Video: How to Go Places: Before You Hit the Road
Yesteryear Travel: Before You Hit the Road
"Yessir, Dad, it's locked!" The 1954 short, "How to Go Places," was made by the Jam Handy Organization for Chevrolet, as a way to showcase one of its cars in a supposedly educational film.
And there are some worthy nuggets of information here, particularly if you're planning an extended road trip in a 1954 Chevy.
This brief segment of the film shows how Mom and Dad Bonnell pack their car wisely before embarking on a family vacation. Tips include filling a suitcase with nightly necessities to "save a lot of unpacking" -- then using it to block the side door behind the driver from the kids! Dad hides his spare key in the car's massive chrome bumper (nowadays repurposed into roadside artworks), while Mom supplies a jug of water and cookies for on the-the-move snacks. It all looks great on Day 1 of the trip -- but we'd bet that by Day 4 this car's interior looked like it had been hit by a cookie and travel-crap bomb.
How to Go Places would have been broadcast as filler on late night TV, or rented as a free educational short to be shown in libraries, civic clubs, and high school driver ed classes.
Old Films: Fascinating!
The RoadsideAmerica.com Team has a special appreciation for archival films -- from family home movies to sponsored travel shorts. Senior editor Ken Smith is author of "Mental Hygiene," the definitive book-form history of America's classroom educational and industrial films. He was an archivist and cataloger for Rick Prelinger in the early days of the Prelinger Archives. This film is made available through the Prelinger Archives.
