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Author: Russell A. Olsen
For several decades, Route 66 was the nations
main east-west thoroughfare, pointing Middle
America toward all the promise California
seemed to hold at various times, whether permanent
refuge from the Dust Bowl or a temporary escape
from the drudgery of everyday suburban life
in prosperous postwar America. As such, Americas
Main Street once teemed with activity . .
. bustling centers of commerce that evaporated
into the vast American landscape like the
jet contrails overhead and the heat rising
from the Interstate asphalt. This engaging
look at the "Mother Road" takes
75 locations along its 2,297 mile route from
Chicago to Santa Monica and shows them first
during their halcyon heydays through black-and-white
photographs and period postcards, then on
the facing page as they appear today, from
the exact same angle and also through vivid
black-and-white photographs.
From Publishers Weekly
For half a century, Route 66 was the main thoroughfare from Chicago to
Los Angeles. Built largely from portions of old wagon trails, the 2-lane
highway zigzagged through eight states: south from Illinois and slicing
southwest through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona,
and finally, into California. Going town by town, Olsen revisits the mid-century
road side cafes, motels and service stations that thrived along the old
route, juxtaposing his own photographs with vintage postcards or archival
photos of each building in its heyday. The result is an illustrated catalogue
of 75 buildings in various states of renovation, expansion, desolation
and decay. For example, the Painted Desert Trading Post in Navajo, Ariz.,
pictured with busy motorists filling up on gas in 1942, is today windowless
and surrounded by sagebrush, its painted stucco exterior scoured by decades
of desert sand and wind. Meanwhile, the Riviera tavern in Gardner, Ill.,
still sits open, its white clapboard exterior and Schlitz beer sign remarkably
unchanged. Olsen intertwines the highway’s history with the personal
stories of the owners and patrons who recall vividly when the new 4-lane
interstate system put the old road on the path to obsolescence. But before
its decline, it served as "The Mother Road" for those fleeing
the Dust Bowl, a main artery for WWII military transport and arms production
and later, a sunny vacation route for hordes of post-war tourists. For
those unable to get their kicks in person, this virtual road trip preserves
the memory and adventure of Route 66.
© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. |
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$29.95 (hardcover)
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