Page 145 - Been There… Done That!

Been There... Done That!
his son Kelly told me to get some things out of his trailer and add them to our collection. It didn’t fix the debt, but it helped.
Talking to a PR agent one day I mentioned that one day I would like to add celebrity motorcycles to the celebrity cars that I had. He told me that Dan Haggerty had customized a couple of motorcycles for Ann Margret’s stage shows. He got my attention when he said Dan also had the motorcycles from the movie “Easy Rider.” When I asked him if he would introduce me to Dan he said, “Here, let’s call him.” When Dan was on the phone, he told me he had the Harley that Peter Fonda was shot off of in the movie, but the other one had been stolen. All of the bikes would have to be restored and if I were willing to front the expense of the restoration, he would give me half interest in the bikes. We agreed and restoring them was quite an undertaking.The chrome bill on the “Captain America” bike was $16,000. I was warned that when I got them finished, I would have a hard time keeping Dan off of them. I had all of them disabled by removing the pistons, then anchored them on short rolling display tables.
We then had Evel’s jump bike and Ann Margaret’s show bikes plus the ever-famous “Captain America,” claiming them to be the world’s most famous motorcycles. They were beautiful. I got a call from Marion Lucas at the Iowa State Fair and on my word he bought a one-day show with the bikes and Dan Haggerty. We went to Iowa and I was shocked to see people lined up to see them along with Dan. We took pictures and signed autographs from 7:30 am until 4:30 pm, only stopping for Robbie Knievel to jump seventeen
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