WEBVTT 00:00:01.876 --> 00:00:07.112 [music playing] 00:00:12.389 --> 00:00:16.349 John F. Kennedy: Ask not what your country can do for you. 00:00:16.810 --> 00:00:19.044 Neil Armstrong: That's one small step for a man. 00:00:19.044 --> 00:00:21.976 Martin Luther King : Hold these truths to be self-evident, 00:00:22.006 --> 00:00:25.133 that all men are created equal. 00:00:26.672 --> 00:00:31.220 Ronald Reagan: Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall. 00:00:45.221 --> 00:00:47.665 [music playing] 00:00:47.695 --> 00:00:50.552 Male narrator: It was May of 1932. 00:00:50.552 --> 00:00:53.095 Male reporter: It's a spectacle unparalleled in the history of the country. 00:00:53.095 --> 00:00:56.344 Narrator: And something was very wrong in the land of plenty. 00:00:56.344 --> 00:00:59.224 Reporter: A day of bloodshed, and riots. 00:01:00.393 --> 00:01:04.183 Collins: There were those of who felt that America was teetering 00:01:04.183 --> 00:01:07.628 on the brink of revolution. 00:01:07.628 --> 00:01:11.505 Narrator: For three years the Great Depression had tormented Americans. 00:01:11.505 --> 00:01:16.307 Now, 20 thousand army veterans and their families came pouring into Washington 00:01:16.307 --> 00:01:19.946 to find out what the government was going to do about it. 00:01:19.946 --> 00:01:23.796 Collins: They were bearded. They were ragged. 00:01:23.796 --> 00:01:26.763 They were desperate. You could see it in their eyes. 00:01:28.531 --> 00:01:32.054 Narrator: They'd been promised a bonus for their service in World War I, 00:01:32.255 --> 00:01:36.135 but it was not due to be paid until 1945. 00:01:36.135 --> 00:01:39.688 The desperate veterans wanted their money now. 00:01:39.688 --> 00:01:43.528 They were called The Bonus Army. 00:01:44.590 --> 00:01:48.188 On July 28th, the Bonus Army came to blows with Washington police. 00:01:48.188 --> 00:01:49.856 Shots were fired. 00:01:49.888 --> 00:01:54.713 President Herbert Hoover barricaded himself in the White House and called out the troops. 00:01:55.159 --> 00:02:00.087 Reporters: Soldiers have orders to burn down the unsanitary, and the illegal shants. 00:02:00.087 --> 00:02:08.046 And the roaring flames, sounds the death nell, to the fantastic Bonus Army. 00:02:08.046 --> 00:02:13.023 Narrator: When the smoked cleared, two veterans and an infant were dead. 00:02:13.023 --> 00:02:15.275 Darcy: Absolutely shameful. 00:02:15.306 --> 00:02:20.425 The sacrifice of the young American boys 00:02:20.425 --> 00:02:24.366 left such an impression on me, I have never forgotten it. 00:02:24.366 --> 00:02:28.618 They were just trying to feed their families. 00:02:28.618 --> 00:02:33.221 Narrator: Millions of Americans could no longer provide for their families. 00:02:33.221 --> 00:02:35.171 With no where to turn for help, 00:02:35.171 --> 00:02:39.855 they were angry and they were approaching their breaking point. 00:02:39.855 --> 00:02:44.517 Three years into the Depression, the American system was in grave danger. 00:02:44.517 --> 00:02:51.597 Unless it could change, and change quickly, it might not survive. 00:02:51.597 --> 00:02:54.309 Bad times had arrived without warning. 00:02:54.325 --> 00:02:57.821 After a decade of expanding prosperity, almost overnight, 00:02:57.990 --> 00:03:03.260 the Wall Street crash of 1929 shattered America's confidence in its economy. 00:03:15.351 --> 00:03:21.336 Hancox: I was 11 years old, but how well I remember it. 00:03:22.151 --> 00:03:25.366 It was like the skies had grown dark. 00:03:25.366 --> 00:03:28.541 Thunder! 00:03:28.541 --> 00:03:32.786 And, all of a sudden, faces were tragic, and people were walking around 00:03:32.786 --> 00:03:37.568 in the hallways of our building, and in the streets, with inquiring eyes, 00:03:37.568 --> 00:03:40.713 and saying, "Has it happened to you? Has it happened to us? 00:03:40.713 --> 00:03:42.416 What is happening?" 00:03:46.738 --> 00:03:49.206 Bailey: With delivering telegrams at that time, 00:03:49.206 --> 00:03:53.011 and pretty soon you could feel the horror 00:03:53.042 --> 00:03:55.941 behind the door you were knocking. 00:03:56.029 --> 00:03:58.229 When you knock on the door, when the voice comes out-- 00:03:58.229 --> 00:04:00.628 "Yeah? Who is it? Who is it?" 00:04:00.628 --> 00:04:01.936 I say, "I have a telegram." 00:04:01.936 --> 00:04:04.600 "Well, slide it under the door," 00:04:04.600 --> 00:04:07.917 or "Go away! Get away from me. Get away from me." 00:04:09.981 --> 00:04:12.348 Narrator: The collapse of the New York Stock Exchange in 1929 00:04:12.348 --> 00:04:17.124 was only the most visible sign of a massive economic crisis. 00:04:17.124 --> 00:04:21.461 The crisis that spread quickly from Wall Street to Main Street. 00:04:21.905 --> 00:04:25.239 Miriam Johnson was living in California 00:04:25.239 --> 00:04:28.431 when the Great Depression arrived at her house. 00:04:28.830 --> 00:04:31.561 Johnson: I was 11 when The Crash came. 00:04:31.622 --> 00:04:40.478 My father at that time, along with a few friends, owned a small grocery store. 00:04:40.478 --> 00:04:42.686 One day he came home, 00:04:42.686 --> 00:04:48.374 and he laid two dollars on the table in the kitchen, 00:04:48.374 --> 00:04:53.020 and he said "No more store. Everything is gone." 00:04:53.020 --> 00:04:58.828 And that was the end. For us it was the end. 00:05:01.475 --> 00:05:04.794 Narrator: Every day produced more bankruptcies, more layoffs, 00:05:04.794 --> 00:05:09.319 more people with less money in their pockets. 