Singapore 2010

Day two back from other side of the world. Picked up a cold or something. So many people on the trip. Hope I didn't pick up an Asian thing that there is no cure for...

Sinapore

Finally home from the Singapore Formula 1 race this weekend. 26 hrs total flying time from Singapore with a layover in Tokyo. Singapore is the cleanest city i've ever been to. The people are polite and everything runs like clockwork.
Matt and I had a great time mingling with F1 fans from all over the world.
Glad to be home.

Lee Marvin

Good shot of a young Lee marvin. Taken in 1953 during the filming of "The Wild One," he was only eight years out from his service as a Marine at Iwo Jima.
Motorcycle historians claim that Marvin's character in the film, as leader of "The Beetles" motorcycle club, more closely resembled a rebel bike rider of the fifties in his dress and attitude, than did Brando's character.

Brando rode a Triumph, and Marvin a stripped down Harley, but Harley got the bad rap for a generation as far as being the bike of choice for "bad boy" riders.

You're toast

Look closely. What do you do now?

October 2010 Asylum Mobilitarium

October 2010 Asylum Mobilitarium

Recently at a members meeting, actually for two months in a row, there have been in attendance the new managers and supervisors of the Allen Harley-Davidson dealership.

I’m a charter member of Panther Creek HOG and was there when the Allen store opened with the three owners Big Greg, Little Greg, and Doug Locke. They were great guys and old school Harley people to the core. There were good times and bad back there, but we all survived.

I’m a Harley man down to the core and yes, bleed orange and black. I have never had a street bike from the evil empire, and was kind of confused when the new owners bought the two dealerships. But you know, some riders who maybe at one time had never been exposed to the Harley-Davidson cult and culture, once they are embraced by the fever, seem to come over and say, “What was I thinking?”

The “thing” just takes hold of you, and doesn’t let go. We are the third or fourth or maybe fifth generation of Harley owners since 1903. Many of us can look back and find grainy black and white, or those seventy’s faded color pictures of our relatives riding Harley-Davidson’s. It’s all about being a true American patriot, and riding a true American motorcycle that profits stay in this country. Let the tradition continue.

Buy American, sleep well, and no ghosts of WWII will come to haunt you.

I saw today that Harley-Davidson and its unions had come to an agreement where the existing HD factories located in Wisconsin, will stay for the time being. In the text however, one can see that it was a close vote, and there are a lot of disgruntled union employees.

I had a 1970 Corvette for about 19 years. It was special because it was an air convertible, and it was a 1970 model, which few were made. There was a strike at GM in 1969 apparently. When the workers went back to work, many felt like it was not a good contract. The delayed 1970 Corvette’s did not come off the assembly line until January 1970. I never had any problems with mine, but the majority of 1970 Corvette’s and other Chevrolet’s were known to have some defects that were thought to be a result of sabotage. Like I said, I never had a problem that I thought was a result of someone intentionally doing something to screw up a car, but others obviously did.

I’m glad that HD and the unions came to an agreement. I would have a hard time going to Harley’s 110^th in Milwaukee knowing that some of the factories were no longer there. Just “gutted” I guess is a good word.

Nostalgia is a sentimental way of going back through time. I’ve always been a collector of sorts, from music to books, even Harley-Davidson dealer T-shirts which I have a bunch.

And I often talk about the proverbial old motorcycle in a barn.

That is my dream, to find authentic Dallas Police Harley-Davidson, AMF era or before, but pre-1977.There was a report recently that a DPD Harley that was used in the Kennedy motorcade in November 1963 was going to auction. Despite being a usually reliable source, I never found the bike or the auction. It would be a treasure from the past, with a ghost still in the machine. An old friend once told me about an old Harley hanging from the ceiling of a garage on West Davis St. in Oak Cliff. I used to drive down that street many times looking for that garage, but never found it. Oh well.

We are lucky that our passion for Harley-Davidson provides a wealth of nostalgia and memories and it’s not only old motorcycles that invoke those feelings.  Unfortunately there are only so many Harley-Davidson’s that one can own. Unless you’re Jay Leno. Money, space, and the fact that you can only ride one at a time. But there is no limit to photographs, mementos, and memories to collect.

