Finding aid for the Keith Royer collection on Southern California scootering and youth subculture 7139
Bo Doub -- with collection-level notes adapted from Kim Schwenk's description of the collection.
USC Libraries Special Collections
2022 August
Doheny Memorial Library 206
3550 Trousdale Parkway
Los Angeles, California 90089-0189
specol@usc.edu
Contributing Institution:
USC Libraries Special Collections
Title: Keith Royer collection on Southern California scootering and youth subculture
Creator:
Royer, Keith
Creator:
Pharaohs Scooter Club
Identifier/Call Number: 7139
Physical Description:
9.56 Linear Feet
12 boxes and 2 oversize folders
Physical Description:
6.86 Gigabytes
2755 digital image and video files
Date (inclusive): 1985-2022
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.
Language of Material:
English
, German
.
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.
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.
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.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased from Johnson Rare Books & Archives, August 5, 2022.
Preferred Citation
[Box/folder no. or item name], Keith Royer collection on Southern California scootering and youth subculture, Collection no.
7139, Regional History Collection, Special Collections, USC Libraries, University of Southern California
Subjects and Indexing Terms
California, Southern -- Transportation -- Archival resources
Motor scooters -- California, Southern -- Archival resources
Motor vehicles -- California -- Archival resources
Motor scootering -- California, Southern -- Archival resources
Punk culture and art -- California -- Archival resources
Youth movements -- California -- Los Angeles -- Archival resources
Comic books
Digital images
Digital media
Ephemera
Fliers (printed matter)
Magazines (periodicals)
Moving images
Photograph albums
Photographs
Postcards
Posters
T-shirts
Textiles
Video recordings (physical artifacts)
Videotapes
Pharaohs Scooter Club -- Archives
Royer, Keith -- Archives
VHS tapes
Scope and Contents
Includes video footage of rallies and other events stored on 8-10 VHS tapes
Box 9
Amerivespa, San Diego
1999
Box 9
Fall Classic, Tucson Nogales
1997
Box 9
Vespa Shop, San Diego footage
Box 9
Nomads scooter club, New Mexico
1998
Box 9
Pharaohs Scooter Club parade, Encinitas Holiday parade
1994-1995
Box 9
Hard Luck Scooter Club, Halloween run
1995
Box 9
Casa Lambretta, San Diego Innocenti Workshop video
Box 1, Folder 10
Digital video recordings
Physical Description:
1.64 Gigabytes
18 .mov digital video files
Physical Description: The files listed under this sub-series were copied from a USB flash drive labeled: "Scooter 1987-2019."
Conditions Governing Access
The records described under this sub-series represent digital computer files preserved in the USC Digital Repository. The
files are not publicly accessible online. Researchers wishing to request access should email specol@usc.edu.
IMG_4014.mov
Physical Description:
137072736 Bytes
Scope and Contents
video/quicktime
IMG_4015.mov
Physical Description:
219870016 Bytes
Scope and Contents
video/quicktime
IMG_4016.mov
Physical Description:
463651337 Bytes
Scope and Contents
video/quicktime
IMG_4017.mov
Physical Description:
73004676 Bytes
Scope and Contents
video/quicktime
IMG_4019.mov
Physical Description:
41967031 Bytes
Scope and Contents
video/quicktime
IMG_4020.mov
Physical Description:
55994090 Bytes
Scope and Contents
video/quicktime
IMG_4021.mov
Physical Description:
29182431 Bytes
Scope and Contents
video/quicktime
IMG_4022.mov
Physical Description:
62490797 Bytes
Scope and Contents
video/quicktime
IMG_4023.mov
Physical Description:
101680724 Bytes
Scope and Contents
video/quicktime
IMG_4024.mov
Physical Description:
28045945 Bytes
Scope and Contents
video/quicktime
IMG_4025.mov
Physical Description:
51372626 Bytes
Scope and Contents
video/quicktime
IMG_4026.mov
Physical Description:
48458958 Bytes
Scope and Contents
video/quicktime
IMG_4027.mov
Physical Description:
61926648 Bytes
Scope and Contents
video/quicktime
IMG_4028.mov
Physical Description:
68529294 Bytes
Scope and Contents
video/quicktime
IMG_4029.mov
Physical Description:
74788899 Bytes
Scope and Contents
video/quicktime
IMG_4030.mov
Physical Description:
63576667 Bytes
Scope and Contents
video/quicktime
IMG_4032.mov
Physical Description:
17538283 Bytes
Scope and Contents
video/quicktime
IMG_4034.mov
Physical Description:
40411884 Bytes
Scope and Contents
video/quicktime
Box 3, Folder 4
35-40 stickers relating to scooters
Box 6
Business cards of scooter businesses
Scope and Contents
Approximately 15 cards
Box 3, Folder 9
Los Gatos Gordos Scooter Club - page from calendar with group photograph
2002-10
Box 4
Pharaoh Scooter Club shop rag
Box 3, Folder 3
Receipts of mechanic work and parts from Vespa Motorsports and other shops
Box 3, Folder 14
Scrapbook style book covers with clippings
Box 8
Vespa license plate frame
Box 3, Folder 6
Vespa Motorsport calendar
2000
Box 4
Vespa Motorsports bar towel
Box 3, Folder 15
Vinyl sticker bag with scooter image
2019
Event fliers, postcards, and advertisements
Box 12, Folder 3
Advertisements cut from magazines
Box 3, Folder 5
Advertisements for scooter parts and service
Box 3, Folder 13
Build-A-Scene moped dealer advertisement
Box 3, Folder 16
Fliers for scooter events and rallies [full sheets]
Box 3, Folder 2
Fliers for scooter events and rallies [small]
Box 3, Folder 22
Postcard from Thailand with message from Jim and Bec to Kimmie Schwenk and Keith Royer
Box 6
Postcards of vintage scooter images, advertisements for businesses, popular scooter culture, illustrations by Rich Black
Scope and Contents
Approximately 31 items.
