Original subtitles

Narrator: This is the story of America,

seen in color for the first time.

The 1930s are the years of the great depression.

In the aftermath of the stock market crash,

violence and anarchy threaten to tear the country apart.

One president flounders.

Herbert hoover: Be patient. Be helpful.

Narrator: Another offers a new deal.

Franklin Roosevelt: This nation is asking for action

and action now!

Narrator: Bold projects inspire Americans.

Hoover's g-men go after the gangsters.

J. Edgar hoover: We should all be concerned with but one goal--

the eradication of crime.

Narrator: It's a decade of grand visions and lofty achievements.

But powerful forces threaten

to leave the American dream in the dust.

This is the story of a nation's fight for survival,

as you've never seen it before.

John f. Kennedy: I want us to recapture that...

Narrator: Macy's Thanksgiving day parade, 1929.

Americans put on a happy face.

In Washington on Christmas Eve, first lady Lou hoover

traditionally distributes toys to local children.

But this year, the bags contain food, not toys.

The country is in the throes of an economic meltdown.

That same night, disaster strikes.

Faulty wiring sparks a Blaze in the white house,

leaving president Herbert hoover scrambling to save what he can.

As Christmas day dawns, the damage is clear.

The west wing, including the oval office,

is a burnt-out shell.

The charred, smoldering ruins of the white house

seem to reflect the national mood.

Just two months earlier,

$25 billion-- nearly half a trillion today-.

Disappears as the stock market plummets.

Banks demand that brokers repay what they've borrowed,

but many cannot.

And on main street,

Americans lose confidence in banks

and try to pull their money out.

Thousands make runs on the banks,

and as the new decade starts, more than 650 fail.

Almost $80 million of personal savings are lost,

forever.

Men across the country are losing their jobs in droves.

Chicago is one of the places hardest hit.

In 1930, nearly 450,000 people in this city alone

are unemployed,

an increase of 170%.

They're unable to feed their families.

The needs of the poor overwhelm local governments.

Churches and private charities step in to help.

Even mob boss al Capone sets up one of the first soup kitchens.

Across the country,

4.3 million people are out of work.

Many of the homeless and destitute

tough it out in shantytowns.

They're dubbed hoovervilles,

a scathing commentary on the president.

This rare home movie

of hoover teaching his grandchildren to fish

was shot by his wife Lou in 1930.

Hoover is a self-made man.

He believes America can end the depression

through the efforts of individuals

and private enterprise

and not with government handouts.

Hoover: And therefore I would say

to the American public--

be patient. Be helpful.

Recognize the complexity and the difficulty of the problem

before these servants of your combined public interest.

Narrator: Hoover appeals to one of the richest men in America,

Henry Ford.

Hoping to stimulate sales and the economy,

Ford raises wages and cuts car prices.

But by 1932, sales are at rock bottom,

and Ford has lost $75 million.

He lays off two-thirds of his workforce.

In response, the laid-off workers demand

that Ford rehire them.

On march 7th, 5,000 gather in Detroit

and make their way to the Ford plant in dearborn.

The only surviving footage of that fateful day

is filmed by the Detroit unemployed council.

At the city limits, violence erupts.

Dearborn police spray tear gas and attack the men with clubs.

The protesters fight back with anything they can.

Then Ford's private security gets the nod and opens fire.

Four laid-off workers die that day.

80,000 mourners join the funeral procession.

The relationship between labor and management

will remain contentious.

For the lucky few who have even a little money,

life is much different.

19-year-old Wallace Kelly was drawn to New York by his dreams.

He saved for a movie camera by skipping lunch in college.

He aims to find work as an illustrator.

While job hunting, he captures city life during the depression.

He tells his family that he sees more suicides than paychecks.

But he has enough spare cash to visit New York's playground,

coney island.

For others, savings are gone.

They have nothing.

Announcer: ...From all parts of the country,

and this contingent from California

are heading for Washington to join the bonus fight.

In 1932, some 20,000 world war i veterans, called the bonus army,

march to a new battlefront.

Congress has promised them a bonus of $1.25

for each day served overseas,

not to be paid, though, until 1945.

With so many veterans broke and jobless,

they are demanding the money now.

Congress refuses.

$2 billion, it's just not possible.

But the veterans refuse to leave.

They camp out in the sweltering summer heat.

Five long weeks pass.

Finally, president hoover, convinced the bonus army

is a front for a communist revolution,

orders the police to clear the men out.

But the veterans aren't going without a fight.

Hoover calls in the army.

His chief of staff, general Douglas MacArthur,

orders the 12th infantry and 3rd cavalry regiments

to assemble.