00:05:12.826 --> 00:05:16.989 Even U.S. Steel, a symbol of American industrial might 00:05:16.989 --> 00:05:20.284 since the turn of the century, was brought to its knees. 00:05:21.114 --> 00:05:25.490 In three years the entire full-time payroll was laid off-- 00:05:25.490 --> 00:05:29.463 225,000 workers. 00:05:34.583 --> 00:05:38.379 : The Depression hit this country all over. 00:05:38.379 --> 00:05:43.178 It hit the farm areas, it hit the cities. 00:05:43.903 --> 00:05:48.773 You were just there, out of work, and out of food. 00:05:48.773 --> 00:05:57.289 And everyone was baffled. Nobody had ever had that experience before. 00:05:57.289 --> 00:06:03.527 : I had been saving for maybe 5-6 years, money in a piggy bank. 00:06:03.527 --> 00:06:07.564 Nickles, pennies, dimes the most. 00:06:07.564 --> 00:06:12.717 It turns out that I was the only one in the family that had any money, 00:06:12.717 --> 00:06:16.036 because one day I came home 00:06:16.036 --> 00:06:19.784 and I grabbed hold of my piggy bank, just to give it it a shake, 00:06:19.784 --> 00:06:23.824 and there was nothing in it. 00:06:25.400 --> 00:06:30.181 My mother was looking at me, and she said, 00:06:30.181 --> 00:06:34.454 "Your father borrowed the money. 00:06:34.454 --> 00:06:39.802 "He has to go out to look for work, and he needed money to go downtown." 00:06:42.187 --> 00:06:49.425 He came home, and I didn't say anything, but my eyes and face were swollen with tears. 00:06:49.425 --> 00:06:53.452 My eyes were blinking with tears. 00:06:53.452 --> 00:06:56.987 And my father took me in his arms and said, 00:06:56.987 --> 00:07:01.693 "I'm sorry. I had to have money. 00:07:01.693 --> 00:07:03.109 "But it's a loan. 00:07:03.109 --> 00:07:05.873 "I'll pay it back to you." 00:07:05.873 --> 00:07:07.486 He never did. 00:07:07.486 --> 00:07:10.447 He never did. 00:07:12.180 --> 00:07:17.647 My family had exhausted all its credits with the local merchants. 00:07:17.647 --> 00:07:21.846 And, on one occasion, my father came home 00:07:21.846 --> 00:07:24.066 and asked what was for dinner that night, 00:07:24.066 --> 00:07:27.770 and my mother said "There's nothing." 00:07:27.770 --> 00:07:31.933 How could that be? How could there be nothing? 00:07:31.933 --> 00:07:38.002 It was one of the few times in my life that I was fearful for myself. 00:07:39.329 --> 00:07:42.551 Narrator: Fearful of losing what little they had left, people rushed to the banks 00:07:42.551 --> 00:07:45.805 to withdraw their savings. 00:07:45.805 --> 00:07:49.427 But the banks, too, were short of cash. 00:07:49.427 --> 00:07:54.714 One year after the crash, 800 of them had failed. 00:07:54.714 --> 00:07:59.381 Nine million savings accounts were wiped out. 00:07:59.381 --> 00:08:04.213 : There was a janitor called George Gillies who had a thousand dollars 00:08:04.213 --> 00:08:06.395 in the bank of the United States. 00:08:06.395 --> 00:08:12.430 It had taken Gillies 40 years to save a thousand dollars. 00:08:12.430 --> 00:08:20.039 After spending two nights and two days in the pouring rain outside this shuttered, 00:08:20.039 --> 00:08:21.992 locked bank, 00:08:21.992 --> 00:08:27.446 beating--literally--beating on the walls with his hands in frustration, 00:08:27.446 --> 00:08:33.720 he realized he was never going to see 10 cents of his money. 00:08:33.720 --> 00:08:37.306 He went back to the basement where he lived, 00:08:37.306 --> 00:08:41.170 and he hanged himself in despair. 00:08:41.234 --> 00:08:43.211 That's what bank failures did. 00:08:43.211 --> 00:08:47.690 They crushed tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, 00:08:47.690 --> 00:08:52.456 of ordinary people, like George Gillies. 00:08:52.456 --> 00:08:56.581 Narrator: With their savings gone, and layoffs increasing, people were 00:08:56.581 --> 00:09:01.524 forced to sell their cars, their furniture, their wedding rings. 00:09:02.398 --> 00:09:06.201 Before long half the country's home mortgages were in default. 00:09:06.201 --> 00:09:12.607 Families across America found themselves facing eviction. 00:09:12.607 --> 00:09:15.976 Collins: I remember my brother and I, and my mother, 00:09:15.976 --> 00:09:19.817 just couldn't stand to see it happen. 00:09:19.817 --> 00:09:24.976 So, we left my father there to face the auctioneers. 00:09:24.976 --> 00:09:29.052 Then we came home that evening and we met my father who told us, 00:09:29.269 --> 00:09:31.561 "Yes, the house was sold." 00:09:31.608 --> 00:09:33.043 It was gone. 00:09:33.120 --> 00:09:37.206 And everything that we had had was no longer ours. 00:09:37.206 --> 00:09:40.581 The land was gone, the house was gone. 00:09:40.581 --> 00:09:45.949 And we had 30 days in which time to move out. 00:09:45.949 --> 00:09:49.549 And my mother sat on the side of the bed and cried. 00:09:49.549 --> 00:09:53.721 It was the first time I'd ever seen her cry. 00:09:53.721 --> 00:09:58.229 I'll never forget that moment. 00:09:58.229 --> 00:10:04.734 That the way our family was affected, and we were not unique. 