73772 FORD MOTOR COMPANY “ONE ROAD” 1957 EUROPE TO ASIA TRIP

This astonishing travelogue created by the Ford Motor Company shows a trip across the world made by two intrepid men and their brand new 1958 Ford Fairline, across continental Europe and Asia — a trip that would be virtually impossible today. The journey was part of the World Highways Expedition of 1957. The film starts in Dearborn, Michigan where two Danny Ames and Phil Remy depart on a trip around the world, through sixteen countries and 15,000 miles of road. It starts with a drive to New York and then departure aboard the ship SS New York to London, then to Paris by airplane. The real journey then begins from Switzerland, across the Alps to Portofino, Italy, Pisa, Venice and Rome. The trip then continues through Yugoslavia, Athens, Greece and Istanbul, Turkey. Now the trip enters an incredible phase, including a drive across Anatolia, Iran and the Hindu Kush, Afghanistan. In this section the Buddhas of Bamiyan are seen. The journey continues through Lahore, Pakistan, India, Thailand and Angkor Wat, Cambodia. The film ends with a visit to Saigon, Vietnam and a boat crossing to San Francisco and back to Dearborn, Michigan.

The director of the film Kevin McClory served as the location director for Michael Todd on “Around the World in Eighty Days”.

Inspired by the film Around the World in Eighty Days, the Ford Motor Company hired Filmways in New York to produce a series of commercials and a documentary about two guys driving a new 1958 Ford from LeHavre, France, across Europe, through Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and on to Saigon. To realize this task required a caravan of five vehicles: two identical Fords (in case one couldn’t make it), two small trucks—one packed with spare parts and the other with a generator for lighting and camping gear for the rough, remote areas of the trip; a station wagon carried the camera equipment with refrigeration for the film stock. Personnel consisted of 18 men: 5 drivers, each an expert in some mechanical area, 2 camera crews, a still photographer, a doctor, a navigator, a J. Walter Thompson ad agency guy, and rotating interpreters from each country.

“One Road,” Mr. McClory explained in a New York Times article, is the color-film record of the World Highways Expedition, an automobile and truck caravan, which he headed for Filmways, a local television and commercial film production company. The twenty-two-man crew, he said, “landed in Saigon on July 15 and by Oct. 31 we had driven through Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaya, Burma, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, Greece, Yugoslavia, Italy, Switzerland, France and England.”

“One Road,” the producer-director elaborated, “could be called a travelogue but this is too prosaic a word to describe it. We shot enough stuff, I think, to prove our point that these places can be traveled through by car and, more importantly, that it soberly and honestly adds to our knowledge of these wonderfully cooperative peoples. I feel we show both the countries and the people in a respectable light.”

The Ford Fairlane was an automobile model sold between 1955 and 1970 by the Ford Motor Company in North America. The name was taken from Henry Ford’s estate, Fair Lane, near Dearborn, Michigan.

The Buddhas of Bamiyan were two 6th-century monumental statues of standing buddha carved into the side of a cliff in the Bamyan valley in the Hazarajat region of central Afghanistan, 230 km (140 mi) northwest of Kabul at an altitude of 2,500 meters (8,200 feet). Built in 507 AD (smaller) and 554 AD (larger), the statues represented the classic blended style of Gandhara art.

They were dynamited and destroyed in March 2001 by the Taliban, on orders from leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, after the Taliban government declared that they were idols.

We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide additional information about our videos by adding a comment! See something interesting? Tell people what it is and what they can see by writing something for example like: “01:00:12:00 — President Roosevelt is seen meeting with Winston Churchill at the Quebec Conference.”

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

Link Copied

About Us

Thanks for your interest in the Periscope Film stock footage library.  We maintain one of the largest collections of historic military, aviation and transportation in the USA. We provide free research and can provide viewing copies if you can let us know some of the specific types of material you are looking for. Almost all of our materials are available in high quality 24p HD ProRes and 2k/4k resolution.

Our material has been licensed for use by:

Scroll to Top

For Downloading, you must Login or Register

Free to Download High Quality Footage

Note: Please Reload page and click again on My Favorites button to see newly added Favorite Posts.