For the first time in American history,

tanks roll down Pennsylvania Avenue,

mobilized against American citizens.

Ignoring hoover's orders to evacuate the men peacefully,

the infantry closes in on the veterans.

The soldiers advance with tear gas and fixed bayonets

and burn the camps to the ground.

When it's all over, 54 veterans are injured and 135 arrested.

The bonus army disbands.

By 1932, Americans are increasingly desperate,

and it's an election year.

The democrats choose as their candidate

New York governor Franklin delano Roosevelt.

Roosevelt: I emphasize to you

that the deep question in this campaign

is one of confidence in leadership,

confidence in leaders.

Narrator: Fdr offers a plan.

The government will provide work for Americans.

He calls it the new deal.

It's a stark contrast to hoover's hands-off policy.

Hoover: This campaign is more than a contest between two men.

It is more than a contest between two parties.

It is a contest between two philosophies of government.

Narrator: Presidential campaigns are now featured on newsreels.

A national leader's image is more important than ever before.

Roosevelt appears to be an energetic candidate,

but actually he has something to hide.

11 years earlier, at the age of 39,

Roosevelt contracted polio,

which left his legs partially paralyzed.

He fears people won't vote for him

if they know the truth about his condition.

At Griffith stadium in Washington, D.C.,

senators pitcher jimmie deshong captures this very rare footage

of fdr walking with his leg braces.

Ultimately, fdr comes to an agreement with the press--

no photos of him walking or getting in and out of cars.

This footage shows the security detail

signaling for the cameras to cut

as fdr prepares to leave his car.

On November 8, 1932, Roosevelt triumphs.

Roosevelt: It looks, my friends, like a real landslide this time.

Narrator: He wins with nearly 90% of the electoral vote,

the highest margin to date for a Democratic candidate.

But before he can even start,

he's almost stopped dead in his tracks.

It's February 1933.

President-elect Roosevelt is in Florida.

Roosevelt: This is another partial reunion

of the Roosevelt family

before we men go off on a cruise up the coast starting tomorrow.

Narrator: He's on a brief vacation

before his march inauguration.

He stops at bayfront park, Miami,

to make an impromptu speech from the back of his car.

Roosevelt: Mr. mayor, my friends of Miami,

I haven't been here for seven years,

but on my coming back,

I have firmly resolved not to make it the last time.

Narrator: Suddenly, a man steps forward pointing a gun.

Announcer: The startled onlookers

suddenly realize what has happened.

Pandemonium reigns.

Narrator: Next to Roosevelt is Chicago mayor Anton cermak.

He takes a bullet meant for fdr and later dies.

Four others are injured.

Announcer: They've got him!

The secret service men load him on the rear of the car

and hustle him away to jail.

Narrator: Roosevelt escapes unscathed,

thanks to an unlikely hero.

Housewife Lillian cross was standing next to the gunman.

She swatted his firing arm with her handbag.

Lillian cross: I knew he was shooting at the president,

so my first thought was to get the pistol up in the air

so he wouldn't hurt any of the bystanders.

Narrator: The gunman, giuseppe zangara,

had vowed to kill all capitalists.

He's convicted, sentenced, and five weeks later,

he's executed in old sparky, Florida's electric chair.

March 4, 1933.

Hoover joins Roosevelt,

and they travel together to the inauguration...

...where a crowd of 250,000 gather.

Radio announcer Norman sweetser has a ringside seat.

With his home movie camera,

he captures one of the most iconic speeches

in American history.

Roosevelt: Let me assert my firm belief

that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

This nation is asking for action and action now.

Narrator: The president's first action is to shore up the banks.

Some 9,000 have already failed. The rest are under strain.

Fdr orders every bank in the nation to close for four days.

4,000 insolvent ones never reopen.

In an unprecedented move,

he restocks the rest with newly minted money.

The government is intervening in the economy like never before.

$2 billion is printed and shipped out to the banks.

With confidence restored,

the banks reopen, and people redeposit their savings.

The bank runs are over.

But solving the banking crisis

is only a first step in reviving the economy.

12 million Americans are still out of a job.

Illustrator Wallace Kelly

has been badly hurt by the depression.

He loses job after job as companies go bust.

Finally, he leaves New York City

and goes back home to Lebanon, Kentucky.

Wallace puts his dreams on hold

to help his brother Oliver run the family-owned newspaper,

the Lebanon enterprise.

This small-town weekly binds the community together

and is still published today.

Wallace captures this intimate look at life inside the paper

in the 1930s.

Despite hard times,

people can still find five cents for the paper.

And fdr wants to ensure they have something else to enjoy--

liquor.