00:10:04.734 --> 00:10:09.790 : You know what hurt me most about it was the look of pain on my mother's and father's face. 00:10:09.790 --> 00:10:13.584 I couldn't bear to look at them. 00:10:13.584 --> 00:10:16.881 To look at their misery. 00:10:16.881 --> 00:10:22.096 To look at their disgrace. 00:10:22.096 --> 00:10:26.108 They felt they had only themselves to blame. 00:10:26.108 --> 00:10:28.510 This was a different generation. 00:10:28.510 --> 00:10:35.269 This was a generation that had grown up with the old faith. 00:10:35.269 --> 00:10:37.405 The faith of self-reliance. 00:10:37.405 --> 00:10:41.687 The people had to stand on their own two feet. 00:10:41.687 --> 00:10:45.296 They didn't say the government's failed me. 00:10:45.296 --> 00:10:55.288 They said "I'm to blame. I failed in this American system of ours. It's my fault." 00:10:57.306 --> 00:11:01.151 Narrator: One year after the crash four million American families were 00:11:01.151 --> 00:11:05.385 without any means of support. 00:11:05.385 --> 00:11:08.580 Worse, they didn't know how to ask for help. 00:11:08.580 --> 00:11:13.141 And their government didn't know how to provide it. 00:11:13.141 --> 00:11:18.738 In 1930, the American people had almost no sense of the national government. 00:11:18.738 --> 00:11:21.263 There was the post office. 00:11:21.263 --> 00:11:24.455 Occasionally you'd see a soldier on the street. 00:11:24.455 --> 00:11:32.546 The national government had very little direct impact on the lives of ordinary Americans. 00:11:35.514 --> 00:11:40.202 There were no parachutes in those days, there was no social security, 00:11:40.202 --> 00:11:46.172 no unemployment insurance, no nothing. 00:11:46.172 --> 00:11:49.801 Just, you were on your own. 00:11:53.440 --> 00:11:56.409 [upbeat music] 00:11:56.409 --> 00:12:00.308 Narrator: By 1931, hard times seemed to be everywhere. 00:12:00.308 --> 00:12:04.546 But if you could still spare a dime, you could slip into a glamorous world 00:12:04.546 --> 00:12:08.192 where the roaring 20's had never ended. 00:12:08.192 --> 00:12:10.433 : If you go to the Grand Lake Theater, 00:12:10.433 --> 00:12:16.216 I hear Horace Heidt and his orchestra play for half an hour. 00:12:16.216 --> 00:12:21.949 Then you'd have the Movietone News, and then they'd have the feature story, 00:12:21.949 --> 00:12:25.250 and then they would have Bugs Bunny, or the equivalent comic, 00:12:25.250 --> 00:12:30.880 and then they'd have the second feature, and by that time the orchestra was getting ready to play again. 00:12:30.880 --> 00:12:35.028 So you could stand about 6 to 7 hours for 15 cents. 00:12:35.028 --> 00:12:39.101 : There was no television; there was only radio. 00:12:39.101 --> 00:12:48.788 So this visual escape to a dark theater, you could literally forget your troubles and get happy. 00:12:48.788 --> 00:12:54.340 Narrator: Many people tried to dance their troubles away, often to the carefree irresistible rhythms 00:12:54.340 --> 00:12:59.147 of a new generation of Jazz music that was sweeping the country, Swing. 00:12:59.147 --> 00:13:03.384 Reporter: Swing and Honey child, Suzie Q's going to town and how! 00:13:03.384 --> 00:13:06.743 [Swing music playing in background] 00:13:13.526 --> 00:13:21.792 [Radical Organ Music] Radio Host: Now I'll meet Richard Calmer as Boston Blackie. 00:13:21.792 --> 00:13:23.463 Enemy to those who make him an enemy. 00:13:23.463 --> 00:13:26.077 Friend to those who have no friend. 00:13:26.077 --> 00:13:30.199 Narrator: Many more were transfixed by the gripping dramas of radio. 00:13:30.199 --> 00:13:37.618 During the depression, the radio was the one appliance people could not live without. 00:13:37.618 --> 00:13:39.651 Wilkinson: We used to watch the radio. 00:13:39.651 --> 00:13:42.737 It was like watching television. 00:13:42.737 --> 00:13:44.890 There was a shadow. 00:13:44.890 --> 00:13:53.622 Radio: Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows [maniacal laughter]. 00:13:53.622 --> 00:13:55.793 Wilkinson: [Laughing to himself] Turn off the lights! 00:13:55.793 --> 00:13:57.873 Radio Actor: We're going to clean them out, today. 00:13:57.873 --> 00:14:00.906 Simon: You didn't know that they were standing on a stage reading from scripts. 00:14:00.906 --> 00:14:03.369 You just thought they were doing it. 00:14:03.369 --> 00:14:05.808 Radio Actor: All right boys, let's head out! 00:14:05.808 --> 00:14:09.203 Simon: What I like most was to go into my room and turn off all the lights. 00:14:09.203 --> 00:14:13.164 I didn't want any interference, and just listen to it. 00:14:13.164 --> 00:14:17.052 My father thought I was a little weird and he'd always come in and turn the lights on 00:14:17.052 --> 00:14:18.724 and say, "what's wrong with you?" 00:14:18.724 --> 00:14:22.741 And I said, "nothing's wrong with me. This is really wonderf--a great way to listen to it." 00:14:22.741 --> 00:14:25.375 [Explosion] 00:14:25.375 --> 00:14:30.098 [Wind storm] 00:14:30.098 --> 00:14:36.432 Narrator: But sooner or later people had to turn the radio off. They had to leave the movie theater, 00:14:36.432 --> 00:14:41.587 and when they did, the Depression was still there, awaiting. 00:14:45.742 --> 00:14:51.803 It advanced upon the farmers in the South and Midwest in terrifying storms of dry dust. 00:14:51.803 --> 00:14:55.428 It was one of the worst droughts in American History. 