← Back to the front page

Our Fashion Choices Today Would Have Been Extremely Questionable in History

Khalid Elhassan April 11, 2022 35 min

21. Post-WWII Bikers Were a Different Crowd Than Prewar Ones

Members of the Pissed Off Bastards of Bloomington. Speed Boys

Hollister’s 1947 Gypsy Tour kicked off on July 3^rd, and before the small town knew it, it had been flooded with about 4000 bikers from across America. The new arrivals instantly doubled Hollister’s population. Never in the pre-war days’ rallies had so many people participated, and Hollister was unprepared for the flood of guests. They included groups with colorful – and to innocent 1940s sensibilities, sinister – names such as The Pissed off Bastards of Bloomington, The Boozefighters, and the Market Street Commandos.

At first, Hollister’s bars welcomed the bikers and the business boom they brought with them. Soon, however, drunk motorcyclists were racing up and down the streets, while bar-wrecking brawls erupted in the drinking establishments. Because Hollister had not expected so many visitors, a housing problem developed. By July 4^th, bikers were sleeping on sidewalks, haystacks, and on people’s lawns. Hollister’s seven-man police force was overwhelmed. They tried to end the chaos with the threats of tear gas, and by arresting as many drunks as they could.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.