On Any Sunday, Again
ON ANY SUNDAY, AGAIN
ROUNDUP
Barstow to Vegas. said one of the guys riding with us and not with the Phantom Duck. "Gosh. I've wanted to do this ever since I saw 'On Any Sunday.' "
He isn't alone. What Marlon Brando did for the image of motorcycles in the mind of the general public, Bruce Brown did for motorcycles in the minds of enthusiasts. -And literally millions of people w ho didn't know they were enthusiasts.
We’ll never know which caused what, but it is true that uncounted numbers of people saw Malcolm Smith's grin, and the deceptive way Malcolm w hooshed past his rivals, and giggled when Steve McQueen fell on his face, and appreciated how the citizens of Elsinore. Calif, didn't mind all the bikes racing through town. And it’s true that many hundreds of thousands of people went out and bought motorcycles during the time OAS was being shown. Did they like bikes because of the movie? Did they like the movie because of bikes?
Does it matter? Thing here is. OAS was the best motorcycle movie ever made. If put onto film all the excitement and fun of riding bikes and a good portion of a generation likes bikes as (we suspect) a result.
It may happen again. Brown has sold rights to the name to a producer, who in turn has hired the cameraman who did most of the original movie.
They will make a sequel. “On Any Sunday II.”
What it will be like, we don’t know. But because our own Joe Parkhurst is involved in the project, and the narrator will be Larry Huffman, the most energetic race announcer ever, and because the men doing the actual work are the same guys, we expect it will be a good movie.
One part we’ve heard about is road racing coverage. Nice deal here. T he movie company is sponsoring an American Federation of Motorcyclist six-hour race at Ontario Motor Speedway on April 29. Because the company is backing the race, the purse has been increased, and because the purse is larger and the teams will have their chance to break into the movies, already there are more entries than there'll be room for.
How will they him it? They’ve built a racing movie bike, with a huge fairing housing four cameras, pointed in all directions. to be ridden bv the legendary Dick “Bugsy” Mann.
The movie will be filmed during 1979 and is expected to appear in theaters or w hatever in 1980. We’re looking forward to it.