00:14:55.428 --> 00:15:03.113 The land itself was blowing away. 00:15:03.113 --> 00:15:10.939 Lackey: It looked like a tornado coming. Big black clouds of dust coming across the desert there. 00:15:10.939 --> 00:15:15.031 It was terrible, you couldn't breathe. You'd put something over your face, a handkerchief, 00:15:15.031 --> 00:15:22.620 and try to breathe through it and you'd spit out mud balls. 00:15:22.620 --> 00:15:28.739 Narrator: 25,000 square miles of farm land became known as the Dust Bowl. 00:15:28.739 --> 00:15:33.736 For farmers who'd been suffering through their own economic crisis since the 1920's, 00:15:33.736 --> 00:15:36.486 it was the final blow. 00:15:36.486 --> 00:15:45.149 Leaving their farmhouses and barns to rot, they fled westward for the promiseland, California. 00:15:45.149 --> 00:15:49.374 [Car engine] 00:15:53.670 --> 00:15:55.403 [Car horn] 00:15:59.760 --> 00:16:03.543 [Train clacking on tracks] 00:16:03.543 --> 00:16:08.722 Dust weary farmers joined millions other penniless people who were wondering the country 00:16:08.722 --> 00:16:10.971 looking for a second chance. 00:16:10.971 --> 00:16:15.440 The transportation of choice was the freight train. Riding the rails was dangerous, 00:16:15.440 --> 00:16:22.908 the trains were patrolled by vicious guards. But the price was right. 00:16:22.908 --> 00:16:27.827 : When it's gon' leave they give you the high volume, and that's two shorts and a long. 00:16:27.827 --> 00:16:30.988 Man, you better get ready then 'cuz he's pulling out. 00:16:30.988 --> 00:16:32.969 [Train horn] 00:16:35.400 --> 00:16:42.823 [music playing] 00:16:49.992 --> 00:16:54.441 Mitchum: Trouble lies in sightless cools along the way I've taken. 00:16:54.441 --> 00:16:59.266 Sightless windows stare the empty streets. 00:16:59.266 --> 00:17:03.333 No love beckoned me save that which I have forsaken, 00:17:03.333 --> 00:17:09.835 the anguish of my solitude is sweet. 00:17:09.835 --> 00:17:14.522 Narrator: The actor Robert Mitchum wrote his poem in 1932 when he was just another teenager 00:17:14.522 --> 00:17:18.880 in search of salvation. 00:17:18.880 --> 00:17:27.516 Mitchum: At the time there was so many people on the train that the train crew couldn't walk the tops. 00:17:27.516 --> 00:17:35.240 I met former bankers, college professors, all sorts of people riding the freight trains. 00:17:35.240 --> 00:17:41.973 A lot of them didn't really have a destination. They were just trying to get away from where they were. 00:17:41.973 --> 00:17:51.682 Narrator: But everywhere they got to seemed just as hopeless as the place they'd left behind. 00:17:51.682 --> 00:17:58.659 : Numbers of towns would arrest those people who came there. 00:17:58.659 --> 00:18:03.261 There was particular concern about what were called, "The Wild Boys of the Road." 00:18:03.261 --> 00:18:08.100 Narrator: President Hoover sent undercover agents to ride the rails and assess the danger. 00:18:08.100 --> 00:18:12.434 One of them was a young law student named Melvin Belli. 00:18:12.434 --> 00:18:18.936 Belli: You saw a part of America, at that time, that gave fear to everyone in Washington. 00:18:18.936 --> 00:18:21.943 There's something wrong with the country, and it's so wrong that 00:18:21.943 --> 00:18:26.484 these people are going to want a revolution. 00:18:26.484 --> 00:18:33.345 Narrator: Strikes and protests were spreading, becoming angrier and more violent. 00:18:33.345 --> 00:18:38.593 Bill Wheeler was a 19 year old truck driver when he witnessed a demonstration in New York. 00:18:38.593 --> 00:18:44.014 Wheeler: I swear it was just filled with mobs of people. They were demonstrating, it turned out, 00:18:44.014 --> 00:18:51.597 for unemployment relief, unemployment benefits, and the police and the firemen 00:18:51.597 --> 00:18:55.698 were mowing them down with fire hoses, cops were beating them on the head. 00:18:55.698 --> 00:19:00.436 It was unbelievable! 00:19:00.436 --> 00:19:06.753 Narrator: Radical movements, like the Communist Party, were gaining influence and converts. 00:19:06.753 --> 00:19:12.622 President Hoover misread the danger signals and still did nothing to ease the suffering. 00:19:12.622 --> 00:19:20.425 Hoover: We are convinced that we have overcome major financial crisis. A crisis in-- 00:19:20.425 --> 00:19:28.694 Narrator: For some, the loss of faith was so profound that they simply fled the country. 00:19:28.694 --> 00:19:33.260 Three years after Joseph Stalin had predicted the death of capitalism, 00:19:33.260 --> 00:19:40.856 100,000 Americans moved to the Soviet Union to help build Communism. 00:19:40.856 --> 00:19:45.608 Wheeler: There was work for anybody that wanted to work. 00:19:45.608 --> 00:19:49.056 There was none of this going around with your hat in your hand and tears in your eyes 00:19:49.056 --> 00:19:59.970 begging for a job. It seemed to be a land of great promise at that time. 00:19:59.970 --> 00:20:09.887 Narrator: This was the only time in history that more people were leaving America than coming to it. 00:20:09.887 --> 00:20:16.020 [bell ringing] 00:20:16.020 --> 00:20:23.148 In time, the Great Depression spread like a virus far beyond American borders. 