The 1941 movie, “Singing Wheels,” produced by the Automobile Manufacturers Association of the Motor Truck Committee sing’s something like a hallelujah chorus of the then burgeoning trucking industry. Watch this newly posted video on OverdriveRetro to see what some of the commerce was like immediately prior to the nation’s entrance into World War II.

The International ad that ran in the May 19, 1941, issue of Life magazine promoted the 22-minute free movie as “thrilling” and, regarding its own truck lines, made an observation that became momentous: “This year, trucks and the highways on which they roll assume a new importance in the nation’s No. 1 job — National Defense.”