In December 1933,

he announces the repeal of the 18th amendment--prohibition.

This is the first legally imported shipment of alcohol

in over 10 years arriving at the New York docks.

And if ever the country needed a drink, it is now.

Prohibition, which began in 1920,

was intended to purify society.

Instead, it spawned corruption, violence, and organized crime.

By the time Roosevelt becomes president,

homicide rates are at an all-time high.

The public has little faith in the police.

Armed vigilantes patrol the streets of New York.

Fdr needs a solution.

And he looks to a small outpost of the department of justice,

the FBI,

and its director, j. Edgar hoover.

With limited powers,

the bureau's agents had long labored in obscurity.

Hoover transforms them into the nation's top crime-fighters,

who bring in the gangsters dead or alive.

Hoover: We should all be concerned with but one goal--

the eradication of crime.

The federal bureau of investigation is as close to you

as your nearest telephone.

It seeks to be your protector

in all matters within its jurisdiction.

Narrator: Hoover and his government men, the g-men,

take on the bank robbers and killers,

whom he dubs public enemies.

And public enemy number one is John dillinger.

He has a $10,000 bounty on his head

for robbing 24 banks and 4 police stations.

He is filmed here in February 1934 after his arrest

for the murder of police officer William O'Malley.

One month later, in crown point, Indiana,

dillinger breaks out of jail.

Finally, on July 22, 1934, the FBI acts on a tip.

After watching a movie at Chicago's biograph theater,

dillinger emerges,

and the g-men shoot him dead.

Machine gun Kelly, from Memphis, Tennessee,

is renowned for his favorite weapon--

the Thompson submachine gun.

But by using the cutting-edge science

of fingerprint analysis, the FBI nails him.

Kelly's trial marks the first time

cameras are permitted in the courtroom.

Sentenced to life behind bars,

he becomes an inmate at a new prison.

Perched on a rocky island

surrounded by the dangerous currents

of the San Francisco bay, Alcatraz opens in 1934.

It claims to be escape-proof

and houses the very worst of America's criminals.

Fdr's tough stand on crime is getting results.

By the end of the decade,

homicide rates will drop by a third.

Roosevelt tries everything he can

to make good on his campaign promise

of work for those who need it.

He forms the civilian conservation corps, the ccc,

and offers jobs to 250,000 young men.

They earn 30 bucks a month, 25 of which is sent back home.

They reshape the American landscape

with new roads, 800 parks, and 3 billion trees.

Illustrator Wallace Kelly is now married

and still making movies.

He and his wife Mabel take a road trip.

They pass through America's first national park,

yellowstone,

its roads and campsites all built by the ccc.

In south Dakota,

the Kellys visit the unfinished mount rushmore,

12 years into its construction.

In 1935, another new deal project, the grand coulee dam,

is the biggest building site in the world,

employing 11,000 men.

In Washington state,

they excavate nearly 63 million tons of earth and rock.

A conveyor belt two miles long transports the debris.

And some 24 million tons of concrete

pour into the Columbia basin to dam the river.

Grand coulee is Roosevelt's pet project.

He tours the site in an open-top yellow Lincoln.

By 1935, the new deal is delivering.

America is getting back to work.

Unemployment has dropped by nearly 20%.

Fdr takes to the radio

to assure Americans the recovery will continue.

Roosevelt: ...Economic calamity.

We have in the darkest moments of our national trials

retained our faith in our own ability

to master our own destiny.

Fear is vanishing.

Confidence is growing on every side.

Narrator: But in the great plains

of the American heartland,

pioneer dreams are turning to dust.

The sky over Oklahoma is a dark swirl of grit.

A curtain of black tears through the great plains.

Events filmed in black and white

are now seen for the first time in color.

Following a devastating black blizzard on April 14, 1935,

Kansas news editor Edward Stanley

says the great plains are now the dust bowl.

A perfect storm of falling grain prices,

overplanting, and drought

have turned the fields of mid-America into dead land.

The topsoil has no moisture left to hold it together.

By 1935, 50 million acres of farmland are barren.

Tumbleweed rolls into fences, and the dust piles on,

creating huge drifts

that look more like the Sahara than Oklahoma.

Over the decade, 3 1/2 million Americans

are forced to leave their homes,

in an exodus that will inspire steinbeck's novel

"the grapes of wrath."

It is the largest migration in American history.

Almost a quarter of a million head off to California,

America's new land of opportunity.

California is the golden state,

and with 800 miles of coastline, the action is at the beach.

Sunbathing is a new trend in the 1930s.

Gone is the quest for pale skin.

Now it's all about the tan.

