Here’s a nice article from 1981 about the Cannonball (Cannonball Baker pictured above) and how Brock Yates got it started. Although Yates was certainly a businessman before he was a romantic, he was responsible for initiating the cross-country rally as an idea. The Cannonball, however much of a lark, spawned the US Express, and more generally, the concept of the underground cross-country dash. The last page is missing, but you get the idea. (If the text is too small to read, click "full size" below the pop-up imagee, and then you can zoom in for a less strenuous viewing experience).
One strange thing in Brock Yates’ book is that
he’s counting his first attempt (with his son,
on the Moon Trash van) as an official run, BUT
he doesn’t say (unlike this article) that it was
in deed a race… that no one else wanted to
enter. As a reminder his words are:
“Who among serious car nuts could resist such
a challenge ? Everybody it turns out (…) we
faced the prospect of a non-event.”
and then he goes straight to:
“Our vehicle would be 1971 Dodge…”
That explains why there is, in the book, one run
too many (to me at least).
But enough on psychotic details, the really
interesting sentence here is “The story (…)
has a strange translucent quality which makes it
neither a fact nor fantasy.”
Or is it that it stops being a fact when it’s
too much a public fantasy ?
As history showed, fame can endorse those who
did it, not those who do it (Alex did quit).
Forget fame, run silent (…)
Hey, where’s the third page?
No updates? Are you in holidays or are there probs with the ovie?
We need UPDATES!! even a rough estimate! I am so fired up for this movie… I have warned my work that I am going to take a day off when this movie comes out, because I’m sure it will be released in NY before it comes anywhere near Boston… I will be there opening night! When can I buy a blueray copy of this movie hahaha.. I have cash in hand!
Alex, Cory, EVERYONE ENVOLVED WITH THIS MOVIE! WE NEED MORE UPDATES!
this movie is gunna be huge, beyond expectations that i think anything can imagine, and this blog has been great the past few months. we want…. no, we NEED MORE!
Add me to the ‘really frustrated this is taking so long’ list.
I told myself i’d completely lost faith and that this movie was never going to come out, yet I still find myself periodically checking the website.
Hurry up!!
I’m not saying this is the reason, but if you need money to complete this film, I’m willing to contribute what I can, and I’m sure there are some other people out here who wouldn’t mind making a donation to the producers of this film to see it come to life. let us know. Thank you and Happy Holidays!!
ha! That photo is classic
You guys/gals were doing great with updates to get me excited about the the release movie and now you have failed. You are lucky I just really want to see this film cause I have been watching the trailer for it going on 4 years now. Hurry-up and give a quick 5 sentense update….Were you accepted into Sundance? I would like that update. I am sure the people in the Sundance area would like to be told when you are screening the film so they can check it out. After checking the Sundance website is appears that you weren’t accepted, but please release the film already this is getting pointless by the time you release the film Someone probably will have beaten Alex’s record.
I have seen pictures of Corey Welles hanging out with Alex on his recent trips so why don’t spend 5 minutes and give us a quick update. Thats all we want I am starting to loose major interest
Forget the previous post. If you need time, take it… we’ve been waiting a lot, a little more won’t hurt (besides you’re not here to make a website but a movie).
i have been checking the sundance website but haven’t seen 32 hours listed in the films yet. does that mean you guys didn’t get in? any update would be nice….
They didn’t get accepted to the film festival….Now we have at least another year of waiting cause the Producers don’t think there is enough demand to profit from the release…..But thats just my opinion
Sweet merciful JESUS people, let’s get an update please! OK you didn’t get into Sundance - big deal. Perhaps you shouldn’t leave your internets fanbase out of touch if you’re worried about marketing this movie.
i think if there were a documentary on the making of this film it would be called 32 Years 7 Months.
seriously, an update? anything?
this is really looking like a vapor film. not to mention a few things have left me wondering what the heck is going on. is there nothing happening because it didn’t make sundance? waiting for another festival? and then there was a scary little post somewhere from alex roy saying something about having seen a new cut of the film using footage he hadn’t seen before? “All 98 minutes, and, amazingly, Cory Welles somehow managed to include about 90 minutes of fantastic footage I’d never seen before, which is hard to believe…since I’ve watched a three hour rough cut about 200 times in the last year.”
that almost seems to suggest the film is just endlessly being re-cut and re-edited…but this is what happens without updates. one has to scrounge around concoct theories off what little info is out there.
Once again I can’t agree with the previous post because this is getting more and more like the real run… there’s secrecy and mystery for outsiders: nobody knows when it’s gonna happen… and like the real run the making of this movie is mostly very boring (which is also Cory’s challenge: showing action when there’s none).
Profit shouldn’t be an issue.
Alex has done well with his book, and there is definitely serious interest in this. On top of that DVDs are one of the most profitable products to market. Easy too, cheap production and I’m sure they can find a distributor no problem. Cory’s problem is countering FOUR YEARS of production costs. General rule of marketing, don’t start, “hyping,” an unfinished product. It’s one thing to gauge interest, it’s another to piss off your fan base that is already rapidly losing interest (See: Gran Turismo 5.)
Meanwhile though there’s, “Truth in 24,” and, “Love the Beast,” that will both probably be out before this.
Dear Ben, the fan base is fine, thank you (some are even enjoying this situation). Thanks also for mentionning these 2 movies, I had never heard of them before and I’ll hopefully never ear of them again.
I was just watching some Bullrun videos today and came across something that kind of pissed me off.. These two guys, Richard Rawlings and Dennis Collins, claim to have beaten the NY to LA record with a time of 31 hours 59 min. I’ve been trying to find as much info on it as I could, and they just don’t have any good way of proving that they actually drove that distance in that time… in the video they were bragging that they didn’t get one ticket and had no problems the entire way… I call a load of BS and wonder if that has something to do with this films delay, although I can’t think of any reason why it would. Rawlings and Collins seem to have no video evidence of this accomplishment either. I mean, if you were going to attempt to beat the world record, wouldn’t you bring along a video camera to maybe, capture most of it?? google search some of this stuff and see for yourself.
I hope all is going well with the post production, I am really looking forward to seeing this film come to life.
To Ouzi5: Rawlings/Collins most probably did 31:59, they just forgot to say that Roy/Maher were faster, or that was not edited.
The reason why there are very few doubts about them doing it, is simply because they could.
At that time Rawlings/Collins made their record attempt Alex Roy kept secret about his runs so nobody knew at that time that the record was already broken.
And I think Rawlings himself has evidences but doesn’t want to publish it.