Peter Fonda's Stars and Stripes helmet from the movie Easy Rider (1969) went to auction seven days ago ... and failed to raise a single bid of $25,000. By my assessment, it's worth more than $500,000. What happened?
Painted in the same red, white and blue, stars and stripes design as the tank of the Easy Rider chopper motorcycle that sold for $1.65 million, this helmet is the other half of a matching set of generational icons...
But in this case, we know for sure it's the real one. One of the great tragedies for the collectibles industry has been the loss of clarity about what happened to the Captain America chopper that starred in the 1969 counter-culture movie that became a blockbuster.
Several motorcycles are claimed to be the original movie bike, but a tragic tale of compounding deceptions and an untimely death means we’ll never know for certain.
The motorcycle most likely to be the Easy Rider Captain America Chopper sold for $1.65 million (including Buyer's Premium) – but legal proceedings followed, and the authenticity of the bike came under question, and a confidential out-of-court settlement gave the greater public no more clarity.
To put that price in perspective, no motorcycle has ever sold for more than a million dollars at auction other than the disputed $1.65 million, which was never paid.
The most expensive motorcycle ever sold at auction thus remains a 1908 Strap-tank Harley-Davidson that fetched $935,000, with a Vincent Black Lightning holding second place at $928,000.
Just as recognisable as Wyatt's Harley-Davidson Panhead custom chopper though, is the stars and stripes Captain America helmet worn by Peter Fonda during the movie, spending additional screen time sitting atop the chopper’s sissy bar.
The film clips that propagated on music channels across the world with the success of the movie's hit sound track, Steppenwolf's Born to be Wild, meant that those who didn't see the movie, got the message.
Once you'd seen the distinctive imagery of Wyatt (Peter Fonda's character) riding the Captain America scoot with Born to be Wild imprinting it on society's neurons, the music coming out of every car radio in the summer of 1969 kept reinforcing the message.
The booming TV video clip industry that was emerging from the record industry at that time played a key enabling role.
It was a moment in time in more ways than one.
Steppenwolf's Born to Be Wild was released on 9 May 1968, reaching number 2 on Billboard's top 100 before dropping off the charts. When it was used as the signature tune of the 1969 Easy Rider movie, sales went crazy, and a global hit song resulted as the movie, TV and radio media assets cooked up a storm.
Once the movie was released, Born to be Wild was more than 12 months old and ineligible for a spot on the Billboard charts, but the movie catalysed far more sales and recognition than the initial release.
Born to Be Wild is often described as the first hit song from the "heavy metal" genre and the second-verse lyric "heavy metal thunder" is the first use of that term in rock music. The distinctively different sound of the ADHD-soothing music locked them firmly together into a generation's most resonant imagery.
The 1960s introduced the concept of alternative cultures to a receptive new generation of "baby boomers", and an arthouse movie made with a budget of $400,000 took $60 million globally at the box office - in 1969 dollars - because it resonated with the youth of the day.
Unlike the motorcycles that are claimed to have been used in the movie, the helmet’s authenticity is unimpeachable.
The helmet was taken from the movie set in 1969 by the film's Assistant Director Len Marsal and has been part of his collection ever since - this helmet had never been previously offered at public auction and IMHO, it carries all the same iconic counter-culture brand values as the motorcycle. I had expected those values to shine through at auction.
Indeed, I thought perhaps the loss of the 'real' motorcycle from the movie could make this helmet even more valuable. In many ways, the significance of the Captain America chopper and its absence, could arguably make this one of the more valuable cultural icons of all time... But the auction price, or lack thereof, means I/we might need to recalibrate something.
There is a catch in buying this helmet; the paint finish is quite fragile and susceptible to loss of paint flakes when handled. Indeed, so much of the original paint has flaked off that it looks awful, but it is far from irredeemable.
If Dianne Dwyer Modestini can restore Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi to its $500 million magnificence, then a satisfactory result for this helmet can almost certainly be achieved too, probably for much less effort. It is already photo-matched and validated as the real deal, so why not repaint it? This is routinely done with cars, so why not with helmets?
Identical Bell helmets of the right vintage are also still readily available, and perhaps the original can be frozen in time complete with battle scars, but as it was last worn in the movie, while a repainted Bell could form part of the display, portraying it as it would have been during filming.
Indeed, this helmet authentically captures a moment in cinematic history and cultural history.
The raw authenticity of the Easy Rider movie captured the spirit of the period in which it was released, and this is the only lasting memento of the movie that we know is genuine!
The authenticity of the helmet will carry the day regardless of whatever format it might be presented in, because it has been screen-matched to scenes in the movie, including the iconic scenes of Jack Nicholson riding pillion to Fonda wearing a football helmet.
Prior sales: why we can't believe this passed in
Just to put it all in perspective, let's look at some other movie-worn headwear and other props that might help frame whether this helmet is worth more than the $25,000 that would have made it yours just a week ago.
The same auction in which the entire world acquiesced on the only known Easy Rider helmet also saw the world's single most valuable item of movie memorabilia ever sold: Dorothy's Ruby Red Shoes from 1939's The Wizard of Oz fetched a cool $32.5 million, and the pointy black hat worn by the Wicked Witch of the West in the same film became the most expensive hat in history, selling for US$2.93 million.
Here's a few other examples:
- Iron Man (Robert Downey) helmets from two different movies have sold in the $125,000 range
- Dan Aykroyd's (Elwood Blues) signature black Fedora from a Blues Brothers stage performance (1978) fetched $45,000
- John Wayne's beret from The Green Berets (1963) fetched $179,250 in 2011
- Angel Eyes' (Lee Van Cleef) Hat from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) sold for £137,500 ($174,955) in 2013
- Oddjob's (Harold Sakata) lethal bowler hat from Goldfinger (1964) sold for $104,000 in 1998
- Dr. Alan Grant's (Sam Neill) Hat from Jurassic Park: Dominion (2022) fetched $112,500
- Peter 'Star-Lord' Quill's (Chris Pratt) helmet from Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) fetched $148,000 in 2017
- Maximus' (Russell Crowe) Arena Helmet from Gladiator (2000) sold for $305,170
- and Merlin's (Nicol Williamson) Robe and Helmet from Excalibur (1981) sold for $100,928.
And that's not to mention Star Wars... More than a dozen Stormtrooper helmets have sold for more than $200,000, and a Darth Vader helmet and mask sold for $1.152 million in 2019.
In closing
We could go on – but suffice to say that in my view there's ample evidence to suggest that the helmet worn by Peter Fonda in the 1969 Easy Rider movie is worth way more than the $25,000 minimum bid it didn't get at auction last week.
Accordingly, there's a seller who still wants to sell, so if you contact Heritage Auctions, they'll broker the sale for you.
