UPDATE: This post was originally published din 2014. Since then, I learned more about Ted, but had spread it out across various posts. Ted’s trips, and his subsequent movies, have been added to this post.
First Published November 2014: In 1955, Theodore Bumiller set out for an around-the-world adventure in a Willys Wagon. He captured his trip in photos and video. I attempted to learn more about his trip, but I only learned that his daughter is now a noted author (maybe someone else will have more luck). I emailed her to learn more about her father’s adventures, but have yet to receive a reply.
Following the trip, Ted made his first film: a 30 minute movie titled “Around The World By Jeep”. He traveled around exhibiting it. The ad below, published in the January 3rd, 1970, edition of the Toledo Blade shows he was still touring and showing his film fifteen years after he’d made his trip.
Anyone ever seen the movie?
In the late 1950s, Ted created a second movie: “The Four Seasons of Scandinavia”, an exploration of the four seasons in Scandinavian countries. As far as I can tell, it doesn’t have anything to do with jeeps.
This article from the April 15, 1959, issue of The Sun (out of Stark County, Ohio) explains more:
Ted’s daughter Elizabeth wrote a book and included an acknowledgement to Ted and his wife Ruth Ann for teaching her how to travel and for inspiring her to explore the world. In it she mentions a third film by Ted, “Eternal India”.
