Some Fridays are for made for Freewheelin', nothing you can do about it.
This 1975 film, sponsored by the B.F. Goodrich Company and made by Cinecraft, documents the many splendors of the 4th Annual National Truck-In, a celebration of vans and vanning hosted by the National Street Van Association in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The film shows van owners from all over the country congregating in Bowling Green to socialize, show off their customized vehicles, compete in races and obstacle courses, watch musical performances by the JTS Band, and so much more. The video includes interviews with several participants, as well as plugs for B.F. Goodrich tires and the company's "project van," an automobile outfitted with the newest van technology.
Cinecraft Productions was founded in 1939 by Ray Culley (1904-1983) and Betty (Buehner) Culley (1914-2016) in Cleveland, Ohio. The film studio specialized in industrial films; commercial productions for business, industry, trade organizations, and, in some cases, government agencies and social service organizations. The company, which is still in business, now rightfully claims itself the “country's longest-standing corporate film & video production house.” The company's historic collections, which now reside at Hagley, include over 6,000 film cans and 20 boxes of paper archives, making this clip part of the largest acquisition of motion picture film in Hagley's history and among the most comprehensive collections from an industrial film company in the country.
To learn more about Cinecraft, Inc. and the collections, you can visit the finding aids for the Culley family collection of Cinecraft Productions audiovisual materials (Accession 2018.201), the Robert A. Schneider collection of Cinecraft Production audiovisual materials (Accession 2018.202), and the collection of Cinecraft, Inc. films (Accession 2019.227). These collections have not been digitized in their entirety, but you can see more film, including the full twenty minute version of Freewheelin' by clicking here to visit the Cinecraft, Inc. films collection's page in our Digital Archive.