1976 AMCC ATLANTIC MOTORCYCLE COUNCIL Gay Club Interest Pinback Pin Button Badge

When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

1976 AMCC ATLANTIC MOTORCYCLE COUNCIL Gay Club Interest Pinback Pin Button Badge:
$19.99

BACKGROUND:

The ATLANTIC MOTORCYCLE COORDINATING COUNCIL was founded on April 4, 1969, in Washington, DC. The Spartan MC of Washington called together the SMCLA (Lost Angels) of Washington, Cycle MC of New York City, Vikings MC of Boston, and Second City MC of Chicago to discuss the formation of an interclub council. These clubs met in the apartment of the president of the Lost Angels and agreed to form the council. Letters were sent to known gay motorcycle clubs and three responded to the invitation to meet in July to write articles of agreement. The three clubs which responded were Empire City MC of New York City, the SNC-69 Club of London, UK, and the Rocky Mountaineers MC of Denver. The name chosen for the council was the Atlantic Mid-West Coordinating Council.

At the August, 1969, meeting hosted by Second City MC, several important things happened: the Articles of Agreement were adopted, the first club to join by being voted in by the current members was Wheels MC of New York City, and a membership patch was approved. The Articles of Agreement created four Council officers, set up the election method, set the method by which new clubs would be admitted to the Council, and created a system of event sanctions.

By 1974 as new clubs rapidly joined, it was recognized that the Council was becoming geographically unmanageable. Clubs from Europe to Canada to Florida to Colorado had joined. It was decided to divide into three parts: the European Council of Motorcycle Clubs, the Mid-America Conference, and the Atlantic Motorcycle Coordinating Council. The AMCC’s territory from which it could admit new clubs became Eastern Canada and the Atlantic seaboard states from Maine to Florida.

In 1976 all the AMCC member clubs agreed to stage a single event in honor of the Bi-centennial of the USA. While the event was a success, the strain on interclub relationships made several clubs resign from membership in the Council. However, by 1978, those clubs had rejoined as well as numerous new clubs. The lessons learned at that time have been kept in mind.

The AMCC continues to be a growing and strong group of clubs exemplifying a shared commonality of interest and geography, motorcycling, and the leather-levi lifestyle. Its purpose remains to act as a forum of discussion among its member clubs, to encourage participation in its sanctioned events, to coordinate event dates to prevent conflicts of scheduling, and to promote the enjoyment of motorcycling and the leather-levi lifestyle and to foster the safety thereof.

Motorcycle clubs, a mainstay of Gay culture since the 1950s,ushered in a new brand of Queer masculinity and gave rise to today\'s leather/SMcommunity.

Motorcycle culture emerged in the United States in the 1920sand 1930s, often revolving around racing, with enthusiasts who formed clubs andwore distinctive uniforms and \"colors.\" The popularity of motorcyclesgrew during World War II - as motorcyclists were regarded as something of amodern-day cavalry - and cheap military surplus cycles became available afterthe war.

Upon leaving military service in the late 1940s, many Gaymen stayed in port cities rather than returning to their hometowns. Just as theHell\'s Angels were purportedly started by former bomber pilots and paratroopersunwilling to settle into mainstream life, Gay men also sought an alternative.\"Only in the swashbuckling motorcycle culture,\" argues author GuyBaldwin, were they able to retain the \"easy camaraderie, the stress andthrill of real risk taking, and the masculine sexuality that they had knownduring their military days.\" Gay and straight men alike embraced the imageof the outlaw biker as a free-spirited rebel, as exemplified by the MarlonBrando film The Wild One (1953), inspired by an infamous riot at a motorcycleconvention in Hollister, Calif., in 1947.

The first Gay motorcycle club in the United States was theSatyrs, founded in Los Angeles in 1954; the second, Oedipus, was an offshootstarted in 1958. The earliest Northern California club was the Warlocks,founded in 1960, followed by the California Motorcycle Club (CMC). By themid-1960s, San Francisco\'s South of Market district had become a hotbed of theGay motorcycle scene, home to clubs such as the Constantines and the BarbaryCoasters.

