This program chronicles the Great Depression, starting with the Wall Street crash of 1929 and the subsequent collapse of the banks. At one point in the early 1930s, twenty-eight states were without banks. From 1930-32, the country went from four million to twelve million unemployed workers.
The program recreates in a stunning fashion the monumental construction of Hoover Dam, with the mover and shaker Frank "Hurry Up" Crowe leading the project as the principal engineer and task master.
Before the dam is built, the Colorado River is diverted by massive mobile drilling rigs that create cavernous tunnels for the water flow. It is as hot as 140-degrees inside the tunnels that are also filled with carbon monoxide. The completed Hoover Dam is the largest concrete structure on earth and the first large concrete dam in history. Under "Hurry Up" Crowe, the completion of the dam on September 30,1935 was ahead of schedule. One byproduct of the dam is the meteoric rise of Las Vegas.
1934 brings the greatest environmental disaster in American history: the monstrous dust storm that led to the Dust Bowl. In this environmental cataclysm, the topsoil that had been exhausted by the sodbusters combined with unique atmosphere conditions to raise the dirt off the ground in biblical proportions.
The human side of the Dust Bowl is portrayed in the figure of Louise Walton and her little daughter, who were victims of the calamity. The former Broadway actress and dancer had left New York ironically for the good, clean air of the Colorado. Louise and her daughter survived and remained in the Midwest while others became part of the mass exodus described in John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath."
The medium of radio unites America in the Great Depression as the perfect method of bringing people together across long distances. It also allows people in far-flung places to unite in support of Joe Louis's titanic battle with Max Schmeling, who wins the first bout on June 19, 1936, in sold-out Yankee Stadium. But Louis wins the rematch on June 22, 1938, in 124 seconds by knocking out Schmeling.
Mount Rushmore is described in the program as the new monument to America. What began as a plan to attract tourists in 1927 became part of FDR's New Deal in the 1930s. Out of a 500-foot cliff, the figures of Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, and Teddy Roosevelt emerged as a symbol of national pride.
By 1936, one in six Americans were still out of a job. It will take World War II to truly pull America out of the slump. The war will also transform American to the greatest power on earth. Nothing would ever be the same.
The program recreates in a stunning fashion the monumental construction of Hoover Dam, with the mover and shaker Frank "Hurry Up" Crowe leading the project as the principal engineer and task master.
Before the dam is built, the Colorado River is diverted by massive mobile drilling rigs that create cavernous tunnels for the water flow. It is as hot as 140-degrees inside the tunnels that are also filled with carbon monoxide. The completed Hoover Dam is the largest concrete structure on earth and the first large concrete dam in history. Under "Hurry Up" Crowe, the completion of the dam on September 30,1935 was ahead of schedule. One byproduct of the dam is the meteoric rise of Las Vegas.
1934 brings the greatest environmental disaster in American history: the monstrous dust storm that led to the Dust Bowl. In this environmental cataclysm, the topsoil that had been exhausted by the sodbusters combined with unique atmosphere conditions to raise the dirt off the ground in biblical proportions.
The human side of the Dust Bowl is portrayed in the figure of Louise Walton and her little daughter, who were victims of the calamity. The former Broadway actress and dancer had left New York ironically for the good, clean air of the Colorado. Louise and her daughter survived and remained in the Midwest while others became part of the mass exodus described in John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath."
The medium of radio unites America in the Great Depression as the perfect method of bringing people together across long distances. It also allows people in far-flung places to unite in support of Joe Louis's titanic battle with Max Schmeling, who wins the first bout on June 19, 1936, in sold-out Yankee Stadium. But Louis wins the rematch on June 22, 1938, in 124 seconds by knocking out Schmeling.
Mount Rushmore is described in the program as the new monument to America. What began as a plan to attract tourists in 1927 became part of FDR's New Deal in the 1930s. Out of a 500-foot cliff, the figures of Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, and Teddy Roosevelt emerged as a symbol of national pride.
By 1936, one in six Americans were still out of a job. It will take World War II to truly pull America out of the slump. The war will also transform American to the greatest power on earth. Nothing would ever be the same.
