2025 Horatio's Drive - America's First Road Trip

 

Ken Burns’ critically acclaimed and recently restored documentary, Horatio’s Drive, will be screened as a fundraiser for The Park Theatre performing arts center in Jaffrey, New Hampshire. The screening will be on Sunday, September 28 at 4pm. A VIP pre-film reception will take place at 3pm. Tickets are $25 for the film and $40 for the VIP reception and the film.

 

In the spring of 1903, on a whim and a fifty-dollar bet, Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson set off from San Francisco in a  20-horsepower Winton touring car, hoping to become the first person to cross the United States in the new-fangled “horseless carriage.” 

At the time, there were only 150 miles of paved road in the entire country, no gas stations, and virtually no road maps as we know them. Most people doubted that the automobile had much of a future––and a transcontinental drive seemed impossible. 

 

Traveling with his co-driver Sewall Crocker and a faithful bulldog named Bud, Jackson was determined to prove them wrong.

 

Using a treasure trove of photographs and live cinematography of the vast landscape along the route, and relying on previously unpublished letters, Horatio’s Drive: America’s First Road Trip puts viewers in the front seat of this historic––and hilarious––journey.

 

Directed by acclaimed storyteller Ken Burns and written/produced by his long-time colleague Dayton Duncan, the documentary was initially broadcast on PBS  in 2003––the centennial of Jackson’s remarkable trip. Tom Hanks is the voice of the irrepressible Jackson.

 

Now the original film negative has been painstakingly restored in 4K high definition, and this will be the first time it has ever been shown in a theatrical screening.

 

Duncan will introduce the one-hour, forty-five minute film and then take questions from the audience.

 

“I don’t think Ken and I ever had more fun making one of our documentaries than we did out on the road following Horatio Jackson across the continent,” Duncan said. “I can’t really express how excited I am to see the restored version on a big screen, 22 years later, this time in high definition. And where better to premiere this lovingly restored film than in the lovingly restored Park Theatre?”, said Duncan.

 

  “The Park Theatre has been blessed with the generosity of Florentine Films and Ken Burns. Horatio will the fourth time Florentine Films and their team have shared one of  their films with audiences at the theatre––the screening of The American Buffalo in 2023; of Leonardo da Vinci in  2024, and Dan White’s Monadnock: The Mountain That Stands Alone in 2023. Each time, they have allowed us to make these magnificent events fundraisers for our theatre. A huge thanks to them all,” said Steve Jackson, CEO and Managing Director of The Park Theatre.