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

 

Audiovisual materials

 

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

Seattle, Oktoberscoot

Box 9

Fall Classic, Tucson Nogales 1997

Box 9

Vespa Shop, San Diego footage

Box 9

Nomads scooter club, New Mexico 1998

Box 9

Quadrophenia film

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
 

Ephemera and realia

Box 3, Folder 4

35-40 stickers relating to scooters

Box 6

Business cards of scooter businesses

Scope and Contents

Approximately 15 cards
Box 7

Coasters and poker chips

Box 3, Folder 1

Custom wood Vespa plaque

Box 7

Keychains

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 4

Piaggio Vespa tote bag

Box 7

Pins and buttons

Box 3, Folder 3

Receipts of mechanic work and parts from Vespa Motorsports and other shops

Box 6

Scooter magnets

Box 3, Folder 14

Scrapbook style book covers with clippings

Box 12

Vespa calendario 2000

Box 6

Vespa coozies

Box 8

Vespa license plate frame

Box 3, Folder 6

Vespa Motorsport calendar 2000

Box 4

Vespa Motorsports bar towel

Box 4

Vespa Motorsports cup

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.
 

Patches and t-shirts

Box 6

Vespa patches and labels

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

 

Photographs

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 5-6

Negatives - 35mm

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 12, Folder 4

Amerivespa poster 2022

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

Oversize-folder 2

Scooter Cult poster

Box 12, Folder 2

Scooter Girl and Blue Monday poster by Chynna Clugston Flores (signed)

Oversize-folder 1

Various models on Vespas

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

Oversize-folder 1

Volcom Miss Mod poster

Oversize-folder 1

The Who posters

 

Zines, comics, and magazines

Box 3, Folder 23

Dead Enders

Box 3, Folder 24

KinderNacht Specials

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