Forty Years Since “Fonzie” First Roared

Ron Howard as Richie Cunningham and Henry Winkler as “Fonzie”

Time flies. It was 40 years ago yesterday – Jan. 15, 1974 – that the ABC sitcom “Happy Days” premiered. Among the many cast members were Ron Howard as Richie Cunningham and Henry Winkler as Arthur “Fonzie”/”The Fonz” Fonzarelli, a leather-clad high school dropout, ladies’ man and biker.

Winkler didn’t ride in a real life and never learned, but Fonzie had several bikes over the over the course of the show’s 11-year run. The most prominent was a 1949 Triumph Trophy TR5, provided by stunt rider, racer and motorcycle dealer Bud Ekins.

A 2011 story in “The New York Times” recounted, “When ‘Happy Days’ needed a motorcycle for Fonzie, Ekins first rented show producers a borrowed Harley-Davidson. But because Mr. Winler couldn’t ride, the studio wanted a smaller, lighter bike, one that would be easier for stage hands to push.

“Ekins rolled out a beat-up ’49 TR-5 Scrambler from the back room of his dealership, pulled off the front fender and sprayed-painted the fuel tank silver. The rest, as they say, is history.”

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The NYPD is now seeking the public’s help in identifying a group of rowdy riders who shut down a portion of Broadway near 190th St. in Washington Heights on Sunday afternoon by doing burnouts, wheelies and other stunts, as displayed in a video shot by a nearby resident. The police ask that anyone with info on the identities of the riders to call Crime Stoppers at 800-577-8477.

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More to read:

A Wallingford, CT woman has received a suspended six-month jail sentence in a negligent homcide case from last June in which a New Fairfield motorcyclist died. “The News-Times” has the story here.