The late Jobie Vaden, known as the Arkansas Motormouth, was featured in “On the Boulevard.”Lynn Adler
When Lynn Adler and her four Optic Nerve video colleagues traveled across the country in the late 1970s to interview truck drivers, they were not well-versed in the daily challenges of long-haul trucking. However, after more than six weeks of engaging with drivers in various settings, including truck stops and at their homes, they gained valuable insights.
During their journey, they discovered that the trucking lifestyle could be quite unhealthy, largely due to the food available at truck stops. Adler commented on how sometimes the food lacked nutritional value.
“We would go into a truck stop, meet some drivers for interviews, and invite them back to our quirky motor home,” she recalled. “We’d play some of the recorded material while serving them coffee.”
Read more in Overdrive’s weekly 60th-anniversary series of lookbacks on trucking history, and that of the magazine itself, via this link.
They were able to impress their interviewees with high-quality coffee, which was uncommon at the time. “Their reactions were priceless,” Adler remembered.
Often, the drivers grew comfortable during the interviews, inviting the crew to visit their homes. The crew accepted these offers when scheduling allowed, capturing intimate moments that became some of the most emotional scenes in the 30-minute documentary released in 1979.
“It was clear that many of the truckers we met had families and young children,” Adler reflected. Many turned to trucking, sometimes even engaging in wildcatting, as a way to break free from traditional 9-to-5 jobs. However, she noted, “trucking doesn’t always result in freedom, especially for owner-operators who are left waiting for their next load.”
“It’s a tough life,” Adler stated. This reality remains true, despite changes in the industry over the years. The documentary, titled “On the Boulevard,” had limited airtime on public television stations in the early 1980s. (To view it, drag the playhead to 1:10 for the beginning.)
As time has passed, many of the featured truckers have since passed away. Adler shared that she received an email from Larry Vaden, son of Jobie Vaden, the Arkansas Motormouth. Bobby Zimmerman from North Carolina has also passed, as noted by his grandson. You can find photos of some of the truckers in our 2015 coverage of “On the Boulevard.” If you missed the previous week’s anniversary segment, check out Optic Nerve’s short video from a 1974 trucking convention in San Francisco.
