The Real "Wild Ones"

Miami Chopper Shop

The 1947 Hollister Motorcycle Riot

By Mark E. Gardiner

Interviews were conducted in late 1988. All participants were eyewitness to the events which came to be known as the Hollister "motorcycle riot". Excerpts of these interviews were published in Classic Bike, but the full transcripts are available, in order to fully document this important event in motorcycling history.

Summary / Lead:

On July 4, 1947, approximately 4,000 "straight-pipers" rode into Hollister. Their plan was to spend the long weekend partying and watching the races, but the partying got a little out of control. Even the local police admitted that the bikers "did more harm to themselves than they did to the town", but the press blew the whole story out of proportion. When the events were dramatized by Hollywood in "The Wild One", America's image of motorcycling changed forever. Now you can read what really happened, in the words of people who were really there.

Harley-Davidson in 1947

Motorcycle Menace

Introduction

At the end of World War II, the central California town of Hollister had a population of about 4,500. The gently rolling farmland surrounding the community was well-suited to motorcycle riding; there were facilities for scramblers, hill-climbs, and dirt-track racing at Bolano Park (about 10 miles away) and at Memorial Park, on the outskirts of town.

Through the 1930's, Hollister had been the site of popular races sanctioned by the American Motorcyclists Association, and promoted by the Salinas Scramblers (correction - Salina Ramblers). Spectators rode in on AMA-organized "Gypsy Tours", and as attendance grew, the Memorial Day races became as important to Hollister as the livestock fair or the rodeo.

Racing was postponed after America's belated entrance into the war. When it was organized again for 1947, local merchants welcomed a major source or revenue back to the Hollister economy.

When peace broke out, many American servicemen were demobilized in California, and settled there. As soldiers, they had earned regular pay, but found little to spend it on. In sunny California, with extra money on hand, they did the same thing any Classic Bike reader would do. Then, when they were spent, they bought motorcycles with the dough left over.

The veterans formed hundreds of small motorcycle clubs with names like the Jackrabbits, 13 Rebels, and Yellow Jackets. Members wore club sweaters; rode, drank, and partied together; and organized informal motorcycle "field meets". There was no sense of territory, or inter-club rivalry.

The AMA realized that the War had exposed many Americans to motorcycles; veterans came back with experiences of Harley-Davidson's WA45. Back home, shortages of metals and fuels had encouraged people to ride instead of drive. Eager to keep these new riders, the AMA sanctioned competitions and organized Gypsy Tours with renewed enthusiasm.

The army however, is not a particularly good place to acquire social graces. The new bikers drank harder, and were more rambunctious than the riders who had come to Hollister before the War. Beginning Friday morning, thousands of bikers poured into town. They came down from San Francisco, up from L.A. and San Diego, and from as far away as Florida and Connecticut. By evening, San Benito Street was choked with motorcycles. Eager to prevent the locals from straying into the crowd, the seven-man Hollister Police Department set up road blocks at either end of the main street.

At first, the 21(!) bars and taverns in Hollister welcomed the bikers with open arms. It was a good joke when motorcycles were ridden right into the taverns. But the bar owners quickly realized that the crowd required no extra encouragement. Taking the advice of the police, bartenders agreed to close two hours earlier than normal. A half-hearted attempt was made to stop serving beer, on the theory that the bikers probably couldn't afford hard liquor.

From late Friday afternoon to early Sunday morning, the overwhelmed Hollister Police (and many amused residents) watched the "straight-pipers" stage drunken drags; wheelie and burn-out displays, and impromptu relay races right on the main street. Most of them ignored the sanctioned races going on at Memorial Park.

In total, 50-60 bikers were treated for injuries at the local hospital. About the same number were arrested. They were charged with misdemeanors: public drunkenness, disorderly conduct, and reckless driving. Most were held for only a few hours. No one was killed or raped; there was no destruction of property, no arson, nor looting; in fact, no locals suffered any harm at all.

On Sunday, 40 California Highway Patrol officers arrived with a show of force and threats of tear gas. The bikers scattered, and returned to their jobs. The San Francisco Chronicle ran accounts of Hollister's wild weekend. While they didn't lie, the stories carried sensational headlines like "Havoc in Hollister", and "Riots....Cyclists Take Over Town". The AMA's public-relations nightmare got even worse two weeks later when Life Magazine ran a full page photo of a beefy drunkard, swaying atop a Harley, with a beer in each hand.

As time goes by, it becomes harder to separate the Hollister myths from reality. It couldn't have been too bad, because the town agreed to allow the AMA and the Salinas Scramblers to promote motorcycle races again just five months later. Local bartenders welcomed the bikers (and their wallets) once more. The community was calm at the eye of a national storm. Hollister, which had actually experienced the "riot", was ready to have the bikers back; meanwhile towns across the U.S, which had only read the press coverage, cancelled race meetings. Police departments also fostered the notion that roving bands of ruthless motorcycle hoodlums might descend on their towns at any moment. This worked well especially well at budget time.

When Hollywood dramatized the Hollister weekend in the 1954 film "The Wild One", any hope of salvaging motorcycling's image was lost. At best, it showed bikers as drunken misfits; at worst, sociopaths. The movie's only redeeming scene comes when a ride on Brando's Triumph weakens the resolve of a beautiful, but chaste, young woman. If only that were true.

Ironically, the sensational media coverage of Hollister helped spawn truly criminal "outlaw" bike gangs. Once the public fear of the bikers reached a fever pitch, bikes held irresistable appeal for genuine sociopaths. A few predators formed clubs, and were egged on by wildly exaggerated media portrayals or biker crime. By the 1960's, hard core biker clubs made "The Wild One" look like "The Mild One". The AMA has been fighting a public relations rearguard action ever since.