Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip

In 1903, after accepting a $50 bet, Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson set off from San Francisco with associate Sewell Crocker and his pit bull to traverse the continent all the way to New York in a minor episode which would quickly evolve into an all-out publicity war waged by the major car companies in what would eventually come to be known as the country's first cross country commute by way of the newly invented automobile. Horatio's Drive is a nice, brief change of pace for Ken Burns in which he and cowriter Dayton Duncan effectively reveal an impressive and amusing little known story.
*** 1/2 out of ****