On the Run (1956)

you [Music] [Applause] [Music] hi there did you ever feel it's the little things which somehow throw your life into a tailspin before you realize it take one little thing like a high school senior or to pinpoint it me they're in a coral sweater an open-toed expression then little thing number two jimmy cushman a classmate little thing number three is that bird brain in the shot rod giving all us high school kids a bad name that night when jimmy phoned to invite me to a movie what he didn't know was that my father had seen another little thing in the evening paper and because of it told me i couldn't go out nice in any of the kid's cars and you know what that meant no dates until he changed his mind poor me but the worst thing was what our school principal was threatening to do mr potter had announced if he had one more complaint about the kids driving he'd be forced to do what other schools had done lock all cars in the school parking lot till after school every day well we couldn't do anything right away because next day dad took me to sacramento and while he worked i did some sightseeing still worried about mr carter's warning until suddenly i spotted a sharp looking sports job with a sign on it which said something about a safety economy run naturally i didn't know what that was but i knew what the flying red horse stands for so later that afternoon when i bought a local paper and read that the rents were for high schools i took off for the nearest phone booth called the oil company and asked if someone would explain a safety economy run to me they connected me with mr burton ray burton up from san francisco to supervise the run he said even though he was about to leave if i'd come right over he'd explain it all to me and was i ever glad i took him up start with miss king we don't put on the runs you youngsters do it all yourselves all we do with a lot of help from three a's and peace officer groups like the highway patrol here in our state is to show you how to organize a run then you go ahead and do it oh but who wins these runs the driver with the best mileage no although mileage is very important but these are also safety tests that's why we donate trophies and the gasoline that's used well how in the world you figure the scores you get your run organized first when you're ready we'll be around to explain it and give you the official observers report forms you know each car carries an adult observer with an adult in the car like a chaperone it doesn't sound very exciting tell you what i've got some color movies of runs they've held around the country if you have the time i'd love to show them to you i've got lots of time good i was surprised to see how many schools everywhere had entered past safety economy rents and how all the faculties pitch in and help imagine just as in the big economy run all cars are weighed so with the 10-mile scoring system cars of all kinds compete on an equal basis now there's a site seattle floating bridge over lake washington in portland a girl walked off with first place honors and here at bakersfield an engine is being given a last-minute performance check and not only are the cars weighed but the passengers are too under their scoring system every last ounce counts well no wonder baker still had all those high-priced cars entered this country looks richer than texas how about that flying red carpet bakersfield the inglewood in two seconds flat and at the end of the run the time is checked to make certain no car just crawls along to save a few drops of gas well we whizzed north again where you can see how the cars are started at one minute interval look at those stakes supplied by the sponsoring service club and they're free to all attending the victory luncheon after the run where they announced the scores and award the trophies i was sold and i knew peninsula high could do the same thing and show our parents mr potter and the neighbors that high school kids are good drivers mr burton invited me to see the sacramento run next morning excitement believe me it was as exciting as a football game [Music] i guess i heard about and saw most everything there the gasoline and oil are provided by the mobile gas people and the safety checks to make sure all cars are in top condition as well as covered by insurance are continued until the last car started then numbered stickers are pasted on and the cars rolled into the street to line up for the start at nine o'clock sharp the first car is sent off and the next car is rolled up in turn to the starting line there the assistant starter tolls off the second until the next minute is up and when they had all left i went with mr burton to drive around the 96 mile course it was a real kick for me but most of all i couldn't wait to get back to san francisco to see what i could do about whipping up some enthusiasm for a safety economy run of our own [Music] and monday after school i hauled jimmy over to our favorite malt shop to get started not only did i have jimmy to try to sell i had to compete with a jukebox and some music with a beat look how many kids in school have cars 300 well yeah i guess so well then out of that 300 how many got the rest of us into this jam see there couldn't be more than six or eight of those yo-yos