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| A replica of Jim Bronson's bike. |
It's been pointed out to me by friends that I left an important movie off of my list of Motorcycle Movies You Should See. That movie is Then Came Bronson.
Then Came Bronson (TV movie)
Then
Came Bronson was a TV series from 1969-70. The pilot was a made-for-TV
movie by the same title. The story revolved around "Jim Bronson," a
newspaper reporter who finds
life is offering more questions than answers so he quits his job and
sets off from San Francisco on his Harley Sportster to see America and
sort things out. The laconic character of Jim Bronson was played by
Michael Parks and is based on the real life person of Birney Jarvis. Birney Jarvis
was a reporter, a Hells Angel, a blue water sailor, boxer, and general
larger than life character. The adventures of Jim Bronson were in
keeping with Birney's life. More importantly, Then Came Bronson was
probably the first movie or TV series to portray motorcycling in a
reasonable light and Bronson's wanderings and philosophical bent motivated lots of young men to see the Harley Sportster oe motorcycles in general as a ticket to freedom.
Long about 1970 or so I did visit Oceanside Harley Davidson to buy a Sportster but it didn't go well. I had the money but in those days Harley dealers were not the spit and polish places they are now, eager to drain your wallet and make you part of the Harley "lifestyle." Ugh. In this case, the dealership was in a tin industrial building and the huge guy behind the counter looked like he opened beer bottles with what was left of his teeth. "Whaddaya want, kid?" he said leaning on the counter. Skinny, 19 year old me replied "I want to buy a Sportster." Now in those days the Sporster was still considered a hot bike, only the new Honda 750/4 pretended to be faster and the Harley people would assure you that it wasn't. Mr. Greasy Hands at the counter turned to someone unseen in the back of the shop and said "Hah! Hey Louie! Da kid thinks he wants to buy a SPORTSTER!" I don't know if I was intimidated or just didn't want to spend money where I wasn't welcome but I left and bought a new Suzuki T500 which in fact was surely a better machine than the old iron head Sportster.I tried in 2003 to buy a Sportster, perhaps some latent seed from Then Came Bronson was still trying to germinate. I visited Chester's Harley Davidson to buy one of the new Sportsters with the rubber mounted engine. The clean, orderly, slightly ignorant sales guy quoted me full retail plus $1200 for set-up...and wouldn't budge on any of it, even got rude when I suggested $1200 to set up a bike like the Sportster was absurd. So I left and bought a new Kawasaki 1600 Classic from Kelly's Kawasaki, surely a much nicer machine than the Sportster. If nothing else I suppose the above stories in a small way illustrate the impression Then Came Bronson made on impressionable teenagers in 1969.
