Wild! the Smothers Brothers Motorcycle Hour
WILD! The Smothers Brothers Motorcycle Hour
IT WAS sort of the Smothers Brother Motorcycle Hour-it would have been Brothers, but it rained, and everything became confused.
It all started when automobile race driver/television personality Dick Smothers expressed a desire for a filmed segment for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, the Sunday evening goody. The one-reeler, Dick said, should show lots of people, including Dick Smothers, having a great time on motorcycles.
Dick contacted super/racer Dan Gurney, of grand prix, Indianapolis, All American Racers, and stock car fame. Dan contacted Kim Kimball, chief Montesaman in the West. Kim gathered motorcycles, all of one brand, of course, for the proposed outing. Meanwhile, Gurney gathered in some friends for the day —Parnelli Jones, Richie Ginther, Don (Big Daddy) Garlits, Swede Savage, and Don Prudhomme. The list includes a turbine car driver, a grand prix driver, a 220-mph plus drag racer, a motorcycle racer turned car driver, and another more-than-220 slingshotter.
Tom Smothers was invited, too, to go riding. But, as aforementioned, it rained-and the whole thing was called off. Then, it stopped raining, and the whole thing was called on again, but T om had made other plans, hence missed the junket.
The entire group, four hours late, met at Gurney’s AAR American Eagle’s nest in Santa Ana, Calif. From there, with CYCLE WORLD tagging along, the party headed for the hills-those sandy hummocks behind the coastal town of Dana Point, Calif., which is named after Richard Henry Dana Jr., author of “Two Years Before the Mast.” (Drop one name, drop ’em all.)
The group was met in the hills by a film crew from the Gurney/Shelby organization. This outfit photographs racing Fords, primarily.
The bikes were unloaded from assorted pickup trucks and vans. Engines were started. The sharp crackle of two-stroke exhaust drew famed surfcinematographer Bruce Brown from his home nearby. Clad in Barbour jacket, boots, leather pants and bush hat, the surf film maker, with his Husqvarna, was as ready as anybody.
Anybody and everybody rode off in all directions—much to the consternation of the film crew which was looking for concentrated action. Garlitz departed in a straight line for about a quarter-mile with the throttle full on, then he found out a motorcycle will turn. Ginther proved a veritable dervish. Jones was turbine smooth. Gurney declined to ride in the style that took him to a finish in the Big Bear Run years ago. Prudhomme proved he didn’t require four wheels to wheelie. Kimball crashed, belly down. Savage rode the steepest, sandiest grade as though it were level, and a road race course. Brown showed that hot-shoe and hangfive mean about the same thing. CYCLE WORLD tried to photograph the event, but it was sort of like a motocross being run BOTH ways around the course.
Somehow Smothers got a tail-geared Scorpion, which hampered his activity somewhat. Then he was given a dirtgeared 360 Cappra and things changed. In starred and striped helmet, Smothers leaped the whoop-de-doos for the moviemen, blasted through some gulleys that would make admirable trials sections, and led the troupe of name-brand racers, plus surfer, round and round, back and forth, as hundreds of feet of film clattered through the cameras.
When will all this happy hyperactivity appear on the tube as part of the Smothers Brothers show? Dick said it may-or may not-be presented, depending whether or not sufficient good film results from the outing. For all that CYCLE WORLD knows, the film segment will have been televised before this magazine reaches newstands and mail boxes.
No matter. Dick Smothers and entourage proved that motorcycles are fun, which is something CYCLE WORLD already knew about, anyway. Just think what it would have been if it hadn’t rained and Tom had made the scene. Wild!