00:20:23.148 --> 00:20:27.679 Reporter: Hunger marches, signs of the political time. 00:20:31.526 --> 00:20:36.955 Narrator: In Germany the situation was becoming dangerous. 00:20:36.955 --> 00:20:44.795 The depression only made worse the already harsh conditions brought on by Germany's loss in WWI. 00:20:44.795 --> 00:20:51.495 Metelmann: There was real problems. There was mass unemployment, and because of this 00:20:51.495 --> 00:20:57.349 there were protests, marches, demonstrations, street fightings. 00:20:57.349 --> 00:21:02.454 The unemployed people, they walked through the town and they shouted slogans, 00:21:02.454 --> 00:21:06.520 "Give us bread. Give us work." 00:21:09.859 --> 00:21:16.862 Fischer: There is so much unrest, so much disorder. 00:21:20.016 --> 00:21:32.080 We needed a powerful leader, a powerful man to lead us out of it. 00:21:32.080 --> 00:21:37.036 : The first time I saw the Nazis, they marched around in town with their brown shirts on. 00:21:37.036 --> 00:21:43.865 They had proper uniforms and they had music and they had flags. 00:21:43.865 --> 00:21:52.943 And I remember how it impressed me, something military, and we children, we'd run along them and 00:21:52.943 --> 00:21:56.844 try to sing their songs. 00:21:56.844 --> 00:22:00.522 Narrator: The leader of the Nazi movement knew instinctively that Germany's suffering 00:22:00.522 --> 00:22:03.423 was his opportunity. 00:22:03.423 --> 00:22:08.509 Adolf Hitler told the demoralized Germans that he could cure what ailed them. 00:22:08.509 --> 00:22:13.108 Adolf Hitler: [Speaking in German] 00:22:13.108 --> 00:22:17.871 [Crowd shouting] 00:22:17.871 --> 00:22:26.008 His speeches, they were arousing. He started always off quietly. 00:22:28.547 --> 00:22:34.733 And he talked about ordinary things and then he worked himself up. 00:22:34.733 --> 00:22:42.685 Saying something like, "Our enemies, they think we are the footmap of the world, and I promise you, 00:22:42.685 --> 00:22:50.271 I will erase all that. We demand our place in the sun which is rightly ours, and I will lead you there. 00:22:50.271 --> 00:22:54.930 I will lead you there, I promise it." 00:22:54.930 --> 00:22:59.351 We had tears in our eyes. 00:23:01.767 --> 00:23:08.969 Narrator: In 1932, Hitler's rapidly growing Nazi party took 37% of the vote in parliamentary elections. 00:23:08.969 --> 00:23:14.138 Though not a majority, he had uphold all the other parties. 00:23:14.138 --> 00:23:17.725 Hitler used his new strength to seize the Chancellorship of Germany 00:23:17.725 --> 00:23:21.881 and destroy opposition to his rule. 00:23:21.881 --> 00:23:26.980 On January 30th, 1933, his followers celebrated his ascension to power with a torchlight 00:23:26.980 --> 00:23:30.378 victory parade through Berlin. 00:23:30.378 --> 00:23:38.372 Propelled by hard times, the Nazi era had begun. 00:23:38.372 --> 00:23:47.525 VonElbe: The procession moved on through Wilhelmstrasse. Marching music could be heard. 00:23:47.525 --> 00:23:59.642 The torchlights were--were gleaming and there was a strange light in the street. 00:23:59.642 --> 00:24:06.367 And there was this atmosphere of irreality, almost. 00:24:06.367 --> 00:24:10.974 Almost black magic. 00:24:10.974 --> 00:24:21.846 Hitler was able to arouse the masses in such a way that they forgot reason. 00:24:21.846 --> 00:24:27.185 Pechel: Well he had charisma, no doubt about that, and he promised 00:24:27.185 --> 00:24:35.977 the people that they would get work. People were desperate, you see. 00:24:35.977 --> 00:24:42.770 People being desperate, they will run after a man like Hitler. 00:24:42.770 --> 00:24:48.026 Adolf Hitler: [speaking in German] 00:24:48.026 --> 00:24:52.218 [crowd cheering] 00:24:56.665 --> 00:25:04.709 Narrator: 1932 was also a year of decision for Americans. 00:25:04.709 --> 00:25:11.384 Republican president, Herbert Hoover, campaigned for reelection only to find that everywhere he went 00:25:11.384 --> 00:25:17.996 his name had become synonymous with failure. 00:25:17.996 --> 00:25:22.664 Shanty towns of unemployed men were now called, "Hoovervilles." 00:25:22.664 --> 00:25:29.586 Newspapers were, "Hoover blankets." Empty pockets, "Hoover flags." 00:25:29.586 --> 00:25:35.910 Hoover: The very first task of this country is to see that no man, woman, or child shall go hungry... 00:25:35.910 --> 00:25:44.125 Leuchtenberg: It was said of Hoover that even dogs took an instinctive dislike to him, 00:25:44.125 --> 00:25:53.503 and in that 1932 campaign, one man wired him, "Vote for Roosevelt, and make it unanimous." 00:25:53.503 --> 00:26:02.067 Roosevelt: California! Cast 44 votes for Franklin D. Roosevelt. [Crowd cheering] 00:26:02.067 --> 00:26:09.533 Narrator: New York governor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, was the democratic party candidate. 00:26:09.533 --> 00:26:14.119 He had been struck by polio in 1921. 00:26:14.119 --> 00:26:19.330 He was known more for his charm than his accomplishments. 00:26:19.330 --> 00:26:26.125 Most people were not sure what he meant when he promised a new deal to the American people. 00:26:26.125 --> 00:26:33.822 Neither was he. But Roosevelt appeared optimistic, confident, and he wasn't Herbert Hoover. 00:26:33.822 --> 00:26:36.990 Roosevelt: What's our campaign slogan Sissy? 00:26:36.990 --> 00:26:38.224 Sissy: Happy days are here again. 