Review by Booklist Review
Route 66, the ``Main Street of America,'' was the major artery between Chicago and Los Angeles from 1926 until the late 1950s, when it was supplanted by limited-access superhighways. Largely created by Oklahoma businessman Cyrus Avery, it evolved from dirt and wooden planks to more than 2,000 miles of concrete that opened up the Plains and American Southwest to development and tourism. This lively account overcomes a crowded, two- column layout to trace the impact of automobiles on American life: gas stations and truck stops, tourist cabins and motels, Indian trading posts, prefranchise burger joints, bumper stickers, outrageous architecture, and garish billboards. The evocative photographs and interviews pay tribute to thousands of small businesses and the people who fueled, sheltered, and entertained millions of travelers. This is a fascinating study of individual entrepreneurs and the growth of advertising, as well as a paean to a vanished way of life. Bibliography; to be indexed. SL.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
Route 66the late, lamented American Main Street that ran from Chicago to the Pacificis here given life once again. Those who served its travelers for nearly 50 years (selling Indian artifacts, ``hamburgs,'' and chunks of petrified wood, or renting rooms, patching tires, and digging the wounded out of head-on collisions) offer memories both enthusiastic and touching. Now bypassed by impersonal interstate highways, the civilization depicted in the book's numerous photographs is faded and crumbling. An enjoyable and rewarding book on a uniquely important road that turned the heat up on the American melting pot. Timothy L. Zindel, Hastings Coll. of the Law, San Francisco (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Get Your Kicks on Route 66,"" goes the famous song. But 66 disappeared in the 1980's, a victim of the interstate highway system, so readers will have to get their kicks from this rewarding blend of photos and text documenting the birth, high life, and death of America's most famous road. Kelly's text relies heavily on oral history, recording the voices of the men and women who pioneered Route 66 by laying its foundations, cruising its pavement, building its stores and service stations and motels. The road began with Cy Avery, an ""early visionary"" from Oklahoma who dreamed of a path stretching from the shore of Lake Michigan to the shore of the Pacific. At first, much of the road was mud, dust, sand, or dirt--but even then, Route 66 was home for fabulous events like the 1928 Transcontinental Footrace, in which 275 runners staggered from Los Angeles to New York. In the Dust Bowl era, the nation moved west on 66; after WW II, the nation grew fat on 66, as businesses--and the advertising hoopla surrounding them--mushroomed. Kelly's pleasant, informative text, and the raspy voices she captures, are echoed by Quinta Scott's collection of spare, dramatic black-and-white images, mostly of storefronts and weather-beaten faces, showing the fading life of Route 66 during the past decade. A worthy shrine to a lost bit of America--the macadam umbilical cord that gave birth to the dreams of millions of tourists, itinerants, and pioneers. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
