"The 66 Kid" premieres a week from today in Kingman. This morning Robert Ray brought in the two pop up banners and they look fantastic:
Two 90 inch tall pop up banners for the premiere of The 66 Kid at the Powerhouse Museum
And here's the press release:
What was it like growing up on the world's most famous two-lane blacktop?
"The 66 Kid", a new book by Bob Boze Bell will premiere at the Powerhouse Museum on August 14, 2014 and the author will be on hand to sign hardbound editions from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Bell will also be giving a talk about the making of the book and his history in Mohave County on Friday, August 15 at the Mohave Museum. A video, of the same name will premiere at the 66 Cine Festival at the old Elks Hall in downtown Kingan on Friday night at 8 p.m.
Author, illustrator and Emmy Award winning director, Bob Boze Bell puts the everlasting allure of Route 66 into perspective by showing readers what life was like growing up in Kingman, Arizona, one of the highway's quintessential cities, curing the heyday of automobile travel in the 1950s and 1960s. this personal take on the Mother Road's history—part autobiography, part narrative history, all beautifully illustrated—expertly weaves personal memories and observations with entertaining accounts of folks who lived,, worked and played along the road. Bell also digs deep into the roots of the region, offering seldom explored historical context for Route 66 and the American Southwest.
Illustrated with personal and archival photographs, period advertising art, vintage postcards, specially commissioned maps, and of course the author's own fantastic watercolors, The 66 Kid is a Mother Road book like no other, offering a unique look at a slice of Route 66's history that entertains and at the same time makes sense of the highway's continued popularity.
Born in Forrest City, Iowa in 1946 and raised in the tough tourist town of Kingman, Arizona, Bob Boze Bell has lived a life on the road. And not just any road but the one and only Route 66.
After five lackluster years at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Bell gravitated to Phoenix, where he and childhood friend Daniel Harshberger, published humor magazine Razz Revue from 1972 to 1977. In 1983 Bell won the Arizona Press Club's Cartoonist of the Year, and he has since won an Emmy for his work on Outrageous Arizona, a television documentary that ran on Eight, Arizona's PBS affiliate.
In 1999, Bell bought True West magazine (published since 1953) and moved the editorial offices to Cave Creek, Arizona. He has published and illustrated groundbreaking books on Wyatt Earp, Billy the Kid Doc Holliday, along with his series Classic Gunfights. In addition to his efforts at True West, Bell's artwork and writing have appeared in Arizona Highways, New Times, Playboy, Wild West and National Lampoon.
Bob Boze Bell's recognition as a historian may be surpassed by his reputation as a prolific artist. "Bob Boze Bell paints what the rest of us can only imagine, " said Fred Nolan, author and Lincoln County War expert.
"Any rascal who misspent his youth in the '50s and '60s toting ice for travelers at his dad's gas station in Kingman, got his hand tangled up in a motel washing machine wringer, and lost his virginity in a Nash Rambler, should have one hell of a story to tell about his life and times on Route 66."
—Michael Wallis
