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or a hanging major funding for the great american footrace was provided by the corporation for public broadcasting march twentieth and this
no one knows of their cross country racing when you know being so therefore europe would not know what a great source of water took a physical stamina be able to get them to have a heart in two sixty six
women's teams janine pease for years ms
bee this week he can he had been an automobile people started traveling to travel cross country and was treated it was no unified system so you
get on that piece where they're rolling this is actually an indication that there's no standardized how it is most of the time remarked insisted that the three colored stripes are on the fence and i can imagine that when the novelty straining to trust the experts got to make sure you're on the right businesses maps are very primitive and most consistent written directions telling me to turn right cause such and such intersection legal pretense allow such and such pain on the cemetery or watering hole or when they'll route sixty six was the first holocaust country that
has one of the most important in nineteen twenty five the american association of state highway officials was charged with the task of creating a unified network of federal highways to tie the country together and to come up with a standardized way of parkinson's your original nineteen twenties era surface so you know some of the army runners stepped on this very he's less culpable here route sixty six highway association so the future and a ribbon of concrete connecting town from los angeles and they needed a way to convince americans to take to the open road as a joke across country foot race was suggested but the idea caught on a well publicized it is maintained by having this race run across the whole country you can
contrast the paved areas what they are is a desperately needed improvement they also brought the people's minds the possibilities transcontinental trouble if somebody could run across the country in a foot race will surely could drive across an apartment feet sixty six the first day out of los angeles was a sense only seventy miles to keep track of the runners times towns along route sixty six was set up those checkpoints together in the morning and so does something else
dozens of these things there's a newspaper rich and explain to me where they were and how they were coming along then never but we're rooting for the turkey in there thank you it's b and it was not the first
native american athlete to attract public attention where owner tom long ago won the nineteen oh seven boston marathon less hopi indian runner won a silver medal at the nineteen twelve olympics and the same nineteen twelve olympics jam for a second fox indian from oklahoma won gold medals in the decathlon champion that he jumps into this race you know nineteen sixty stavros
stavros serves six the religious affairs minister so does japan hartle issues that would make so i am insane in order for kind of a crusty surface of keeping the dust but unfortunately it didn't we are very well and by the time of the london derby result and rough i
see it's insane is this really is a few years before he died to this
mean asking about race and he said it was grueling and i'm sure most in family painted finished in the top ten for the first seven checkpoints and the person is beginning to notice and he was a shy young man although polite you didn't like the attention and just for runners i wish he'd leave me alone and he wrote to his family we know what a fan i'm gonna win this race and he wrote that several is that iran will all out i can be lenient yes in los angeles for chau the winnings and then he offered his
assistants or strain or two three runners number sixty three like this number forty nine golden article and a number forty three you were doing these nine runners lined up on the banks of the colorado river police officials had failed to consider how the runners would cross the river there was the route sixty six regional atop of which was about twenty miles southeast of needles on the colorado river at needles if you crossed on a theory and went straight over to open you're coming out a big deal so scott a shortcut now as to why the runners to that shortcut i have been told that they did as a mistake not last i told some of
them did it to avoid having to run all the way down to walk in there and i've also read where andy payne was offered a ride by the local indians because he too was an indian while the other ones had to mess with the theory and all of those are are not stories i don't know which one's true once across the runners have to find their own way to oatman arizona to make up for the day's confusion runners times were adjusted like the organizer of a foot race was charles c while flamboyant and flashing pyle was known as the pt barnum of sports emotions official route sixty six highway
association offer while sixty thousand dollars contract to run the race down route sixty six the main street of america files than one five thousand dollars of the american to spend another twenty five thousand dollars on a bus arrives kyl explained his grandiose plans to a bit of the field of famous runners will race into hundreds of pounds each town will be assessed so much money for advertising or we will run through then we'll sell a million programs he's the only money on that route in fact it's about the easiest thing i've ever seen patients while was often one step ahead of the runners getting one town against
another for the privilege of having the race stop for the night but the town's a little oil it is now face the mountains of those are the ascent took the runners from the desert floor to an elevation of over seven thousand feet and i can imagine how nervous the rhetoric would've been running on this narrow but hardly any shelter and with the traffic coming both ways he's a nervous ordeal blind curves and here confirms that three d and big boulders sticking out of the runaway torture car shin splints and ankle
