The seminal event in "outlaw biker" culture was a 1947 weekend in Hollister, California. Motorcyclists, including members of the Boozefighters club, engaged in street racing and other raucous activities. A sensationalized report of the event ran in LIFE magazine, along with frightening (albeit posed) photos of the outlaws. Was the event (later portrayed in Marlon Brando's The Wild One) as wild as reported? Or, in truth, was it even wilder? The answer is found in this book filled with first-person accounts from past and present members of the Boozefighters and others on the scene. This is gripping narrative of a now-legendary event. It's a true story that is more interesting than the caricatured outlaw legend that has grown up around the name Hollister.

"Hayes puts real human faces with, and lends authentic human voices to the legends, myths and lore of those early biker days . The narrative is helped along considerably by the many vintage photographs, most of them black-and-white snaps, that show clearly the youthful glint in the eyes of then-young-men. There is little tough-guy posturing in those old pictures. Most of the guys are smiling, happy to be alive and happy to be on their bikes . Frozen in time, they have no idea that they're about to ride straight into the history books. And that's what makes them so appealing and what makes The Original Wild Ones worth reading."

RoadBike, March 2006 (circ.: 55,997)

"A raucous and heartfelt recounting of the early days of biker clubs."