There is over 100 years of HD memories out there. Harley has done a great job of looking toward the future but remembering the past. Even in the pivotal year of 1936, when HD dealers from across the country viewed the first Knucklehead at the annual dealer’s convention, HD had managed to create a new engine that basically looked and sounded like the motors that veteran HD dealers had come to love. Even with the engine as it was, with the four massive head bolts that looked somewhat like knuckles on your hand, the dealers thought that this engine was very up to date and streamlined. But the motor still had the look and sound of the old engines that had served HD so well. The whole bike was very modern and they immediately feel in love with it.

Even today, with the V-Rod and its water cooled Revolution engine (which may in all HD’s someday,) it has been developed with future Harley riders in mind. Harley-Davidson has always done this. The company takes very small steps to attract new riders, but not forgetting the traditional Harley person. It’s worked so far.

As well as motorcycles, there are several good books on HD collectibles that evoke pleasant memories of times gone by. One tome I have trouble with is because it attempts to put a price on objects such as goggles, racing sweaters, and other articles of clothing worn by bike riders of the past. Of course one can’t put a price on memories, so I’m glad that I don’t have the job of valuing the past.

Isn’t it almost impossible to put a price on such articles of clothing worn by riders for many years that experienced memories of his or her own during the first part of the century? There was vintage motorcycle clothing shop in Wichita Falls Texas called Ghost Clothes. I visited the shop in 2004 on the way to Sturgis. At the recent Texas HOG Rally, I looked for it but I guess it had gone out of business. I wonder why? Could it be the economy, or the fact they could not figure a way to accurately place a price on memories.

Certain items like an old dealer clock may go for $1000.00 at an auction, but a metal pin from an AMA Gypsy  tour from the 1950’s might be priceless to you if it were worn by a relative or close friend. There are parts books, dealer brochures, spark plugs still in the box with an oily thumb print of some long ago mechanic who put the box back on the shelf because he found it didn’t fit the bike he was working on at the time.

These items, one would have a hard time putting a price on.

And you know, it is comforting these days to be able to hold on to a physical object that was used during a better time.

Harley-Davidson has been around through two world wars, two or three undeclared wars, the Depression, several recessions, assassinations, and other crises that have been bestowed on this country. According to the book "Well Made In America," the company had survived five crisis's as of the printing of the book in 1990. You might say the company is in it's sixth crisis, that being an economy that has gone south. Americans discretionary income is obviously not what it used to be. Luckily, the new management in Milwaukee has decided to lay off workers, and decrease production for the near future in an attempt to wait out this troubled time in American history.

Bill “Willie Hank” Croom

Panther Creek Historian

Youths Gone Astray since 1955

www.asylummobilitarium.blogspot.com

  

Hill Climber

Good shot of a rider about to (possibly) fly off his bike as it crests a hill somewhere along time ago. Notice the lack of safety equipment. No helmet, cloves, goggles. And the crowd seems awfully close to the action.

The only safety item that was mandated was a cord that was attached to the riders wrist. If he flew off the bike, the cord would become disconnected from a lead on the electrical system of his machine. The engine would then be grounded out and the bike would (hopefully) stop. The forward momentum, and the still spinning wheels, often would still cause the out of control bike to go barreling through the crowd, banging off flesh and bones.
Brave men alright...

The Old Lion.

Singapore 2010

Hollister California 1947

On July 4th, 1947 there was the infamous "biker riot," that set the tone for the stereotyping of bike riders that persist to this day. This photo was staged by a Life magazine reporter who stumbled onto this "straight piper," motorcycle rally. According to the guy in the beard, standing behind the drunk, the Life magazine reporter snagged a big local drunk and pointed to a nearby bike and said to sit on it.The photog and his assistant then kicked a bunch of beer bottles around the bike and even though the drunk was a local and not a motorcycle rider,history was made...  

Mustang and Harley-Davidson

One cannot get more American than a Harley-Davidson and a 1967 Mustang. The ghosts of WWII will leave you alone if you ride or drive one of these.

Van Halen

I saw 'em about three years ago at the AAC. Great band. They used to play the yearly Texxas Jam's at the Cotton Bowl.

In my garage 8-track collection, I have a bunch of 'em! 

