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Listen "Giants of the Highway: The Secret Story Behind Route 66's Most Unusual Museum"
Episode Synopsis
Welcome to Unpacked, America 250, a mini series celebrating the music, art, food, and more that makes America, America—in honor of our nation's upcoming 250th anniversary.
The mini series is part of Afar's "52 Places to Travel in the U.S. This Year" story, and in this fourth episode, host Aislyn Greene takes us to Illinois to explore the towering fiberglass giants that once ruled America's highways.
From Bob Prewitt's rodeo horse trailers to Texaco's massive "Big Friend" campaign, this episode reveals how a cowboy's creativity sparked a nationwide phenomenon of supersized roadside advertising—and how one man's obsession saved these giants from extinction.
On this episode you'll learn
How rodeo cowboy Bob Prewitt accidentally launched the fiberglass giant industry while building horse trailers in 1960s California
Why these towering figures became known as "Muffler Men" despite most never holding mufflers
The story behind Texaco's ambitious Big Friend program that deployed 300 twenty-three-foot servicemen across America—and why it failed spectacularly
How oil companies like Phillips 66 and Texaco drove the nationwide expansion of roadside giants in the 1960s
What happened when Texaco ordered all their giants destroyed, echoing Cecil B. DeMille's Hollywood set demolitions
Why Joel Baker became America's leading expert on fiberglass giants and opened the country's only dedicated museum
How the American Giants Museum on Route 66 preserves these analog attractions for smartphone-era visitors
Featured Expert: Joel Baker, founder of the American Giants Museum in Atlanta, Illinois
Stay Connected
Sign up for our podcast newsletter, Behind the Mic, where we share upcoming news and behind-the-scenes details of each episode.
Explore our other podcasts, View From Afar, about the people and companies shaping the future of travel, and Unpacked, where we dig into the trickiest topics in travel.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The mini series is part of Afar's "52 Places to Travel in the U.S. This Year" story, and in this fourth episode, host Aislyn Greene takes us to Illinois to explore the towering fiberglass giants that once ruled America's highways.
From Bob Prewitt's rodeo horse trailers to Texaco's massive "Big Friend" campaign, this episode reveals how a cowboy's creativity sparked a nationwide phenomenon of supersized roadside advertising—and how one man's obsession saved these giants from extinction.
On this episode you'll learn
How rodeo cowboy Bob Prewitt accidentally launched the fiberglass giant industry while building horse trailers in 1960s California
Why these towering figures became known as "Muffler Men" despite most never holding mufflers
The story behind Texaco's ambitious Big Friend program that deployed 300 twenty-three-foot servicemen across America—and why it failed spectacularly
How oil companies like Phillips 66 and Texaco drove the nationwide expansion of roadside giants in the 1960s
What happened when Texaco ordered all their giants destroyed, echoing Cecil B. DeMille's Hollywood set demolitions
Why Joel Baker became America's leading expert on fiberglass giants and opened the country's only dedicated museum
How the American Giants Museum on Route 66 preserves these analog attractions for smartphone-era visitors
Featured Expert: Joel Baker, founder of the American Giants Museum in Atlanta, Illinois
Stay Connected
Sign up for our podcast newsletter, Behind the Mic, where we share upcoming news and behind-the-scenes details of each episode.
Explore our other podcasts, View From Afar, about the people and companies shaping the future of travel, and Unpacked, where we dig into the trickiest topics in travel.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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