ON THE ROAD WITH CHARLES KURALT {OYSTER SHUCKING; DRIFTWOOD SCULPTURE; WILD MUSTANGS; AIRSTREAM TRAILERS; CHEROKEE LANGUAGE} (TV)

Summary

One in this series of television magazines, in which host Charles Kuralt presents clips from his twenty-five years of travel journalism through the back roads of America. The first segment profiles Heidi Harrelson of Florida, the first woman ever to become National Oyster Shucking Champion, with a record of fifty oysters shucked in two minutes and thirty-nine seconds. A native of Alsace-Lorraine, Harrelson demonstrates her technique before heading off to the international championship in Ireland. Next, Kuralt investigates the sculptures that appear on the mud flats beside Interstate 80 near San Francisco. Made mostly from driftwood and miscellaneous articles washed up from the sea, these sculptures, made by unknown "artists" change constantly due to the shifting tides. In the third segment, Kuralt visits the Montana wilderness near the Wyoming border to witness one of the last herds of wild mustangs left in the United States. He speaks briefly with rancher Lloyd Tillett, who led the fight against the Federal Bureau of Land Management's plan to relocate the horses. Following that, Kuralt attends a rally of Airstream trailer owners in Sarasota, Florida. This group of mostly retired white Americans spend most of the year gathering at rallies around the country engaged in numerous group activities. Finally, Kuralt profiles the Cherokee Indian, Sequoia, who developed the only written language of any Native American tribe. Comparing writing to "catching a wild animal and taming it," he constructed the Cherokee alphabet which has been taught from generation to generation, as demonstrated in a Cherokee school Kuralt visits. Includes commercials.

("On the Road with Charles Kuralt" consists of excerpts from Charles Kuralt's segments on the CBS Evening News, beginning in 1967. In the 1970s the show was aired in four special broadcasts, and in 1983 it was developed into a regular ten-week summer series. In addition, the series was reworked for and aired on the Travel Channel in 1993.)

Cataloging of this program was made possible by the CBS Foundation, 1998.

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