Fruehauf Trailers in the Movies!
In addition to, Singing Wheels a terrific documentary produced by Fruehauf in 1941, Fruehauf Trailers were also featured in at least four other major motion pictures filmed by Hollywood. These include the widely known Smokey and the Bandit, Convoy, Duel and Kansas Confidential. In each of these movies the trailer is central to the story.
Singing Wheels was the first documentary film to be made about the motor truck industry. It was used by the Eisenhower Administration to persuade Congress to pass the final funding for the Interstate Highway system. It is revealing in its statistics about the trucking industry and also charming in its content.
Singing Wheels was the first documentary film to be made about the motor truck industry. It was used by the Eisenhower Administration to persuade Congress to pass the final funding for the Interstate Highway system. It is revealing in its statistics about the trucking industry and also charming in its content.
"Convoy" is a 1978 film by Sam Peckinpah, starring Kris Kristofferson as trucker "Rubber Duck." It is based on the 1975 country song "Convoy" by C.W. McCall and Chip Davis. In the film Kristofferson drives a 1977 Mack RS-712LST with a Fruehauf tanker. The Fruehauf used in the film is currently on display at the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis, Missouri.
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"Duel" In 1971 Steven Spielberg produced the film "Duel" about a menacing and faceless trucker in a big rig who terrorized a man, played by Dennis Weaver, who was driving cross country alone. The film remains a cult classic.
Spielberg used a 1948 Fruehauf Tanker with a 1960 Peterbilt 281 tractor. Interestingly this same rig was featured in a 1994 David Lee Roth video for his song "She's My Machine." |
"Kansas City Confidential" is a 1952 movie starring John Payne and Coleen Gray. While Payne, an innocent flower delivery guy, is hounded by police as the primary suspect in a bank heist committed by a team of thieves driving an identical flower truck, the real perpetrators drive their truck into the back of a Fruehauf trailer van and escape capture.
The film has become a cult classic of film noir. The plot served as inspiration for Quentin Tarantino's film "Reservoir Dogs." The movie "Kansas City Confidential" is available in its entirety below. (See the Fruehauf trailer in frames 13:30 thru 13:60 and 15:10 thru 17:15.) |
Singing Wheels, a Documentary film promoting the benefits of trailer transport
Presentation of trucking film highlighted in nation's press
![Opening credits of Singing Wheels, a documentary film on the benefits of the trailer transport industry released in 1940](/uploads/1/8/4/9/18499086/__4538637.jpg?289)
The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Washington; December 8, 1940
“Singing Wheels” Film Dramatizes U.S. Trucks – Washington officialdom December 3 viewed the premiere showing of “Singing Wheels,” the first sound institutional motion picture film sponsored by the motor truck industry.
“Singing Wheels,” which presents the far reaching services of motor truck transportation and its inter-relationship with every phase of the country’s social and economic structure, as well as its part in national defense, is being presented by the motor truck committee of the automobile manufacturers’ association. One of its features is the song, “Singing Wheels,” which originated out of the harmonizing of truck drivers at roadside stopping points.
“Singing Wheels” was produced in 1940 with the financial support of Roy Fruehauf of Fruehauf Trailer Company. In the early 1950s Fruehauf would become a member of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Independent Advisory Committee to the Trucking Industry (ACT), assisting the President in his historical program in the creation of the Interstate Highway System. An ad for the film appeared in Life magazine dated May 19, 1941 and made this observation, “This year, trucks and highways on which they roll assume a new importance in the nation’s No. 1 job—National Defense.”
Although the film is dated, and the trucks are antique, the message regarding the importance of truck transportation to the everyday life and comfort of America’s citizens is timeless. More on the history of “Singing Wheels” can be found in an article in the truckers’ website Overdrive, written by Max Heine on November 15, 2012 -http://www.overdriveonline.com/72-years-later-those-wheels-sing-a-colorful-song/
“Singing Wheels” Film Dramatizes U.S. Trucks – Washington officialdom December 3 viewed the premiere showing of “Singing Wheels,” the first sound institutional motion picture film sponsored by the motor truck industry.
“Singing Wheels,” which presents the far reaching services of motor truck transportation and its inter-relationship with every phase of the country’s social and economic structure, as well as its part in national defense, is being presented by the motor truck committee of the automobile manufacturers’ association. One of its features is the song, “Singing Wheels,” which originated out of the harmonizing of truck drivers at roadside stopping points.
“Singing Wheels” was produced in 1940 with the financial support of Roy Fruehauf of Fruehauf Trailer Company. In the early 1950s Fruehauf would become a member of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Independent Advisory Committee to the Trucking Industry (ACT), assisting the President in his historical program in the creation of the Interstate Highway System. An ad for the film appeared in Life magazine dated May 19, 1941 and made this observation, “This year, trucks and highways on which they roll assume a new importance in the nation’s No. 1 job—National Defense.”
Although the film is dated, and the trucks are antique, the message regarding the importance of truck transportation to the everyday life and comfort of America’s citizens is timeless. More on the history of “Singing Wheels” can be found in an article in the truckers’ website Overdrive, written by Max Heine on November 15, 2012 -http://www.overdriveonline.com/72-years-later-those-wheels-sing-a-colorful-song/