Free Wheelin' (1976)

Free Wheelin' (1976) is a minimally branded documentary about vanning filmed at the National Street Van July 1976 “4th Annual "National Truck-In" get together in Bowling Green, Kentucky. B.F. Goodrich sponsored the film as a promotional tool to push its involvement in the ever-growing van scene.^[1] Free Wheelin’ was released as a 21-minute film and other lengths to play as a short, or trailer, to run in movie theaters.^[2]

Frame from Free Wheelin' (1976)

Film title frame from Free Wheelin' (1976)

Free Wheelin’
Directed by	Bill Buckley
Written by	Brock Yates
Produced by	Mel Horace
Music by	JTS Band
Production companies	Cinecraft Productions, Inc. (Cleveland, Ohio)
Distributed by	B. F. Goodrich Company (BFG)
Release date	1976 (1976)
Running time	various lengths
Country	United States

The film has been called “the greatest visual representation out there showing what the van scene was like at its peak.”^[3]

Production and background

The script was by Brock Yates (October 21, 1933 – October 5, 2016), the longtime executive editor at Car and Driver magazine.

Split-screen technique. Music by JTS. Free Wheelin' (1976)

Free Wheelin’ featured the JTS Band playing “Complications,” “Golden Highway,” and “Free Wheelin.” ^[4]

Griswold-Eshelman Co., a Cleveland, Ohio-based advertising agency, managed the production of the film. The film was made by Cinecraft Productions, Inc., a sponsored film studio. https://www.hagley.org/research/news/hagley-vault/some-fridays-are-freewheelin-nothing-you-can-do-about-it

In 2023, the Hagley Museum and Library received a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation (NFPF), an organization created by the U.S. Congress to help save America's film heritage, to preserve Free Wheelin’. https://www.hagley.org/librarynews/hagley-awarded-grant-national-film-preservation-foundation

Synopsis of film

The narrator sets the stage for the film in the opening monologue… “Truckin’. Truckin’ north. Truckin’ south and east and west. “Truckin’ in from all points of the compass. “Rolling down the asphalt in the neatest, wildest, most free and open brand of American transportation since the covered wagon. “Yeah.. the vans are moving. That’s a sure sign that just over the next horizon, the biggest party you’ve ever seen is about to get underway. “Bowling Green, Kentucky, is where the 4th Annual Truck-In is happening – the bonanza granddaddy Truck-In of them all. “Bowling Green … the Rose Bowl, Indy 500, and Woodstock abandon packed into one sensational weekend. A weekend for the free spirits tucked inside those beautiful vans …loose and free …rolling towards the action at Bowling Green.”

Free Wheelin’ includes interviews with participants, as well as plugs for B.F. Goodrich tires and a B.F. Goodrich "project van," an automobile outfitted with the latest van technology.

Credits

• Sponsor: B.F. Goodrich Company
• Advertising Agency: Griswold-Eshelman Co., Cleveland, Ohio
• Production company: Cinecraft, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio
• Screenwriter: Brock Yates
• Producer/Director: Mel Horace
• Director/Editor: Bill Buckley