Route 66 saw boost in traffic volume after World War II

Post-World War II, traffic on Route 66 increased dramatically. Families with more income and leisure time began the tradition of the great American “road trip,” heading west on Route 66 to destinations such as the Grand Canyon, Disneyland and California beaches.

For one World War II veteran, however, the journey west on Route 66 was “a business trip.”

Bobby Troup had served a four-year hitch as an officer in the Marine Corps. He was the music director at Camp Montford Point in Jacksonville, N.C., where he was given leadership responsibility for the training of African-American troops.

 

Marine Capt. Bobby Troup with Pvt. Finis Henderson at Montford Point.

Bobby Troup and his wife, Cynthia, packed up their 1941 Buick and headed west. Bobby wanted to try his hand as a Hollywood songwriter. He had a talent for putting rhyming words and music together.

She suggested that he compose a song about their journey, titling it: “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66.”

The lyrics mention several communities that they passed through on their 10-day trip: St. Louis, Joplin, Oklahoma City, Amarillo, Gallup, Flagstaff, Winona, Kingman, Barstow and San Bernardino.

It was a snappy tune. Nat King Cole, with the King Cole Trio, first recorded “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66” as a rhythm and blues song in 1946 at Radio Recorders in Los Angeles. Capitol Records released it as a single, and the song reached No. 11 on Billboard magazine’s singles chart.

 

A new television show, “Route 66,” premiered as an American adventure drama in 1960. It was created by Herbert B. Leonard and Stirling Silliphant.

Rather than pay royalties to Troup for the use of his song, Leonard and Silliphant commissioned Nelson Riddle in 1962 to write the “Route 66 Theme” as an instrumental. 

(In 1963, Stanley Styne wrote lyrics for jazz singer Teri Thorton. Her vocal version was retitled “Open Highway.”)

 

The “Route 66” TV series was an anthology that followed two young men traversing the western United States along Route 66 in a photogenic Chevrolet Corvette convertible. When the characters ran low on funds, they worked odd jobs to pad their wallets.

 

Martin Milner starred as Tod Stiles, and George Maharis played his friend Buz Murdock. 

During the third season, Maharis was diagnosed with infectious hepatitis, requiring him to take an extended leave of absence. 

He was replaced in the cast by Glenn Corbett, who played a recently discharged Vietnam veteran named Lincoln “Linc” Case. He continued through the final episode in 1964.

 

Despite the name of the series, most episodes did not take place on the historic road. A long list of well-known artists appeared as guest stars on the series, including Ed Asner, Peter Lorre, Barbara Eden, Jack Lord, Cloris Leachman, Tuesday Weld, William Shatner, Joan Crawford, Julie Newmar, Martin Sheen, James Caan, Lee Marvin…and dozens more.

Chevrolet supplied complimentary Corvettes, upgrading every season with the latest models.

 

The boom in traffic along Route 66 in the 1950s was temporary. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Federal Highway Aid Act in 1956, creating the Interstate Highway system. 

 

Over the next three decades, interstates replaced “almost all” of U.S. 66 with I-40. Route 66 was officially decommissioned in 1985.

Route 66 lived on, however, as people nostalgic for the old highway started campaigns to preserve the historic road. The U.S. Congress passed the Route 66 Study Act of 1990, recognizing that Route 66 was “a symbol of the American people’s heritage of travel and their legacy of seeking a better life.”

 

This year marks the 100th anniversary of Route 66, and communities all along the original route are staging all sorts of celebratory events. We’ll check it out.

Route 66 was America’s ‘Mother Road’ and ‘Main Street’

How Route 66 came to be known as America’s “Mother Road” is an interesting story.

American novelist John Steinbeck (1902-68) wrote about Route 66 and used the term “Mother Road” in his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “The Grapes of Wrath,” published in 1939.

 

The story describes the effects of the severe drought that struck the Midwest in the 1930s –the infamous “Dust Bowl.”

Travel writer Austin Whittall commented: “Strong winds provoked vast dust storms known as ‘black blizzards’…that blanketed the prairies of Canada and the United States.

 

“More than 100 million acres of once verdant farmland were ruined,” Whittall said. “Farmers lost their crops and cattle. Facing famine, and unable to pay back their bank loans, they defaulted on their mortgages. The farmers lost everything. Move on and find work, or starve.”

“An estimated 210,000 people took to the road and headed west, seeking jobs in California,” he said.

“However, the Great Depression that began with the ‘Black Tuesday’ stock market crash in October 1929 had shattered the economy,” Whittall said.

Still, the farm families from The Plains were determined to move west on a wing and a prayer.

 

Steinbeck wrote: “Highway 66 is the main migrant road…the long concrete path across the country, waving gently up and down on the map, from the Mississippi to Bakersfield – over the red lands and the gray lands, twisting up into the mountains, crossing the Divide and down into the bright and terrible desert, and across the desert to the mountains again, and into the rich California valleys.”

“66 is the path of a people in flight, refugees from dust and…from the desert’s slow northward invasion, from the twisting winds that howl up out of Texas, from the floods that bring no richness to the land and steal what little richness is there.”

