The Grapes of Wrath, © 20th Century Fox
The Joads will drive Route 66 west again on Saturday afternoon — this time on a screen, in a theater on the Pasadena boulevard the highway once followed.
The Norton Simon Museum will show John Ford’s “The Grapes of Wrath” at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, August 15, the third of four films the museum has programmed around the centennial of Route 66. Each film in the lineup travels some portion of the highway’s California stretch, according to the museum. The museum describes the four-film lineup as a range of journeys along the highway between Los Angeles and Chicago. The screening is free with museum admission.
Doors to the museum theater open at 4:00 p.m., a half-hour before the film. Seating is first come, first served. No reservations are taken.
Joe Petricca, whom the museum describes as a filmmaker, educator and organizer of the series, introduces each film. Petricca has organized earlier series for Norton Simon, including “Testigo/Witness: Goya in the Movies” in May 2024 and “Life’s Banquet: Food in Films” in the summer of 2023, according to museum press releases.
Ford’s 1940 adaptation of John Steinbeck’s novel follows Tom Joad, played by Henry Fonda, who returns from a prison term to find the family homestead ruined by drought and the banks. The family packs up for California. What they find there offers little hope.
The lineup also includes “Easy Rider” on August 1, “Hollywood or Bust” on August 8, and “Cars” on August 22, the animated feature set in a forgotten Route 66 town.
Pasadena has its own stake in the anniversary. Route 66 ran through the city along Colorado Boulevard, and 2026 marks both the highway’s 100th year and the boulevard’s 150th, according to Visit Pasadena. The route was established in 1926 as one of the original U.S. highways, running from Chicago to Santa Monica. The Norton Simon stands at 411 West Colorado Boulevard.
The museum is open from 12:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Saturdays. General admission is $20 for adults and $15 for seniors 62 and above; students with valid identification, children 18 and under, and museum members enter free. The museum’s parking lot is free, with accessible spaces in the upper and lower lots. Pasadena Transit lines 10 and 33 and Metro line 180 stop in front of the building. The theater has two wheelchair spaces and seats with armrests that lift, and the museum offers assisted listening devices during special programs. Bags and carried items larger than 11 by 15 inches are not permitted in the galleries. For more, call 626.449.6840 or visit nortonsimon.org.
The Joads went west looking for a California that had been promised to them, and found the one that existed instead. The road that took them there turns 100 this year.
