Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #44187 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-09-28
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Formats: Color, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 107 minutes

Amazon.com
Subtitled "America's First Road Trip," Horatio's Drive captures the remarkable odyssey of Horatio Nelson Jackson, a doctor from Vermont who--accompanied by a former professional bicyclist and a bulldog named Bud--helmed the first trip from coast to coast in a car. In 1903, after making a $50 bet he could drive to New York City in 90 days, Nelson set off from San Francisco in a used Winton two-seater than he bought for $3000 and proceeded to cross a country where most roads, if they existed at all, were still made of dirt. Pulling together newspaper articles, period movies, and Jackson's own photographs and passionate love letters to his wife, famed documentarian Ken Burns crafts a love letter of his own to the automobile and the ways it has shaped American life. Horatio's Drive is both educational and completely entertaining. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews

"My Darling Swipes...."
Horatio Nelson Jackson bet a group of men in San Francisco $50 he could drive an automobile coast to coast in three months or less, something which had never been done before.
"You're on," they told him, and the next day Jackson searched for a suitable vehicle. He spent $3,000 on a 1903 Winton Touring Car, hired a mechanic to accompany him on the drive, and three days later left the city by the Golden Gate heading for the Big Apple.
The duet became a trio when Horatio Jackson brought aboard a light-colored, good-natured bulldog named "Bud" in Caldwell, Idaho.
Jackson back-tracked the trails of westward migration. He introduced the dawn of a new age to a soon-to-be-passing way of life.
He encountered a wagon train heading for the last free land in the Great Northwest. He waited for a stage coach to bring him new tires. He had his automobile repaired at blacksmiths shops. He crossed mountain ranges, forded streams, and got the car stuck in buffalo wallows.
Horatio Nelson Jackson and his mechanic, Sewell Crocker, embodied the American ideal that you can accomplish the impossible with pluck, grit, and determination. They managed to cross the continent by automobile in just over two months and thus win the bet.

The story is superbly told by Dayton Duncan and Ken Burns. Jackson's letters home to his beloved wife, Bertha, or "Swipes", as he calls her, are read by the peerless Tom Hanks.
Behind the narration and the telling of the story is a very lively soundtrack which makes viewing the film most enjoyable!
The documentary, "Horatio's Drive," is Americana at its best.
Don't miss it!

The birth of the road trip and the changing of America
Horatio's Drive is not simply about one man's impulsive bet that he could become the first person to drive across the U.S. in an automobile. It is also about the dawn of a new form of transportation in the United States, one that would forever change way we travel.
The story, told mostly through the letters that Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson writes to his wife as he slowly weaves his way across the continent, is about the first wave of the future passing through an American that had remained unchanged for many years. Jackson, ever the optimist, writes about how certain he is that he can make it even when faced with a hostile terrain, no road maps and an under powered car prone to breaking down at the worst possible time. As he passes through one small town after another, he and his mechanic become instant celebrities. As one newspaper account of the time read, it would have been no less of a story had a spaceship touched down in the middle of town.
I though the story was intriguing and a real history lesson. It's amazing to think of Nelson and his mechanic crossing the continent without a major highway or road, let alone in a car that needed near daily repair.
The film itself is well done and certainly worth watching. Old time car historians will enjoy the mention of models come and gone. History buffs get a glimpse at a changing America. And while Horatio's Drive may not have the depth of other Ken Burns works, this is a delightful `light' version of an interesting time and a wonderful story.

Road Trip!
What a great movie. If you enjoy road trips, wilderness adventures, or just tinkering around the garage fixing things, you will find similarities with Horatio Nelson Jackson. He drove cross-country on a $50 bet when most people thought it was impossible. He had to find his way through the American wilderness, fix the auto when it broke, find gasoline where there were no stations, and keep his spirits up when things turned bad.

Jackson grasped the opportunity to become part of history at the perfect time. Cars we becoming more reliable, Indians were no longer a threat, and America was populated enough that he didn't go too long without seeing other people. And in just a few short years roads and cars would be commonplace, which would make the feat less exciting and adventurous.

Ken Burns does a fantastic job of documenting this journey of a lifetime. He has a way to make the viewer feel like they are sitting right along side with Jackson, his mechanic, and the dog.