Story and photos by Mark Potter
The Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona was honored as the recipient of the 2009 Will Rogers Award, and Carolyn Pendleton for the Kansas Route 66 Visitors Center accepted the Cyrus Avery Preservation of the Year Award during the 2009 Will Rogers Awards Banquet on Saturday night at the Little America Hotel in Flagstaff, Ariz.
Angel Delgadillo, longtime Seligman barber and founder of the Arizona association, accepted the Will Rogers Award on behalf of the organization and its founding members from more than 20 years ago. In presenting the award, Jim Conkle, event host and co-founder of the Route 66 Alliance, commented on Delgadillo’s leading efforts in the revival and preservation of Route 66 during the past two decades.
“The revival of Route 66 as we know it today started in Seligman,” Conkle said.
Delgadillo said that the work of his state’s association was “the work of the people” and the “American Dream.”
He recalled that Seligman was changed forever approximately 2:30 p.m. on Sept. 22, 1978, when Interstate 40 was opened to traffic from Seligman to Kingman and bypassed the small community. “Traffic in Seligman literally stopped,” he said. “The world literally had forgotten us for 10 years.”
Delgadillo said that something had to be done to save his community from prolonged decline as many businesses closed their doors. After a nearly 10-year drought, Delgadillo led efforts to revive his community and Route 66 with the formation of the Arizona Route 66 Association in 1987 with 15 initial members, leading to similar efforts in other states along the route.
“And we never looked back once,” he said. “In America, anything and everything is possible.”
Delgadillo said that he did not cut hair at his barbershop nor did he lead efforts to create the Arizona Route 66 Association to “make a dollar,” but to help create new jobs for Seligman and other cities. He said that in the past few years, many buildings that had been closed for quite some time have opened back up as new forms of business.
“I had the dream, but it was desires of many people that made it successful,” he said. “It was an endless project.”
“We’re all here today because of what you did that day (in 1987),” Conkle said.
The Cyrus Avery Preservation of the Year Award was presented to Carolyn Pendleton of the Kansas Route 66 Visitors Center in Baxter Springs, Kan. She was honored for her efforts to create the visitor center through the extensive restoration of a former service station building.
“Once Route 66 gets under your skin, you’re hooked,” she said.
Famed Route 66 author Michael Wallis, who planned to attend the banquet to present the Wallis 66 Award, was unable to attend due to being called for federal jury duty. Wallis presented the award via a conference call to the banquet from his home in Tulsa to the Route 66 Pulse newspaper for its efforts in publishing news happenings all along the route. Accepting the award on behalf of the publication were publisher/editor Conkle and staff member Rick Freeland.
Conkle also noted that the Pulse has evolved into becoming the official publication of the newly formed Route 66 Alliance, which officially became a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization under the direction of the Tulsa Community Foundation.
Other awards presented at the banquet included:
- Founders Award: Sean Evans, archivist, Cline Library at Northern Arizona University.
- Person of the Year: Ron McCoy and Ron “Tattoo Man” Jones.
- New Business of the Year: Frank and Lynne Kocevar, Historic Seligman Sundries.
- Business of the Year: Laurel Kane, Afton Station.
- Lifetime Achievement Award: Tom Spear, executive vice president, Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona.
Freeland presented an update on the new Route 66 Alliance. He stated that the Alliance was formed after it was found that there was no single voice representing the entire route, but by various state associations. He stated the Alliance will include leaders of each of the eight state associations to serve on the Alliance’s advisory board.
“We need to be able to speak as one for the entire Mother Road,” he said.
The Alliance plans to seek both public and private funding for various projects, including a Legacy Fund that would accept public and private funds, a Passport Program to assist in promotion of tourism, and an “Electric Highway” to push and encourage the development of vehicles running on alternative sources such as hydrogen, electricity, wind power and natural gas, as well as 18 to 26 recharging stations all along the route from Chicago to Los Angeles, and a laboratory that would be available to all firms interested In development and promotion of such these technologies.
“We want Route 66 to be the Mother Road of new technologies,” he said.
Conkle stated that it will take a lot of people to assist the Alliance in accomplishing its goals. “We’re here to support what everybody is doing on the road,” he said.
Also speaking at the banquet was Kirk Hallam, a semi-retired attorney and producer, who acquired the ownership and rights to the original “Route 66” TV series that aired on CBS from 1960 to 1964 and has digitally reproduced most episodes of the show in DVD format. He is in the process of developing a new motion picture and TV series of the same name, which would be entirely shot along the route — unlike the original TV series, which only a few episodes were filmed on Route 66.
“The TV series was a metaphor for the adventure of the open road,” Hallam said. “But it became apparent that the film had to be shot on Route 66 and incorporate the people and values of Route 66.”
Hallam stated that more concrete details on the motion picture and new TV series would be released over the next few months.
In addition to the motion picture and new TV series, Hallam has also returned to his law practice to file lawsuits against Penthouse magazine for creating a series of pornographic films under the title of “Route 66” and allegedly misusing the title of “Route 66” and its trademark for those efforts. Hallam’s lawsuits have the support of the Route 66 Alliance.
“I don’t want to see Route 66 desecrated into a porno,” he said. “I’m confident we will prevail to preserve Route 66 as an American icon.”
Conkle announced that the 2010 Route 66 Festival, including the Will Rogers Awards Banquet, would be in Joplin, Mo., during the second week of June. Carolyn Pendleton of the Kansas Route 66 Visitors Center said the 2010 event would become something of a tri-state festival for the states of Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma.
“We hope to see everybody in June,” she said.
The Will Rogers Awards Banquet was part of the 2009 Route 66 Festival held in conjunction with Flagstaff’s Route 66 Days, which included a car show, cruise night, summit meeting, e-group gathering, a preservation work day at Twin Arrows and displays by archivists, authors and collectors, and an authors’ book signing.
Sure hope I can one day meet Angel Delgadillo.
Hello, I once took a photo of Angel and Vilma together (posing for me in their shop) whilst on a trip and saw the shop. I think this was back in late 1990’s? Would you like a copy?