From the time I first saw the one hour documentary titled An Ice Cream Program (1996), producer Rick Sebak became an entertainer of interest. With a comfy and confident sing-song vocal narrative and cinema vérité style, he succeeded in capturing not only the best (and most unusual) local ice cream joints at their friendliest, but the long and lazy attitude of a most memorable summer day.

Soon to follow would be quality shows about Unusual Buildings and Other Roadside Attractions, Hot Dogs, Open-air Markets, Great Old Amusement Parks and Sandwiches That You Will Like. A Ride Along The Lincoln Highway is the latest of Rick Sebak’s efforts to explore the personality of a little-known, yet uniquely American phenomenon.

Unlike the US Route 66 project of the 1920s that carved a road from Chicago to Los Angeles where none had previously run, the Lincoln Highway was formed by cobbling-together existing roads that ran from New York City’s Times Square to San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf.

The possibility of a paved cross-country route spanning a dozen states was the brainchild of a group of automotive pioneers including Packard president Henry Joy and Prestolite CEO Carl Fisher, who became a millionaire by marketing electric automobile headlamps. By 1913, the automobile and its associated industries created the need for a network of roads as a motivation for consumers to buy the increased volume of cars produced. Create the market, then provide the product - the quintessential American success story.

Seeing that it would be impossible for an hour-long program to cover the complete story of a three-thousand mile road, Rick Sebak has assembled what is essentially a highlight reel of the original route (and its subsequent variations). Among the modern trappings of contemporary society stand the Art Deco-style filling stations, local diners and quirky motor courts that appeared long ago to serve a need - many of which remain as a tribute to the success of Joy and Fisher’s original inspiration.

In the early 1990s, historian Brian Butko sparked renewed interest in the disappearing story of the Lincoln Highway - most of which had lost the signage designating major stretches of the roadway by name. The original Lincoln Highway Association was a national organization in existence from 1913-1930. More recently, several states that host the road have developed commissions and private citizen groups dedicated to the proper labeling and promotion of the nation’s first major thoroughfare.

As with all his “scrapbook documentaries”, Rick Sebak frequently trades business for pleasure as he visits attractions along the way - as well as the people who live and work along the road. Also explored are some of the hundreds of miles of “turnouts” - segments of the original road bypassed over the years in favor of more direct routes.

“Seedling Miles” were stretches of road sponsored by local concrete manufacturers and designed to demonstrate the convenience of pavement in backwater towns throughout the mid-west accustomed to shlepping-through axle-deep mud. In fact, part of its pre-paved existence in Iowa was known as “Mud Road”.

“Ideal Sections” were well-lighted four-lane divided affairs with curbing, sidewalks and bicycle paths - both beautifully landscaped and maintained. An Iowan marker commemorates the most significant of these; though modern high-speed traffic and congestion prohibits folks from stopping to read the tombstone-style informational plaque - lest they require a tombstone of their own in the process.

In the deep west, some isolated towns were founded due to access to the original road and would likely cease to exist if not for its continued upkeep and renewed historical interest. Eureka, Nevada thrives as a tourist town whose main street looks like a photograph taken at the turn of the 20th century. In its heyday, more than fifteen-thousand silver miners called Eureka home. A tour of the general store provides the ultimate feel for life’s small luxuries found in a rural America of the past.

The tour concludes with the Lincoln Highway’s only major split - two separate versions of the road run from the Nevada border to Sacramento, California - the earliest major American roadway to have performed such a feat. Where the western terminus of the more legendary US Route 66 lands at southern California’s Santa Monica pier, The full Lincoln Highway experience required a ferry ride to San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf to complete the journey - that is until the 1927 opening of the Dumbarton bridge that was the first toll structure to span San Francisco Bay.

Like all of Rick Sebak’s documentaries, A Ride Along the Lincoln Highway is more of a casual historical stroll than a typical textbook treatise. His warm-and-fuzzy info-tainment style makes the presentation of history and Americana downright fun - and therefore more accessible through the appealing visual and cultural osmosis that has become his modus operandi.

A Ride Along the Lincoln Highway (2008)
Producer/narrator: Rick Sebak
60 minutes; Unrated
Studio: PBS Direct
DVD: PBS Home Video (2009)

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up Ages 8