1947: How WWII Veterans Invented the Outlaw Biker (Full Documentary)

On July 21, 1947, Life magazine printed a photograph of a drunk man on a motorcycle surrounded by beer bottles. The caption said he and his friends had terrorized a town. The picture was staged. The men who actually rode into Hollister, California that weekend were never named. They were veterans. The Boozefighters were founded in 1946 at a beer joint near Watts by a B-24 crewman named Wino Willie Forkner — every original member but one had served in the Second World War. Forty miles east, former pilots and gunners had formed a club they called the Pissed Off Bastards of Bloomington. Sixteen million Americans came home from that war, and thousands of them came home on surplus Harley-Davidson WLAs they had learned to ride in uniform. Fifteen Boozefighters rode to Hollister on July 4, 1947. Fifty arrests. Three injuries. Under $1,000 in damage. Then a photographer arranged some bottles, a magazine wrote a caption, a novelist made the veteran the victim, Hollywood cast Lee Marvin as Willie, and the American outlaw biker was born — out of a picture that wasn't true, of men who had flown through the worst of the twentieth century and just wanted a drink. CHAPTERS 0:00 The photograph 2:33 The men who came home 6:07 What a motorcycle club was before the war 8:24 Pacific Tramp 10:35 The club that had moved on 11:52 The All American Bar 15:20 Bloomington 16:56 The road to Hollister 19:02 Forty hours 21:36 The photograph, again 24:09 One percent 26:54 The story that became The Wild One 29:05 Brando 31:22 Fontana 33:18 What the men themselves said 34:51 He gave it away for a dollar #Hollister1947 #Boozefighters #WWII