shoving around shot rods making like the real big men could there that's what i mean so if you were mr potter thank you ma'am well if you were and a lot of our mention of the run and got really good scores wouldn't you think we're not all goof off like ronnie and kay and their gang that digs out every time they get into a car well yeah but if you can convince your father that that i'm with you good then i start making a list of uh oh okay you're vice president of student council get to work because here comes flash gordon himself hi tay well what's new and funny my little bunny hey listen a minute minute man do you realize in a minute i can go from a standing start to 130 in that little old bomb of mine minute uh hey we're planning on putting on one of those safety economy runs here at school will you and your gang enter if we me economy of course you're kidding the heck we are it was you and that lead foot crowder you're the goddess and all this dutch with mr potter sonny boy i admit i voted for you for comfortable when it comes to cars you better leave it to the men around here so get lost willy you're acting mighty silly [Music] well what do you do with the character like that beat his brains out if he had me but after listening to him i'm sure you're right sharon then you'll help get the show on the road it'll help cut down that quick send me in coach hey sharon i got a whole committee oh sure after twisting my arm and my ribs not me i just came along because i think boys are fun this is a run for automobiles not boys you know who's running i just take my trusty shotgun and bang but if i ever hit one the game warden usually makes me throw him back in because he's too young okay cut the clowning ladies and gentlemen the meeting of the board of directors is carlswater with jimmy only reluctantly agreeing to help the work began first to auto shop to see the instructor mr mccutcheon and ask if he'd head up the faculty end he said he would if mr potter agreed mr potter he was the principal who was threatening to lock up all the kids cars well seeing we needed some assistance we called mr burton who would return to a san francisco office and he agreed to talk to our principal after all the trouble mr potter had had because of the few kids like tay who make a racetrack of the streets it's no wonder he didn't take to the request at first but after mr burton gave him a few facts and figures he said okay and gave his permission for mr burton highway patrol officers and me to address an assembly get me a big shot a public speaker yet next day to get signups i guess jimmy and i answered almost every kind of question like a run is usually over a course of about a hundred miles which we'll lay out with the three a's and the highway patrol that any student with a valid driver's license may enter driving any standard type of car and that to make it a test of good driving habits observers go along and give penalties of a tenth of a gallon for each infraction of a traffic law if any jimmy and i did fine 24 kids signed up the first day and we were real proud as we went to the malt shop to meet mr burton he thought we did a bang-up job in fact he teased us maybe he'd give us a job selling gas and oil door-to-door big joke but then when he heard we hadn't gotten any other schools in he warned us that in a city this size with only one school entered the run could be a flop having seen our sad sack faces next day mr burton was waiting for us in front of school he had news for us the company had agreed to award another trophy to help get other schools in a sweepstakes trophy to be awarded to the school getting the best team score were we ever thrilled with the old school spirit working for us it would be a cinch [Music] next day we told mr mccutcheon our good news but found he'd already gotten four other schools to enter and then he told us we were the ones who'd have to make talks to the service clubs to ask if they would provide the observers we'd need and the victory luncheon threw in the sponge and i threw the book at james if mr mccutchen hadn't calmed us down jimmy and i still wouldn't be talking but then we got more help from mr burton he went to the three a's saw mr moore that they agreed they'd both help us get speaking dates which they did [Music] we both went over like a house of fire until i called on the chairman of another club to ask if i could address his next meeting and well that's just about it mr scott so if you'll put me on as a speaker at your next luncheon meeting i promise i'll tell all about the run in three minutes flat no i'm sorry miss king our club isn't interested in races or competitions of any kind where youngsters your age risk their necks and cars but it's not a racist you did say that the cars had to be back in a specified time didn't you well naturally otherwise you could probably exactly young lady you're just wasting your time as a matter of fact i'm thinking about using my influence to see that your entire project is canceled that's your privilege mr scott but i've been driving for two years now and i've never had a ticket not even for parking and not one of my vendors has a scratch on it may i ask what your record has been for the past two years well that's really not here no there and rather