July 14, 1969: "Easy Rider" Premieres

July 14, 1969: Easy Rider premieres, the 1st major motion picture to completely embrace the Hippie branch of rock and roll.

The film's main poster showed Peter Fonda, saying, "A man went looking for America. And couldn't find it anywhere... "

The son of Henry Fonda, and the older brother of Jane Fonda, Peter had to do what Jane had already done: Establish his own "brand," separate from Henry, just as Jane had already done. He wrote the film with Dennis Hopper and Terry Southern. Fonda produced it, and Hopper directed.

The film is best known for its soundtrack, especially its opening credits scene, with Fonda's Wyatt and Hopper's Billy (no last names are ever mentioned) riding their motorcycles across the Mojave Desert out of Los Angeles, crossing the Colorado River into Arizona, on their way to New Orleans to participate in the festivities for Mardi Gras.

As they, and the credits, roll, the song being played is "Born to Be Wild" by Steppenwolf, forever putting it in people's minds as the ultimate motorcycle-riding song. Cinematographer László Kovács later said that $1 million -- about 3 times the cost of shooting the film -- was spent on securing songs for the soundtrack.

But the opening credits scene is not the first scene. The film begins with revealing Wyatt's and Billy's profession: They are drug smugglers and dealers. They begin by selling cocaine to a skeevy-looking guy in a limousine, played by famed music producer Phil Spector -- who, in real life, was skeevier than any character in the film, and that includes the participants in the film's sex scene in a New Orleans cemetery.

Let me repeat that: Wyatt and Billy are drug dealers. They are not heroes. Their ultimate fate is not a tragedy.

Jack Nicholson, not yet a big star, plays George Hanson, a longhaired but otherwise fairly square lawyer. If the most normal guy in your movie is played by Jack Nicholson, there's a problem. Nicholson delivers the film's best line, written by Southern: "Don't ever tell anybody that they're not free, 'cause then they're gonna get real busy killin' and maimin' to prove to you that they are."

I was born a few months after this movie was released. I never saw it until I was 33 years old. Given the music, I thought I would love it. Instead, I hated it. I couldn't root for the "heroes," and the villains weren't worth it, either. And what was the point of the movie? To show that good guys didn't always look like good guys? There were no good guys. Except Jack Nicholson.

Southern died in 1995, Kovács in 2007, Hopper in 2010, Fonda in 2019, Spector in 2021. As of July 14, 2022, Nicholson is still alive. 

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July 14, 1969 was a Monday. It was also the day the brief "Football War" between El Salvador and Honduras began. I have a separate post for this event.

These Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Mets lost to the Chicago Cubs, 1-0 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Bill Hands pitched a 6-hit shutout to outpitch Tom Seaver. But the Mets would beat the Cubs out for the National League Eastern Division title.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 2-0 at Jarry Park in Montreal. Bill Stoneman pitched an 8-hit shutout. Roberto Clemente got 3 of those hits. Willie Stargell didn't get any of them, although he did draw a walk.

* The Washington Senators beat the Detroit Tigers, 3-0 at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Washington. Joe Coleman pitched a 5-hit shutout.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Chicago White Sox, 4-3 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Harmon Killebrew went 1-for-4. Rod Carew got a hit as a pinch-hitter.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Houston Astros, 4-1 at the Astrodome in Houston.

* The California Angels beat the Kansas City Royals, 2-0 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). George Brunet pitched a 2-hit shutout.

* The New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox were rained out at Yankee Stadium. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader the next day. The Red Sox won the opener, 7-6. Ray Culp outpitched Mel Stottlemyre. Joe Pepitone and Frank Fernandez hit home runs. The Yankees won the nightcap, 4-1. Stan Bahnsen outpitched Sonny Siebert. Over the 2 games, Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-7, but drew 2 walks.

* The Baltimore Orioles and the Cleveland Indians were rained out at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader 2 days later. The Indians won the 1st game, 6-4. The Orioles won the 2nd game, 6-5. Over the 2 games, Brooks Robinson went 2-for-9, and Frank Robinson went 2-for-4 with a home run, a walk and an RBI.

* And the Atlanta Braves, the Cincinnati Reds, the Philadelphia Phillies, the St. Louis Cardinals, the San Diego Padres, the San Francisco Giants, the Oakland Athletics and the Seattle Pilots were not scheduled.