The problem is that Haggerty has said that twice - in writing. The burly, bearded actor used those remains, he said, to restore the chopper to its original glory. After the movie shoot, Haggerty said, Hall gave him the remains of the crashed Captain America. The three remaining bikes were stolen from the film’s stuntman - at gunpoint, from Tex Hall’s home, while he and his wife were bound and gagged, Fonda and Haggerty said. The Captain America stunt double was crashed and almost destroyed in the filming of “Easy Rider’s” final sequence in which Hopper and Fonda are shotgunned off their motorcycles by a hippie-hating redneck. The extra bikes were to be ridden by stunt doubles, or by the stars in case of mechanical difficulties. They commissioned two chopper builders in Watts to fashion two Captain America bikes for Fonda’s character and two “Billy” bikes for Hopper’s. The history of the “Easy Rider” motorcycles is a twisted one.īefore filming began in 1968, Fonda and Dennis Hopper, his “Easy Rider” director and costar, bought four used Harley-Davidson motorcycles at a Los Angeles Police Department auction. “There’s a big rat stinking someplace in this,” the 74-year-old actor said. But he retracted that authentication in an interview with The Times this week, saying Haggerty duped him.įonda said he has no idea which bike - if either - was the one actually crashed in the movie. Parham said the sale was contingent, in fact, on Fonda’s blessing.īelieving it to be the real machine, Fonda signed the gas tank. Peter Fonda - who co-wrote “Easy Rider” and rode Captain America in the movie - once authenticated that bike, at Haggerty’s request, after Parham bought it. “Dan Haggerty is the only guy who knows,” Eisenberg said. Eisenberg bought the bike in early 2014 from John Parham, a Midwestern motorcycle parts magnate who had purchased the bike from Haggerty 12 years earlier.Įisenberg insists his bike is the real one, because Haggerty says it is. Not so, says the current owner, Michael Eisenberg, a Los Angeles real estate agent and collector of Hollywood memorabilia. “I own the original remaining Captain America bike. “They know damn well they don’t have the real bike,” Granger said. Its principal authentication comes from “Grizzly Adams” actor Dan Haggerty, who had a bit part in “Easy Rider” and claims to have taken possession of the only bike that survived the filming of the druggy road movie. It was the motorcycle’s owner, Michael Eisenberg, who made Fonda that offer. 17 Section A about the auction of a motorcycle said to have been used in the film “Easy Rider” said that the auction house Profiles in History offered actor Peter Fonda a share in the proceeds to promote the sale. With its star-spangled gas tank, it might be the most famous motorcycle in history.īut caveat emptor: This Captain America might be a phony. This weekend, the gavel will fall at a Calabasas auction of the “Captain America” chopper used in the filming of the 1969 movie “Easy Rider.”īidding for the gleaming vintage Harley-Davidson could reach $1.2 million, estimates the auction house, Profiles in History, which specializes in Hollywood artifacts.
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