Region : Route 66 Festivities

A celebration to kick off next year’s 66th anniversary of the famed Route 66--which ended at Ocean Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard in Santa Monica--will be held this weekend at the Santa Monica Pier.

The festivities begin Friday night with a classic car show and an “oldies but goodies” dance at the pier hosted by radio station KRTH.

Saturday morning, a 1.25-mile “Bunion Beach Run” will begin at Lifeguard Tower 26 and end at the pier. Markers along the path will depict the cities mentioned in the lyrics of the song “Get Your Kicks on Route 66.”

At 9 a.m., actor George Maharis, who starred in the “Route 66” TV series, and former football great Joe Kapp, a spokesman for a New Mexico salsa company that is one of the celebration sponsors, will lead a parade of classic Corvettes. Some of the Corvettes will continue on the entire 2,400-mile trek of the former road to Chicago.

Route 66 was officially commissioned in 1926 and was completely paved in 1937. It was nicknamed “Main Street USA” because it originally consisted of a string of city main streets connected by dirt roads and pathways.

But like so many other roads and small towns, the advent of the freeway meant the death of the route. The last leg of the road, near Williams, Ariz., was closed in June, 1985.