Then Came Bronson

Ever since the Hellenic Homer wrote The Odyssey, tales of travel and adventure have been an important component of western literature. By the late nineteen fifties two works of art captured the imagination of readers and viewers of television. The first was Jack Kerouac's popular beat novel On the Road (1957). Then, ten years later, in the late sixties, Jim Bronson played on television a forlorn newspaperman disillusioned after the suicide of his best friend and "working for the man." In order to renew his soul he becomes a nomadic vagabond searching for the meaning of life and experience what life has to offer. In the process he shares his apparent noble values with the people he meets and lends a helping hand when he can. Our hero rides a Harley Sportster, and, as such, was viewed by many fans as a modern version of the solitary cowboy meandering the American west. The television series began