Golden age of motorcyling

A classic shot of some bike riders from probably the late thirties or forties. Flying caps, goggles, riding boots create the look. Maybe your parents, uncles, aunts, who knows? The memories they created. They could write a book.

Ford Shelby GT

A duplicate of my 2007. Built in Flat Rock Mich. Transported to Carroll Shelby's factory in Las Vegas to be transformed into a Shelby Mustang,just like they did between 1965-1968.

A new take on an old story

1977-78 HD XLCR Cafe Racer

Only lasted for about a year and a half. Highly collectable today. Too Harley for sport bike riders. Too sport bike for Harley riders. Buy one if you ever find one thats intact.

The kind of man who reads Playboy 1969

When I was in the 8th grade or so, there was my good looking ( at least to a 13 year old ) blond next door neighbor. She was in high school, but always seemed to go out with much older guys. I wonder if now, with her being in her fifties I guess,does she now find it better to go out with much younger men. Funny how life is.
I remember sitting on the front porch one day contemplating how unfair it is to have to go through puberty,when a guy ( I suppose her boyfriend, or more likely just a date, I didn't know the difference,) pulled up in a '69 Mustang Boss 302. I remember the C-stripe on the side. The 1970 Boss 302 had a hockey stick stripe, so I know it was the much rarer 1969.
He seemed like he was a pretty cool guy. Not the hippie type of the time, but a guy with Sean Connery type hair with the then fashionable sideburns and a turtleneck complete with a blazer. He probably had a "bachelor pad" somewhere on Gaston Avenue or maybe over by the then hopping Love Field, much like the "swinging single guy"digs one would read about in Playboy. I'm thinking in 1969 he was much like"The kind of man who reads Playboy,"as the magazine would advertise at the time.
I'm not sure whatever happened to the guy, but the girl got a mid-year Corvette later on which to this 13 year old, made her much better looking than before!
I believe that later on in life she went through the usual job dissapointments, out of control kids, and troubled marriages. Tearful nights, angry dawns as Carol King would later write. But in the summer of '69, the whole world was watching, and it was good.
Now Ford is coming out with an 2011 Boss 302. Ford can do no wrong nowadays.

A 1969 Boss 302 would go for 100K+ at the Barrett-Jackson auction. If you find one in a barn, buy it.

In the 1953 film The Wild One with Marlon Brando, the Black Rebel Motorcycle member to the left is the guy who played Jerry Helper, Dick Van Dykes next door neighbor in the 60's TV show, The Dick Van Dyke Show.

Ground Zero,Pearl Harbor

Some of the events this writer remembers, the day Kennedy was shot and watching Walter Cronkite crying as I was home sick from the second grade that Friday. I remember sitting  in my parents den building a model airplane when Martin Luther King was murdered, and the death of Bobby Kennedy, watching Walter Cronkite telling the story.
The night in July 1969 when we landed on the moon. Walter Cronkite again, everybody watched Cronkite back then.The images of an American helicopter in May 1975 landing on the roof of the American embassy in Saigon taking the last U.S. government workers to safety.
The night a bunch of us SWAT guys were watching the first Gulf War happening on real time in 1991 on a TV at the station.
Being at a PT test at Fair Park when Rich Emberlin came up to me and asked if I had heard a plane had hit a building in NYC. He was listening to a radio while running.
Watching the buildings collapsing in my office surrounded by other officers crowding around the TV.

The panic that set in with the City ( all cities) after the attack.
The first time I visited Pearl Harbor.
The only time I visited Ground Zero.

Corvette Racing. American Le Mans Series 2010

Corvettes are racing this year. As in the past say...56 or so years. Road Atlanta is next...

Yamaha 305 and tough guys

In the mid sixties, one of my first experiences with motorcycles and its culture was a bunch of guys riding Yamaha 305's. I remember the slick back hair, white t-shirts, jeans, white socks, and Beatle boot type footwear. I knew a guy down the street that had a BSA Goldstar, but it was the Yamaha's that made the greatest impression. I wonder what ever happened to these guys tearing around the Grove spreading mayhem?

Probably sales reps...