Gay motorcycle clubs provided an outlet for socialization -and often for sex. The early biker scene was closely allied with the emerging\"Old Guard\" leather/SM culture, and the clubs\' watering holes becamesome of the first leather bars. Stylized biker gear became a sort of uniformfor a segment of the Gay community, featuring engineer boots, crotchless blackleather chaps (designed by D.L. Sterling in 1960), and military-style caps. Thelook - which caught on even among men who had never sat astride a motorcycle -was embodied by Gay artist Tom of Finland\'s characters, Peter Berlin in themovie Nights in Black Leather (1973), and Glenn Hughes of the disco group theVillage People.

Motorcycle club outings, known as runs, typically involvedmanly activities such as camping trips. But while bikers eschewed the stereotypicalGay male effeminacy of the era, their events often featured grand pageantry andcamp of a different sort, including drag shows. Events such as the annual CMCCarnival became popular even among nonbikers, and many men organized theirsocial lives around annual runs such as the Satyrs\' Badger Flats outing in theHigh Sierra. Many motorcycle clubs also performed charitable work, sponsoringholiday toy drives for children and fundraisers that originally assistedinjured riders and later helped people with AIDS.

Gay male leather culture has existed since the late 1940s, when it likely grew out of post-WWII biker culture. Early gay leather bars were subcultural versions of the motorcycle club with pioneering gay motorcycle clubs including the Satyrs, established in Los Angeles in 1954; Oedipus, also established in Los Angeles in 1958, and the New York Motorbike Club. Early San Francisco clubs included the Warlocks and the California Motor Club,while early clubs in Sydney included the South Pacific Motor Club (SPMC). Leather Clubs for gay men started in Amsterdam and Berlin in the 1950s, and in Sydney from 1970.

Celluloid pinbacks, a type of button, were popular from the 1890s to the 1940s as a cheap way of conveying a political message or advertising anything from food and clothing to movies and Tobacco. In 1896 the first patent was granted to Whitehead and Hoag for a button with a textile surface covered with a thin layer of transparent celluloid. Later on the textile was replaced with lithographed paper (cheaper), and ultimately metal without the celluloid. Advertising pinbacks, sometimes featuring cartoon characters, were often given away as premiums with cigarettes or newspaper subscriptions, or handed out at stores. They were also given as fan club premiums, as part of the membership package. On the political side, pinbacks were given away at campaign rallies. Some pinbacks are hard to find today because so many were simply worn and thrown away. Collectors also seek to assemble entire pinback series (for example comic character pinbacks) and finding every pinback in a large series can be quite difficult.

Thanks for Looking & Good Luck...........

MY sale TERMS & DETAILS:

1. All items are used and will have imperfections. All imperfections may not be described. Please examine the photos for the best information on the condition of any item.
2. DISCLAIMER: My sales are for collectors, hobbyists, historians, antique dealers, etc.
~~ This listing is not to endorse the views expressed by the item, provide a forum, or invoke any action.
3. AGE OR DATE OF ITEMS: This is my best ESTIMATE. Use your best judgment in evaluating the age of an item.
~~ I never knowingly sell any reproduction. If you see a listing that is in error please notify me.
4. ITEM CONDITION: Appraisals of condition are my honest opinion, but, I can not identify every blemish or defect.
~~ Examine the photo. Please consider: All items are sold \"AS IS.\"
5. WARRANTIES: I sell collectibles, not \"consumer goods.\" Almost every item I sell is in \"used condition\" to some degree or another. There may be unidentifiable or latent scratches, dents, dings, defects and blemishes. I can not sell items \"on approval.\" Here are my warranties I offer which supplements any policies (which always take precedent):
(A) WARRANTIED ONE YEAR FOR REPRODUCTIONS, FORGERIES, FANTASY: I will never knowingly sell a reproduction, forgery or fantasy item. If you determine and establish that an item purchased is a reproduction, forgery or fantasy item. Upon return I will refund all of your purchase price and charges for up to ONE YEAR from the date of purchase. (B) WARRANTIED THIRTY DAYS FOR MISREPRESENTATION: If you establish an item is factually misrepresented upon return I will refund all of your purchase price and charges within THIRTY DAYS from the date of purchase.Please read the sale and make your own determination about each item\'s condition and qualities.