Reel

See also catalog # 494634 Retrospective of American life during the 1930s. Part 1:1930-1936.

DO NOT USE Opening Credits

Depression montage: shots of man closing big gate and nailing up sign "CLOSED" CUs of signs "No Help Wanted" "No Men Wanted" "Closed" Shots of closed down factories, factories with For Sale signs. CU man's face as he walks down a city street. People are selling produce. Man with sandwich board signs "Will Take Any Job". CUs unemployed people standing around. CU sign "Public Notice: Wages of municipal employees suspended until further notice." CU sign "Mills to be sold at Public Auction." CU sign "Missionary Soup kitchen. VS men entering. High ang LS crowd of men stand in a long line stretching around a corner. MCU moving feet of men in line. MSs people get food at soup kitchen. Another line of people, mostly women and children. Sign at window "For Relief Only. Do Not Apply for Work Here" MCUs people being given packages of groceries.

GV pasture scene. LSs group of farmers stand around listening to one of them speaking. MS angry farmer speaker. CUs men listening. MS farmers applaud speaker. CU man holds a handbill calling for a General Strike for sharecroppers, tenant farmers and day laborers. Var shots as the "Farmers' holiday association' organizes to block flow of farm products to cities. Farmer, some with guns. Farmers stop truck with milk cans and pour out all the milk.

Bonus Army. WWI veterans, some in uniform, march past U.S. Capitol building. Police stand guard. Tanks on street. Mounted U.S. Army troops disperse protesting vets. Protesters suffering from tear gas. Good shots of the Bonus Army's shanty camps being burned, including cloud of smoke over the Capitol.

LS front view White House. View from White House upper window. Interior of White House, man walking in hall. MS President Herbert Hoover at desk signing paper. MCU Hoover. MLS business leaders summoned to White House. CU humorist Robert Benchley on the confusing & contradictory analyses of causes of Depression. Var shots unemployed men on park benches. CUs men looking depressed. Hi ang crowd on street; shots of people gathered outside a bank, depositors in line going in to withdraw their money. MSs customers in line in bank. Parade with anti-Hoover signs, "In Hoover we Trusted, Now We're Busted" on the side of a truck.

DO NOT USE Zoom in on still of Franklin D. Roosevelt speaking. Various CUs of FDR.

MS FDR on inauguration day, wearing top hat. Var shots of drive to inauguration. LSs outside Capitol, w/ crowd.

Nice night shot pan on capitol dome behind trees. Var shots showing new government getting to work right away. FDR did not attend balls but immediately started to work with advisors. Night shot front of White House. Advisors entering Whtie House. MS mens hats on entry table. Var shots of work in White House, advisors, aides etc. talking, walking by carrying papers, etc. FDR with Henry Wallace (?) FDR signing papers. MCU FDR with Secretary of the Treasury William Woodin. They order all banks to close for 4 days. Good shot of reporters running to White House pressroom, into phone booths. MCU stack of various newspapers with headlines about the Bank Holiday. CU sign saying Banks closed March 6, 7, 8 & 9th, 1933. Signs in shops offering to trust customers who can't get cash from bank, or offering to take other goods in lieu of cash. MCU Roosevelt delivering his first "Fireside Chat" radio broadcast, to reassure country that banks will open again. Various shots of people of various classes listening to radio in homes, diners, country general stores etc. Advisors coming to Washington to help FDR guide the country through the economic crisis. Locomotive & train pass near camera. View from moving train of tracks. Interior train showing engineer. VS Men in business suits riding on train, in conversation. Low ang shot at train station of clock and lighted sign "Train Arrival Bulletin". MCU black porter sets down portable step that says "Pullman" for passengers to step down onto. Var shots people walking on train platform. View through door of train station looking toward Capitol in BG. Var scenes at White House. MS FDR with political advisors James Farley & Louis Howe. MLS FDR meets with members of his "Brain Trust, " Raymond Moley, a professor of public law, Rexford G. Tugwell, an agricultural economist, and Adolf A. Berle, Jr., a specialist in corporate structure and finance. Legislation. Young boy interns distribute copies of bills and resolutions for Congressmen. CU stack of bills. Var shots inside House of Representatives. CU man folding a Bill. MCU Bills being put into holder at side of table. CU gavel pounding.

