what are boozefighters?
paul
just wanting to know what the boozefighters are all about.
Wayne Fernandez
California Bike Clubs. They were pretty much thrown out of another club
for their rather rowdy ways and decided to start their own club. The name
came from one of the members who while toasted said that all they ever did
was get drunk and fight.
MWF
Barry L. Van Hook
In article <53gqrm$e...@library.airnews.net> wcat...@greyhound.com (Bill Cattell) writes:
>From: wcat...@greyhound.com (Bill Cattell)
>Subject: Re: what are boozefighters?
>Date: 9 Oct 1996 18:28:06 GMT
>BFMC is a bike club that started shortly after WWII. There are chapters all
>over the US. There's a chapter in the Dallas-Ft Worth area that's pretty
>active. I saw a post about BFMC last year and have FAQ about them. If I
>find it I'll email it to you.
In addition, as most folk here are aware, rightly or wrongly, they were the
group most often connected with the disturbance at Hollister, CA, that served
as the inspiration for the Marlon Branflakes/Lee Marvin flick, The Wild Ones.
As is the case with most things coming out of Hollywood, some artistic license
was likely employed.
Barry #36
Barry L. Van Hook (van...@asu.edu)
Management Department, College of Business
Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-4006
(602) 965-1217 FAX -- (602) 965-8314
Bill Cattell
BFMC is a bike club that started shortly after WWII. There are chapters all
over the US. There's a chapter in the Dallas-Ft Worth area that's pretty
active. I saw a post about BFMC last year and have FAQ about them. If I
find it I'll email it to you.
Bill
In article <53f661$3...@excelsior.flash.net>, pma...@pop.flash.net says...
LESDL
In <53gkpm$d...@mtinsc01-mgt.ops.worldnet.att.net> Wayne Fernandez
<wayne.f...@worldnet.att.net> writes:
>California Bike Clubs. They were pretty much thrown out of another
club
>for their rather rowdy ways and decided to start their own club. The
name
>came from one of the members who while toasted said that all they ever
did
>was get drunk and fight.
>MWF
>
Island.
Dwayne Potter
>about.
Reposted without permission...
========================================================
From: Staf...@Ultra1.Winona.MSUS.edu (john stafford)
Newsgroups: rec.motorcycles,rec.motorcycles.harley
Subject: Boozefighters (was Re: Colors, outlaws...)
Date: Thu, 20 Jul 1995 06:59:47 -0600
========================================================
Submitted by Bruce Hewston
(BHEWSTO%tw...@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 1946 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 & to 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 were 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 in 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 & Hollywood 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 elses 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
fun & 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 into 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.
Bill Cattell
THAT'S THE ONE!!! I saw this last year and was going to try to find it
again to re-post it. thanks for doing it.
In article <53j00s$a...@goblin.tdh.state.tx.us>,
dpo...@discon.tdh.state.tx.us says...
David DeCoster
In article <53gkpm$d...@mtinsc01-mgt.ops.worldnet.att.net>, Wayne Fernandez <wayne.f...@worldnet.att.net> writes:
|> pma...@pop.flash.net (paul ) wrote:
|> >
|> California Bike Clubs. They were pretty much thrown out of another club
|> for their rather rowdy ways and decided to start their own club. The name
|> came from one of the members who while toasted said that all they ever did
|> was get drunk and fight.
|> MWF
|>
They are still a rather large and active club.
They always have a pretty large contingent at Sturgis.
--
Davey D #7
For those who understand, NO explanation
is needed, for those who DON'T understand
NO explanation will be given.
IV PLAAA
The Boozefighters are a very old and established Southern California
club. Boozefighter "Wino Willie" was the man jailed at the infamous
Hollister, CA event in 1947. Marlon Brando glamorized? this event in"The
Wild One". Lee Marvin's part was modeled after "Wino Willie"
kennym...@gmail.com
Chris Haynes
> just wanting to know what the boozefighters are all about.
Иван Барабан
how to become a part of the club if we are in another continent?