Lancias will drive an American Icon
By Pete Vack
Route 66 may have a romantic reputation, but most of it is a long expanse of, well, nothingness. Photo by Lorenzo Marchesini.
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Aiding and abetting wanderlust
Like Marilyn Monroe, the Empire State building, Hollywood and cheesburgers, U.S. Route 66 is an American icon, and a symbol of this country’s growth, mobility, and the never-ending westward movement.
“Route 66 is known everywhere around the world”, says Lorenzo Marchesini, who himself has traveled on portions of the highway with his Lancia. “That song, “Get Your Kicks on Route 66”, made the route popular, so people from all over the world are eager to find out what it is all about.”
This month, sixteen Lancias and their intrepid owners, all from Italy, will embark upon a tour of the famous highway. Today, Route 66 is in bits and pieces, torn apart by the Interstate system which all but replaced the old highway by the mid 1970s. Now, most of the route is Interstate 40, and while it is far quicker, it is far more boring that the original two and four lane highway which made it’s way through every little town on the way from Chicago to Santa Monica, California.
Route 66 was open to the public by 1926, after years of debate and political infighting. The opening of this new route west, one of the first to be blessed by Federal funds, coincided with the economic boom of the mid 1920s and the popularity of the Model T. More money, an inexpensive car, and an inborn wanderlust made the success of Route 66 a sure bet. (The story of Route 66 is well-told by Michael Wallis in his book, “Route 66, The Mother Road”).
Proud to be an Okie, but..
On April 14, 1935, a tragic and horrendous act of nature would soon bring worldwide fame to the ten-year-old highway, when a dust storm of epic proportions hit Oklahoma, and did not leave. It ruined the soil, killed the crops, suffocated thousands of people, and thousands, some say half a million, destitute, bankrupt farmers went west on Route 66, lured by the orange groves and vineyards of California.
During the Dustbowl, “Okies” piled their lives on trucks like these and headed west on Route 66.
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Their story was captured brilliantly by John Steinbeck in the “Grapes of Wrath”. He named Route 66 “the mother road”, and the book and movie made Route 66 into an American legend. The route west…Route 66was virtually a one way highway…was also popularized by Will Rogers, folksinger Woody Guthrie, country western star Merle Haggard, and beat generation writer Jack Kerouac.
Get your kicks on Route 66
Millions of Americans traveled west by car for another reason; to find fame and fortune in the movie industry. One such traveler was a WWII veteran and songwriter named Bobby Troup.
Nat ‘King’ Cole was one of the best jazz vocalists of the post-war era and the first to record “Get Your Kicks on Route 66”.
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In 1946, with his young wife, Troup headed for Los Angeles in a 1941 Buick Convertible. Traveling through the towns where Abe Lincoln practiced law, where Jesse James robbed banks, and Mark Twain plied the Mississippi, Troup’s wife suggested he write a song about Route 40. But they were about to get on Route 66 for the remainder of the journey. She kept trying. Later, she leaned over and whispered, “get your kicks on Route 66”, and with that, a song was born. When they arrived in LA, Troup met Nat 'King' Cole, presented the song to him, and it became an instant hit . Since then, it has been recorded by Bing Crosby, Mel Torme, the Manhattan Transfer, and perhaps most famously by the Rolling Stones.
As the famous song relates, Route 66 winds its way through “St. Louis, Joplin Missouri, And Oklahoma City is might pretty, Amarillo, Gallup, New Mexico, Flagstaff, Arizona and don’t forget Winona, Kingman, Barstow, and San Bernardino.” The road ends in Phil Hill’s hometown of Santa Monica.
Beating the pavement
One would think that a silly highway would now have had enough publicity. But perhaps the best was yet to come. Jack Kerouac got more than his kicks in a mind numbing rambling stream of conscious book called “On the Road”, published in 1955. “A fast car, a coast to reach, and a woman at the end of the road” sent a new generation west, primarily to San Francisco. The Beats had arrived, courtesy of Route 66.
That Corvette could have been a Ferrari…
Even as the old Route 66 signs were being removed to make way for the new Interstate, a TV series made the old road even more famous. In 1960, scriptwriter Sterling Silliphant, perhaps best known for his outstanding work on the Twilight Zone series, envisioned a TV show with two young men discovering America by car.
Had Martin Milner gotten the Ferrari he wanted for the show instead of the Corvette, Enzo’s financial problems of the early 1960s may not have been so severe. Milner, at right, was the star of the TV series “Route 66”.
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His characters were diametrically opposed in nature, upbringing and looks. Martin Milner would play the well educated liberal, while the dark and brooding George Maharis was his street-wise friend. Milner, who really had been around, tried to talk the show’s director’s into using a Ferrari instead of a Corvette. “Let’s get a Ferrari,’ said Milner. “a Corvette is too ordinary.” Milner was a Californian and was used to seeing Corvettes all over the road. “To me, a Ferrari was really something special,” he recalled. “But we went with Chevrolet and the Corvette.” Pity, that. Ironically, the TV series rarely or ever used the real Route 66 as a backdrop.
The series ran from 1960 to 1964, and with it ended not only Route 66 but an American era. The death of John Kennedy and the long, failed war in Viet Nam would change America as surely did the vast Interstate system.
"Cars" and Route 66
But the road as an American Icon just wouldn’t come to an end. This year, a new cartoon movie by Disney/Pixtar provided a new generation with scenes from Route 66, as hot shot race car Lightning McQueen travels to a big race, where else but in California. Along the way, McQueen, voiced by Owen Wilson, learns about life in a variety of towns and place inspired by those on the famous highway.
A neat website, Route 66 News,
tells of the characters and places along Route 66 which inspired the new movie.
A close shave
Along the way were the famous Burma Shave signs, placed not only on Route 66 but many highways in the U.S. They were perhaps the most enjoyable advertising signs ever, and helped drivers keep awake while reminding them to drive safely. Each sign with one of four couplets was placed 100 feet apart, and always ended with a fifth, reading “Burma Shave”. Our favorite?
AROUND THE CURVE
LICKETY-SPLIT
BEAUTIFUL CAR
WASN'T IT?
BURMA SHAVE
