Night Bus is a charming story about two strangers finding romance on an interstate bus trip. In 1933 it took a week to travel from Florida to New York, so there are several overnight stops along the way - plenty of time to fall in love.
Night Bus was made into the 1934 Frank Capra film It Happened One Night starring Claudette Colbert and Clarke Gable, seen as one of the greatest films ever made, and the first of only three films to win the Oscar for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director and Best Screenplay.
Peter Warne is a business man, amiably dealing with the hassles of bus travel. Elsbeth Andrews is a 21 year-old society girl running away from home, so naturally they are forced into adjoining seats. Unaware of the rules of the road, she quickly has her bag stolen, and reluctantly takes Peter's advice. No lunches at the hotel, it's oatmeal and coffee at Hungry Joe's diner if you want to travel cheap.
Further comic turns strike the pair, like missing the bus, taking to foot, sleeping in a barn, stealing a boat, stealing a car, and (famously in the film) hitchhiking.
Reality soon cures Elsbeth of the notion the world should treat her in a certain way, when the duo are forced to spend nights together in various tourist camp cabins (you can save $2 if you register as man and wife). Peter's solution of hanging a spare sheet between the beds (nicknamed The Wall of Jericho) gradually turns from a necessity to discovering, Peter's not so bad after all. Elsbeth learns the practicality of maximizing your pennies, and begins to look forward to the breakfast of eggs, a roll, and tea for 8cents. Peter is hoping to turn his invention into a job worth up to $8,000 a year, and doesn't care a whit for the $10,000 dollar reward her millionaire father has announced for the return of his missing girl. The journey takes a week and costs roughly $18. but all trips come to an end - this one in New York City. But then, there is always the possibility they will see each other again...
This is a light romance, with two endearing characters meant for each other, on an adventure exactly what you want it to be. Adams has a quirky way of writing, with witty turns of phrase that seem charmingly overwritten. About Peter he writes "Asperities of travel, however, meant little to his seasoned endurance", and about Elsbeth "Something must have seriously upset a disposition which, he judged, was hardly inured to accepting gracefully the contrarieties of a maladjusted world".
Samuel Hopkins Adams was a journalist and muckraker, exposing many false claims about patent medicines, which led to the passing of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. Several novels he wrote were turned into films including The Wild Party with Clara Bow (1929), and The Harvey Girls with Judy Garland (1946).
Recommended, if you can find a copy. Available online from $7. to $94.!
1933 / Paperback / 62 pages
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