“From all of these, the people are in flight, and they come into 66 from the tributary side roads, from the wagon tracks and the rutted country roads. 66 is the mother road, the road of flight.”

Whittall said that for countless families, the journey was pure misery: “Thousands of cars, wrecks along the highway, lack of money, food, no spares, old jalopies, threadbare tires, strained engines, thirst, despair….”

 

(Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath” was an instant literary success, and a movie directed by John Ford was shot in 1940, starring actor Henry Fonda.)

 

On the more positive side, one of the chief promoters of Route 66 was Cyrus Avery. He was instrumental in plotting and planning Route 66 from Chicago to dip south and run through St. Louis, Mo.

Avery rationalized: “Like the pioneer days, when they outfitted at St. Louis for all points in the West and Southwest, so today people traveling by auto find themselves coming to St. Louis over the various U.S. roads, and when arriving in St. Louis, by consulting their map, find U.S. 66 is the most direct road to the Pacific coast and likewise to all points in the great Southwest.”

“I challenge anyone to show a road of equal length that traverses more scenery, more agricultural wealth and more mineral wealth than does U.S. 66,” he said.

Avery labeled Route 66 as “America’s Main Street,” and the highway has been memorialized in popular songs and with a television drama series.

 

Two popular movies are also associated closely with Route 66. One is “Easy Rider” (1969), a “landmark counterculture film” featuring Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Terry Southern and Jack Nicholson. 

The other is “Thelma & Louise” (1991), starring Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon. Their “girls’ road trip” into the American Southwest goes from bad to worse.

Route 66 launches centennial celebration in Springfield, Mo.

Dateline: Springfield, Mo. With a ton of fanfare, NBC’s “TODAY” show recently kicked off the 100-year anniversary observance associated with America’s “Mother Road” – Route 66.

Broadcasting live for a one-hour segment on April 30 were “TODAY” regulars Al Roker, Dylan Dreyer and Laura Jarrett. We learned that Springfield, Mo., with a population of about 171,325, is regarded as the “Birthplace of Route 66.”

 

That’s a bold claim, considering that the route begins and ends in Chicago and Los Angeles. While Springfield is not the start of the physical highway, it is where the name was finalized in 1926. Here’s how that came to be:

As initially planned, the 2,448-mile federal highway connecting Chicago and Los Angeles was going to be assigned the number “Route 60.”

Kentucky Gov. William J. Fields objected, however. He asserted that a transcontinental highway that was also on the books, intended to connect Virginia Beach, Va., and Los Angeles (a few hundred miles longer), should receive the Route 60 designation instead.

(In those days, the ending numeral “0” was identified with major “east-west highways” in the system, while the primary “north-south routes” ended in “1” or “5.”)

The Bureau of Public Roads essentially agreed with Gov. Fields, and the Chicago-Los Angeles highway was changed to “Route 62.”

That didn’t sit well with John Woodruff (shown above), a Springfield attorney, and Cyrus Avery (shown below), Oklahoma’s highway czar. 

They convened a meeting of a group of state highway planners in April 1926 in Springfield to discuss the matter.

Intent on making “lemonade” out of a bad situation, Woodruff and Avery, opted for a more catchy name, and “Route 66” was available. They telegraphed Bureau officials on April 30, 1926, requesting that number.

They got their confirmation on Nov. 11, 1926, when U.S. Secretary of Agriculture William Marion Jardine, serving under President Calvin Coolidge, approved the Route 66 designation. 

Hence, Nov. 11, 1926, is observed as the official birth date of “U.S. Highway 66.”

The U.S. Highway 66 Association was founded in 1927 to promote the highway. Woodruff was named the first president. The association advertised that Route 66 was “the shortest, best and most scenic route from Chicago through St. Louis to Los Angeles.” The road became popular with interstate travelers.

 

Route 66 was completely paved in Missouri in 1931, and the entire route was hard surfaced by 1938. As the highway improved, it began attracting businesses to formerly isolated communities. The need for fuel, lodging and food along the highway gave birth to many small businesses.

 

Red’s Giant Hamburg was established in 1947 by Sheldon “Red” Chaney on Route 66 in Springfield. It was America’s first “drive-thru, fast food restaurant.”

A red and white 1955 Buick Special with shiny chrome bumpers and spinner hubcaps, is parked outside as a nostalgic tribute to Route 66. (The vehicle was strategically placed in front of the restaurant’s sign to prevent motorists from accidently backing into the structure.)

 

The “TODAY” show crew also wanted viewers to know that Springfield is the “Queen City of the Ozarks,” but the city has also been tagged as the “Buckle of the Bible Belt,” due to its association with “evangelical Christianity.”

Springfield also is home to Missouri State University; the main campus has an enrollment of about 25,250 students.

MO State’s athletic teams are nicknamed the Bears, and the “TODAY” show cameras zoomed in to film the antics of the mascot, “Boomer the Bear,” and the moves exhibited by the “Sugar Bears” dance team.

It’s an exciting time for Bears’ football fans, as MO State has just recently “toughened up its schedule” as a new member of Conference USA.

