Original subtitles

Narrator: This is the story of america,

Seen in color for the first time.

At the turn of the 20th century,

29 million americans are working.

40 percent of them are farmers.

But factories are expanding as never before.

As labor and management clash, politicians make promises.

Calvin coolidge: I want the people of america

To be able to work less for the government

And more for themselves.

[cheering]

Narrator: Unions rise, and some fall.

Technology creates new jobs

And a new workplace-- the modern office.

By the 1950s,

Americans have the world's highest standard of living.

This is the story of the workers who made america,

As you've never seen them before.

♪

John kennedy: I want us to recapture that...

♪

♪

At the turn of the 20th century,

This is what a modern factory looked like.

♪

This incredibly rare moving footage was taken in 1904.

♪

Industrialist george westinghouse

Had this two-million-square-foot plant

Built to his specifications.

The product?

Huge generators to produce the electricity

That will make america an industrial superpower.

♪

A camera mounted on a 50-ton crane tracks activity

Along a 600-yard-long machine shop floor.

10,000 people work in the plant...

♪

...Including 650 women.

They spend their nine-hour shift

Winding wire onto coils for the giant dynamos.

♪

A crane helps wrangle the huge components for final assembly.

♪

They're working to fulfill a contract

For the world's biggest engineering project--

Using the power of niagara falls to make electricity.

Electricity from westinghouse's turbines

Flows by wire 20 miles from the falls

To buffalo, new york...

...Illuminating the city

For its quarter of a million inhabitants.

It's the first time anyone

Has transmitted this much electricity so far.

To succeed, innovative firms like westinghouse

Depend on their employees.

So do smaller operations.

In 1915, at kennedy gold mine in jackson, california,

Human labor is cheap.

Miners spend ten-hour shifts hauling ore by hand.

There's no such thing as a weekend,

Or health insurance.

Coal miners in pennsylvania get paid by the ton,

A routine that encourages risk-taking.

In 1913, 35,000 americans nationwide

Die in workplace accidents.

That's 700 percent more than today.

Out of self-interest, workers organize.

Former cigar maker samuel gompers

Forms the american federation of labor.

The afl fights for higher wages and safer workplaces,

But in the early years, enrollment is slim.

Less than one percent of tradesmen join.

Management holds the power.

The imbalance is especially bad in new york's clothing industry.

More than 200 factories cram the 8-block garment district,

Where, on March 25, 1911,

New yorkers witness the worst factory disaster to date.

The triangle waist company rents three floors

In the asch building in greenwich village.

That Saturday, a workday,

A blaze starts on the eighth floor.

Firefighters raise ladders,

But the flames are too fierce and too high up.

The ywca re-enacts the events in a film shortly afterwards.

Managers have locked exit doors

To discourage theft and goofing off.

The one fire escape is too narrow.

As horrified onlookers watch,

Desperate workers leap from the building.

In 18 terrifying minutes,

146 workers, mostly immigrant women, die.

The youngest, kate leone, is 14 years old.

A court acquits factory owners max blanck and isaac harris

Of any wrongdoing,

Though they are ordered to pay compensation

To grieving families, $75 per victim.

Insurers reimburse blanck and harris $60,000.

They immediately go back into business.

The triangle waist company factory fire

Prompts new laws,

Requiring sprinkler systems and multiple fire escapes.

[machines clattering]

Nationwide, automation changes factory work.

At this new york cloth cutting shop,

One employee runs a row of embroidery machines

That replaces six skilled workers

Stitching military uniforms.

Mechanization threatens many traditional jobs.

At this sawmill, conveyors boost efficiency.

Manual work becomes monotonous and dull.

In 1915, workplace scientist frank gilbreth

And his industrial psychologist wife lillian

Examine the way modern americans work.

Their tools are a 35-millimeter motion picture camera

And a clock.

They film workers, recording every movement

And analyzing individual efficiency--

The brick mason,

The typist,

The file clerk.

Pears soap in new jersey hires the duo

To find ways to increase productivity.

They film miss gertrood, a packer,

Calculating how long each gesture takes her.

They suggest two simple changes.

Let her sit

And stack the empty boxes beside her.

These adjustments raise productivity by 36 percent.

Frank and lillian are also productive at home.

They have nine children.

Their time and motion studies strike a balance

Between bosses and workers.

