Fifty years after its release, Bruce Brown’s motorcycle documentary continues to influence. From Malcolm to Masterson, this is a collection of stories from people whose lives were never the same after watching “On Any Sunday”
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Thank you so much for doing this! Great memories from that era!
On Any Sunday has been a major part of my life.
My cousin, Keith Mashburn, is the rider who goes through the fence at San Jose in the first 10 minutes of the film. (He’s now the Mayor of Simi Valley, CA.) My dad and I went to Ascot Park every Friday night to watch my cousin race. My first real motorcycle was a Yamaha JT-1 that had been my cousin’s pit bike. When we got it, it was pretty thrashed, but my dad wanted to make it into a flattracker. So, we went to our local motorcycle shop, K&N Cycles, and Malcolm Smith himself put a new top end on it and built a down-pipe for it. Malcolm, my dad, and another friend of the family who grew up with Malcolm in San Bernardino often went trail riding in the Santa Ana riverbed near our house in Riverside. When On Any Sunday came out, it was more like watching home movies than a major motion picture.
Fast forward to my late 20’s, I was bartending at a surf bar in Huntington Beach, CA. We sponsored a Legends of Surfing Tournament. Sitting at my bar I heard the unmistakeable voice of Bruce Brown, who was the Grand Marshall of the event. I introduced myself and told him of my connection to On Any Sunday. Months later, at the Del Mar Mile motorcycle race, my cousin Keith wanted to impress me by introducing me to Malcolm. Malcolm laughed, saying “Hey, you’re my bartender!” before Keith could actually introduce us.
Through my 30’s and 40’s, I had been racing amateur flat track for quite a while, with moderate success. I was also a High School History teacher by then. I read in Cycle News that Bruce’s wife had recently passed away. What caught my attention was that they had met while attending Wilson High School in Long Beach. Not only the school I taught at, but where I had attended as well. We were in the process of nominating people for out athletic Hall of Fame. I threw out Bruce’s name. Surely someone of his background deserved to be recognized , having popularized not only motorcycles, but Surfing as well. Our athletic director responded, “Sure, but how are we going to get ahold of him!” I pulled out my cell phone, called my cousin, who gave me Bruce’s number. Like that, Bruce was inducted into our Hall of Fame. At the ceremony, he told of showing a rough cut of “Endless Summer” in our school’s auditorium with him narrating the film live, while a reel-to-reel tape player played the soundtrack.
I still have an On Any Sunday poster hung in my garage, signed by Malcolm, Bruce, and Mert. It’s one of my prized possessions.
I said my cousin introduced me to Malcolm when I should have said Bruce. My mistake
Excellent! I enjoyed every minute of this piece! Thanks!!!! My contribution to the OAS legacy is the new restoration and 5.1 surround remix. It’s an interesting story which is not yet complete as OAS seems poised to get a new wave of well deserved attention this fall;-)