This is a Feature Story in the San Francisco Chronicle

This is a feature story in the San Francisco Chronicle, August 22, 1915:

"Coming to San Francisco to make her real start on the cross-country trip from the Panama Pacific International Exposition, Miss Anita King, the moving picture star, will arrive here on Thursday after driving alone in her KisselKar from Los Angeles. A few days later, she starts from the exposition grounds for a noteworthy overland trip, entirely alone, to New York City.

Miss King's plan contemplates the breaking of several records. The unbroken run from Los Angeles constitutes a woman's record in itself. The later and longer journey is a severe one for a woman to undertake, and the proposed time, three weeks, would establish a record for a woman driver. Whether or not that schedule is adhered to, she will establish a record as the only woman to make the trip alone.

She has been driving for seven years and says she is entirely capable of making her own repairs, camping alone in the desert if necessary, and protecting herself. Motorists who have driven the coast route between San Francisco and Los Angeles will admit that Miss King has nerve.

Her schedule allows for less than eighteen hours, close to an average of thirty miles an hour, and this a steady run without pause longer than necessary for a quick meal. In order to avoid traffic and get up as much speed as possible, the young woman will leave Los Angeles at 6 P.M., as a result of which she expects to be at San Jose by 9:45 A.M. The plan contemplates a quick run to the exposition and the placing of the car in the KisselKar exhibit in the Palace of Transportation, there to remain until the start for the East on September 1st.

In the meantime, Miss King will have equipped herself with San Francisco credentials supplementing those obtained in Los Angeles, the latter including a letter from the Mayor of the southern city to Mayor Mitchel of New York City. President W. L. Hughson of the Pacific KisselKar branch and others will meet her at San Jose and escort her a short distance toward the East, just as the Los Angeles motorists are escorting her a few miles toward San Francisco."

August 29, 1915 - Oakland Tribune - 

"Considerably to the surprise of many motorists who are aware of motoring difficulties between San Francisco and Los Angeles, Anita King sped into San Francisco Thursday only ten minutes off the schedule prepared for her by the KisselKar branch, and still beating eighteen hours by five minutes. Miss King . . . asserts she could better that time on another trial. "I believe it can be done in little more than twelve hours and a half," she said. "I lost a sinful amount of time because I lost my way on the unmarked highway, and couldn't find it for hours in spite of the fact that I must have waked all the farmers in two counties by my yells for information." The knickerbocker-clad driver had no difficulty in gathering a crowd about the 42-Six Kissel Kar in which the trip was made. Over the open body of the car is stretched a heavy white canvas. Before Miss King left the Exposition, after having her picture taken various times, the canvas was nearly covered with the signatures of interested spectators. She wearied of answering questions and announced she was going to her hotel. "Please remember," she said, "that I have had no sleep and no food since I started, and I need both. Also I wish to get rid of some of this dust, and it's hard to tell which I want to do most." The schedule provided for leaving Los Angeles at 6 p.m. Wednesday and arriving in San Francisco at 11:45 a.m. Miss King left Los Angeles ten minutes in advance, and crossed the San Francisco city line at almost the exact minute scheduled. A variation of ten minutes is not enough to worry, and the bettering of an eighteen-hour record by five minutes is thoroughly satisfactory to everybody except Miss King. She says she is coming back from New York just to beat her record by three or four hours. The young woman told interesting tales of her trip, dwelling with enthusiasm on the number of people she awoke in her effort to learn where the highway was. She says she is going to head a movement to have the real highway marked more accurately. "The car itself ran like a charm," she said. "There may be cause for complaint about the highway, but none about the car that was furnished me. I wouldn't take anything for it now after the severe test it stood last night, and I have perfect confidence about the trip to the east. There should be no difficulty whatever about making it, without any variation from schedule."