Many of you have seen the 1954 movie, ‘The Wild One’, starring Marlon Brando and Lee Marvin. If you haven’t seen it, put it on your list of must-see biker flicks. While this review isn’t about the movie, it is about the band of brothers that the movie was loosely based on.

The story line takes place with a gang of marauding bikers that terrorize small town America. While the gang and people’s names were fictional, the movie was based on a real motorcycle club. That club was called The Boozefighters, or so the book claims. The book also states that the movie was embellished, although the scene with the rider that rode his motorcycle up the stairs and parked it in the bar actually did happen. After the Second World War, many veterans took to motorcycles. It was fast, exhilarating and dangerous, that’s what these young men were used to. On top of all that, they drank hard, fought hard, and rode even harder.

The Original Wild Ones takes an inside look at one of America’s first outlaw bike clubs. First hand accounts with surviving members as well as photos and documentation make this book an entertaining read. The 288-page book, with approximately 130 photos, is full of short stories, many of them firsthand accounts of their favourite bars and racetracks to their favourite club outings and their interaction with other clubs in the southern California area and beyond.

Boozefighter member, and acclaimed writer Bill Hayes, along with Boozefighter historian Jim ‘JQ’ Quattlebaum, convey a detailed account of what a club members life was like in the years following the War. Anyone that is interested in early American motorcycle culture will find this book a must-read, and find it even harder to put down. MMM

Chapters online retails The Original Wild Ones for $15.16 for the paperback ISBN – 10:0760335370
ISBN – 13:9780760335376.