Cannonball Fever

Have you ever heard of a writer called Brock Yates? No? I hadn't either until yesterday, so that's alright. However, I should have heard of him, because he was the reason why one of my favorite movies of all time was made, and as it turns out, there's a whole lot more I didn't know, some of which I'm about to share with you.

The old movie I'm talking about is "The Cannonball Run" from 1981, directed by Hal Needham. The main characters in that movie were Burt Reynolds and the Lamborghini Countach LP400S, the magnificent extreme sports car you see in the cover image. Okay, the Countach wasn't literally a "main character," but the movie was filled to the brim with the finest talents of the time; Burt Reynolds starred in the Smokey and the Bandid films, also directed by Hal Needham, Farrah Fawcett came from the popular Charlie's Angels TV series, then there were Roger Moore of James Bond fame playing himself, Sammy Davis Jr. and Dean Martin, and Jacky Chan had one of his early roles in American film. But what made me and many others fall in love with the film immediately, was the 3 or 4 minute opening credit roll, showing just the Lamborghini Countach being chased by state police, with a hot blonde stepping out of the car at one point to spray-paint a red cross through a 55 MPH speed-limit traffic sign...

That scene is in the official trailer linked above, and what I never knew until watching the beautiful documentary I'll link below this post, is that the film was in large part a product of one man resisting the aver stricter traffic-laws and speed-limits. That man was Brock Yates a print and TV journalist, screenwriter, and author who was a longtime executive editor of Car and Driver, an American automotive magazine. The Cannonball Run was, to me at the time at least, just a fictional race across America, from New York to Los Angeles. Much later in life I learned that the Cannonball Run existed IRL as well, but only yesterday I learned just how much the film was based on the real thing. You see, to race from the east- to the west-coast as quickly as possible, is a matter of smart driving, avoiding traffic jams, adjusting your car with a larger gas tank as to minimize fuel-stops and avoiding the state highway patrol ("smokey" in slang) among many other things. In the film, Burt Reynolds and his partner (played by Dom DeLuise, drive an ambulance. Or a van disguised as an ambulance, because who would stop an ambulance? And they hire Farrah Fawcett as their fake patient, as well as a rather suspiciously drunken doctor to complete the picture. Of course they are stopped by the highway patrol, but some quick thinking by the fake doctor rescues them and they can proceed on their way.

I never knew that this exact scenario played out in reality during one of Brock Yates' own attempts at setting a new record for the Cannonball Run, a race he designed himself in honor of Erwin G. "Cannonball" Baker, who set several coast-to-coast records in the 1910s and 1920s as promotion for new automotive products of the time. The first race was organized by Yates in 1971 and its official title was the "Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash," but it later became known as the Cannonball Run. Another trick used in the movie was also taken from real life; Sammy Davis Jr. partners with Dean Martin, driving a red Ferrari and dressed as Catholic priests. I still crack up when I think about Sammy proclaiming that "God is our co-pilot." Watch that scene below. These two entertainers were also part of the Rat Pack, an informal group which featured other legends like Frank Sinatra, Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop.

In the real Cannonball Run the official record stands at 35 hours and some minutes, but that's only because the official race doesn't exist anymore, and Brock Yates doesn't exist anymore; he died October 5, 2016. There have only ever been 5 Cannonball Runs between 1971 and 1979 and, ironically, Yates stopped organizing the race after he first saw a man with a Lamborghini Countach who wanted to enter. He thought that the car was too fast and he realized that he should stop the whole thing with cars becoming so ridiculously fast; he couldn't and wouldn't be responsible for a deadly accident in his race. You see, although he organized the race as a form of rebellion against government regulations, he was a very good and responsible driver himself, and to enter the race he subjected prospects to rigorous screening to make sure they were good and responsible drivers as well.

What I like about the documentary is that it also chronicles some modern day attempts at setting new records for the coast-to-coast race, with the exact same start and finish locations. And the fastest times were set during the Covid-19 pandemic, as a result of there being much less traffic and a lot less police to worry about. I just thought it fitting that the race that started as a rebellion against government overreach is still alive in this recent time full of rebellion against perceived government overreach. And that people who still have that "Cannonball Fever" set new records in a time when a deadly virus is being written off as "just the fever" by the "modern rebels." But that's neither here nor there; if you haven't seen it yet, go watch the movie, and part 2 as well when you're at it. And then watch the below linked documentary; for me it was a blast to watch and I'm sure you'll like it too.

Thanks so much for visiting my blog and reading my posts dear reader, I appreciate that a lot :-) If you like my content, please consider leaving a comment, upvote or resteem. I'll be back here tomorrow and sincerely hope you'll join me. Until then, stay safe, stay healthy!