identified with Brando vice Marvin. The Market Street Commandos were in the grip of The Wild One when Rocky (a HA) from Berdoo was elected and .. soon 40 Angels were roaring around Frisco. In Oakland fans copied their HA patch, fans i n Chicago/Detroit copied Brando's logo, etc. & the fraud grew, fed by the reporters & cops it served. Wannabes who'd spit on Elvis impersonators still unknowingly impersonate Brando. Costumes got so good AMA couldn't tell fans from bikers & blamed the bad 1% so leading fans chose 1% on a diamond to differentiate themselves from bikers like Wino - then went to war over who could wear it, provoking a cop attack on us all! By 1965 harassment made it impossible to wear colors in any city except Oakland .. the SanFran chapter dwindled from 75 to 11, the original Berdoo chapter to a handful5. Til then bikers proudly displayed their colors. Wino proposed a green shirt with the familiar bottle on the sleeve but the club voted a more distinct white racing jersey with kelly green sleeves, bottle on front & GB on the left sleeve, then added the solid green sweater with the same logo & lettering. Many stenciled their clubs name/logo on their jackets in the style copied by Brando but police torment forced Brando fans to adopt the now-standard hide-with-pride vests. Mean while, fag became gay & cowards sensitive: Dagwood replaced John Wayne as role model & Hondas sold like hotcakes. That killed outlaw races & took alot of the fun out of biking In 65 Monterey hosted a run. Two black pimps working the HA bar at closing got herded to the beach by police. HA's demanded group rates, pimps called the cops, head lines about fiancees forced to watch as their brides were gang raped sold alot of papers & H ollywood taught kids to impersonate Brando fans then dopers. Even wimps can buy custom sleds to imitate hippy dopers so flocks of yups guided by a rag named for the flik, bought costumes & H-Ds to trailer behind Winnebagos! Meanwhile, thin being in, MD's passed out Diet Pills that let Brando fans party like bikers. About 1968 the supply dried up so they started making their own. Selling them let a few live like the dopers in Easy Rider: MCs turned into Major Corp.s, infiltrated & run by dealers who used Bros as soldiers. That attracted RICO: let cops dupe clubs into wars that yielded promotion-getting busts. Old bikers sat it out! They still rode & partied but wimp's eagerness to sue killed the events that attract members so by 1988 few of the Hollister Crew remained. Loath to see the club die, they put an ad in EZ Rider, issued 30+ charters then started weeding-out. My charter of 1 Nov. 1988 was #26. Few remain but that's more than in '87. Ignorant of their heritage, the minority at Bean Blossom in 89 voted to imitate Wino impersonators: become a nation with Bluto patches as its uniform. The NE Bros had an OK to use the HA configuration & refused to offend the HAs so Bluto chose the HA motif. That was a blunder: Gossip said Wino started the HAs & BFMC had all the bags of a 1% nation so we looked like an HA invasion: Outlaws closed Chicago, Indy & Dayton, Vagos our Long Beach chapter & we lived under such a cloud of terror some finally ousted King Bluto by force! Hind sight proved we 'd be better off if original jerseys had remained the only "Official" Colors, leaving all else to local option: We have had 0 1% trouble since Teach did just that. Weather outside S. Ca. requires jackets so most want patches but we are not impersonators so we don't need 1% or Elvis suits. JD & Wino have been Bros for 50 years & more different guys'd be hard to imagine. Why? Because each has abilities & assets the other respects. Wino started this club cuz the Rebels tried to tell him what to do. In his first letter to me, he said: "I'm not trying to push any of my shit I don't give a damn what kind of bike you ride or if you drink or not you're still a Bro to me". The club survived 45 years on that spirit & if we don't fuck it up trying to be conformists or impersonators it'll go 100's more. If you wanabe 1% be the best: prospect a 1% club that's respectable. The only excuse to use 1% as a BFMC role model is ignorance. BFMC is a real Biker club; too busy having fun to conform to anybody el ses image! BFMC is the club the original Berdoo HA's were modeled after. A movie about BFMC let a Berdoo HA start the Frisco HAs who were copied by the Oakland HAs &c., &c. & the Outlaw's "Charlie" came right off Brando's back! These clubs have come along way, created a reality of their own that they are proud of. And yes, we should respect them for being the best at their thing. But we should not turn respect into emulation because we have a history of being the best at our thing: riding, having fu n & turning bummers into mardi gra's! Mail-order? I got my charter from THE man who founded THE club that created the image they still copy. T-shirt club? Is THE jersey worn by THE bikers their founders movie heros were trying to portray less elegant than a plagiarized patch on a vest designed to hide? Dylan impersonating Elvis 'd be an insult to both. Boozefighters in 1% rags are an insult to both - & 1%rs aren't famous for tolerating insult. Why make trouble? We are famous for turning bummers int o parties. If you wanna do the opposite fer crissake join a club that specializes & earn some respect. I'm ashamed when bikers buy me beer 'cuz I didn't earn it. The Originals paid for it, many with their health & some with their lives. It would be a horrible disservice to turn BFMC into a 1% club, a yuppy, nostalgia or "Bros" club! The way to repay them is to keep their traditions: to ride, treat each other like family & have so much fun others join in. If you have some other agenda expect alot of flak from Bros who what BFMC stands for! We dont talk about making it the #1 club cuz that's already been done! BFMC is the #1 club, grandaddy of all! Let others compete for the title of #1 Major Corporation or Brando impersonator. We respect them but we don't need to imitate them any more than Wilt the Stilt needs to imitate a football star. We are the class in our league! Show it like Willy would have done: turn some bummer into a wild celebration that everybody remembers, not vice versa. And when anybody buys your patches a beer, drink it to the original Boozefighters; the real outlaw bikers that started it all.