Profits rise, and employees are happier.

But even bigger changes are just around the corner.

[gunfire]

On April 6, 1917,

The united states enters world war I.

Going to war accelerates mass production

And creates jobs.

On long island, new york,

At the gas defense service plant,

Workers making gas masks cut rubberized fabric.

With two million men serving overseas,

A million women are employed for the first time

But are paid 50 percent less for the same tasks.

Each week, the plant produces 40,000 gas masks.

[horn blows]

The war ends in 18 months.

Returning servicemen want their jobs back.

But peacetime brings a recession.

And between 1916 and 1919, the cost of living doubles.

The recession rocks industrial cities like chicago,

Where the tribune newspaper

Sponsors an "eat more fish" campaign.

Promoting it as an affordable alternative to red meat,

They're selling subsidized haddock at 11 cents a pound.

America has too many workers and not enough work.

September 1919, gary, indiana.

Thousands of striking steelworkers fill the streets.

They're protesting low wages and long hours.

During the war, union membership rose by 50 percent.

Now the steelworker unions flex their muscles.

Across the nation, 365,000 steelworkers strike.

Half the steel industry in america shuts down.

On November 1st,

United mine workers president john l. Lewis

Leads his 400,000 members off the job.

They have the same grievances.

In wilkes-barre, pennsylvania,

Striking coal miners are urged to stand firm and stay civil.

In all, a record 20 percent of the american workforce strikes.

The steel industry alone loses $17 million--

Today, $260 million.

In the end, though, strikers suffer more.

Opponents call them communists,

And public opinion turns against them.

After six weeks, they return to work.

Conditions stay the same.

Unions have lost, for now.

♪

Out west, another sector is growing.

On tannahill ranch in new mexico,

Cowboys drive 3,000 steers 25 miles a day.

In 1920, 11 million americans work the land.

This old-fashioned job has scarcely changed at all.

[mooing]

Wranglers supplement their $37 monthly pay

By breaking wild horses for $12 a head.

They test their riding and roping skills

Competing for prize money at rodeos.

But change is ahead.

In the 1920s, american workers will benefit

From unprecedented growth and prosperity.

♪

1919, northampton, massachusetts.

Governor calvin coolidge is a pro-business republican.

Posing for the camera with wife grace and their sons at home,

Coolidge is on a mission to promote american business.

In 1923, when warren g. Harding dies,

Coolidge becomes president.

He meets the press on the white house lawn.

For the first time, an american leader is filmed with sound.

Coolidge: I want to cut down public expense.

I want the people of america

To be able to work less for the government

And more for themselves.

I want them to have the rewards of their own industry.

This is the chief meaning of freedom.

[cheering]

Narrator: Coolidge follows through.

With congressional backing,

He increases taxes on imported goods

To give american businesses an edge.

Entrepreneur bill cheney leaps to the challenge.

Aired here for the first time,

This footage shows cheney's company in action,

Fulfilling a contract to bridge the columbia river

At rainier, oregon.

His welders are helping to erect the longview bridge,

America's longest cantilever span.

The country has entered a golden age of road building,

And some of that gold is going to cheney.

A string of profitable projects lets him retire early.

Philadelphia hosiery maker ellwood hoffmann

Is riding the boom.

At his lucille knitting factory,

Opened in 1920 and named after his wife,

Workers check the quality on silk stockings.

They're especially popular,

Now that women have ditched long skirts.

It's not a requirement to have shapely legs to work here,

But it certainly helps.

And as lucille knitting prospers,

Profits let hoffmann's family live in style.

Home movie footage shows them

Fishing along barnegat bay, new jersey...

...And enjoying a day at the seashore.

♪

Life is improving for some workers, too.

As paperwork multiplies,

Typewriters become standard office equipment,

Creating a new job--the typist.

Cheaper to hire than men,

A million women fill typing pool vacancies.

Competition for jobs is intense.

One way to land work is to win a typing contest.

Champion birdie reeve types 200 words a minute, accurately.

At 15, she can type faster than anyone can dictate.

In 1927, there's a huge upset.

A man, george hossfield, wins the world title,

Typing 157 words a minute.

♪

[whistle blows]

America's economy soars in the twenties.

Wages rise 20 percent.

Workers become consumers,

Able to afford labor-saving inventions...