than appear object about it the meetings at noon tomorrow in the pine room [Music] [Applause] okay sharon shoot now check the cafeteria to make sure all the arrangements are complete for the victory luncheon okay i'll take care of that and he says we have to send out at least twice as many press releases as we did before check what else i don't know who'll do this try to get interviewed on tv well that's your job maureen you got what it takes for that kind of stuff oh no you don't what are you trying to do bring radio back again oh cut it out you're a real movie star oh here's one more thing we all can do mr burton says to try to get lists from all the service clubs with names and phone numbers of every man who's volunteered to be an official and observer well okay but i don't get it to call them upright and remind them we expect them out saturday morning mr burton says if it's a nice warm day some might just happen to recall a previous golf day well well well if it isn't the indianapolis race committee as i live and breathe well okay mr hotshot if you're such an eight-cylinder wizard why isn't your entry in here are you kidding get up with a crack of dawn and play some silly baby game count me out little sprout what is it with you tay chicken afraid some of us will show you up show me how that'd be today it'd be the day i'd like to see and you know what tay i bet even i can beat you put your money where your mouth is you are chicken aren't you don't be silly lily i wouldn't race against a girl and don't be stupid rupert it's not a race it's competition and besides i'm not even sure that shot rod of yours could pass a safety check shot rod okay you asked for it what's the bet and i'll even give you odds that won't be necessary tell you what whoever loses takes the rest of us to the movie saturday night and how will we get to the show or has your father become big hearted and changed his mind i didn't mean to the drive-in we can all get out the parkside i want to see what they're playing anyhow well tay is it a bet or is it a bet oh okay but you wait and see i'll cream the whole bunch here just sign here milkman and we'll see if it'll be cream or just a large dose of skim milk safety checks start tomorrow we were getting closer and the auto shop volunteer crews work like maniacs checking cars maniacs is right too but who else would it pass tay's cars being safe i guess they checked the car not the driver but where there were boys there was sally clowning as usual and doing anything to make tay realize she was alive tay didn't think it was funny and mike with his father's brand new hard top he didn't think it was funny either when they told him the car couldn't be okayed because the front wheels were out of line poor mike having to tell his dad two high school kids have rejected his shiny new car is unsafe his father took to the notion like a duck to a loader buckshot next morning school had hardly opened when mike's father was there chewing out mr mccutcheon as if it had been his fault but mr mccutcheon explained that's what auto shop and driver ed courses are for mike's father went for that in a big way he told mr mccutcheon he would have his wheels aligned and let mike enter but it wasn't all work at school maureen for instance went out with the rent supervisors for a final check on the course they had laid out and what a course a hundred miles through city freeways country and this being san francisco of course across the golden gate bridge into marin county it was also beautiful we prayed it wouldn't rain the day of the run little did we know for innocence now the whole school helped journalism classes wrote all publicity we needed art classes designed the posters and the print shop turned itself inside out during the car placards i even typed dozens of envelopes to the local newspapers and maureen was interviewed on tv as jimmy was on radio the last big chore was weighing in the cars that were entered because the weight of the cars and the occupants is used in figuring the final score saturday morning the day of the run i was out of the house by six and so were lots of others who jammed the station we were to start from where the observers got their final instructions they asked a lot of questions about how to score penalties for any infractions the ham radio club was checking with their mobile stations along the course placards were put on all cars entered and so were strips of luminous paper to make it easier to pick out our run cars gas tanks were filled with a very brim for free at fat and attendance marked the filler pipes so they could be refilled when the run was over to determine the exact amount of gas used and then for the first time i noticed the weather gosh if it rained now how could we complete the course in two hours and 40 minutes mike was there bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and the law was there too each car had a numbered sticker put on and i do number 45. then mr burton came up to introduce me to my observer mr samuelson and told us we'd better weigh in and have the total entered into our official report [Music] our clowning rover girl was getting her kicks too as a rib she told tay his observer was the vice principal he just about died but then tally got his official