00:26:38.224 --> 00:26:41.346 Roosevelt: Good, that's right. 00:26:41.346 --> 00:26:46.631 Narrator: Roosevelt won in the greatest electoral landslide America had ever seen. 00:26:46.631 --> 00:26:51.934 And he faced, perhaps the greatest challenge ever presented to an American leader. 00:26:51.934 --> 00:26:55.372 [Bell ringing] 00:26:55.372 --> 00:27:02.214 The 4 million unemployed of 1930 had turned to 16 million by 1933. 00:27:02.214 --> 00:27:06.257 25% of the American workforce. 00:27:06.257 --> 00:27:12.340 Gordon: The American economy was in freefall. Economists disagree to some extent on this, 00:27:12.340 --> 00:27:18.262 but we could have lost everything in 1933. 00:27:18.262 --> 00:27:22.365 It was that bad. 00:27:24.273 --> 00:27:29.121 Narrator: On inauguration day nearly 100,000 people braved a cold March morning to hear 00:27:29.121 --> 00:27:31.620 what the new president would do. 00:27:31.620 --> 00:27:37.621 Roosevelt: This great nation will endure as it has endured. Let me assert-- 00:27:37.621 --> 00:27:41.451 Belli: That magnificent resonance coming out. 00:27:41.451 --> 00:27:45.628 Roosevelt: The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. 00:27:45.628 --> 00:27:49.756 Belli: We have nothing to fear but fear itself, and everyone would look at each other. 00:27:49.756 --> 00:27:57.944 They'd nod their head, and when he'd say, "my friends," everybody could feel he was talking to him. 00:27:57.944 --> 00:28:03.146 That was one of his friends, that was one of his people. 00:28:03.146 --> 00:28:05.863 And me, a little black boy, 00:28:05.863 --> 00:28:07.862 down in Georgia, 00:28:07.862 --> 00:28:12.289 hearing that voice over the radio, you know, 00:28:12.289 --> 00:28:16.491 I felt it wasn't that he told it to dad and daddy told it to me, 00:28:16.491 --> 00:28:18.232 or told it to mama. 00:28:18.232 --> 00:28:22.784 No--he was talking to me, sitting there listening to him. 00:28:22.784 --> 00:28:27.940 He could, through the magic of his voice and radio, 00:28:27.940 --> 00:28:39.203 reach out and involve you in the great adventure of building, making America work again. 00:28:39.203 --> 00:28:44.565 Narrator: Roosevelt moved decisively to restore confidence in the country's financial system. 00:28:44.565 --> 00:28:47.203 In one daring move, he closed the nation's banks 00:28:47.203 --> 00:28:52.379 and ordered the Treasury to rush them 2 billion dollars in new currency. 00:28:52.379 --> 00:28:56.613 President Roosevelt: Let me make it clear that the banks will take care of all needs. 00:28:56.613 --> 00:28:59.865 : The reaction was, to his closing the bank, 00:28:59.865 --> 00:29:03.984 "Thank God, somebody had come in and done something." 00:29:03.984 --> 00:29:11.416 Narrator: When the banks reopened, deposits easily exceeded withdrawals. 00:29:11.416 --> 00:29:14.412 Rescuing the banks was only the beginning. 00:29:14.412 --> 00:29:16.743 In his first 100 days in the White House 00:29:16.743 --> 00:29:19.790 Roosevelt moved at a breath-taking pace, 00:29:19.790 --> 00:29:21.435 from regulating business, helping farmers, 00:29:21.435 --> 00:29:24.743 pumping new money into the economy. 00:29:24.743 --> 00:29:32.243 It was the most massive intervention in the lives of the American people the country had ever known. 00:29:32.243 --> 00:29:34.615 Roosevelt put people on the government payroll 00:29:34.615 --> 00:29:37.909 when private business didn't hire them fast enough. 00:29:37.909 --> 00:29:42.360 The Wild Boys of the road became part of the Civilian Conservation Corps, 00:29:42.360 --> 00:29:45.914 planting trees and building roads across America. 00:29:45.914 --> 00:29:49.875 : They shipped us out to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. 00:29:49.875 --> 00:29:54.961 We'd build trails, you know, for people to come in and sight-seeing. 00:29:54.961 --> 00:30:02.114 We got five dollars a month and they sent $25 home for your family to live on. 00:30:02.114 --> 00:30:09.183 : Here was the federal government stepping in to help 00:30:09.183 --> 00:30:12.215 people And it may not have been enough. 00:30:12.215 --> 00:30:18.207 In some cases it didn't help, but somebody was trying. 00:30:18.207 --> 00:30:24.698 One had that feeling that maybe it was going to work. 00:30:24.698 --> 00:30:28.002 [music] 00:30:36.665 --> 00:30:41.072 Narrator: Millions of Americans had been helped in the first year of the New Deal. 00:30:41.072 --> 00:30:46.456 But for millions more, the year 1933 ended in frustration. 00:30:46.456 --> 00:30:51.569 President Roosevelt had lifted their spirits, but not their circumstances. 00:30:51.569 --> 00:30:56.285 After a time their a haunting thought could not be put down 00:30:56.285 --> 00:31:00.287 that maybe this Great Depression was never going to end. 00:31:00.287 --> 00:31:04.072 But with the sense of rising expectations, 00:31:04.072 --> 00:31:08.684 people are stirred out of their lethargy and in 1934, 00:31:08.684 --> 00:31:15.850 there is a most radical mood out of any year of the Great Depression. 00:31:15.850 --> 00:31:18.878 Narrator: President Roosevelt had contributed to that radical mood 00:31:18.878 --> 00:31:24.681 when he became the first American president to say that labor had the right to unionize. 00:31:24.681 --> 00:31:28.531 But businessmen remained defiantly anti-union. 