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The Open Road

What is the myth and reality of America's long love affair with the automobile? This program contains both and it's only a ninety minute ride at 36 feet per minute. The myth includes carefree vacations, the joy of hitch hiking, long haul trucker warriors of the road, carefree bikers on their hogs, leaving the driving to Greyhound, and more. The reality includes being busted for drunk driving, becoming one of the fifty thousand a year who die in a horrible wreck, ending up a quadriplegic after a ride on a Harley, and road rage turning a mild mannered milquetoast into a vengeful maniac. See notes

Program List

Old Gold Cigarette Commercial (c1964)
A lone car takes an exit ramp and escapes the turnpike rat race.
How To Go Places (1952)
Gail Storm (star of My Little Margie on TV) takes a vacation with her family in their Chevrolet.
No Doz Commercial (c1966)
A Buick Riviera veers off the road and out into the desert. No Doz would have stopped the tragedy.
None For the Road (c1963)
A great educational film about the peril of drunk driving.
The Fire In the Mine (1937)
A short film made to promote the 1937 Dodge. A young man must prove to his dad that he is a he-man!
Mechanized Death (c1961)
A classic scare the pants off young drivers educational films. No blood or gore is spared.
The Hitch Hiker (c1950)
A young woman can't get a ride unless she takes off her clothes.
Hitch Hiking - The Road to Rape (1978)
A chilling educational film.
Greyhound Bus Commercial (c1964)
Fred McMurray (star of My Three Sons on TV) advises his trusting fans that bus riding is nice.
Unrestrained Flying Objects (1966)
Creepy dummies in slo-mo crash tests demonstrate the need for seat belts.
High Mileage Driver Commercial (c1965)
A jazzy score and a cool Chevy both arrive at a Standard Oil Station.
Motorcycle Safety (c1970)
The lure of motorcycling is examined by interviewed avid bikers and bikers who will never walk and can hardly talk.
Crazy Larry Dirty Mary / Vanishing Point Trailer (1975)
Two of the great car films released together as a drive-in double feature.
Badlands Trailer (1973)
Sissy Spacek and Martin Sheen as serial killers.
For Truck Drivers Only (1963)
An industrial short made by Ore Ida potatoes showing the life of a safe truck driver.
If I Had a Million (1932)
The W.C. Fields episode from this omnibus film. He takes out his revenge on road hogs.

Notes:
The open road has long been, right up there with "The American Dream", one of the greatest myths in the great big U S of A. It has been used to sell automobiles to people who seldom drive them out of the city. It has been used to sell "high test" gasoline, all weather tires, and AAA memberships. It makes buyers add thousands of dollars in options for their new car such as four wheel drive, a trailer hitch, a heavy duty suspension trailer package, and a global positioning navigation system. This is all bought by people who haven’t taken more than a three day vacation in years. No matter how lousy your life is, the road offers you the chance to escape. Just get out on the high way and your cares are left behind. Everything is better. You will meet colorful people who treat you like a friend. You will stay in quaint motels with real character and incredibly comfortable beds. You will taste the toothsome flavors of regional cuisine. You will discover two lane back roads through virginal forests or along mountain tops. You will see wondrous sights and new things. When you return you will magically have a better job, a better future, and a better life.

What is the reality? You never get off the interstate. and you will see MacDonalds, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut where ever you go. You will use your credit cards exclusively, and return home even more in debt than you started. Every motel you stay at looks the same, and the ones that look different are too terrifying to approach. You will spend more time in your car driving than out of it experiencing life.

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