DESCRIPTION:-
Black & White 12"inch x 8" inch, Early Photo of 'Wino' Willie which made headline news but was doctored up by the press.
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Updated Info: email to me from Ed - President of Booze Fighters Motorcycle Club regards the real story behind this photo.
The guy in the pic was named Eddie Davenport. He was a resident of Holister and it was believed he was a service station attendant. He was not a member of any club and it was questionable if he had ever rode a motorcycle. It is believed that he was walking home from work when approached by a photographer and asked to pose on the bike and as you said, the bottles were placed there for visual effect. He never was part of the BFMC but will always be the public face of the club. and there rest you have writen was on the money.
As far as the movie, a little known fact, Wino was on the set during filming, didn't care for the protrail and got drunk and started a fight with the crew and was removed from the set.
Ed (WaldoMan) Walding
President
BFMC 78
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It seemed good to reporters to get 'Wino' Willie to stage a photo for them.
The press put bottles of empty beer arounf the bottom of his bike and asked him to pose drunk. The headlines got into the 1947 issue of 'Life Magazine' to say Outlaw Bikers, where basically running amuck in Hollister, California after an A.M.A. (American Motorcycle Association) Motorcycle Race meeting.
After the story came out in the Press, the A.M.A. said most motorcyclist where affiliated with the A.M.A. but 1 per cent where not!
The 1% took that as a badge of honor, and thus the outlaw bikers and 1%ers where born.
After World War II like-minded veterans banded together as a motorcycle club called the 'Boozefighters' over their love of fun and freedom of motorcycles.
During a weekend rally to Hollister, California, U.S.A. the club painted the town red with a rowdy night of drinking and street racing,
Who wouldn't! No radar, no .05 laws, one cop, nice dirt road etc etc.....
A club member named 'Wino Willie', participated in a staged photo, & posed drunk on a bike.
The newspaper photographers had put heaped used and broken bottles all around and the infamous photo made its way onto the pages of 'Life' magazine and helped kick off the notion of a "biker" culture.
The Boozefighters, continues to this day
The Boozefighters' place in motorcycle history is forever secure.
The infamous Hollister rally of 1947, which all told was a rowdy but harmless affair, spurred the public's imagination about bikers.
The club provided much of the inspiration for the film 'The Wild Ones', which starred Marlon Brando. In fact, Wino Willie was believed to be the inspiration for "Chino," Lee Marvin's character in the film. The Hollister incident was then followed up by a pair of rallies in California, which were also sensationalised by the press.
An unrelated motorcycle death, miles away from the rally, made it sound like there were marauding bandits pillaging the town.
It was an account which the county's under-sheriff went to great pains to correct with a public statement, but the damage had been done!
The outlaw myth had been cemented.
These Photo's look great on any wall preferably framed.
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