Ready to Roll: A Celebration of the Classic American Travel Trailer (Hardcover)

by Arrol Gellner (Author), Douglas Keister (Author) "The American travel trailer was born at the dawn of the twentieth century, out of chansing national attitudes to nature, travel, and aesthetics that were..." (more)
Key Phrases: trailer builders, trailer industry, vintage trailers, Covered Wagon, United States, Land Yacht (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Americans in search of family oriented domestic travel, safe and inexpensive, are buying trailers and RVs in record numbers. At the same time-with fantasies of Lauren Bacall sipping an extra-dry Gibson against a gleaming metal doorway in Palm Springs and Lucy and Desi's madcap Long, Long Trailer trip-they crave the vanished luxury and quirkiness of antique auto trailers. Those simpler, slower days of freedom and security are being recaptured in trailers from all eras, rescued and restored as living, road-ready Americana.

Ready to Roll, with more than 300 color photographs, taps into this trend in gloriously illustrated and insightfully chronicled retro style. Here is the complete evolution of the trailer, from the utilitarian Covered Wagon to the aristocratic Airstream and Aerocar Land Yacht to the homemade Hammer Blows of the Depression. Here too are the people who drove these cherished chariots and increasingly lived in them in trailer parks, from the stereotypically seedy to the likes of Bing Crosby's exclusive Blue Skies Trailer Village. The amazing camaraderie of groups like the Tin Can Tourists marks the trailer phenomenon as a major segment of American consciousness and history.

About the Author
Arrol Gellner is an architect, a syndicated columnist based with the San Francisco Chronicle, and an author of Red Tile Style and Storybook Style. Douglas Keister has taken photographs for nine previous Viking Studio books including Red Tile Style, Storybook Style, and America's Painted Ladies.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Studio (September 25, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670030554
• ISBN-13: 978-0670030552
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 8.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #195,142 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Photographic Romp Through the World of American RVing, February 29, 2004

By	Bookreporter.com (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

An architect and a photographer co-authored this classic mix of pix and text that rolls us down the American back roads in high style. From the early almost-train cars manufactured for the wealthy, to the poor man's alternative --- "Sleep in Your Car," one ad suggests --- we are drawn along by the fantasy of life fully lived away from home, a fantasy that could only have taken root in America, where roads and cars grew up together in serendipitous symbiosis.

Before the metal bodies and custom interiors, there had been the Conestoga wagons and, before that, the wooden gypsy vardos of old Europe. Sheepherders had "arks" made for crawling across the lonesome prairie, precursors to "tin can tourism" that attracted freedom-loving Americans almost as soon as they discovered the practicality of the auto itself.

From the 1930s onward, the question was not if they would buy it but what shape they would purchase, as independent companies vied for a market share, assembling campers shaped like teardrops, bread loaves and fantastical avian forms lifted from the burgeoning airplane industry.

Today's RVers owe much to Wally Byam, a true fanatic whose conception of a trailer accessible to the average middle-class family resulted in the Airstream, arguably the finest development of the pull-along format. With wood paneled mod cons within and an aerodynamic metal bullet exterior, the Airstream divorced trailering from the Oakie image and spawned many imitators. While confections like the Curtiss Aerocar and Pierce Arrow's faux railcar sought the aristocratic end of the market, and utilitarian itsy-bitsy tent-trailer combos attracted the low budget traveler, Airstream sat doggedly in the middle, offering class, ease of hauling and fine workmanship at an affordable price. "Today, more than four decades after his death in 1962, Byam's basic Airstream design continues to roll off the Jackson Center production lines, still widely regarded as the Rolls-Royce of trailers, and still inspiring imitations."

For nearly fifty years in the heyday of over-the-road vacationing, there was a Very Large Array of metal boxes on wheels, with names like Comet, Gypsy Wagon, Spartanette and Airfloat, and some more durable brands like Shasta. Because these ephemeral blips on the trailering screen were often handcrafted and built, remarkably, to last, many are still rolling or at least set up on blocks in mint condition, alluringly photogenic.

Gellner and Keister sought them out and tastefully snapped their innards and their outer skins, along with the cars that pull them. Where the snowbirds flock, these metal bubbles proliferate, often hauled by cars of equal interest to collectors. Now there's a new craze, and why are we not surprised --- that of building "vintage" campers, look-alikes to the old timey road runners of the early 20th century. Is this true "camp" or what?

Peering inside these metal marvels, via the camera's eye, we get a feeling for what was considered essential to the traveler in times past: parquet flooring, lounge chairs, recessed doors and plastic laminate kitchen counters, the latest thing. Beginning as a simple imitation of home interior design, trailer construction soon became a playground for experimentation in the technology of the tiny, the art of making things work smoothly in cramped quarters without skinning knuckles or having to sleep in a ball.

Like millions of Americans, I've followed the camper craze, the boondoggling and midnight interstate rest area getaways. I've moved with the carnival where homes on wheels have to be durable for the weekly hops. Maybe when I retire I'll look for a campsite at Slab City in California or Quartzite, Arizona.

If you love this book, then you're the guy for me. You and I could hit the high spots --- starting at Braden's Castle in Reno (that's where we'll get married), then on to Shady Dell in Bisbee, Arizona, where overnight guests can stay in vintage trailers. We'll honeymoon there in the Spartan Royal Mansion.

--- Reviewed by Barbara Bamberger Scott

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply Awesome!, October 7, 2003

By	"bobnsam4" (Incline Village, nv United States) - See all my reviews

This book is a great overview of the history and variety of travel trailers out on the road. Great quality pictures of all types of trailers, trailer parks and vintage ads. Finally, an un-biased history of the trailer, which tells the real story of how the Airstream came into being. The inventor of the aluminum aircraft-style trailer finally gets his due (hint: Wally Byam didn't invent it, he just perfected it and marketed it better). Also a great source of ideas for those lost souls who undertake a restoration of these beauties. Americana never looked so beautiful and interesting.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is my trailer bible!, November 14, 2005

By	Jan Kurth (Ellington, NY United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have a weakness for books on architecture and interior decorating anyway. But this is the one I turn to again and again. For those of us with Champaign tastes and beer budgets, a vintage trailer is ulimately doable. Own your own piece of modernist archeture, albeit on wheels, even though you could never touch a Mies or Wright. When ever I try to figure out what to do with my 1957 Sportcraft (a classic silver-clad "canned ham"), I flip through these pages. I always find something inspiring.