+ Click to Enlarge TRADITIONAL GATHERING: Riders rumble down the main street of Hollister, California during the American Independence Day weekend to commemorating a 1947 bikers' brawl in the town which was the the inspiration for the 1953 Marlon Brando film The Wild One. Picture: AP

July 4, 2006
By Justin Norton

Hollister, California - Thousands of bikers roared into the town made famous by the 1953 Marlon Brando film "The Wild One," defying a council decision to cancel one of the country's most celebrated motorcycle rallies.

The riders, dressed in leathers despite the heat, cruised Hollister's streets on Saturday (July 1) on personalised choppers, racing bikes and tricked-out Harley Davidsons. One man rode with his goggle-sporting dog in a sidecar.

Dozens of police officers, many from other cities, patrolled the streets. Bars were packed before noon.

"We're taxpayers; we're not hoodlums," said Jack Stout, 51, of Gilroy, California, who has logged more than 64 000km on his 2003 Harley Davidson Super Glide and plans to come annually even if the event is not officially sanctioned.

The Hollister Independence rally has been a summer destination for bikers for decades, like the Sturgis rally in South Dakota. But this year the town council voted to cancel the event, saying it was too expensive and too dangerous.

Bikers showed up anyway, though in much smaller numbers than usual. Hollister police captain Bob Brooks estimated about 5000 riders attended on Saturday - normally the most popular day of the rally - compared to 15 000 to 20 000 in previous years.

Tony Morris, 53, rode in on his Harley Davidson Road King from San Francisco; he's been making the annual pilgrimage to Hollister since the 1960's and considers it tradition.

"They'll never stop it," he said. "It's been going since the 1940's."

Hollister, about 80km south of San Jose, is normally a quiet city of boutiques and family restaurants, but this weekend it was packed with bikers riding custom cycles, many worth tens of thousands of dollars.

Riders said they were disappointed the council did not sanction the event, but said that would not stop it; the town has attracted motorcyclists since 1947, when Life magazine published an article on a Hollister biker brawl.

Business owners were angered by the city's decision; many hung signs in shop windows welcoming bikers and offering specials on bottled water, pizza and beer.

Vendors set up large tents, where they sold steak sandwiches, leather vests and even T-shirts that read "Hollister: Canceled, 1947-2006."

Lodst revenue

Serena Chapman, manager of The Vault restaurant, said: "I think it was a big mistake; the town will lose a lot of revenue. If they had managed it smartly, it would have been a good event."

Chapman said she was thrilled to see bikers streaming in and predicted it would be a good weekend for business.

"I knew that would happen," she said. "It's a show of force - you can cancel it, but we're still coming."

Marlon Moss of the Hollister Rally Commission, who has attended the event for almost three decades, said independent-minded bikers would continue to show up out of tradition.

"Even though there's not an event," he said, "the biker community knows the history and they show up."

A 1951 Harper's Magazine article about the first Hollister rally in 1947 provided the inspiration for "The Wild One" in which Brando played the brooding leader of a biker gang which invades a sleepy California town.

However, unlike the film, the motorcyclists did not ransack Hollister, get into a confrontation with the locals or cause unrest. Arrests were mostly limited to such offences as drunkenness or urinating in public. - Sapa-AP

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