Inventive skin tone products

include spray tans and tanning drinks.

Out on the water,

Hawaiian Duke kahanamoku is riding his surfboard.

The Duke is the father of modern surfing,

enticing young Americans to brave the waves.

West Oakland, California,

is a predominantly African-American neighborhood.

This is the home movie footage of one resident, Ernest bean.

The beans are unusual for the time,

a family moving up to the middle class.

Ernest is fortunate. He has a steady job.

During the depression,

unemployment for blacks is at 50%,

twice the rate of whites.

Jim crow laws mean segregation is still widespread.

Even the new deal discriminates against African Americans.

Whites get the pick of the jobs and a higher wage.

One place black men are welcome to work

is on the Pullman sleeper trains.

Each luxury car is staffed by uniformed porters.

The majority are African American.

Ernest bean is one of these porters.

His job provides a stable income through the depression,

but it comes at a price.

Black journalist Thomas Fleming observed,

"a Porter had the best job in his community

and the worst on the train."

Ernest and his colleagues

form the first African-American labor union,

the brotherhood of sleeping car porters.

The American federation of labor recognizes it in 1935.

The brotherhood gains better pay and working conditions

for 12,000 porters across the country.

In the coming decades, the union will play a pivotal role

in the civil rights movement.

Across San Francisco bay from Oakland,

an ambitious new deal project is under way.

The golden gate bridge is soon to be

one of the wonders of the modern world.

Work begins in 1933,

and by 1936, is nearing completion.

The project offers good pay and a steady job,

but not without risk.

As a rule of thumb, construction companies expect one death

for every million dollars spent.

The bridge costs 35 million.

During construction, 30 workers fall,

but 19 are saved by a safety net strung underneath.

Architect Irving morrow chooses the bridge's rich color,

international orange,

which he feels blends perfectly with the landscape.

The first vehicles cross on may 28, 1937.

At the time, it's the world's longest suspension bridge,

a golden gate to a bright American future.

A new feeling of optimism is beginning to gain momentum.

In November of 1936, fdr is elected to a second term.

The new deal has produced results.

Roosevelt: People of the United States

have made it clear that they expect us

to continue our active efforts

in behalf of their peaceful advancement.

Narrator: But Roosevelt is about to threaten his own success.

In January 1937, fdr begins his second term.

The nation's production, profits, and wages

are rising back to pre-crash levels.

Unemployment is at its lowest since he took office.

The country is coming back to life,

but fdr can't take all the credit.

They say behind every great man is an even greater woman.

Roosevelt is no different.

In 1905, he married Eleanor Roosevelt,

a distant cousin.

Now 32 years later, they have 5 children and 7 grandchildren.

Eleanor is vital to fdr's vision for America.

She is his eyes, ears, and legs on the ground,

transforming the role of first lady

from hostess to stateswoman.

Eleanor Roosevelt: I'm very glad to be back.

Um, we've had a perfectly delightful trip

and enjoyed every minute of it.

Narrator: She fights for the oppressed and forgotten.

After extensive lobbying by Eleanor,

fdr sets up the national youth administration.

Eleanor Roosevelt: Those who are not employed

will need more than they have needed before.

Their hope has completely gone.

Narrator: The new agency helps American boys and girls

stay in school and get vocational training.

And thanks to Eleanor, it includes African Americans,

who have been failed by the new deal.

Her activism doesn't stop there.

An ardent supporter of women's rights,

she champions pilot Amelia earhart,

who, in 1932, became the first female pilot

to fly solo across the Atlantic.

Amelia earhart: It's much easier to fly the Atlantic ocean now

than it was a few years ago.

I expect to be able to do it in my lifetime again.

Narrator: Now, in 1937,

she's planning to circumnavigate the globe

in her lockheed model 10 electra.

Al bresnik is there to capture the moment

in a photoshoot at Burbank airport in California.

Bresnik has been earhart's photographer for five years.

His brother John filmed

this recently discovered home movie footage.

Here, we see a carefree 39-year-old earhart

just before her June 1st departure.

But on July 2nd,

it's headline news around the world.

Amelia earhart's plane has disappeared.

The plane is never found,

its fate a mystery debated to this day.

But America's love affair

with planes and record-breaking doesn't stop.

A year after earhart disappears,

millionaire playboy Howard Hughes

is about to attempt the feat that killed her,

around-the-world flight.

His silver twin engine plane cost him $200,000 to build.

On board at Floyd Bennett field in New York,

a trusty crew of four.

Howard Hughes: I've been in a rush to get away from here,

I hope you'll forgive me.

Announcer: Oh, you bet.

Narrator: He lands in Paris after 16 hours 38 minutes,

a record-breaking time.