Get Yer Ya Ya's Out! The Rolling Stones

I've seen the Stones 8 times. First in 1975 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. I still have the $10.00 ticket stub. The last in January 2006 at Madison Square Garden in NYC.
Arguably the best live album ever made, "Get Yer Ya Ya's Out" featured drummer Charlie Watts jumping on the cover.
The album was recorded at MSG in 1969 during the tour that included the infamous Altamont Calif. tour that the movie " Gimme Shelter" was based on.

Back in the Day. Memories of the Dallas Police Department

October 2010 Dallas Police Shield

Picture; Dallas Police Department before the 1936 Texas Centennial at Fair Park. The Scottish Rite building at Young and Harwood Streets, is still there.

In the last few years, I have talked with many retirees at the monthly lunch meetings in Mesquite, and at other functions along the way. I always encourage the former members of the DPD to write a letter or e-mail me about their experiences. I always enjoy reading about how it was to be a police officer in Dallas “Back in the Day,” as I like to put it. I appreciate all the input. Once again my e-mail address is dmntia1995@aol.com. Please send ‘em in.

One interesting e-mail I received and have saved for a future publication is from retired Officer Gayle Tippit. The officer was working in November 1963 when President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. Of course we all know the story of the tragic death of Officer J.D. Tippit at the hands of Lee Harvey Oswald on that 22nd of November in Oak Cliff.

I’ve asked “Tip” as his friend’s call him, what is was like during the days and weeks that followed. He has related to me that for years, he was asked if he was related to J.D. (he wasn’t.) I’m sure that he fielded questions for his entire career and beyond about the name he shared with the officer that arguably, is the most famous police officer in American history.

These are just some of his musing’s. I hope to hear from him again. Some of the words, such as “horetels ” were police slang from a distant time. The term “rank rook” is good. I’ll use that at some point with Tip’s permission! It describes the same kind of “no tell motels,” but using a different word, from a different type of police officer.” I admire these officers. They were hard men; you didn’t mess with ‘em.

The streets that Tip talks about were just south of downtown, around where the city hall is now. I’ve seen pictures of a rather large hotel that sat where the current slanted building now stands. I remember as a “rank rook” that some of these buildings on these streets still stood in 1977. It’s interesting that Tip mentions that the “girls” weren’t afraid of the uniformed officers, but would occasionally allow themselves to be arrested and go peaceably so that the officers could show that they were doing SOMETHING to stem the tide of the oldest profession. These are Tip’s words, with light editing on my part.

OLD stuff from 1950.

Your mention of the old “horetels” stirred this up. There were streets named Griffin (still) Corsicana (still) St Louis (still) Pocahontas & Peters (gone) there were BIG, mostly two, three story houses on both sides of these streets and I do not remember even one that was not full of whores. Also, several walkup “horetels.” I was assigned to these areas as a rank rook. The old heads knew most of the girls and would talk to them and the girls freely talked because the uniforms seldom if ever bothered them. Once in a great while we would place one in jail, just because we needed to prove we were working and the girls knew what this was about and never complained.

You could drive your personal car along these streets and there were arms or legs waving out the windows and from porches along with whistles and HEY'S. Anything to attract attention to the available wares inside.

The then number two chief was O. P. Wright, nicknamed Pokey. It was storied that he acquired the name Pokey because he found a dead horse on Pocahontas and did not know how to spell it so tied a rope around the dead horse’s neck and drug it around to St Louis St. with his squad car, so his report was that he found the horse there.

Peters St. There was a back room joint at 1108 Peters. The dispatcher, there was only one, would say "Disturbance at eleven hundred eight and Peters in the rear".

The dispatch office, about 10' square was in the basement at the head of the stairs to the locker room in the sub basement. We stopped there at the end of our tour and got our call sheets & filled out action taken on the back. We had one "female dog complaint", my senior partner wrote "already knocked up".

Tip

This next story from Tip is about Officer Leonard Mullinax, who was killed in Deep Ellum at the Sherman Hotel in 1962. Mullinax was a former motor jock who, at the time of his death, worked in Vice. He was also up for a promotion to Sergeant. He and an informant had gone to the “horetel” to confront the Irish hotel owner, about some bootlegging complaints. The following is Tip’s recollection.

Your mention of Leonard Mullinax and the Sherman “Horetel” brought back some memories. I happened to be on duty when that happened. I had to go to Parkland. They took me to Leonard’s body, naked. He asked me to find the bullet hole. I could not find it until they showed it to me.

