A band of Boozefighters were at Johnny’s Bar and Grill when
bartender Sylvia Combie got a call from a local man Friday morning
saying Marlon Brando had died the night before.
A band of Boozefighters were at Johnny’s Bar and Grill when bartender Sylvia Combie got a call from a local man Friday morning saying Marlon Brando had died the night before.
The Boozefighters became famous for mobilizing the 1947 “invasion” of Hollister that led to nationally published stories, which many observers of the event have called exaggerated.
The event in 1947 also inspired “The Wild One,” a 1953 movie with a rebellious character played by Brando, named Johnny, a role many bikers say inspired the culture on display at the Hollister Independence Rally over the weekend.
Shortly after Combie got the call Friday, she wrote with marker on a piece of paper, “1924-1984: God Bless.”
A Boozefighter taped it to the famous wooden cutout, outside Johnny’s front entrance, of Brando in the movie wearing leather pants and a jacket, Combie said.
The half dozen or so people in the bar that morning raised a toast in Brando’s honor.
“It was kinda neat,” Combie said. “We all got kinda tingly.”
Afterward, the bar ordered T-shirts commemorating Brando with his birth and death dates. The shirts sold fast upon arriving Friday night, Combie said.
Where mobs of bikers have honored the character through the years for personifying the Birthplace of the American Biker, visitors to Johnny’s during this year’s rally recalled the life of Brando and his effect on motorcycle lore.
Brando’s death the night before the 8th annual rally made some patrons somber and nostalgic. Still, most visitors carried on in a typical Johnny’s fashion.
They partied and shouted and drank.
For many, it’s always the first stop coming into Hollister for the rally, including a large contingent of Boozefighters who consider Johnny’s territorial grounds. Ashes of the club’s deceased founder, “Wino” Willie Forkner, are in an urn at the historic bar.
“He’s the reason we’re all here, kinda sorta,” said Phil Emmitt of Redmond, Ore., of Brando, just before 10 a.m. Friday.
Roman Michno of South San Francisco sat on a bar stool at Johnny’s late Friday morning. Covered in black leather, Michno was shocked when he heard of Brando’s death, he said.
“That’s the start of this whole thing,” he said of ‘The Wild One.’ “Because of the movie, that’s what got Hollister going.”
But other bar patrons, while sad about Brando’s death, don’t believe the character had such an inspiring effect – as often portrayed – on the biker culture.
Hollister’s Tom Blease commended his acting, he said, but Brando wasn’t even his favorite actor in “The Wild One.” He most enjoyed Lee Marvin’s portrayal of a character based on Forkner, Blease said while sitting at a table with his wife, Vicki, at Johnny’s.
“He was riding a Triumph, not a Harley-Davidson,” Blease said of Brando. “Other than that, he was OK.”
Ken Mick of Pleasanton also mentioned how Brando didn’t ride a Harley in the movie. When interviewed Friday, he didn’t believe the actor’s death would have any effect on the rally.
“It’s just a big get together,” Mick said of the weekend.
While watching people warming up for an arm wrestling tournament Saturday, Steve Foos of Los Banos didn’t have much of an opinion about Brando’s death.
If a different actor played Johnny in “The Wild One,” he said, that person also would have become the poster child for biker lore, he said.
James Taylor of San Jose, however, believes Brando was an inspiration for today’s bikers. Though he noted how the culture has changed since then – with more families and women riding today, with many kids attending biker rallies.
“He started a dynasty,” Taylor said.
