The Gardena, Los Angeles, and Hemet, California Yellow Jackets Motorcycle Club, the "Original" Yellow Jackets, are a "Historic Motorcycle Club".
While our original established date has been lost to time for now, we do know we were Incorporated in 1947. The Yellow Jackets Motorcycle Club is one of many historic clubs still in existence in the USA. Early Southern California clubs included the 13 Rebels, the Yellow Jackets, the Orange County Motorcycle Club, and the Boozefighters, whose actions during the Hollister Riot were fictionalized in the film The Wild One starring Marlon Brando, and whose formation in 1946 marks the beginning of the "One Percenter" Motorcycle Clubs.
They met at a small bar called the 'Crash Inn' in Southern California, and eventually made the owner an honorary member. Many different clubs were represented at the Crash Inn including The Sharks, The 13 Rebels, The Top Hatters, the Boozefighters, and the Hounds. The Gardena/Hemet/Los Angeles chapters were represented at the July 4th, 1947 Hollister, California celebration. this became known as the Hollister Riot, depicted in the film The Wild One and often referenced as the birthplace of the American outlaw biker.
The Yellow Jackets MC is an American club. Formed for the love of Motorcyclism and racing motorcycles, The Yellow Jackets MC along with the other "Original Motorcycle Clubs", set the stage for the development of the modern American motorcycle club. From its roots in the California motorcycle culture, the club began to spread eastward, growing its ranks with new members. The Original Yellow Jackets competed in races sanctioned by the American Motorcycle Association (AMA), as well as non-sanctioned races. Like many clubs in the early 50's, the Yellow Jackets all but died out, except that one member kept the history and memory of the club alive and always was a Yellow Jacket. That member was our last surviving original member, Bob McMillen. In 2009, Bob, along with several other men, would restructure the club for the modern era. We are that exact same club today.
The last surviving member of the Originals, Bob McMillen left us in 2016, but not without first giving us all as much history as he could. Go see our photos page and look down to videos where there is an interview with Bob.
Several notorious Boozefighters raced while wearing Yellow Jackets colors such as 'Wino' Willy Forkner (out of Los Angeles). Wino started his own chapter, The Los Angeles Yellow Jackets, to race under in American Motorcycle Association (AMA) sanctioned events.