injuries are beginning to take their toll is struggling to breathe in the center it became necessary to send a patrol car back down the road to pick up runners who couldn't or wouldn't take another step from the outset runners were allowed to go back and try to make up the miles keeping track was too much and the rule was changed to make the day's checkpoint by midnight we're about said checkpoints at each brings arizona found and he came running in second place for afternoon the world's one hundred mile champion fat built up a formidable lead our lead and the next day his lap newton sprang his ankle over the course of the next four days he struggled to maintain his lead in first place is the mojave newton dropped out at winslow arizona from the pain of grotesquely swollen
ankles and he was in first place oh sure and he came down with on saddam's he had been running poorly for several days he was part of the way set by the side of the road to regain his strength race officials didn't think he would be able to continue and the sister pauline was in grade school at four old oklahoma her classmates called the race closely and together i remember one gang dugout there's only adults live that they were all bad movie
any surprise them all when he lined up but the next morning for a local english word to not drawn a sympathy from anyone and i i actually believe that this was the end of an assignment there are many things in nineteen oh seven the son of a cherokee farm on the claims made a modest living on her farm in the heart of cherokee country the land was that henry lee to land work at to get across the meticulous man in baghdad is more less so what it is to live in australia the plane family
followed the tradition of cherokee farm they trace their roots and he's a great grandmother foreign language charity of the winds of fortune they are far more was then why isn't are sometimes known has been marsh who was a judge in the cherokee nation and his father was last march was on the removal of the cherokee is in the eighteen thirty he has president andrew jackson ordered the removal of the cherokee from their ancestral lands they were marched through indian territory during the coldest winter in memory of thousands died on the way so it became known as the trail of tears
and he paints ancestors have been a part of this review part of this devastation that took place historically for the people and that put out and talk and build to begin anew as white migration moved west the land that was available shrunk except for land reserved for indians the white people here you want the land and because the image is that these are hostile salinger's you can do anything you want to go to and at ninety three it passed what was called the dawes act part of the policy was that you take the land that is held by the tribe collectively and you divide it up and you give it to individuals its tribal member was required to enroll and declare his or her degree of indian blood
was you have to do more you could spare them do you know what the guardian and to sign for even linux davis the same person that suffering can see land you know taken away from just a quick and that you know when let that happen a lot dr iain didn't take any chances when he wrote he listed himself as one aid for charity and that the reason was if you were more than one eighth indian you had to have permission from the bureau of indian affairs to buy and so let them so things are working well as the oldest and it was often put in charge of his younger siblings
his brothers and sisters to work contracts with them and they can almost always people those as a boy and he liked school better than farming he'd rather run to school and ride horseback like his younger brothers and sisters plus hour with a high school that foiled he ran track for their schools they ran long distances to a time when one while and he was the best local runner and his senior year a
young schoolteacher vivian shaddix cause i andy and vivian were the same age and for a moment that's right bad names and then in nineteen twenty seven
out of school and unable to find work and he had few prospects time for our future farmers their future together would have to wait conference board or getting a job or just traveling the fighting that's just an ancient thin strips and a little hansel and they hired and screaming he got a bank account that he like tell tales about the cops have to stop and then global camps and how they cooked at their lives brady and his family are struggling to try to find a
way to basically survive in america didn't prove that time and you see flashing this world around you know the great american dream is as unfolding before many people and historian either doesn't have at struggling to survive and he hears of this wonderful opportunity to win this prize the entry fee was twenty five dollars plus a hundred dollar deposit for passage home from new york or wherever a man dropped out or ceding any learnings in south pole my band borrowed the money to an er for
dawkins owner to borrow this much money demonstrated their face an ending singing los angeles has been chosen it's big as a billion years across the continental divide only half the runners remain they still had over two thousand miles to go at this rate some said there would be no runners left when the race reached chicago this was an endurance race this was pitting amanda gets not the
highway that really nature against the mountains and the deserts within air at high elevations the impact of the rock and rap alone the fee and this was their way of dramatizing how far the country had come as far as being connected the sandstorm or other runners for the forty nine miles from laguna los lunas new mexico the money five runners who struggled into los lunas were tired and hungry cash and jerry pyle had promised hot meals and a comfortable bunk at the end of each day's run they got one blanket and a canvas cut the official program boasted a traveling cafeteria that likes to feed the runners go out on the road they got student it threatened with less mutiny pile was forced to give each runner a daily some free meals pile gives us thirty five or forty cents for a meal can you imagine
