The first road trip to college is a memorable journey.
For Dick Besser and his friend Alonzo, it was nine days of travel, crossing Mo., Okla. and Ariz. on Route 66 as he traveled to college at the University ofArizona in 1959. While many people have traveled Route 66, few travelers recorded the experience with the same detail and attention as Besser.
“I said, ‘man, I need your story,”’ former chair of the Interpretive Center restoration committee Howard Dickman said. “So for years I kept after him and finally he relented and he gave me his story. And I produced a movie about his adventure in ‘59 and then again going back down again.”
The resulting 20 minute film features the story of “Dick Besser’s Route 66 Adventure” recounting how he travelled the “Mother Road” twice --first on the way to college in the late 1950s and later recreating his journey in the 2000s.
Besser’s meticulous photography is on full display, providing visual grounding to the story as quotes from Besser interweave with narration to describe his journeys.
Postcards home provided a lot of the source information for the story.
“We have met a lot of nice people from all over the United States,” Besser wrote to his parents.
By examining the highway at two differentpoints in its history, the film reflects Route 66’s continuing appeal.