♪

...Like the westinghouse turnover toaster.

This beauty arrives three years ahead of sliced bread.

♪

Not every innovation succeeds.

Take this early mobile phone,

Using an umbrella as its antenna.

A driverless vehicle follows remote control commands,

A novelty and nothing more.

♪

[horn honks]

But actual autos are everywhere.

Over half american families own cars.

As they take over the streets,

They are the most visible part of a wave of new innovations,

But some bring hidden dangers.

This is the chrysotile mine in arizona.

Buried deep in this mountain

Are rocks containing rich deposits

Of a precious natural mineral.

It forms in stringy fibers.

Trucks haul tons of it across the country

To a factory in manville, new jersey,

Where the long needle-like fibers

Are stripped from the rock.

The natural fiber is an industrial miracle.

It's tough, flexible, and fire-resistant.

The auto industry is its biggest consumer,

Using the wonder material to make brake pads.

It's called asbestos.

In 1929, johns manville company reports record profits

Of $6.6 million selling it.

Most workers have no idea

The dust they're breathing is deadly.

And they have no protection from it.

But the same year,

11 johns manville workers win settlements of $30,000 apiece

On claims that breathing asbestos damaged their lungs.

It will take another 26 years

Before its link to cancer is confirmed,

And in the 1970s, court cases will establish

That, for decades, the industry concealed its product's risks

From workers and consumers.

Another new technology gets america talking

And creates brand-new jobs.

In the summer of 1925, near toledo, ohio,

The american telephone and telegraph company makes history.

At&t board member a.F. Stevenson makes the final splice

In an 861-mile phone cable linking new york and chicago.

Now 139 calls can be made at a time.

With phones in a third of american homes,

The call goes out for more operators.

In 1926, this at&t recruiting film

Encourages women to sign up.

On the practice switchboards,

They learn how to connect customer calls

Via cables between exchanges.

200,000 women are working as operators.

The tele skater appears as switchboards increase in size

To cope with the 64 million calls made daily.

Besides connecting individuals,

The telephone becomes a business tool.

♪

But some deals require face time,

And that means travel.

In 1926, a new business tool arrives.

Stout air services schedules the first regular passenger flights

In the united states.

Within two years,

Business passengers are the line's main customers.

A round-trip flight between detroit and cleveland

Costs $35,

More than the average worker makes in a week.

By 1930, united airlines has acquired stout.

Nationwide, more than 650 airports are up and running

And the number of airplane passengers exceeds 173,000

By the end of the decade.

As american business soars,

Some everyday workers do get to share in the success.

♪

Shown here for the first time,

This footage shows a day out for the girls heinz 57 club,

A social club organized for female employees.

These factory girls are arriving at eden hall farm

Outside pittsburgh for a day of hiking, riding, and picnicking.

♪

As his father did,

Clifford heinz believes company benefits

Will keep his employees happy and non-unionized.

6,500 heinz workers have free medical care

And financial assistance.

Farther east in the keystone state,

Chocolate magnate milton s. Hershey

Takes worker benefits to a new level.

Hershey park is a brand-new company town

Built specifically for workers and their families,

Providing his workforce with everything its people need--

Schools, churches, parks,

An orphanage and hospital,

A sports arena,

A private country club,

And, for the kids, a zoo.

It later becomes a famous amusement park.

Hershey holds that providing his workforce

With a clean, safe place to live and raise families

Will make for happier workers and a better bottom line.

In the 1920s, these workers are living the american dream,

But as the economy tanks,

Millions are about to be made unemployed.

1933. America is nearly four years into the great depression.

12 million are out of work.

Newsreels show abandoned coal mines

In the town of shamokin, in southwest pennsylvania.

In just two years, coal output has dropped 34 percent.

Busted flat, with no welfare state to help them,

Unemployed miners do what they need to do,

Illegally digging for coal.

♪

It's dangerous work, done on the sly.

In teams, 3,500 men and boys

Bootleg coal every day but Sunday.

They work by hand,

Using crude but effective homemade pumps and winches.

♪

Under cover of darkness, they load five-ton trucks

And drive to nearby towns,

Where they sell it right out of the truck.

The towns depend on coal for heat,

And the miners make $2.50 a day,

Which they spend in local stores,

Keeping communities alive through the depression.

Workers' desperation is an opportunity

For america's unions.

