Peter Fonda’s Iconic ‘Easy Rider’ Chopper Headed to Auction Block

Courtesy Everett Collection

‘Easy Rider’
Courtesy Everett Collection
Peter Fonda’s Iconic ‘Easy Rider’ Chopper Headed to Auction BlockRead more: http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/peter-fondas-iconic-easy-rider-chopper-headed-to-auction-block-20140917#ixzz3DsICVKC9
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BY RYAN REED | September 17, 2014
Easy Rider, meet Big Spender: The tricked-out, Captain America Harley-Davidson driven by Peter Fonda in that 1969 film is headed to the auction block on October 18th, and it’s expected to secure a hefty price tag. According to The Associated Press, auction house Profiles in History estimates that the iconic American flag chopper will bring between $1 million and $1.2 million at the sale, which will be held online and at their galleries in Calabasas, California.RELATED alice in wonderland
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The bike’s seller is California businessman Michael Eisenberg, who previously co-owned an L.A.-based, motorcycle-themed restaurant with Fonda and Easy Rider co-star/director Dennis Hopper. Eisenberg acquired the chopper in 2013 from Grizzly Adams star Dan Haggerty, who was responsible for maintaining the custom Harley during filming for the classic counterculture road flick.

Easy Rider stars Fonda and Hopper as two drug-smuggling hippies on a psychedelic – and, ultimately, tragic – cross-country trek to Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Fonda’s panhead chopper, which comes with three letters of authenticity (one signed by the actor himself), features “forward-angled front wheel and handlebars, fishtail exhaust pipes and a teardrop-shaped gas tank.”

While four bikes were created for the film, Haggerty told The Associated Press that the other three were stolen “even before the movie was released,” demonstrating the cultural significance of Easy Rider itself. This particular Harley could be the most significant: It was used during the movie’s literally explosive crash scene climax – which finds Fonda’s character, Wyatt, flying off to his death after being shot at during a drive-by confrontation in Florida.

Eisenberg might rope in a nice chunk of change for his milestone memorabilia, but he also plans to donate “a significant amount” to the American Humane Association in Fonda’s honor.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/peter-fondas-iconic-easy-rider-chopper-headed-to-auction-block-20140917#ixzz3DsHoihjV

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Bob Dylan’s ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ lyrics top $2 million at auction

 

Bob Dylan performs for BBC television in London in 1965. His working draft of lyrics for his hit “Like a Rolling Stone” sold at auction for just over $2 million Tuesday. (Val Wilmer / Redferns / Getty Images)

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Auction ServiceBob DylanPoetryAl CaponeSotheby’s Holdings Incorporated

 

Manuscript for Bob Dylan’s ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ sets auction record for rock lyrics

Unidentified buyer pays $2 million for Dylan lyric manuscript

$2-million sale of Dylan’s ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ tops record of $1.2 million for Beatles’ ‘A Day in the Life’

 

How does it feel? Like a new record for the sale of rock lyrics at auction, as a handwritten manuscript for Bob Dylan’s “Like A Rolling Stone” sold Tuesday for just over $2 million at Sotheby’s auction house in New York.

The identity of the buyer was not released, but the purchase price bested the previous record of $1.2 million paid in 2010 for John Lennon’s lyrics to “A Day in the Life” from “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”

A Sotheby’s photo shows a working draft of Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” that was sold at auction for just over $2 million. (Sotheby’s / Associated Press)

Lyrics to another Dylan classic, “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” sold for $485,000, according to Reuters, at Sotheby’s first dedicated music history sale in more than a decade.

Other items in the sale included memorabilia from the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Elvis Presley, with pre-auction estimates ranging from as little as $200 to $300 to $1 million to $2 million for the draft of “Like A Rolling Stone” that Dylan wrote on stationery from the Roger Smith Hotel in Washington.

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 The manuscript shows, in Dylan’s hand, the lines of the song’s famous refrain “How does it feel/To be on your own/ No direction home/Like a complete unknown” as well as phrases he ulimately rejected including “Al Capone,” “ain’t quite real” and “dry vermouth, you’ll tell the truth.”

According to Sotheby’s, the lyrics were put up for auction by a man identified only as a fan from California “who met his hero in a non-rock context and bought [the lyrics] directly from Dylan.”

Related: ‘Lost’ Bob Dylan lyrics make for ‘New Basement Tapes’ project

Randy Lewis

Follow @RandyLewis2 on Twitter for pop music coverage