“Route 66 Roadside Signs and Advertisements” leaves little doubt it exists primarily as an image-driven book.
After all, you have to show all these neon signs, banners and billboards that made an indelible impression on generations of Route 66 travelers and contributed to the road’s colorful history.
The book contains hundreds of photographs by Route 66 author Jim Hinckley (and a few other Route 66-based contributors), nearly all of them in saturated color. You’ll gaze upon vibrant images of many Mother Road icons, including the Munger Moss Motel, Blue Swallow Motel, Roy’s in Amboy, Dell Rhea’s Chicken Basket, Tulsa’s Meadow Gold sign and many, many others.
The fact it also is laid out using retro graphics is a bonus. And Rebecca Pagel deserves a mention for her design for the book.
Here are two sample pages:
But once the rush of the eye candy fades, one might find it’s Joe Sonderman’s text in “Route 66 Roadside Signs and Advertisements” (soft cover, 144 pages, Voyageur Press) that makes the biggest impression. For all of its relatively slim size, “Route 66 Roadside Signs and Advertisements” brims with great stories and interesting facts — dozens I’d never read before.
Sonderman perhaps is best-known for his massive Route 66 postcard collection and the 66Postcards.com website that details it all. But in the past few years, he’s edited the magazine for the Route 66 Association of Missouri and written a slew of Arcadia Images of America books. Those hyper-regional books need short histories to go with the photos. Sonderman’s lean prose comes in handy with “Route 66 Roadside Signs and Advertisements” — he packs a lot of information the main text and the captions with each photo.
“Route 66 Roadside Signs and Advertisements” goes in an east-to-west format with histories of the highway’s eight states. The same pattern generally emerges — U.S. 66 was laid over existing state roads or even Indian trails, the highway wasn’t fully paved until the 1930s, the road grew infected by too much traffic and wrecks, four-lane bypasses emerged by the 1950s, and U.S. 66 gradually became decommissioned by the 1970s and ’80s.
Sonderman sprinkles his text with little factoids that even devoted roadies may not know:
- Illinois’ highway patrol wasn’t founded so much to keep down traffic speeds and promote safety, but to flag overweight trucks that would damage the road.
- The first gas station in America was at 412 S. Theresa Ave. in St. Louis in 1905.
- The first improved road in southeast Kansas was built by Osage Indian chief Black Dog, measuring 30 horses wide during the 1890s.
- Only 28 of 506 miles Route 66 in New Mexico were paved in 1926.
But the best parts of the book are called Rest Stops — detailed histories about certain businesses or things that became part of Route 66 lore. They include:
A history of Burma Shave signs. The story about an enterprising Red Owl grocery manager who wanted to win a free trip to Mars is worth the price of the book alone. One also learns the Burma Shave re-creations in Seligman and Hackberry in Arizona are a misnomer — the company never planted signs in that state or New Mexico.
A history of Meramec Caverns, which had been known by white settles in Missouri since the 1720s, gained fame during the 1930s thanks in part to its proximity to 66. One learns about Jim Gauer, who by himself painted the Meramec Caverns logo on more than 350 barns in 14 states.
The story behind Phillips 66 gasoline and its stations. Remarkably, the name and logo — clearly inspired by a Route 66 shield and the gasoline’s gravity — was a “hasty decision” that endures 80 years later. Phillips Petroleum also made Marlex plastic, which were fashioned into Hula Hoops.
A history of the Holiday Inn chain. The neon signs for the hotels used more than 1,500 feet of neon and 500 incandescent bulbs. Regrettably, the company scrapped the signs beginning in 1982.
Histories of the Jack Rabbit Trading Post and Troutner’s Store for Men. These Arizona businesses both featured billboards as far away as Springfield, Missouri. And it was ingenious how subtly titillating slogans made Troutner’s otherwise-pedestrian store famous around the world.
A history of Two Guns, Arizona. It remains in ruins now, but the area once featured a string of Indian sieges, shootings, Hell Street brothels, drunken escapades, gas-tank explosions and madness — giving rise to long-festering rumors the place is haunted.
With “Route 66 Roadside Signs and Advertisements,” you’ll leaf through the photos and stick around for the stories.
Recommended.