[shouting]

In the summer of 1934,

Violence is in the air in minneapolis, minnesota.

Truck drivers here are fighting for a minimum wage

And a 40-hour week.

Police are edgy when the drivers' union,

The international brotherhood of teamsters,

Calls on its 3,000 local members to strike area trucking firms.

The crowd overwhelms the city.

Along first avenue, strikers outnumber police ten to one.

Unprecedented violence breaks out.

[shouting]

Strikers john belor and henry ness are shot dead.

Special deputies c. Arthur lyman and peter erath

Are beaten to death.

After 97 days, the trucking companies finally give in.

The strike wins over public opinion.

Victory gives the teamsters national clout.

Membership nearly doubles.

At the height of the depression,

Unions are beginning to win major victories for workers.

♪

But that's in the city.

The country is a different story.

Like millions of other agriculture workers,

These sharecroppers in poinsett county, arkansas,

Have no one to fight in their corner.

Tenant families are burdened by one-sided contracts.

One bad harvest can leave them

Severely indebted to their landlord.

Unions are weak.

Life is barely one step above slave labor.

Many head to northern cities.

Harlem in upper manhattan, 1936.

200,000 black migrants,

On the run from the terrible southern economy,

Have poured in here.

Jobs are scarce,

But harlem's downtrodden have a champion.

♪

The reverend father devine builds a huge following

Of tens of thousands preaching to the poor.

[applause and cheering]

He puts donations towards helping his community

With cheap lodging,

Discount stores,

And low-price services.

He calls his establishments heavens.

At rockland palace in harlem,

Father devine hosts a free banquet

And blesses the food.

Followers call him god on earth.

[singing]

With black unemployment at nearly 50 percent,

Father devine is keeping tens of thousands fed and housed

Till they get work.

Washington, d.C., August 14, 1935.

At the white house, president franklin delano roosevelt

Signs into law the social security act.

Workers have insurance against unemployment.

Now losing a job does not have to mean losing everything.

Fdr names frances perkins his labor secretary,

The first woman to hold any cabinet job.

Frances perkins: With the passage

Of the social security bill,

Life in the united states of america

Will be considerably better in the future

For all the people.

Narrator: Perkins witnessed the triangle waist company

Factory fire 24 years earlier,

Arriving at the scene by chance

To see women jumping from windows.

Ever since, she has been passionate

About protecting american workers.

Hoping to get two million women back into work,

She sets up camps designed to train unemployed single women.

Camp jane addams at bear mountain

In upstate new york is the first.

Its initial enrollment of 17 are bussed in from nearby towns.

During their three-month stay, campers take vocational classes

And enjoy recreational activities

While being paid $5 a month.

At camps around the country,

Thousands have life-changing experiences.

But americans would rather spend money

On training men to rebuild the country.

By 1937, funding is gone, and the camps close.

In some areas, the recovery starts early.

In 1933, congress repeals prohibition,

In place since 1919,

And the liquor industry booms.

Within four hours of repeal,

Schlitz beverage company of milwaukee, wisconsin,

Has beer on the loading docks.

During prohibition, schlitz kept 2,000 people working

By producing a cereal soft drink called famo.

With the beer that made milwaukee famous

Back on the shelves,

The local industry hires 8,000 more workers.

♪

Schlitz becomes the world's leading brewery,

And americans are back to boozing.

Within 18 months of repeal, $2 billion of beer is sold.

Everyone is happy.

Man: Drink it right down, now. Atta-boy!

Man: More!

Narrator: Even beauty queen miss old England

Wets her whistle.

[applause]

Americans have spent the thirties

Getting the country working again.

In 1939, with recovery in sight, the new york world's fair

Celebrates american labor and its achievements.

The theme is building the world of tomorrow.

New westinghouse chairman david youngholm

Helps assemble a time capsule.

The contents reflect american workers' ingenuity

And efficiency--

A memo to the future about the american way of life

To be opened in 5,000 years.

The hall of nations showcases

The cultures of France, belgium, and czechoslovakia.

By fair's end, these nations will be under the nazi boot,

And in two years, the same war will entangle american workers.

♪

December 1941,

The united states is at war.

Industrial production increases 96 percent.

American factories build 300,000 warplanes.

♪

At a bomber plant in seattle,

Workers sign a b-17 flying fortress.

