Circle Cinema has announced it will host the Oklahoma premiere of “Route 66: The Main Street of America” on Friday, Sept. 18, with director John Paget and Route 66 historian Michael Wallis attending as special guests.

The evening begins with a reception in the Circle Cinema lobby at 6 p.m., followed by the film at 7 p.m. and a Q&A with Paget and Wallis. Tickets are on sale now and include the reception, screening and Q&A. Admission is $50 for Circle Cinema members and $66 for non-members, available at circlecinema.org.

Paget’s new documentary unfolds as a series of character-driven stories from along the highway, following dreamers, small business owners, preservationists and everyday people whose lives are tied to the road. The film has been officially selected by the U.S. Route 66 Centennial Commission as part of the national commemoration of the highway’s 100th anniversary.

Paget has been making films about Route 66 since the 1990s. “For 30 years, I’ve said that John Paget’s documentary, ‘Route 66: An American Odyssey,’ is the best documentary ever made on the Mother Road,” said Wallis, author of “Route 66: The Mother Road.” “I can’t wait to see his new film for the Route 66 Centennial.”

Among the stories in the film:

Oklahoma

• Miami: A high school sophomore founded a shave ice company, selling handcrafted snow cones out of a restored 1923 Hudson gas station.
• Luther: A man saves and restores his grandfather’s filling station, the first Black-owned gas station in America.
• El Reno: Three grill masters spend their lives in a fog of fried beef and onions, keeping the city’s fried onion burger tradition alive.
• Oklahoma City: A man who escaped Vietnam on a fishing boat now runs the most extraordinary international market between Chicago and Los Angeles.

Along the rest of the route:

• Chicago, Illinois: A century after the Great Chicago Fire, steel rose again on Route 66, this time into the tallest building in the world. The story of how Chicago fell back in love with its most famous giant.
• Joliet, Illinois: A young historian takes on the near-impossible dream of rescuing the 19-acre Old Joliet Prison from ruin.
• Atlanta, Illinois: Joel Baker crisscrosses America saving roadside fiberglass giants. The museum built in tribute to them put his small town on the map as the Land of Giants.
• Bourbon, Missouri: A couple looked around town and decided it was finally time someone made bourbon in Bourbon. They now turn out award-winning bottles.
• McLean, Texas: Left for dead after Interstate 40 passed it by, McLean looked like one more Texas ghost town in the making. Then a retired schoolteacher bought an old inn, opened a bar and decided the town wasn’t done yet.
• Santa Rosa, New Mexico: Deep sea divers in the desert at the Blue Hole.
• Tucumcari, New Mexico: A Stanford grad and tech entrepreneur built a glamping site among recycled art from Burning Man, with hopes of reviving a small town.
• Albuquerque, New Mexico: Born and raised by Ugandan immigrants in a Route 66 motel, she graduated, became a doctor, then quit medicine to come home and turn her parents’ motel into an award-winning one.
• Holbrook, Arizona: A Japanese sake maker builds his dream next door to the Petrified Forest.
• Williams, Arizona: A couple bet everything on rebuilding a steam train to the Grand Canyon to help revive their town.
• Seligman, Arizona: A small town barber started a Historic Route 66 association to save his town, launched a national movement and became an international celebrity.
• Oro Grande, California: A man leaves city life behind to become the on-site caretaker of a roadside bottle tree sculpture park in the high desert.
• San Bernardino, California: Long before Taco Bell, there was Mitla Cafe, a family-run restaurant that helped shape America’s appetite for Mexican food and stood near the front lines of the civil rights movement.
• Los Angeles, California: Route 66 ends beneath the glow of downtown movie palaces. One unlikely preservationist kept the theater at the original terminus off the wrecking ball, marquee and all.

The film is touring the country with premiere screenings along the route, beginning Sept. 1 in Chicago and running more than 40 events across all eight Route 66 states before concluding in Los Angeles on Nov. 7. Circle Cinema is hosting the Oklahoma premiere as Tulsa has been designated the capital of Route 66.

More information on the film and the national tour is available at MainStreetofAmerica.com. The premiere caps a year of Route 66 centennial programming at Circle Cinema, which opened in 1928 along the original alignment of the historic Mother Road in Tulsa’s Kendall Whittier neighborhood.

About: Circle Cinema is Tulsa’s only independent, nonprofit, arthouse theater. The Circle originally opened in 1928 and is now the last of Tulsa’s classic movie houses still in operation. Circle Cinema screens films 365 days a year, located at 10 S. Lewis Ave in Tulsa on the historic alignment of Route 66. Circle Cinema elevates the film experience through guest speakers, art gallery exhibits, free educational screenings, and other special events. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, proceeds are invested back into Circle Cinema’s mission to expand community consciousness through film.