Created in the 1950s, this vintage film was made by Greyhound Bus Lines to promote their charter and tour services. As passenger railroads went into decline and America’s highway system reached a new level of complexity, bus services such as Greyhound began to experience a surge in business. The Greyhound Escorted Tour promoted in this film proved highly successful with passengers from all walks of life signing up for multi-day trips to scenic destinations like the Grand Canyon and other National Parks, Washington D.C., New York, San Francisco, and other major American cities.
Greyhound Lines, Inc., usually shortened to Greyhound, is an intercity bus common carrier serving over 3,800 destinations across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Founded in Hibbing, Minnesota in 1914, and taking the name The Greyhound Corporation in 1929, the company has been based in Dallas, Texas since 1987. Currently, British transportation company FirstGroup owns and operates Greyhound as a division of FirstGroup America.
After World War II, and the building of the Interstate Highway System beginning in 1956, automobile ownership and travel became a preferred mode of travel in the United States. Along with a similar downward trend in public transportation in general, ridership on Greyhound and Trailways bus routes began a long decline.
The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s had a connection to the Greyhound company. In 1955, the Interstate Commerce Commission ruled in the case of Keys v. Carolina Coach Co. that U.S. interstate bus operations, such as Greyhound’s, could not be segregated by race. In 1960, in the case of Boynton v. Virginia, the U.S. Supreme Court found that an African American had been wrongly convicted of trespassing in a “whites only” terminal area and in May 1961, civil rights activists organized interracial Freedom Rides as proof of the desegregation rulings. On May 14, a mob attacked pair of buses (a Greyhound and a Trailways) traveling from Washington, D.C., to New Orleans, Louisiana, and slashed the Greyhound bus’s tires. Titles II and III of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 broadened protections beyond federally-regulated carriers such as Greyhound, to include non-discrimination in hotels, restaurants, and other public accommodations, as well as state and local government buildings
Later in the 1960s, Greyhound leadership saw a trend of declining ridership and began significant changes, including using the profitable bus operations to invest in other industries. By the 1970s, Greyhound had moved its headquarters to Phoenix, Arizona and was a large and diversified company, with holdings in everything from the Armour meat-packing company (which in turn owned the popular Dial deodorant soap brand), acquired in 1970; Traveller’s Express money orders, MCI bus manufacturing company, and even airliner leasing. Indeed, Greyhound had entered a time of great change, even beginning to hire African American and female drivers in the late seventies.
This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2K. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
