Filmmaker John Paget is bringing his new feature-length documentary about Route 66 to Southern California this week, with a California premiere set for 6 p.m. Friday at the California Theatre in San Bernardino, located at 562 W. 4th Street. The film, titled Route 66: The Main Street of America, follows the 2,400-mile highway across eight states and is screening in conjunction with the road’s 100th anniversary.
A Centennial Tour With Deep Roots
The documentary was written and directed by Paget, according to Sapulpa Times, and is listed as an official selection on the film’s website. San Bernardino Sun writer Charlie Vargas reports that Paget first became interested in Route 66 at age 24 and previously made the 1994 documentary Route 66: An American Odyssey. That film used footage shot from a camera mounted on a 1969 white Cadillac convertible to show the effects of interstate freeway development on small towns. Paget has described the new film as an invitation for Americans to discover or rediscover the road, the Sun reported.
The roadshow is scheduled to include more than 40 screening events across all eight Route 66 states, according to Route66News. The outlet reports the roadshow began Sept. 1 in Chicago, a date also listed on the tour’s own schedule.
Where Southern California Can Catch It
After the San Bernardino premiere, the film moves to the Grand Ritz Theater in Escondido, at 301 E. Grand Ave., for 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. showings on Oct. 25. The tour continues to the Lido Theater in Newport Beach on Nov. 2, then concludes with an 8 p.m. screening at the Los Angeles Theatre at 615 S. Broadway on Nov. 7, where Paget is set to answer audience questions, per San Bernardino Sun and Route66News. Admission runs $15 to $28, with information available at mainstreetofamerica.com, per San Bernardino Sun.
Centennial Recognition And Local Preservation
The U.S. Route 66 Centennial Commission’s website lists the documentary as selected to help the nation celebrate the highway’s 100th anniversary, according to the Commission. Preservation work is also underway in the region. The California Preservation Foundation says it and the National Park Service are conducting a survey of the Route 66 roadbed in San Bernardino County.
Stories Of Revival Along The Mother Road
The documentary follows Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles, looking at people today restoring landmarks, legacy businesses, small towns and old motels, according to KNAU. Among the stories the film tells, per San Bernardino Sun: a family in Luther, Oklahoma, restoring one of America’s earliest Black-owned gas stations; a desert oasis explored by deep-sea divers; and a couple who began making bourbon in the town of Bourbon. Route66News separately describes the bourbon-making couple and the desert-oasis divers as part of the film’s portrait of people bringing motels, diners, theaters, souvenir shops, filling stations, a prison and a steam train back to life.
The Sun also reports on a sake maker in Holbrook, Arizona, who won an award in Tokyo for the best sake made outside Japan, and on the El Reno, Oklahoma, origins of the fried onion burger. The Hamburger Inn is associated with the dish, developed during the Great Depression by Ross Davis and his father; Adam Hall of Sid’s Diner continues the tradition, the report says.
What Brings New Visitors To Route 66
Paget told San Bernardino Sun that younger generations are seeking authenticity and a connection to history, and that Route 66 today draws younger people who value hometown, generational traditions. That matches a broader pattern described by Savingplaces.org, which notes that generations born long after Route 66 was decommissioned are now driving it in search of an experience rather than personal memories. San Bernardino Sun reports that the Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumcari, New Mexico, has drawn new owners who left corporate jobs in tech or IT to buy and run the property, and that Route 66 preservationists have put their own money into reviving historic places that banks won’t finance…