running thirty to forty miles a day and getting enough to eat or thirty five or forty cents you can't get a green vegetables will you can't eat a hamburger don't because you need a good diet the canon meal we need calls about seventy five cents or bar and old some of these boys around him who are in and they show it maxwell house coffee so the bunny and thirty as a great promotional opportunity and set a three thousand gallon coffee pot to follow along for some of the runners the van's coffee and peanut butter sandwiches with their only meal if they couldn't do or one more day albuquerque hold the promise of clean sheets and a state dinner once again the trial failed to teach our
kids when the runners let off limits were recovered but of workers instead of hitting at the santa fe and following that route the santa rosa which was written sixty six i took the right turn and follow the pavement out on us for seven he cut off almost two hundred miles of official route sixty six please be true hey and part of the money making schemes the race
so it is since his belt will cancel it is ended quickly worked his way back into second place he wasn't having any luck gaining on the leader ali suleiman the physician from detroit someone was inexperienced as the race made its way out of new mexico and into the panhandle of texas he had a fire our lead by the time they reached amarillo and he was still in second place when the runners lined up the next morning it was snowing suleiman slipped on the icy road outside amarillo and suffered an injury it continued to
snow as suleiman struggle to make the next two checkpoints hit a snow played out by the time the rumors reached the jericho was a mining dropped out of reclaimed texas and oklahoma's new favorite song and the painting would lead the race into his home state school children this is another opportunity
the most popular entertainer and humorist of the twenties will rogers talk about the race and andy payne on his radio show i see that the newspapers that had given a big reception any pain i felt kind of jealous and read that someone had submitted me is the favorite son forty then to come to the right and ravin all month and russia relations battle of my favorites turkey when i read about some more radiation old rockabilly and wondered how i could be forgot russia bar law to end his remarks to the colors
were usually short and to the point authorities hope to see you in new york and this fall about pain was more outgoing and joined us on the road before the race reached oklahoma got a driveway and ready humor he joked with his son the spectators and the press well the boy is worth more than the farm just now so i'm going to stick close to him until the finished from tulsa customs enforcement stacy palmer is the us where we got to ride in a child's family all my hair was the finances when you ever felt led by an age it had ever had
we stayed all i shall say chelsea handler we visited with a vet early next morning he is already know when the echo park was a student at pawnee indian school we were all impressed with him and donald trump only one the goal and what can come in which he riffed running cross country when any pain a cherokee was leading the race he became a hero to native american children in boarding schools everywhere it says if the only acceptable role models if you're an atom or non indians that
we march of the titans so we did everything about her was when i first got there we had it for coverage abc indeed steve which is the little kids and our vision apparently that's a much larger gripe and gold buttons and a small cap with conway mark blyth motorman time pip pip pip poo through their calm and the pain marathon round was about twelve miles and one we would just about the water when someone will color and the pre spill opinion everybody wanted to be like an opinion
it was nearly fifteen hundred miles to go the race come down to any pain and peter krause force one and then the other in the league and he had pulled ahead on the leg and for chelsea oklahoma and hoses lead to the next seven checkpoints i recall him saying that as they came across a bridge that he could hear this man running behind him gaining on him of a british lion so opposed to us peter dove losing the ship's steward from england have a little long distance experience assigned to the hms majestic of the white star line and the sister ship of the titanic they're losing competed in company athletic events and won a few trophies but for the next four days
when they reached so when missouri who really ran into the checkpoint thirty three minutes of the game tom you're any strain wasn't worried about the rangers lead them astray i received your letter listening concerning indian his standing in the race this englishman must crack and he will crack it is impossible to keep up the pace is set and keep it up for many more days it is true that i have held it back to my knowledge it is for the best and is in good health and perfect condition and in just a few more days of that englishman don't crack and i will turn any loose and i'm sure he couldn't run him down so tell the people acquire more to be patient and i will put any in new york at the head of the pack of yours tom young is
sixty cents his expectations sixty six sometimes it was the or sixty thousand dollars he had angered the association of her town's by stopping in smaller places that would pay en route sixty six itself was barely mentioned instead i'll say mazel really advertising
the remaining sixteen years the steel valley association over ohio the reason that increased his lead over and it was six hours the rest of the bombing is their only hope was that the front runners will drop out there was going to be
fired by the time place sweet chicago it was fairly obvious injury leaving runners wore the rest of the runners really have almost no hope avoiding any why do we insist on keeping on with no chance this so called london derby is a marvelous thing the contest between the hardy bodies of men crossing across the greatest of nations chaired by the people every man who finishes up to race is a winter he has shown strength of heart and purpose which left him with a prize in love with his children after him things begin