observer freddie aguibatian one of the country's top racing drivers and was tay thrilled now he'd have a chance to show a professional how good he was nine o'clock and maureen the official timer marked off the seconds for the first car to start the weather looked worse but this was it and our chance to prove a lot of things to a lot of people jimmy kg character made a real smooth start maybe because the starter was a well-known judge starting time as it must to all men came for tay stevens whoops that he lost a couple of gallons right there then at 10 minutes to 10 came my turn and my heart a pounding lump in my throat i was off and running [Music] making sure we flashed our turn indicators we rolled up onto bayshore highway and i saw the weather was getting even worse but with the traffic and having to watch the speedometer and all the other things i had to do i didn't have much time to worry of course tay who knew he could drive better than anyone sailed along blithely not watching anything like that 35 35-mile zone sign and he never did argue mr aguibation out of that penalty or the other infections he piled up and then it hit us golly rain we all had to reduce our speed [Music] we had lost so much time that when the rain stopped it was a temptation to really tromp on those gas pedals [Music] now that we had been through overcast and rain we ran into our next obstacle in trying to maintain the top legal speed fog good old fog to make us slow down again but then as it always does around our wonderful town the fog washed away and there under the brilliant sunshine was san francisco itself [Music] there were the little cable cars for which we are famous clanging and bouncing along there were the familiar steep hills and before we knew it we were into san francisco's chinatown believe me there was little we missed on our 100-mile tour even the much-pictured bay bridge in the background and the embarcadero with its tantalizing smells of spices and distances and its 25-mile zone signs to slow us down again just when the weather was better and time getting shorter and shorter how about that glad i was down below and not swaying up there on the cables despite the beauty of our renowned golden gate bridge and with the bridge not too crowded this saturday morning we were feeling better now about finishing the run on time down on the bridge itself our cars rolled along later we heard how deep an impression the skill of the teenage drivers had made on the adult observers who all said the same thing once the run was over never in their lives had they had such legal rides but i'm ahead of myself because the run wasn't over yet thanks to the rain and fog we'd been through time was getting shorter and shorter then as we started on our last flap of the figure 8 course we still had almost 15 miles left [Music] then as we headed back to the bridge approaches there it was again rolling through the golden gate fog once more by now it was almost 11 40 and i knew the first car should be back in town approaching polk and hay streets for the finish but i didn't know that because of the rain and fog all the officials were worried as the cars rolled back in just seconds under the time limit some just missing being disqualified [Music] it really was more exciting than the start with every driver anxiously watching the pumps to see how a little gasoline had been used because even a few ounces could mean the difference between a winner and a loser then with all the cars back we trooped off to the victory luncheon and the announcements of the scores and the awarding of the trophies contestants sat with their friends and observers while upstairs computing machines clicked away auditing the scores down to the last decimal point if you go in for suspense then this you would have loved [Music] talk about dismal luck while we sat there simply dying to know how we had made out mr simpson who had brought the trophies awarded them first to the other four schools [Music] but then it happened peninsula union high starting with our boy who'd been third best think he wasn't tickled get all over that wall-to-wall smile then our larson who'd been second and finally with all of us biting our nails first place two i'm believing jimmy cushman [Music] then the big news the school with the best team score peninsula high they made me go up and accept the trophy and then we all made tracks inside to see the huge piece of paper on which everyone's score was written after all the boasting i'd done about doing better than tay i was popping my buttons till i found out if i had where was my name there sharon king eighth place but where was tay stevens how had he done uh oh tay stephen screamed himself into 14th place that night before they picked up sally and maureen jimmy mike and tay came by our house jimmy had talked to mr potter who admitted he was convinced but we didn't know yet if my dad had relented and would let me go out at night in the kids cars but not only had he relented he almost shook jimmy's arm off kitted tay about his bad showing and then said it was okay i could even use this car myself at night so after all the work and discouragement we had proved something to mr potter to my father and to anyone who reads a newspaper good old safety economy run you