.25 hole in his navel, totally out of sight without a bit of probing. Roy Westphal, whom I had known since he was knee high, was his partner. I got the story from him. They were going down the stairway, the guy was a step or two below Mullinax when he turned and fired point blank. The round went upward into Mullinaxes heart killing instantly. I’m not sure why they had not searched him; however he (the Irish owner) was not under arrest at that moment.

Tip.

Another story from Tip is this interesting tidbit about the drama that was city court back in the fifties. I’ve talked to several officers from this time and it seems to me that they were always in city court. I do believe that an officer would have to show up every day to see if a violator showed up to dispute the officer’s citations. And amazingly, no comp time or overtime was available.

Early 1950s

Any and all court cases were set when you rotated to late nights. There was NO pay or comp time for attending court.

I observed a "Grapette" delivery truck driving very erratically, driver was very drunk. Turned out another Officer had arrested him near the same location ONE week earlier. Months later he and I were on late nights, cases come up in Joe B. Browns Court. Judge reads the docket. One by one, on ours "PASS this case until 2 PM." I was dumb enough to be in the courtroom at 2:00 PM. NO JUDGE, no one else present. I went home to bed. Next time on late nights, court again, same result BUT I went home to bed this time. Forward this to SIX more times. When the case was passed to 2:00 PM, I approached the bench and stated as follows:

“Judge this is the 7th time this same procedure has occurred and nothing more happened. “ Told him of my being dumb enough to there again at 2:00 PM the first time. You can get me fired or put me in jail but DO NOT issue another subpoena to me because I am NOT coming back on this case again. Turned and walked out. Never heard another word about it.

We got to the point when we observed a DWI we would stop them get them out of the car. Lock it and throw the keys away and drive off, leaving them there afoot after we searched them for extra keys to the auto. NOTE: statute of limitations are LONG run out.

Also around this same time there were twin, flannel mouth lawyers, Ross & Doss Hardin. Watching them defend a DWI in court was a three ring circus. They were the clowns and tried the Officers. Last time I saw them they appealed a suspended sentence on a DWI. They ended up getting the defendant placed in jail immediately.

Tip

Another retired officer that I see at the monthly retiree lunch’s is retired Sergeant Jim Behringer. I wrote a few issues ago about the concert in 1964 with the Beatles headlining. The concert happened at Memorial Auditorium (still there,) and way before Reunion Arena (gone.)

Sergeant Behringer took the time to write a description of what it was like to be Elvis Presley’s security officer during his concert in Dallas. He wrote that Dallas Police were given specific instructions about working with “The King.”

I know Elvis played the Cotton Bowl in the fifties. I believe the Sergeant is talking about Elvis’ comeback tour in the early seventies, when Dallas was a stop.

Sergeant Behringer wrote that he was told that no other officer was to have direct contact with Elvis except himself. No police were to ask for his autograph. Behringer had to order an officer from another department to leave as he was determined to get an autograph.

At the Cabana Hotel (now a jail, also where the Beatle’s stayed during their visit,) only a few officers were allowed on the floor where Elvis was holed up. Any visitors to the floor had to state their business and be cleared as Behringer notified the requested party. The sergeant mentioned that all of Elvis’ musicians were extremely courteous to the police.

At the convention center, security was also very tight. There were only four officers at the center anywhere near Elvis, and only Behringer having direct contact. Apparently Elvis put on quite a show. He was sweating profusely in his white suit and looked like he had just gotten out of a shower! His crew immediately wrapped the rock and roller in towels.

As Elvis and his entourage were getting on their plane at Love Field to leave, several of Elvis’ people told Behringer that Dallas Police provided some of the best concert security they have seen in a long time.

I wonder if Sergeant Behringer actually scored an autograph? I’ll have to ask him.

I received a letter at the DPA recently from retired Sergeant Leslie Berlharz who served between 1954 and 1989. The letterhead indicated that the letter was from the “Rakkasan’s” 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team Assn. The sergeant served as an Army Paratrooper from 1951-1954 in the Korean War. When Berlharz got out of the Army, he joined the Dallas Police Department.

Sergeant Berlharz is a member of the “ Rakkasan’s” alumni association.

