A Major Career Highlight
The Wild One (1953)
Gil Stratton riding alongside Marlon Brando in the Wild One (after teaching him how to ride motorcycles).
Gil Stratton riding alongside Marlon Brando in the Wild One (after teaching him how to ride motorcycles).
This was followed this same big year by getting the role of “Mouse” in the Wild One playing opposite Marlon Brando in the role of his career. He later said he regretted that his agent failed to get him any screen credit, although he had several scenes and actual lines with Marlon Brando. He even taught Marlon and some of the guys how to actually ride motorcycles!!!
Glendale News Press. Gil Stratton taught the actors how to ride motorcycles in the Wild One!!!
In this movie, the Black Rebels Motorcycle Club comes ripping down the highway, lead by Brando, with Gil right by his side. Gil talked about shooting these scenes in the West San Fernando Valley where there was nothing there except Pepper Trees. He also talked about how they would should “Day for Night” i.e. shoot night times scenes in the middle of the day and simply adjust the aperature on the cameras to make them look more ‘night-like for the screen.
Controversy surrounded this film with censors. It was also said that Johnson Motors (importers of Triumph Motorcycles USA) objected to the use of the 6t Triumph in the film. Marlon Brando’s Johnny Strabler leather jacket clab character has become an icon of rebellion. The film inspired James Dean and Elvis Presley. Co-Stars: Mary Murphy, Robert Keith, Lee Marvin
Gil in the wild one.
Film Poster for the Wild One with Marlon Brando. And even Lee Marvin does not get proper poster credit.
From Wikipedia
The Wild One is a 1953 American film directed by László Benedek and produced by Stanley Kramer. It is most noted for the character of Johnny Strabler (Marlon Brando), whose persona became a cultural icon of the 1950s. The Wild One is considered to be the original outlaw biker film, and the first to examine American outlaw motorcycle gang violence. The film’s screenplay was based on Frank Rooney’s short story “The Cyclists’ Raid”, published in the January 1951 Harper’s Magazine and anthologized in The Best American Short Stories 1952. Rooney’s story was inspired by sensationalistic media coverage of an American Motorcyclist Association motorcycle rally that got out of hand on the Fourth of July weekend in 1947 inHollister, California. The overcrowding, drinking and street stunting were given national attention in the July 21, 1947 issue of Life Magazine, with a staged photograph of a wild drunken man on a motorcycle. The events, conflated with the newspaper and magazine reports, Rooney’s short story, and the film The Wild One are part of the legend of the Hollister riot.
Mouse is bellying up to Mary Murphy’s bar with Marlon Brando in the Wild One.
Mouse gets a dance with one of the local girls while Marlon Brando looks on. from the Wild One.
Gil Stratton riding alongside Marlon Brando in the Wild One (after teaching him how to ride motorcycles).
Gil Stratton aka Mouse gets a dance with one of the local girls while Marlon Brando ignores the action. from the Wild One.
Gil plays umpire as Marlon slides into home for a staged publicity picture with Marlon Brando and actress Yvonne Doughty (Britches)
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