DRIVIN’IN MY CAR At the new Birthplace Plaza, fans of The Today Show brought some innovative photo props. If you want to get a copy of the book we’re holding, email us at Route66Ramble@gmail.com or find it on Amazon.com.
SURREAL SCENE in predawn downtown Springfield, Missouri, April 30 is really nothing more than the Southwest Missouri State flag corps proceeding to their lineup point for the filming of an NBC-TV“Today Show Third Hour Live”segment on the birthplace of Route 66.
CLASSIC CADDY carried the Today Show cast the length of a football field to arrive at Springfield’s new Birthplace Plaza on Route 66. After being on hand for a close-up view of the filming, we retreated to the hotel in time to see ourselves on television. The segment is archived at https://www.today.com/ video/see-al-roker-dylan-dreyer-laura-jarrett-in-springfieldmissouri-
AMONG THOUSANDS of visitors flocking to Springfield the morning of April 30, we happened upon friends from Texas, including road warrior Dora Meroney of Amarillo and her family.
‘WE PREFER SIXTY SIX TO SIXTY TWO’ The 1926 telegram to the U.S. Highway Department in Washington, D.C., that confirmed organizers Cyrus Avery and B.H. Piepmeier’s preference for“Route 66” is on display at the history museum located on Springfield’s Park Central Square. | PUBLIC DOMAIN / JUDY WALKER
In the coming weeks
It probably took longer for the army of NBC-TV producers and grips and camera operators to capture the Today Show’s 20-second “Third Hour Live” opener that morning than it did for Cyrus Avery and his fellow highway promoters to debate the relative merits of “66” versus “62” a century earlier.
Kay and I watched with interest from the rail of the crowd barrier as a straw-hatted Al Roker stepped into …
