The Oakland Tribune provided additional details of the forthcoming trip:
  Miss King will leave Los Angeles under the most favorable auspices. Manager O. B. Henderson of the Pacific KisselKar branch is arranging a regular good-bye festival in the shape of a fleet of KisselKars driven by their owners, who will accompany the fair driver many miles on her way. It is planned to drive with her as far as Camarillo. The road between Los Angeles and San Francisco on the coast route, which she will take, is now excellent, except for a short stretch of about twenty miles just beyond Santa Barbara, which is undergoing repairs. . . . At San Jose, Miss King will be met by another delegation of KisselKars from San Francisco, and will be escorted into that city under the direction of President W. L. Hughson. A reception has been planned there and her entry will be a triumphal march. At San Francisco, she will rest for a few days while the car is put into perfect tune for the long ride. She will leave from the Exposition grounds on the morning of September 1, and follow the Blue Book route . . . along the Lincoln highway. From Omaha, the greater part of the drive will be along the same highway, but there will be a number of cities visited that are off the route, north and south. No attempt will be made for a speed record across the continent, as Miss King expects to visit nearly every city where a Paramount moving picture theater is in operation. Three weeks, however, is the schedule for her arrival in New York, where she will deliver letters to Mayor Mitchel from the mayors of Los Angeles and San Francisco. (10)  
On August 25, Anita set forth on the first leg of her journey, arriving in San Francisco the next day following her schedule as planned. An article in the Oakland Tribune of August 29, 1915, reported:
  Considerably to the surprise of many motorists who are aware of motoring difficulties between San Francisco and Los Angeles, Anita King sped into San Francisco Thursday only ten minutes off the schedule prepared for her by the KisselKar branch, and still beating eighteen hours by five minutes. Miss King . . . asserts she could better that time on another trial. "I believe it can be done in little more than twelve hours and a half," she said. "I lost a sinful amount of time because I lost my way on the unmarked highway, and couldn't find it for hours in spite of the fact that I must have waked all the farmers in two counties by my yells for information." The knickerbocker-clad driver had no difficulty in gathering a crowd about the 42-Six Kissel Kar in which the trip was made. Over the open body of the car is stretched a heavy white canvas. Before Miss King left the Exposition, after having her picture taken various times, the canvas was nearly covered with the signatures of interested spectators. She wearied of answering questions and announced she was going to her hotel. "Please remember," she said, "that I have had no sleep and no food since I started, and I need both. Also I wish to get rid of some of this dust, and it's hard to tell which I want to do most." The schedule provided for leaving Los Angeles at 6 p.m. Wednesday and arriving in San Francisco at 11:45 a.m. Miss King left Los Angeles ten minutes in advance, and crossed the San Francisco city line at almost the exact minute scheduled. A variation of ten minutes is not enough to worry, and the bettering of an eighteen-hour record by five minutes is thoroughly satisfactory to everybody except Miss King. She says she is coming back from New York just to beat her record by three or four hours. The young woman told interesting tales of her trip, dwelling with enthusiasm on the number of people she awoke in her effort to learn where the highway was. She says she is going to head a movement to have the real highway marked more accurately. "The car itself ran like a charm," she said. "There may be cause for complaint about the highway, but none about the car that was furnished me. I wouldn't take anything for it now after the severe test it stood last night, and I have perfect confidence about the trip to the east. There should be no difficulty whatever about making it, without any variation from schedule." (11)  

Copyright 2003 William M. Drew


Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 |
Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Endnotes


[Home] [News & Notes] [The Features Page] [The Store] [At the Movies]
[The Calendar] [Silent Era Facts] [Silent Star of the Month]


only1kcm@yahoo.com