Introducing Larger Than Life

Larger Than Life

Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times, Documentary, Street Racer, Neon Hum Media, Street Car, 60s, True Crime, Drag Racing, Daniel Miller, Watts Riots, Society & Culture, Big Willie, Big Wilie Robinson, 1960s, Race, Class, L.a. Times

4.4 • 806 Ratings

🗓️ 1 July 2019

⏱️ 3 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This is the true story of a street racer who united Los Angeles — but left behind a tangle of questions. Reported, written and hosted by Daniel Miller from the Los Angeles Times. Premieres July 9.

Transcript

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0:00.0	We use racing. Racing to stop killings.
0:07.0	That's Big Willie Robinson. You've probably never heard of him. But to some, Big Willie is a legend.
0:13.7	He's bigger than life, and literally bigger than life. You looked up to him. You're like, wow.
0:19.1	Six foot six, three hundred pounds, Vietnam vet, freaking war hero.
0:22.8	He's the man.
0:23.8	His biceps were as big as my weight.
0:26.7	Big Willie founded the Brotherhood of Street Racers in the 1960s.
0:30.5	They're a band of gearheads guided by his vision of peace, fellowship, and speed.
0:40.0	He sounds like somebody giving a sermon at a church.
0:44.7	He said, we're out here with brothers, man.
0:46.8	Well, our brother could we have one thing in common.
0:48.6	We like the street race, our fast cars, and that makes us all one of the same.
0:52.8	It was right.
0:54.2	But he did more than race cars.
0:56.3	Big Willie was a peacemaker.
0:58.0	You could be the crew club, man, you could be the Aryan Nation, you could be the Crips, you could be the bloods.
1:03.1	When you come around Willie, all that stops.
1:06.5	That was his mission, to get people to stop fighting and come together.
1:11.3	And after the brutal Watts riots, it actually worked.
1:15.1	He could make cops in the rest of L.A. see eye to eye.
1:18.7	The LAPD was considered the enemy of the people,
1:23.5	black people and Latino people in particular.
	...

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