The Route 66 television show, which ran from 1960 to 1964, was remarkably ambitious for network television, but it was also a show that spent four seasons working out what it was. Some episodes are extraordinary. Some are not. What makes it fascinating to go back to now is the documentary record it accidentally created.
Because the show shot on location, every episode contains footage of actual Route 66 towns in the early 1960s — the businesses, the streets, the people moving in the background of scenes. In episode after episode, you can see towns that no longer exist in quite that form, businesses that closed decades ago, cars that are now museum pieces moving through traffic.
An episode set in Tucumcari in 1961 shows the neon motel strip in full operation. An episode shot in Gallup, New Mexico, shows the trading posts and the traffic on the main street. An episode in Missouri shows a stretch of rural Route 66 that has since been realigned.
None of this was the show’s intention. The production was trying to tell human stories using American landscapes as a backdrop. But the landscapes got recorded anyway, incidentally, in the process of making sixty-odd hours of dramatic television.
There’s a lesson in that about how history works. The record is never complete. It’s always slightly sideways from where the cameras were pointed. The most useful documents are sometimes the ones that didn’t try to be useful — the footage of what was happening in the background while the actors were saying their lines.
The road was always in the background. It never quite stopped being the point.
We are offering licences for ROUTE 66® Beer in specific territories. An invitation to others to become part of this story. To carry a piece of the road with them and to contribute to the story. We will share a percentage of royalties with Route 66 associations to keep the story alive.
The journey continues. This story is brought to you by ROUTE 66® BEER. Find us at ROUTE66BEER.COM
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