NCJ Number
102386
Date Published
1985
Length
128 pages
Annotation
A member of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club in England describes the origins and evolution of the worldwide biker lifestyle and the unwillingness of the movement's members to be constrained by what they view as society's petty laws and regulations.
Abstract
The outlaw bike culture developed at the end of World War II on the Pacific Coast of the United States. For first-generation white immigrant youths who felt alienated from the rest of society, the motorcycle culture offered a way of life that was distinct both from the black ghetto culture and from their parents' working-class culture. Media coverage, starting in the late 1940's, built on a few incidents to produce an image of a lawless and violent subculture. Hollywood filmmakers brought even more visibility to this image through the 1953 movie, 'The Wild One,' starring Marlon Brando. The idea of a subcultural lifestyle that was open to all who chose to adopt it quickly spread to the national and then the international scene. In England, the teddyboys of the 1950's and later, the mods and rockers, became associated with the motorcycle lifestyle. The drug culture of the late 1960's and the 1969 film, 'Easy Rider,' broadened the biker lifestyle to include music and drugs. 139 photographs and index.