Zooming into motorcycle history
‘Harley and the Davidsons’ celebrates an icon of America
“Harley” follows brand from start-up to icon
Harley and the DavidNEW YORK
sons wasn’t just another job to Bug Hall.
The Little Rascals actor rode his first motorcycle when he was 14 and has since traversed the country on BMW, Honda and Suzuki models (many of which he has wrecked). But in 2012, “I decided that I was going to hang up my spurs as a rider,” says Hall, 31. “I didn’t want to put my family through the concerns that go with riding, so this was a perfect cap when it came along.”
Game of Thrones’ Michiel Huisman also climbed back on the hog for Discovery’s six-hour, three-night miniseries (Monday through Wednesday, 9 ET/PT), which charts the founding and rise of the Harley-Davidson motorcycle empire at the turn of the 20th century.
“I rode all through my 20s thinking that I would never get in a car, until my wife and I had a child,” says Huisman, 35. But “after we wrapped (shooting), it immediately sparked all kinds of conversations at our house about, ‘Well, what if I just get on the bike every now and then?’ We’re still working out the details.”
The ubiquitous brand first revved its engines in 1903, when brothers Arthur (Hall) and Walter Davidson (Huisman) built a motorcycle with their schoolyard pal Bill Harley (Robert Aramayo) in a small shed in Milwaukee. Bill, an introverted artist, was the brains behind the bike’s design and mechanics. Walter was the daredevil who tested early models in a series of deadly races known as “murderdromes,” and Arthur had the sales savvy to help secure dealers and expand operations.
Arthur was “a country boy with
no real prospects, but he had the foresight and vision,” Hall says. “We all have that annoying buddy with those get-rich-quick schemes.”
Harley’s first night is set in the early 1900s when the company is founded and struggles to find its footing. The rest of the series spans three decades as the tenacious entrepreneurs form a fierce rivalry with Indian Motorcycle and keep business afloat amid World War I and the Great Depression.
The third episode, particularly, asks, “‘What do we leave behind?’ ” Huisman says. “They wanted to build their own company, but once they do that, they want it to last. It’s really, ‘What is a new generation going to do with our dream?’ ”
Motorcycle manufacturer Alex Wheeler built nearly 80 replica bikes from scratch for the series and schooled the actors in the technical nitty-gritty of how they’re constructed. Shot in Romania, the action-packed production resulted in a broken collarbone for Hall, who crashed a bike on the second day of filming. Huisman and Aramayo, who has never ridden, walked away unscathed.
“One of the things that this series has taught me is that there’s a culture, a spirit and a way of life that goes along with riding,” says Aramayo, 23. “That’s something I’ve gained a lot of respect for. Would I like to ride a motorcycle at some point in my life after shooting this series? Absolutely.”
Hall adds: “I’m gonna teach him. It’s gonna happen.”