A few days ago, the C-SPAN network announced it put all of its video archives online, dating back more than 20 years.
The archive, which contains more than 160,000 hours of video, will be a boon for muckrakers. But considering that C-SPAN also gave plenty of air time to historians, I thought maybe some Route 66 footage would be there, too.
And there is. One big find is the late Tom Teague, author of “Searching for 66” and a founding member of the Illinois Route 66 Association, talking about the Mother Road before an audience in Denver in 1996.
The direct link to Teague’s talk is here. It’s about an hour.
Teague died a few years ago, and it’s neat to see and hear him again, albeit through my computer monitor.
If you enjoy hearing “Route 66: The Mother Road” author Michael Wallis speak, you can hear him here talking about his Billy the Kid book in 2007. David King Dunaway talks about his book “Across the Tracks: A Route 66 Story” and other biographies in 2002. And the C-SPAN School Bus stopped at Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Texas, in 1994.
Though I’ve read Tom Teague, I never met him. The C-SPAN piece was a chance to almost do that. Thanks for the pointer.