Supporting actors shouldered the load in some TV Westerns

Who were some of the best supporting actors who became legendary “sidekicks” in the television Westerns from the 1950s and 1960s?

One who frequently comes to mind is the jovial character Pancho (Leo Carrillo), who appeared in “The Cisco Kid” (1950-56) as the loyal companion of Cisco (Duncan Renaldo).

 

Cisco and Pancho were technically Mexican desperados wanted for unspecified crimes but viewed by the poor as “Robin Hood figures,” as they scampered about through the American Southwest, assisting the downtrodden to attain frontier justice.

 

Cisco was a charming ladies’ man, dressed in a highly embroidered black outfit, while his slightly paunchy sidekick Pancho brought humor to the series with his contrived heavily accented comments.

Pancho usually used the dialect for comic effect, liberally salting his speech with malaprops, such as: “My ears, they are para-loused!”

 

Cisco rode a black horse named “Diablo,” while Pancho rode the light-colored “Loco.” When they would travel to a new location, Pancho always exclaimed, “Let’s went!”

 

Carillo was 70 when he agreed to play the part of Pancho. As a native of Los Angeles, Carrillo attended St. Vincent’s College there (the forerunner of Loyola Marymount) as an art student. He took a job at an illustrator at the San Francisco Examiner and later performed in vaudeville and theatrical productions. 

He bonded with fellow stage performer Will Rogers, and the two became lifelong friends.

 

In the 1950s era of “shoot-’em-up Westerns, neither Cisco nor Pancho, over the course of 156 episodes, ever took a life. Instead, “they routinely outsmarted the bad guys, showing that villainy was its own worst enemy. The formula made international stars out of Renaldo and Carrillo.”

Renaldo often commented about the positive “chemistry” that existed between the two men while on the set. Renaldo was a Romanian by birth; he came to the United States at a young age. He had hoped to become an artist, specializing in portrait painting.

He later took up acting and signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1928 and was frequently cast in Latino roles. None was more significant than “The Cisco Kid.”

 

Later in the 1950s, two supporting TV Westerns actors emerged in memorable roles as “trail cooks.”

They were Frank McGrath (shown above), who played Charlie B. Wooster on “Wagon Train” (1957-65), and Paul Brinegar (shown below), who played the part of George Washington “Wishbone” Haggerty on “Rawhide” (1959-65).

 

Charlie was “the reliable, cheerful and sometimes comical camp cook. He provided steady, humanizing companionship to the trail bosses and was known for his stories and banter with other characters. He offered a comforting presence when the trail got dangerous,” one TV critic commented.

 

“On ‘Wagon Train,’ only Terry Wilson, who played the assistant wagon master Bill Hawks, and McGrath appeared in all 272 episodes of “Wagon Train” in  the series, providing continuity across all eight seasons.”

 

Charlie is remembered for his scruffy beard and his upbeat, humorous demeanor. He could get gruff at times, but he was also proven time and time again to be a real softy at heart. In many ways, he was the “heartbeat” of the wagon train.

McGrath was born in Mound City, Mo., and was featured as the U.S. Army bugler in two of the most highly acclaimed Western movies ever made, “Fort Apache” (1948) and “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon” (1948). Both films showcased the talents of actor John Wayne, who performed with casts consisting of Hollywood heavyweights.

 

McGrath appeared in guest roles for several TV Westerns before being tapped to play Charlie on “Wagon Train.”

Wishbone is remembered as “the grizzled, crusty, cantankerous, bearded chuckwagon cook who was responsible for feeding the “Rawhide” cattle-drive crew, often providing comic relief along the trail.

 

He said his “signature coffee recipe” involved boiling a pound of coffee for 30 minutes, adding a horseshoe, and adding more coffee, if the horseshoe sank.

On the show, when Wishbone wasn’t whipping up food, he was whipping the character Rowdy Yates, played by Clint Eastwood, into shape, as a favor to the trail boss Gil Favor, portrayed by Eric Fleming.

 

Wishbone also got “tangled up” fairly regularly with his assistant, Harkness “Mushy” Mushgrove III, portrayed by James Murdock. Often in a grumpy mood, Wishbone would badger Mushy, which was his version of mentoring.

 

Brinegar was born in Tucumcari, N.M. For a time, he studied drama at Pasadena (Calif.) Junior College before enlisting in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He served as a chief radioman in the South Pacific.

After the war, Brinegar returned to California, where he applied his military training and experience to earn a living in the Los Angeles area as a radio repairman. He also resumed his pursuit of an acting career in his spare time, playing bit parts in movies.

During his career, Brinegar was cast in more than 100 Western films produced between 1946 and 1994, often specializing in playing “feisty cowboy sidekicks,” but he said: “Wishbone was the best job I ever had.”

 

“One of our best filmed stampedes was a real stampede,” Brinegar said of “Rawhide.” “The chuck wagons were knocked over, and it took a whole day to round up the herd.”

 

“Westerns are the only original U.S. art form,” Brinegar continued. “Outdoorsiness is a big part of the appeal of a story.”