Hollister happenings

Because I am owner of Johnny’s Bar & Grill, the bar depicted in the 1953 movie The Wild One and the destination of motorcycle enthusiasts since 1947, people ask me, “Will Hollister ever have a motorcycle rally again?” My response is, “It won’t be happening this year.” Sadly, our police chief and a unified city council do not have a clear understanding of what the motorcycle rally means to our community.

In my 16 years at Johnny’s I’ve met wonderful bikers from all over the globe who make the pilgrimage to Hollister to see where it all began. They all treat Hollister and Johnny’s as hallowed ground, and I’m honored to own an important part of American history. For those unfamiliar with the story, I’ll summarize.

The American Motorcycle Association-sanctioned Gypsy Tour Races were resurrected in Hollister in 1947. An event that began in 1916 in Laconia, New Hampshire, it extended to more than 200 rallies in many locales in the mid-’20s, with Hollister as a favorite destination. The races were suspended from 1943–1945 because of World War II, and the post-war motorcyclists who flocked to Hollister for the event in 1947 were a different breed than the riders of the 1930s.

The war exposed veterans to motorcycles and many demobilized soldiers settled in California. They formed hundreds of motorcycle clubs with names like Boozefighters, Yellow Jackets and Top Hatters. These men had a hard time assimilating to a normal life and the thrills and camaraderie they derived from riding motorcycles with their clubs helped them to adapt. The club rivalries we see today did not exist. These bands of brothers enjoyed a good ride and a good party, and that is why they came to Hollister in 1947.

With a population of 4,500, Hollister was taken off guard when the influx of somewhere between 2,500 and 4,000 motorcyclists—depending on which story you read—rolled into town. With a lot of postwar steam to blow off, the raucous bikers staged drunken drag races as well as wheelie and burnout displays in the middle of San Benito Street, ignoring the sanctioned races taking place at Memorial Park. Their idea of a good time was different from the average Joe’s, but they were relatively harmless.

“Wino” Willie Forkner, the originator of the Boozefighter motorcycle club in 1946, shared a 1947 Hollister story with his daughter Terrie, and she shared it with me.

“Me and some of the boys were hanging at Johnny’s enjoying a cold one,” Willie told Terrie, “and the town drunk was sittin’ there trying to be one of us, so we decided to have a little fun with him. We started buying him drinks and he got so drunk he couldn’t walk. We found this old wheelchair and we strapped him in it and attached a rope to it so we could pull him down Main Street with our bikes. We got going too fast and the chair fell over and we dragged the guy for a while before we figured it out. When we went to check on him, he didn’t move or open his eyes so we figured we’d killed him. We didn’t know what to do, so we threw him behind a dumpster and went back to the bar and drank some more.

“Then one of the boys got arrested and some Boozefighters went to the jail to bust him out. I went down there to talk some sense into ’em. I figured he had a bed to sleep in and they’d let him out in the morning. I was talking to the boys and the cops arrested me for incitin’ a riot. Well, they put me in a cell and there’s this guy on the floor moaning like he’s dying so I tell him to shut the hell up. He rolls over and looks at me and it’s the town drunk. It scared the bejesus out of me. I thought he was dead.”

Stories like this one characterize the antics that took place in 1947. Even though it sounds a little wild by today’s standards, back then the veterans-turned-bikers were just having a little fun; at least that’s the way many locals saw it.

I had a great conversation with 90-year-old Catherine Dabo. She and her husband owned the Dabo Hotel at 6th and San Benito Street in 1947. She said that the bikers were gracious and friendly, and the couple were thrilled to have the money the merrymakers added to the hotel coffers.

That echoes my sentiments exactly; the difference is that these congenial bikers are now doctors, lawyers and other professionals driving $25,000 motorcycles, not unemployed veterans and mechanics driving revamped Harley-Davidson Knuckleheads and Indian Scouts. My biggest biker concerns during Fourth of July weekend involve the Boozette who’s holding up the ladies room because she can’t get her chaps zipped up, or the professor from Purdue who passed out on the patio; certainly nothing that requires SWAT team assistance.

The 1947 Life magazine picture of a drunk on a motorcycle surrounded by beer bottles that hangs behind my bar was staged by a San Francisco Chronicle reporter. Even though the Chronicle ran stories with sensational titles like, Motorcyclists Take Over Town, and 2000 ‘Gypsycycles’ Chug Out of Town and the Natives Sigh Never Again, they decided not to use the photo. However, Life magazine printed a full-page version of it with the caption, Cyclists Holiday, He and His Friends Terrorize Town. The article inspired Hollywood’s 1953 dramatization of the Hollister incident in The Wild One. Its depiction of all bikers as amoral and rowdy may have inadvertently spawned the one-percent outlaw motorcycle clubs. The movie increased public fear of motorcyclists, giving irresistible appeal to sociopaths and loose cannons who formed clubs whose actions made The Wild One’s Johnny look like a pussycat. They remain one percent of the motorcycle riding population today. The other 99 percent are regular, law-abiding citizens like you and me. We ride our motorcycles because we enjoy the rumbling of a V-twin beneath us and the wind in our faces. We love the camaraderie all motorcyclists share, the unspoken brotherhood that exists without question and we band together to ride for charitable causes as well as for fun.

This year businesses and nonprofits have banded together to carry on the tradition of the Hollister Fourth of July Weekend celebration. We’re starting with original Boozefighter Vern Autry’s 86th birthday celebration at Johnny’s on July 1. Saturday, July 2, will be a full day of fun with Corbin’s second annual Rider Appreciation Day featuring motorcycle industry vendors, a bike show, great food, live music, factory tours and the Top Hatters poker run. Sunday, July 3, our local VFW is sponsoring a poker run in an effort to help local veterans as well as local charities. After the run they are hosting a barbecue with live music at the Vets Hall on San Benito Street.

With all the activities going on in the area and the many scenic rides our county has to offer I can’t think of a better place for motorcycle enthusiasts to spend their Fourth of July weekend. I am a little partial, though.