00:31:28.531 --> 00:31:35.616 In the spring of 1934, emboldened dock workers closed ports all along the Pacific coast. 00:31:35.616 --> 00:31:39.527 In San Francisco, their strike turned violent. 00:31:39.527 --> 00:31:40.874 [shouting] 00:31:40.874 --> 00:31:43.020 [gun shots] 00:31:48.529 --> 00:31:54.238 We heard on the radio that all of this terrible stuff was 00:31:54.238 --> 00:31:56.721 going on And my husband was down there. 00:31:56.721 --> 00:32:06.359 I remember my mother and I were frightened and very upset--would Harold make it? 00:32:06.359 --> 00:32:13.196 It got so bad that two men were killed. 00:32:13.196 --> 00:32:18.228 They were killed by bullets, ostensibly from the police. 00:32:18.228 --> 00:32:24.009 Nobody really ever figured that one out totally. 00:32:24.009 --> 00:32:29.420 Harold was right on the corner where one was killed. 00:32:29.420 --> 00:32:32.065 Shocked the city. 00:32:32.065 --> 00:32:36.618 Killings, then, used to shock people. 00:32:36.618 --> 00:32:41.814 Narrator: The funeral for the two murdered strikers drew 50 thousand people. 00:32:41.814 --> 00:32:44.894 The funeral saw-- 00:32:44.894 --> 00:32:48.560 [draws heavy breaths] 00:32:48.560 --> 00:32:51.140 It so shocked the city. 00:32:51.140 --> 00:32:56.228 It was so impressive. 00:32:56.228 --> 00:33:00.222 That was enough to infuriate the people of San Francisco. 00:33:00.222 --> 00:33:02.789 So much so they said, "We've had it." 00:33:02.789 --> 00:33:06.901 Every day we'd watch people getting beaten and clubbed. 00:33:06.901 --> 00:33:09.617 We'd had it up to our eye brows. 00:33:09.617 --> 00:33:12.859 By God, whatever it takes to win this fight we're gonna win it. 00:33:12.859 --> 00:33:15.529 And they stopped all work. 00:33:15.529 --> 00:33:20.907 Even the barbers said, "We refuse to give a haircut to anybody," until the strike is over. 00:33:20.907 --> 00:33:22.773 "We sympathize with the union." 00:33:22.773 --> 00:33:24.563 "We sympathize with the men." 00:33:24.563 --> 00:33:27.983 And they shut the port down, shut the city down. 00:33:27.983 --> 00:33:35.153 Little stores: " Closed until our boys win." 00:33:35.153 --> 00:33:39.353 The city was quiet as hell. 00:33:39.353 --> 00:33:42.910 Nothing moved for four solid days. 00:33:42.910 --> 00:33:47.587 [men shouting together] 00:33:47.587 --> 00:33:50.264 Narrator: The longshoremen won virtually all their demands, 00:33:50.264 --> 00:33:55.812 encouraging workers across the country to move against management. 00:33:55.812 --> 00:34:04.600 In 1934, there were more than 1,800 strikes for union recognition. 00:34:04.600 --> 00:34:06.121 Coal miners. 00:34:06.121 --> 00:34:08.120 Steel workers. Warehouse 00:34:08.120 --> 00:34:11.859 and different people, packing houses 00:34:11.859 --> 00:34:17.804 They said "if a bunch of starving seamen and longshoremen can weather the storm. 00:34:17.804 --> 00:34:20.859 We could do it back in Pittsburgh" or "we could do it here. 00:34:20.859 --> 00:34:23.645 We could do it there." 00:34:23.645 --> 00:34:26.607 [gun shots] 00:34:26.607 --> 00:34:29.152 [shouting] 00:34:29.152 --> 00:34:33.007 Narrator: Labor unrest was only one of Roosevelt's problems in 1934. 00:34:33.007 --> 00:34:38.216 Economic recovery had stalled and critics had complained that he'd gone too far. 00:34:38.216 --> 00:34:42.814 The constitutionality of some New Deal programs were being challenged in the courts. 00:34:42.814 --> 00:34:46.917 And business leaders were warning that FDR had steered the country 00:34:46.917 --> 00:34:49.733 recklessly to the left. 00:34:49.733 --> 00:34:53.975 But Roosevelt knew that his programs still hadn't reached millions of desperate Americans 00:34:53.975 --> 00:34:58.144 and he didn't know how long they would wait. 00:34:58.144 --> 00:35:02.770 Discontent and frustration gave rise to any number of demigods 00:35:02.770 --> 00:35:07.054 including the charismatic radio priest, Father Charles Coughlin. 00:35:07.054 --> 00:35:09.562 Charles Coughlin: Shout it as children and shout it as men and women. 00:35:09.562 --> 00:35:15.399 Narrator: Dr. Francis Townsend, self-proclaimed advocate for the elderly. 00:35:15.399 --> 00:35:21.411 Radical, spell-binders who claimed the New Deal was dying. 00:35:21.411 --> 00:35:25.838 During 1934, one of these would-be saviors developed a national following 00:35:25.838 --> 00:35:28.118 and presidential ambitions. 00:35:28.118 --> 00:35:30.440 Huey Long: Because Hoover wanted to plow up every-- 00:35:30.440 --> 00:35:32.281 Narrator: He was called the "Kingfish." 00:35:32.281 --> 00:35:35.858 Senator and former Louisiana Governor Huey Long. 00:35:35.858 --> 00:35:39.515 Huey Long: After we told you people that Hoover was a numbskull-- 00:35:39.515 --> 00:35:44.262 Carter: The best entertainment you had was when Huey came to town to speak. 00:35:44.262 --> 00:35:46.682 Huey Long: Put it in to plow a better-- 00:35:46.682 --> 00:35:48.929 Everybody went to hear him, 00:35:48.929 --> 00:35:51.215 whether they were for or against him. 00:35:51.215 --> 00:35:52.849 He was marvelous. 00:35:52.849 --> 00:35:54.729 Huey Long: The Lord has answered the prayer. 00:35:54.729 --> 00:35:56.961 He has called the upon of you. 00:35:56.961 --> 00:36:03.367 He'd use such expressive language. You just had to listen. 