I wrote in the September 2010 issue of The Shield about the night of June 6th, 1944 when the Allies hit Normandy Beach. The radio announced the invasion around 3 AM to the public that Europe was being liberated. Sergeant Berlharz grew up on Swiss Avenue in Dallas in the 1940’s. Here he relates his experience that day as he was a delivery boy for the now defunct Dallas Times Herald.

The Sergeant writes that he and his brother had paper routes in East Dallas. Their District Manager, Mr. Wilbanks, called the boys early that morning to hurry downtown and sell “EXTRAS.”

They were given fifty papers to sell. It seemed to the paper boys that all of Dallas had come downtown to catch up on the latest war news. It’s a trait of human nature that anything BIG, good or bad , is best experienced with other people. This is my personal observation of course but there you go.

Anyway, the fifty papers were immediately sold out, and the two brothers went back and got fifty more! Berlharz wrote that he and his brother had similar experiences with the selling of newspapers on V-E and V-J Days in 1945.

Sergeant Berlharz tells an interesting story about how NBC radio first learned of the invasion from German broadcasts! Apparently NBC reported the first news of the invasion saying that they were monitoring Nazi overseas radio broadcasts that the invasion had begun. The news reports were directed to the German people from Berlin saying that Allied Paratroopers had landed in force in France.

NBC reported this saying that they could not confirm the news since there was an Allied “NEWS BLACKOUT” over the southern half of England (where the invasion started,) for the seventy two hours previous to June 6th.

These stories and others I’ve received are important to the history of the everyday life of a Dallas Police Officer. I enjoy reading these e-mails and letters and encourage anyone with stories to share to e-mail me at dmntia1995@aol.com. You can write to the DPA as well and they will forward letters to me.

W.H.Croom,II #3973

Retired Senior Corporal

Youths Gone Astray since 1955

www.asylummobilitarium.blogspot.com

In 1999 and 2000 I saw the HD VR-1000's race at Daytona Bike Week. In 2000 Scott Russell, "Mr Daytona" was hired by HD as the big gun to beat the Italians and Japanese with the HD VR-1000 motorcycle.
Unfortunantly for Harley, Russell got into a bar fight the night before the race. At the beginning of the race, the announcement was made to 100,000 people, mostly Harley fans, that Scott would not race because he had a broken jaw. You could hear a giant "moan" spread over the gigantic and historic race track.

Then, about half the stands began to empty out as disgusted HD fans vacated the premises.
Sad. Harley might have done well with this famous rider.
But the VR-1000's were beneficial to the company. They used a version of a new ( for Harley) water cooled engine. When the VR-1000 program was canceled about 2001, because of Harley's lack of success and the high price of racing, the V-Rod came out with the water cooled Revolution engine.
HD has a proud racing heritage. This was but one chapter.

Mods

I had an earlier post describing the Mods vs Rockers wars in England in the early 1960's.I wrote about how the "Rockers" were considered "toughs" and people were alarmed by these daredevils on their fast bikes,yes by the usually calm and sedate British.They seem kind of harmless today, but back in the day, these guys were the ones your parents told you not to look at, as they passed your station wagon on the freeway.
This piece refers to the "other guys," the Mods.
The Rockers, BSA's, Triumphs, Matchless bikes, leather clad, Gene Vincent, Elvis, Del Shannon,other early rock and rollers.
The Mods, guys with sharp suits ( Sting played a Mod in The Who's Quadrophenia,) African and Jamaican Ska music, British beat and R&B tunes were popular with this part of the English sub-culture. Italian scooters ( and suits!),skinny ties. Being "Sharp" was the watchword.

The Ace Cafe in London was a hangout for both of these groups in the 60's.
The word Mod was later used to describe a fashion trend in the late 1960's in the UK and US that had nothing to do with sharp suits.
This photo is from an exhibit in England. Check out the heavily modified Vespa's, Italjets, and others. The pictures in the background were of actors and extras in the movie. Sting is in the middle.
There was a revival of the Mods in England in the late 1970's, and transfered to the states in the late 1980's.
And, yes, scooters are back, go to Deep Ellum, Uptown, they are all over the place. So far no suits, or gobs of mirrors on their machines however.