Skip to main content

Keith Royer collection on Southern California scootering and youth subculture

 Collection
Identifier: 7139

  • Staff Only
  • Select an item to initiate a request

Scope and Contents

The Keith Royer collection on Southern California scootering and youth subculture documents several decades of vintage scooter culture and the diverse aspects of the subculture as it relates to music, fashion, politics, and youth communities. Keith Royer has been a scooter rider, collector, and bike mechanic since the mid-1980s and a patched club member of the Pharaohs Scooter Club of San Diego since 1995. The Pharaohs Scooter Cult was formed on December 23, 1993 at Hill Street Coffee House in Oceanside, California. The collection includes, but is not limited to, photographs of scooter rallies, gatherings, events, and shows taken by Royer and others; t-shirts and patches from scooter rallies and brands; fliers and postcards of events and rallies; VHS tapes with recordings of scooter events; ephemera; scootering and motorcycle magazines and newspaper clippings; comics and zines; scooter-related posters and artwork; and digital files of photographs and moving images.

Dates

  • Creation: 1985 - 2022

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Advance notice required for access. This collection includes both analog and digital files. The collection's digital files have been copied to the USC Digital Repository. Researchers wishing to request access to the digital files should email specol@usc.edu.

Conditions Governing Use

All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Department of Special Collections at specol@usc.edu. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.

Rights Statement for Archival Description

Finding aid description and metadata are licensed under an Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.

Biographical / Historical

This biographical / historical note was adapted from Kim Schwenk's description of the collection.

The Southern California scootering and youth subculture collection of Keith Royer documents several decades of vintage scooter culture and the diverse aspects of the subculture that traverses into music, fashion, politics, and youth communities. Typically, the history of punk, skateboarding, and surfing dominates the underground identity of Southern California's youth, however, the fringe and underground aspects of scooter culture parallel many of the same values and ethics. The facets of the subculture--including alternative music scenes such as punk, ska, reggae, and mod--have similar political and cultural implications to other contemporary movements. Scooter culture's fashion and music choices tended to favor 1960s subcultures and styles. Similar to the punk movement in Southern California, the scooter scene is culturally and ethnically diverse, reflecting inclusive aspects of the Two-Tone Ska music scene from working class England, and immigrant communities from Jamaica to 1960s American R&B and British Northern Soul.

From its inception, the scooter scene centered around the restoration, maintenance, and group riding camaraderie of vintage and contemporary two stroke scooter vehicles manufactured mainly in Europe. Southern California scooter clubs, although similar to "biker gangs" with patched members, initiations, and sophisticated bike engineering, were also influenced by European styles from Italy--the birth place of Vespa motor scooters--and 1960s urban youth aesthetics from England. The scene provides a sense of belonging without the unwarranted violence. The scooter scene and its associated subculture identities are not exclusive to Europe and the United States, but reach all over the world, including to Asia, Africa, and Australia.

Extent

9.56 Linear Feet (12 boxes and 2 oversize folders)

6.86 Gigabytes (2755 digital image and video files)

Language of Materials

English

German

Abstract

The Keith Royer collection on Southern California scootering and youth subculture documents several decades of vintage scooter culture and the diverse aspects of the subculture as it relates to music, fashion, politics, and youth communities. Keith Royer has been a scooter rider, collector, and bike mechanic since the mid-1980s and a patched club member of the Pharaohs Scooter Club of San Diego since 1995. The Pharaohs Scooter Cult was formed on December 23, 1993 at Hill Street Coffee House in Oceanside, California. The collection includes, but is not limited to, photographs of scooter rallies, gatherings, events, and shows taken by Royer and others; t-shirts and patches from scooter rallies and brands; fliers and postcards of events and rallies; VHS tapes with recordings of scooter events; ephemera; scootering and motorcycle magazines and newspaper clippings; comics and zines; scooter-related posters and artwork; and digital files of photographs and moving images.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Purchased from Johnson Rare Books & Archives, August 5, 2022.

Title
Finding aid for the Keith Royer collection on Southern California scootering and youth subculture
Status
Completed
Author
Bo Doub -- with collection-level notes adapted from Kim Schwenk's description of the collection.
Date
2022 August
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the USC Libraries Special Collections Repository

Contact:
Doheny Memorial Library 206
3550 Trousdale Parkway
Los Angeles California 90089-0189 United States