Five shiny new aircraft roll off the production line

Every day, seven days a week.

This is number 5000.

But with millions of american men at and behind the front,

The nation needs pilots to ferry planes to air bases.

Pilot jacqueline cochran has an ambitious idea.

She persuades the air force

To hire female pilots for the first time.

At ellington field in texas,

She presents the first graduating class

Of women air force service pilots, or wasps,

With their wings.

After a kiss from her ten-year-old daughter,

Wasp natalie ellis takes off for a training session.

During the war, more than 1,000 wasps

Ferry over 12,000 warplanes from factories to bases.

Three decades will pass before women are allowed

To pilot u.S. Military aircraft again.

[whirring]

Wartime demands speed up technological change,

Creating new industries and skills.

This rare footage from may 1944 shows ibm's mark I,

The world's first large-scale digital computer.

Naval personnel run mark I

Under chief programmer, admiral grace hopper.

This five-ton wonder produces calculating tables

For artillery shells and bombs,

Completing three calculations per second.

Today, a smartphone makes 40 million.

Mark I jump-starts the information technology age.

For this new industry,

The old way of labor is not going to work.

It will require a more educated and skilled workforce.

As peace nears, fdr signs the gi bill,

Offering veterans $500 for education and job training.

In 1947, over half the students enrolled at universities

Are veterans.

Another five million military personnel

Are in apprenticeships.

The gi bill produces the world's best educated workforce,

And american business runs with it.

Hartford, connecticut.

With the war over, the american entrepreneurial spirit

Is kicking in again.

Hartford is home to the fuller brush company,

America's best-known door-to-door sales outfit.

The fuller brush man sells

A range of personal care and household brushes.

In 1948, more than 7,000 fuller brush men

Knock on 50 million american front doors.

The key to success is getting in the door.

A free sample brush often helps.

Buying their own sample kits,

They keep half of what they make on every sale.

In 1948, fullerettes arrive,

Organizing home cosmetic parties.

Woman: All you have to do

Is invite about 12 or 15 of your friends

To drop over some afternoon or evening for a party,

And I'll help you put it on.

Narrator: Fullerettes also work on commission,

Averaging $2 an hour selling beauty products

And establishing the first hostess party business model,

Now a $30-billion industry.

♪

As the forties end, new industries like these

Will revolutionize american workers' lives.

♪

The 1950s see the american worker

Experience the most dramatic change

Since the industrial revolution.

An entirely new sector sprouts 13 million jobs--

The service industry.

Dick spady is an early pioneer.

In 1954, he opens dick's drive-in,

A new kind of restaurant

In the seattle neighborhood of wallingford.

This never-before-seen footage

Shows how spady and americans like him

Upend the food service industry.

He has burger flipping down to a science.

Speed is profit,

And there are no fast-food unions.

♪

But dick spady knows what heinz and hershey knew--

That when you treat workers right, they do right by you.

He pays a high wage

And donates $1 million in university scholarships

To his student employees.

They keep the burgers coming,

And fast food is here to stay.

♪

Along new york city's 7th avenue,

The ready-to-wear garment district bustles.

Lombardy dress corporation is doing business just two miles

From where the triangle factory fire shocked manhattanites.

Things have changed in the last 40 years.

New tools and methods

Enable mass production of two million garments a year.

Lombardy is one of over 3,000 dress firms

That copy the latest couture designs for the mass market.

Only 40 years ago,

Garment makers were exploiting their workers.

Now the workers have power,

Thanks to the international ladies garment workers union,

Better known as the ilgwu.

Their 420,000 members get a dime more an hour

Than the average manufacturing worker,

Plus paid vacations, health insurance, and a pension.

By the mid-1950s,

Union membership is at an all-time high,

With a third of the american workforce organized.

Miami beach, florida, October 1957.

One of america's biggest, most powerful unions

Is heading for trouble.

[cheering]

Jimmy hoffa celebrates his election as president

Of the international brotherhood of teamsters

In front of thousands of cheering supporters.

Within a month, hoffa is summoned

To the u.S. Courthouse in foley square in new york,

Defending accusations of funding irregularities

And links to organized crime.

♪

Chief counsel robert kennedy and u.S. Senator john kennedy

Lead the investigation.

Robert kennedy: We're exempting everyone

But racketeers and hoodlums and crooks.