But he hasn't finished.

Moscow...Siberia...

All the way around the globe to land back in New York

in just 3 days, 19 hours, 8 minutes, and 10 seconds,

slashing the previous record in half.

Howard Hughes' success is just the news the nation needs.

In 1937, America's recovery is dealt a blow.

Fdr, believing that his bold government programs

have now achieved what was needed, changes course.

He cuts back federal spending.

The economy soon falters, and the country begins to struggle.

The year becomes known as Roosevelt's recession.

Man: Fellow workers,

we want peace and prosperity in this country here.

That's what we're fighting for,

and that's what we're gonna have!

Narrator: Four million people lose their jobs.

Strikes break out all over the country.

Fdr quickly takes action.

He boosts government spending

and delivers a landmark labor law.

In June 1938, the minimum hourly wage is set at 25 cents,

the working week a maximum of 44 hours.

And soon both employment and production have recovered.

After almost a decade of life on the brink,

people start to breathe easier.

But the nation's fear of another calamity is never far away.

On October 30, 1938,

radio listeners tuning into the CBS network

are in for a shock.

Announcer: Ladies and gentlemen,

we interrupt our program of dance music

to bring you a special bulletin

from the intercontinental radio news.

It is reported that at 8:50 P.M.,

a huge flaming object,

believed to be a meteorite, fell on a farm

in the neighborhood of grover's mill, New Jersey,

22 miles from Trenton.

Narrator: Listening intently, the audience is transfixed

by a terrifying report from the scene.

Man on radio: I can see the object itself.

Doesn't look very much like a meteor.

The top is beginning to rotate like a screw,

and the thing must be hollow.

Man: It's moving! Keep back there!

Keep back, I tell ya!

Narrator: It sounds like America is under attack.

Announcer: We are bringing you an eyewitness account

of what's happening on the wilmuth farm,

grover's mill, New Jersey.

Narrator: In October 1938,

an estimated 6 million Americans are tuned into CBS radio.

Man on radio: Something's happening!

Narrator: The constant news flashes are alarming.

Man on radio: Eyes are black, and they gleam like a serpent.

The mouth is, it's kind of v-shaped

with saliva dripping from its rimless lips

that seem to quiver and pulsate.

Narrator: The audience is terrified.

Man on radio: There's a jet of flame

springing from the mirror,

and it leaps right at the advancing men.

It strikes them head-on!

Good lord, they're turning into flame!

Narrator: Listeners phone the police and radio stations.

They bombard the CBS switchboard.

They have no idea that this is actually a play

directed by 23-year-old Orson welles

with his Mercury theatre.

Man on radio: It's definitely extraterrestrial,

not found on this earth.

Narrator: The play is "the war of the worlds,"

a Sci-Fi classic that sounds frighteningly real.

The press picks up the story, and the following morning,

welles faces questions from reporters.

Orson welles: I'm extremely surprised to learn

that a story which has become familiar to children

through the medium of comic strips

and, uh, many succeeding novels and adventure stories

should have had such an immediate and profound effect

upon radio listeners.

Narrator: While Orson welles terrifies listeners

through the power of words,

in Los Angeles, filmmakers are preparing to use images

to create an enchanting new world.

In October 1938, at the mgm studios,

shooting starts on a project

that will revolutionize the movies.

It's one of the first mainstream Hollywood movies

shot in technicolor.

Its title-- the wizard of oz.

The costly technology has been available for over a decade,

but due to the great depression,

it is only commercially viable now.

This rare behind-the-scenes home movie footage

shot by composer Harold arlen shows the stars on the set.

Playing the main character Dorothy Gale--

the legendary Judy garland.

Portraying a 12-year-old,

she is, in fact, 16 at the time of filming.

Originally set to wear a blond wig,

garland's more natural look

is decided upon once filming starts.

Her co-star Bert lahr wears a costume made of real lion fur,

weighing over 100 pounds.

He later says, "after the wizard of oz,

I was typecast as a lion,

and there aren't all that many parts for lions."

At the New York premiere on August 17, 1939,

Judy garland is accompanied by boyfriend Mickey Rooney.

15,000 strain to get a glimpse of the Hollywood stars.

Audiences pack the theaters,

but the high cost of technicolor leaves mgm just breaking even.

This story of a girl's triumph over adversity

is reminiscent of America at the end of the decade.

President Roosevelt,

by marshaling the untapped powers of government,

has pulled America out of the great depression.

The country, pushed to its economic and physical limit,

has suffered and survived.

The 1930s is part of our American story...

...the economy, the land, and the people

overcoming adversity to make a better life.