31. The Motorcycle Rally Riot That Established the Biker-as-Outlaw Image
Two months after the Hollister Gypsy Tour, the same biker clubs descended upon Riverside, CA, for the Labor Day weekend. It was another AMA-sanctioned event, and it ended in the same chaos that had engulfed Hollister. Riverside’s sheriff blamed punk kids, saying “They’re rebels, they’re outlaws“, establishing the imagery of outlaw bikers. The Hollister Riot in particular inspired 1953’s The Wild One, starring Marlon Brando, the original outlaw biker movie, and the first to examine American motorcycle gangs.
A few months later, in March, 1948, some of those clubs came together in Fontana, CA, and agreed to merge. They chose a name suggested by a veteran who had served in China with the Flying Tigers’ Hell’s Angels Squadron, which got the name from the 1930 Howard Hughes movie, Hell’s Angels. When questioned about the missing apostrophe, Hells Angels often retort “it is you who miss it. We don’t“.