Catherine Dabo still remembers the day that beer-drinking bikers rode their roaring motorcycles through the lobby of her small hotel.
"They didn't hurt anything," she said. "They were just having a good time."That "good time" was the "Battle of Hollister," the rowdy, drunken street party that inspired the movie "The Wild One," and Dabo and others are thrilled that next weekend's 50th anniversary is expected to draw thousands of bikers from all over the world.
Bikers and townspeople agree that the Fourth of July 1947 events were all greatly exaggerated by news articles, by an allegedly staged photograph in Life magazine and by the 1954 movie starring Marlon Brando.
So why celebrate?
"Most motorcyclists look at Hollister as sort of the defining moment, when the perception of the motorcycle began to change," said Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., a devoted biker who plans to attend.
"Before Hollister, there were motorcyclists. After Hollister there were bikers," Campbell said. "Before, motorcycles were transportation; afterward, they became a lifestyle. Before there were friendships; afterward, there was a brotherhood."
Promoters and police expect anywhere from 50,000 to more than 200,000 people for the anniversary bash on Friday and Saturday. Races and concerts are planned in and around the city of 25,000 about 85 miles southeast of San Francisco. Rooms are booked solid from San Francisco to San Luis Obispo, 120 miles to the south.
"There's a German group flying in 700 bikes," said Tom Corbin, vice president of Corbin Inc., a maker of motorcycle seats and accessories putting on a trade show. "A Canadian group from Vancouver is making a 1,000-bike ride down."
Residents have mixed feelings. They're delighted to have the business, and few worry that the bikers will cause trouble, but they're concerned about the crowds.
"I'm glad there are going to be a lot of people here," said Dorothy McNett, who owns a gourmet cookware store. "But we're a small town in a small county. We're just not set up to handle this."
Others are unreservedly enthusiastic.
"I think it's great. Hollister is a small community, but people will know who we are," said Dabo, now 77. "I tell people now that (bikers) are coming to have fun. . . . They're good people; I have nothing bad to say about them."
According to the July 7, 1947, edition of the Hollister Free Lance, carousers attracted by three days of motorcycle competition turned two blocks of San Benito Street into a "race track, fiesta area and beer bottle target range." Nearly half a ton of broken glass was left behind.
Dozens of cyclists were arrested for drunkenness and reckless driving.