November 1st, 2024 (Tulsa OK): Circle Cinema will present a free public screening of the film “Route 66: An American Odyssey” with special live appearances by renown filmmaker John Paget and Michael Wallis, author of “Route 66: The Mother Road” on Monday, Nov. 11.

The evening will begin with a free public reception in the Circle lobby at 6 p.m., followed by the film with an audience question and answer session at 7 p.m., moderated by Clifton Raphael.

In addition, attendees will get an exclusive insight into Paget’s upcoming, much-anticipated new film “Route 66: The Main Street of America”, which will be released in advance of the centennial of Route 66 in 2026.

All admission is free, first come first served.

The critically acclaimed, 55-minute “Route 66: An American Odyssey” is the heartfelt history of Route 66, from the building of the road to today’s renaissance, featuring rare historical footage. From the most spectacular stretches of open highway in America to the unforgettable wigwam motels, dazzling neon, and genuine road cafes, the film provides the thrills, laughs and sheer kicks of cruising America’s Main Street – Route 66, said Clark Wiens, Circle Cinema board member.

John Paget is an award-winning documentary filmmaker with deep roots on Route 66. In 1994, he strapped a TV camera to the hood of a 1969 cotillion white convertible Cadillac Coupe de Ville and hit the road. It was the first of multiple cross-country trips on the Mother Road, during which Paget directed, shot, and edited “Route 66: An American Odyssey” and “Route 66: Return to the Road” with Martin Milner, documentary films that rank as the pinnacle among devoted Route 66 historians and advocates. While researching, producing and promoting these films, Paget traveled the length of Route 66 a dozen times. And he met and worked with the road’s most iconic legends – singer Bobby Troup (1918-1999), TV-star Martin Milner (1931-2015) and Seligman barber Angel Delgadillo, considered the father of Historic Route 66, and best-selling author Michael Wallis, author of “Route 66: The Mother Road”.

Wallis, who lives in Tulsa, is the best-selling author and award-winning reporter, and historian and biographer of the American West with an international reputation as a speaker and voice talent. It has been said, “reading a Michael Wallis book is like dancing to a romantic ballad. He offers his hand and gently guides you across the floor, swaying to the song of the American West.” Wallis has published numerous books, including “Route 66: The Mother Road,” “Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride” and “The Lincoln Highway: Coast to Coast from Times Square to the Golden Gate.” Wallis has been nominated three times for the Pulitzer Prize and was a nominee for the National Book Award. Wallis was inducted into the Writers Hall of Fame of America, the Oklahoma Professional Writer’s Hall of Fame, the Oklahoma Historians Hall of Fame, and the Oklahoma Route 66 Hall of Fame. He received the Arrell Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as the Lynn Riggs Award and the first John Steinbeck Award.