Jimmy hoffa: I would like to have you

Drop that language, sir.

Narrator: The nation is gripped.

1.2 million americans tune in to their new tvs daily.

Hoffa is questioned over the use of unions' pension funds

To loan money to organized crime figures.

When the committee cross-examines

Mob boss salvatore "sam" giancana,

He invokes the fifth amendment against self-incrimination

34 times in 2 hours.

Giancana: Decline to answer because I honestly believe

My answer might tend to incriminate me.

Kennedy: Can you tell us anything

About any of your operations,

Or you'll just giggle every time I ask you a question?

Narrator: Despite 270 days of damaging hearings,

Hoffa returns to business as usual.

In the 1960s, however,

He's convicted of jury tampering and goes to prison.

Upon his release, hoffa vanishes in detroit, michigan.

He's never seen again.

After the huge gains they made for their members,

Such as pension funds

Worth a quarter of a billion dollars by 1957,

Organized labor gradually loses momentum and membership.

[baby fussing]

In 1957, america is in the midst of a record baby boom,

Producing 4.3 million babies.

Jobs change with the times,

And a host of new service industries appear.

In roxborough, pennsylvania, dy-dee diaper is washing

Nearly half a million dirty diapers every month.

Each piece of cloth gets four washings, seven rinses,

And a spritz of antiseptic.

Dy-dee is one of 700 american diaper services,

Whose revenues total $50 million yearly during the baby boom.

America's surging population is boosting

The suburban expansion that began after the war.

In california, developers build 250,000 new houses.

This residence is state-of-the-suburban-art.

Push-button everything.

♪

Even a snack for fido.

♪

These labor-saving devices symbolize affluence and freedom

For a generation of white-collar workers.

♪

Upwardly mobile americans have a third more buying power

Than their predecessors in the 1940s...

...And they're spending as never before.

Announcer: Still searching for the perfect deodorant?

Narrator: By 1955, more than two thirds of american homes

Have a tv,

Creating an enormous audience for a new kind of advertising.

Stephen frankfurt runs young & rubicam,

A leading ad firm.

Their office on madison avenue

Is fashionable, creative, and professional.

The cameras offer a glimpse into a new way of working,

At least for the men.

♪

Stephen frankfurt: Advertising does sell people

Things they don't need, things like television sets,

Automobiles, ketchup, mattresses.

Narrator: At frankfurt's factory,

The assembly line fashions ideas into words

That persuade consumers to buy.

This is creative labor,

And y&r's president is aggressive, wealthy, and famous.

The mad men are as much a brand as the products they sell.

America rides the leading edge of television advertising,

An industry worth $100 billion today.

Announcer: And parker's exclusive

Electro-polished point...

Narrator: By the 1960s,

Tv ads are reaching 90 percent of american households.

Advertising revenues increase tenfold in just two years,

Propelling american companies into global super-brands.

Woman: And here's this week's heinz hint.

Make a welsh rarebit,

Mixing in heinz ketchup with the cheese.

That's a tomato rarebit.

Narrator: Young & rubicam launch

An international campaign for heinz,

Declaring 1957 the year of heinz.

Results--heinz global sales exceed $278 million.

♪ that's heinz 57 ♪

Venerable soft drink coca-cola

Wants more of the post-war boom babies to love coke,

So the company sponsors a series,

"the adventures of kit carson."

Boy: Boy, would I like to be kit carson!

Girl: Hi, kit. Where's your horse?

[laughter]

Woman: Well, anybody here interested

In sandwiches and coke?

Narrator: Coke is on its way to world domination,

Assuming its place among the giants of commerce.

Announcer: Six and a half magic hours to europe.

Narrator: America is exporting itself worldwide.

In the late 1950s, pan am begins promoting itself

As "the" international air carrier,

With ad campaigns that emphasize business travelers.

Customers go for it,

And more than 28 million business passengers buy tickets.

Pan am ads sell gloss, luxury, glamour, and sex.

Flight attendants smile like movie stars,

Pouring cocktails eight miles high.

In half a century,

American workers have lived through multiple revolutions.

Wages have more than doubled.

The work week is a third shorter.

Parents who worked standing up at machines

Have children who make their livings with their minds.

Complicated and sometimes frustrating,

The american dream has come true for many,

And american workers are among the richest in the world.