Inspiration
The runs were inspired also from movies like the 1971 film Two-Lane Blacktop. A similar film, Vanishing Point, was released in theaters a few months before the first Cannonball.
The Cannonball runs gained notoriety after the 1972 run, but it was Time Magazine's May 5, 1975 story on the race that solidified it in the public consciousness. To the surprise of many, the hilarious reports in Car and Driver were warmly received by the press and the public alike, rather than being condemned for being reckless.
Reportedly, the worst "accident" that occurred in all of the Cannonball runs was spilled lasagna aboard a motor home which made the trip in 57 hours, as Car and Driver Magazine detailed the November 1971 running in their March 1972 issue. That article was reprinted in its entirety in 2005, being chosen to represent the decade of the 1970s in the magazine's 50th anniversary series of article reprints.
However, in his memoir book about the races (see References, below), Yates reports that in the 1972 event, an all-female team consisting of Peggy Niemcek, Judy Stropus, and SCCA racer Donna Mae Mims ("The Pink Lady") suffered a crash near El Paso, Texas, resulting in a DNF (Did Not Finish.) The book contains a first-hand account by Mims, stating that their Cadillac stretched limousine veered off the road and rolled over after the driver fell asleep at the wheel. Although the car was totalled and Mims suffered a broken arm, no other vehicles were involved in the crash, and this was the only serious accident in all the Cannonball races.
Yates began working on a screenplay, originally to be titled "Coast to Coast", but was scooped by two unofficial films in 1976, Cannonball and The Gumball Rally. Eventually, an "official" Cannonball Run movie was made — Cannonball Run — starring Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise with Yates in a cameo appearance. Two sequels, Cannonball Run II and Speed Zone!, followed. A later USA Network television program, Cannonball Run 2001, was given official approval to use the name.
Read more about this topic: Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash
Famous quotes containing the word inspiration:
“What is called eloquence in the forum is commonly found to be rhetoric in the study. The orator yields to the inspiration of a transient occasion, and speaks to the mob before him, to those who can hear him; but the writer, whose more equable life is his occasion, and who would be distracted by the event and the crowd which inspire the orator, speaks to the intellect and heart of mankind, to all in any age who can understand him.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The ironies in the commonplace are my inspiration and delight.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)