but why the lucey was still in first place he had been running with an abscess tooth and hadn't eaten solid food for several days weak from hunger who's at the lineup for the day's run and the pain number forty three the shy young cherokee from oklahoma was in first place once more with a twenty two hour of lead one thousand miles was all that stood between andy and twenty five thousand dollars prize is cash and carry pile it's too expensive he ran the race through the next how that compares
to seventy miles for it when the runners protesters house response was that a small group of runners led by mike kelly an irishman from indiana decided to stay in the race just across while money mike kelly and his gang tried real hard to be the last one into the checkpoint before midnight just to keep on our staff waited for they would often stop for a left or go fishing and swimming when reporters discovered number one ninety three plot around sleeping in a bar and clark responded with mike kelly has fifty hours thirty one minutes thirty five seconds sweeping out because i'm trying to be different did you know most
corporations around seventy six mile yesterday that's three for marathons and one day trial had not or seventy six miles in one day annual drop the mall for a brief moment the other runners have renewed hopes of finishing in the money a rumor circulating that and he was going to run over as the race moves into statement years johnny say it wouldn't have been the first time there were sixty three twenty three christie's ascent to
power anything else and it is i mean no one knows johnny's please
at the racing through hundreds of towns and selling thousands and raise programs pile is broke and the pain of car moore oklahoma wins a foot race but he's lobbed have to run back to los angeles to give is money commissioner for sports promoters he's hoping to fill seats they will get paid immediately after the twenty six hour foot race and i am perfectly within my rights and paying them then to worry whether i can pay the forty eight thousand five hundred dollars in prizes or not that is absurd because the files posting did not instill confidence in the runner the bombing is slackening animal hoarders in the basement
at madison square garden until they were forced out as a child medicines that really surprised them all race and he was just twenty five thousand dollars the first thing and he did when he got home
was pay off the mortgage on his parents' farm bill a new home for himself and he bought a car and he would drive the seventy miles to teleport a c vivian vivian then andy would marry in the fall of nineteen twenty nine i'll still convinced it was the easiest thing you'd ever seen read his foot race back to los angeles in nineteen twenty nine any money the nineteen twenty nine race was a financial failure and
piles faded into obscurity as cc nice nice and he himself was not interested in promoting his achievement he saw his twenty five thousand dollar prize as a too and he would use this tool to make a better life for himself and his family it's hard to believe that he ran that race but to me that's not the most important thing about his life the most important thing with a fifty years afterwards he was always there you could always come up and i believe that that was the most important thing to him too for the rest of his life and he applied
the same drive and perseverance that he used to win the one hundred as the depression set in he ran a different sort of race and was elected clerk of the oklahoma supreme court and he will hold the office until he retired he went to law school after he was fourteen and denis law degree and he always emphasized education really believes in helping people help themselves and we thought that was a really good way to help yourself the most impressive i recall about her most cherished a lot to the window and he said something on it a man can't be an athlete all of life but he can use the same driving force to accomplish his dogs i believe it says everything about the character
you take somebody like in the pain that jumps into this race remains an underdog and also he becomes a hero without those kinds of items it's challenging for a community still aspire to those readings we should do something for them it's been nice i
would agree these as major funding for the great american footrace was provided by the corporation for public
broadcasting pirate copy of the great american footrace call for zero to four seven to three five to a head there are eighty eight
Title
The Great American Footrace
Contributing Organization
Vision Maker Media (Lincoln, Nebraska)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip/508-sf2m61cj57
If you have more information about this item than what is given here, or if you have concerns about this record, we want to know! Contact us, indicating the AAPB ID (cpb-aacip/508-sf2m61cj57).
Description
Program Description
Facing scorching temperatures, 19-year-old Andy Payne, a small-town Cherokee boy, takes home the gold after winning a grueling 3,422-mile foot race designed to bring attention to the newly constructed Route 66 Highway. The race recounted in this Emmy-nominated film became one of the wildest promotion schemes in history, allowing Andy to win enough money to marry his girl and keep the family farm.
Broadcast Date
2002-00-00
Asset type
Program
Media type
Moving Image
Duration
00:57:04
Embed Code
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Credits
Producer: Bigbee, Dan
Producer: Shangreaux, Lilly
AAPB Contributor Holdings
Vision Maker Media
Identifier: 2013-00236 (VMM Inventory #)
Format: Digital Betacam
Generation: Master
Duration: 0:56:46
If you have a copy of this asset and would like us to add it to our catalog, please contact us.
Citations
Chicago: “The Great American Footrace,” 2002-00-00, Vision Maker Media, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed March 29, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-508-sf2m61cj57.
MLA: “The Great American Footrace.” 2002-00-00. Vision Maker Media, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. March 29, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-508-sf2m61cj57>.
APA: The Great American Footrace. Boston, MA: Vision Maker Media, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-508-sf2m61cj57