Henry Winkler (The Fonz) said goodbye to memorabilia he’s had since the classic TV show “Happy Days” began on ABC way back in 1974. For Winkler, those happy days spread to happy years as the show went on for a whopping 11 seasons. Now, Winkler has parted ways with a collection of cherished items he saved from his days on the show.
Winkler tells ABC 7, “I never will say goodbye because it is always in my heart and always in my mind. It was the show that threw me out into the world and I will always be grateful,” he said. “Letting a physical thing go doesn’t, in any way, diminish the enormity of the experience.”
The Fonz’s 1949 Triumph motorcycle used throughout the ABC Television Series “Happy Days” by Henry Winkler as Arthur “Fonz” Fonzarelli, sold for for $231,562 and his famous leather jacket went for $75,312.
According to Bonhams, one of television’s “coolest” motorbikes, the 1949 Triumph was the the Fonz’s pride and joy on the much loved nostalgic TV show. The Fonz’s motorbike was a regular guest star throughout the eleven year history of Happy Days; it completed his look as the very essence of cool and inspired whole generations of children watching the show to want to own a motorbike just like the Fonz. The character was obsessed with his motorbike, telling Mrs. C in the first season of the show that he wanted to be a cop when he got out of school because, “I mean, it’s the only job I know where they pay you to drive a motorcycle.” And Fonzie’s idea of the perfect girl? “45-22-34 … with her own Harley.” In the Season 3 episode, “The Motorcycle,” when the Fonz’s bike accidentally gets destroyed by Ralph Malph’s car, Mr. C tries to console Fonzie by saying, “It’s just a motorcycle,” whereupon the Fonz explains the importance of the bike to him: “Just a motorcycle, huh, Mr. C? Let me tell you a little story. When I was young, I was a complete nerd, okay? I tried everything to be cool. Nothing I tried worked, and then it came along. It changed my whole life. It’s the whole reason for me to live. Just a motorcycle, eh? And I suppose your mother was just a mother?”
Winkler himself admitted that he couldn’t ride the bike and rammed it into a sound truck the first time he tried to ride it. From that day on, the crew would pull Winkler along on the bike mounted onto a moveable platform. In Winkler’s words, “I’ve never ridden a motorcycle again in my life!”
Winkler further reveals to ABC 7, that the Fonz’s signature jacket didn’t start out that way. “When I first wore it, it was fabric and I couldn’t keep the collar up. Then, ABC allowed me to wear leather and it was so great and I got to be somebody I never was, I never could be. And now I look at it and it’s annoying because it no longer fits!”
Winkler’s collection of items from “Happy Days” were part of an auction held on December 8, 2021 called “TCM Presents: Hollywood Cool.” with a portion of the proceeds going to This Is About Humanity. His daughter, Zoe, and two friends started the nonprofit to support separated and reunified families at the border. “Not one penny goes to administration,” Winkler said. “There are no paper clips. There are no secretaries. There are no pencils. There is only the needs of the children.”