Secretery of Agriculture Henry Wallace at work, with others. AAA, Agricultural Adjustment Administration. MCU map showing types of farming in USA. MCU Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes, Public Works Administration (PWA). CU draftsman draws line with triangle. Pan up to show large drafting shop. MS Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins (first woman Cabinet officer) meets with others. Department of Labor offices. Graph showing employee turnover. GV House of Reps. Various shots showing work of government: meetings, offices, blueprints, men working at desks, worker at wall of files.

CUs papers. CU General Hugh Johnson, administrator of the National Recovery Administration (NRA), which was set up to regulate wages, work hours, employment & prices. Comedian Will Rogers on NRA. Low ang LS NRA flag being unfurled. Var shots NRA banners & signs. Hugh Johnson speaking. Celebratory ticker-tape parade with patriotic NRA floats.

End of Prohibition! MS workers dust off cobwebs in brewery. Var shots work begins again in brewery, pouring hops in, lines of beer bottles moving along on machine. Horsedrawn beer wagon, one of the 2 horses bucks, kicking high. CU sign "Welcome back Old Man Beer." MCUs/ CUs berer mugs. Var shots beer glasses slide down bars. CU fat old guy drinking beer. People with beer mugs dancing in tavern. Var shots of celebrations, dance floor. Bartender with cocktail shaker. CU bottles of liquor on shelves behind bar. CUs of liquor being poured into different types of drink glasses. Socialites toast with champagne. Fat businessman drains mug of beer.

CU alarm clock with time at 10 min til 7, hand reaches over to shut it off. Series of CUs show a sleepy looking man getting up, steps into slippers, rubs face, turns on water tap in sink, puts toothpaste on toothbrush, turns on shower, shaves, combs hair. Wife serves breakfast to husband and little girl in working class American home. CU pouring coffee. CU egg in frying pan. CUs of man and little girl eating.

Works Progress Administration (WPA). Var shots men start to work, taking wheelbarrows, shovels, rakes. Sign: "USA Work Program WPA". Var shots of WPA workers at work. Anti-WPA cartoons depicting WPA workers as lazy, getting hand-outs. Various shots of one of the biggest WPA projects, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), shots of dam, water being let through, electric power plant, electric power lines etc.

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) a work program for youth, in which young men were sent from cities where there were no opportunities for them to work camps. Var shots of CCC workers chopping trees, sawing lumber, building telephone poles, planting trees, etc.

Farms. MLS cowboy on horse on cattle ranch. Var shots agents talk to farmers about crop control. Horse plow plowing crops under. "Wheat, cotton & corn were left unplanted."

Dust bowl: var shots of dust storm. Woman picks up toddler & runs into house. A woman and a boy in blowing dust. MCU farmer picks up handful of dust. Shots of cow and mule looking for food or water. Various shots of people loading furniture onto trucks, abandoning homes. Farmer lifting kids onto truck. Pan on abandoned things, broken chair, broken doll, etc. Various shots of "Okies" gathering together in camps while on their way west. One trailer says "No More Dust Bowl." Man mending a tire. Girl sleeping on blankets on the ground while mother washes dishes. Var shots of kids in the Okie camp. MS man sits on ground smoking. The men were no longer farmers, they were migrant men.

DO NOT USE Still of sign "Share Our Wealth. Every Man a King Society". Still of Huey Long

Var shots of Huey P. Long speaking, the voice of the demagogue, says he tried to be the "dictator of America". Var shots of other demagogic types promising solutions, Rev. Gerald L.K. Smith, Father Charles Coughlin , Dr. Francis E. Townshend. Poltical rally, signs from different congressional districts. Various shots of these men impassioned speaking. MS crowd jump up and raise hands.

FDR relaxing with family, driving in car with grandkids, on a boat fishing. He catches a huge fish! Sign: This is the little White House. It is occupied. Please do not intrude. The public is requested to view it from the hill." FDR's second home in Warm Springs, Georgia. LS house. High ang view of huge pool. LS FDR and others sit on poolside, then all get in water and swim toward camera. FDR and others play with ball in pool, splashing etc. The people also suffer from chronic illness in the same way as Franklin Roosevelt who was paralyzed from poliomyelitis.

1936 Presidential Campaign. FDR and wife Eleanor on train. Shot of white kids waving flags. Shot of black kids waving flags. Train starts to move. View from train passing crowds. MCU FDR on moving train, waving to crowd. Rallies with pro-FDR signs. CU Candidate Alf Landon in train car. View from train passing GOP crowd with live elephants. Republican crowds cheering. Landon shakes hands. Parade with Landon float. Election 1936. Crowds on street watch moving electric light headlines on re-election of President Roosevelt. Victorious FDR and Eleanor.