Box 6
Scoot Quarterly "Scooterist" trade cards
Box 3, Folder 19
Vespa 90 Super Sprint advertisement [scan]
Language of Material:
German.
Box 8
Patches of scooter rallies and scooter clubs
1988-2021
Box 10
T-shirts from Pharoahs rallies and other scooter rallies
1999-2015
Box 11
T-shirts from Vespa, Ska Brewing, and other brands
Box 1, Folder 1-2
Photographic prints - 2 per page
Box 5
Loose photographic prints - color
Box 1, Folder 3-4
Loose photographic prints - black and white
Box 1, Folder 7
Photograph album - unlabeled
Box 4
Vespa [binder photograph album]
Box 1, Folder 8-9
Loose pages from binder photograph album
Box 1, Folder 10
Digital images
Physical Description:
5.73 Gigabytes
2737 jpeg image files
Physical Description: The files listed under this sub-series were copied from a USB flash drive labeled: "Scooter 1987-2019."
Conditions Governing Access
The records described under this sub-series represent digital computer files preserved in the USC Digital Repository. The
files are not publicly accessible online. Researchers wishing to request access should email specol@usc.edu.
General
The digital image files include both born-digital images that do not have analog counterparts in the collection as well as
digital surrogates of photographic prints in the collection.
KeithSidecar.jpeg
Physical Description:
67416 Bytes
Scope and Contents
image/jpeg
KeithsRally200.jpeg
Physical Description:
92254 Bytes
Scope and Contents
image/jpeg
PharaohsScooterclub2009.jpeg
Physical Description:
91298 Bytes
Scope and Contents
image/jpeg
[Numerically titled image files]
Physical Description:
5.72 Gigabytes
2730 jpeg image files
Scope and Contents
2730 jpeg image files titled numerically, starting with "IMG_0001.jpeg" and ending with "IMG_9999.jpeg."
IMG_E0184.jpeg
Physical Description:
2172676 Bytes
Scope and Contents
image/jpeg
IMG_E0185.jpeg
Physical Description:
1710679 Bytes
Scope and Contents
image/jpeg
IMG_E0186.jpeg
Physical Description:
2248575 Bytes
Scope and Contents
image/jpeg
IMG_E0187.jpeg
Physical Description:
2158914 Bytes
Scope and Contents
image/jpeg
Posters and other graphic materials
Box 3, Folder 11
Blue Beat Bastards club paste-ups
Box 12
Left-hand view of the Vespa PX125 EFL
Oversize-folder 1
Motorroller Burgfräulein [magazine poster]
Language of Material:
German.
Box 12, Folder 1
Original panel line drawing artwork for
Scooter Girl by Chynna Clugston Flores
Oversize-folder 1
Quadrophenia movie posters
Box 12, Folder 2
Scooter Girl and
Blue Monday poster by Chynna Clugston Flores (signed)
Oversize-folder 2
Vespa advertisement poster
General
"Vespa. Maybe Your Second Car Shouldn't Be A Car."
Box 3, Folder 18
Vespa "Queen Bee" digital prints or photocopies
1998
Box 12, Folder 5
Vespa "Queen Bee" print by Rich Black
Zines, comics, and magazines
Box 3, Folder 20-21
News clippings and clippings from magazines
Box 3, Folder 17
Paste-ups for "Digby" and "2Up"
Box 3, Folder 8
Pharaohglyphics - Pharaohs newsletter
1996
Box 12, Folder 6
The Race art zine by SJ Brailo
2003
Box 3, Folder 7
The Roller - Los Gatos Vespa Club zine
Spring 2001
Box 3, Folder 25-26
Scooter Girl by Southern California artist Chynna Clugston Flores (some signed)
Box 2
Scootering and motorcycle magazines
1986-2005
Scope and Contents
Approximately 40 issues of various scootering and motorcycle magazines, some with annotations.
Box 1, Folder 11
Collection description by Kim Schwenk
2022-06
Box 3, Folder 10
Pharaohs Scooter Tombfinder member list
undated
Box 3, Folder 12
Vespa Sidecar Kit Pre-Assembly Instructions