00:36:03.367 --> 00:36:07.128 Narrator: And when people listened, many discovered they liked what they heard. 00:36:07.128 --> 00:36:13.668 What Huey Long was saying was that he was going to soak the rich, and he 00:36:13.668 --> 00:36:16.315 was going to give that money to the poor. 00:36:16.315 --> 00:36:19.615 His plan was never really carefully worked out, and in his own 00:36:19.615 --> 00:36:25.824 state of Louisiana, he fell notably short of redistributing the wealth. 00:36:25.824 --> 00:36:34.916 But it had a kind of direct appeal that the more complex programs of the New Deal lacked, and 00:36:34.916 --> 00:36:42.706 also provided a focus for the animus against the rich that had been 00:36:42.706 --> 00:36:47.104 building during the years of the Great Depression. 00:36:47.104 --> 00:36:51.461 Narrator: Long promised every American a house, a car, a radio. 00:36:51.461 --> 00:36:54.911 In return, he wanted power. 00:36:54.911 --> 00:36:57.584 Absolute power. 00:36:57.584 --> 00:37:02.220 Percy: You couldn't do anything in Louisiana unless you got his okay. 00:37:02.220 --> 00:37:05.030 He was vicious. 00:37:05.030 --> 00:37:11.744 And if you told him no, he'd knock you down. 00:37:11.744 --> 00:37:16.501 He had built up a private police force. 00:37:16.501 --> 00:37:23.005 He had shown his contempt for the democratic processes and that created 00:37:23.005 --> 00:37:27.010 a great deal of worry in Washington. 00:37:27.010 --> 00:37:30.992 Narrator: Not just southerners, but midwestern farmers and New York factory workers 00:37:30.992 --> 00:37:35.181 were joining Long's Share Our Wealth Clubs. 00:37:35.181 --> 00:37:45.964 By 1935, Franklin Roosevelt was privately calling Huey Long the most dangerous man in America. 00:37:45.980 --> 00:37:54.202 When you have food riots, you have the makings of a dictatorship. 00:37:54.202 --> 00:38:01.032 Don't think you wouldn't do it too. You might vote the wrong way. 00:38:01.032 --> 00:38:09.994 He rose on the votes of the people, and Huey Long was rising on the votes of the people too. 00:38:09.994 --> 00:38:13.441 Narrator: Huey Long never got the chance to run for president. 00:38:13.441 --> 00:38:20.943 He was cut down by an assassin in September, 1935. 00:38:20.943 --> 00:38:25.988 By then, President Roosevelt was hard at work on a populist agenda of his own, pushing 00:38:25.988 --> 00:38:31.655 Congress to create the Social Security programs, welfare for the poor, and jobs 00:38:31.655 --> 00:38:36.728 for 8 million people on public projects of every description. 00:38:36.728 --> 00:38:43.414 This was called The Second Hundred Days, and it reshaped American life. 00:38:43.414 --> 00:38:48.407 The legislation of the Second Hundred Days gives an underpinning to the 00:38:48.407 --> 00:38:51.486 economy that's not been there before. 00:38:51.486 --> 00:38:58.434 There's now a system of unemployment compensation, of old age pensions. 00:38:58.434 --> 00:39:04.664 The United States, for the first time, has a centralized banking system. 00:39:04.664 --> 00:39:12.327 And by 1936, there are visible scenes of recovery. 00:39:12.327 --> 00:39:16.902 Narrator: Six years after he lost his grocery store, Miriam Johnson's father found 00:39:16.902 --> 00:39:20.641 a steady job with the Works Progress Administration. 00:39:20.641 --> 00:39:23.019 He was so happy to get up in the morning. 00:39:23.019 --> 00:39:27.032 My father was so happy, even though the work - by this time he wasn't a kid - and it was 00:39:27.032 --> 00:39:29.238 pick and shovel work, you know? 00:39:29.238 --> 00:39:35.395 But he was so happy to have something to do and to get paid for it. 00:39:37.795 --> 00:39:47.164 To me, the Roosevelt era revolutionized the perception of what government owes 00:39:47.164 --> 00:39:50.786 the people and what it's role is. 00:39:50.786 --> 00:40:00.528 Roosevelt: We are fighting. Fighting to save a great and precious form of government. 00:40:00.528 --> 00:40:05.476 The programs that he put in were imperative for that period. 00:40:05.476 --> 00:40:10.769 And I think it was a godsend that we had him and we maintained 00:40:10.769 --> 00:40:17.327 a democracy that we had all cherished. 00:40:17.327 --> 00:40:23.226 Narrator: Campaigning for a second term in 1936, Roosevelt told a cheering crowd "You look 00:40:23.226 --> 00:40:26.173 happier today than you did four years ago." 00:40:26.173 --> 00:40:29.577 And they were. 00:40:29.577 --> 00:40:33.398 Franklin Delano Roosevelt was reelected by the greatest margin in the 00:40:33.398 --> 00:40:37.733 history of American politics. 00:40:41.257 --> 00:40:44.992 In the four years since President Roosevelt had taken office, America 00:40:44.992 --> 00:40:51.819 had experience a revolution, and it had been led by the President himself. 00:40:51.819 --> 00:40:55.978 [explosions] 00:41:00.610 --> 00:41:05.352 The New Deal programs of the Depression Era transformed the countries landscape. 00:41:05.352 --> 00:41:11.310 One project alone, the Tennessee Valley Authority, built dams, brought electricity, ended 00:41:11.310 --> 00:41:18.191 floods, and lifted families out of poverty in seven states. 00:41:18.191 --> 00:41:24.045 But as he took office for his second term in January, 1937, Roosevelt's New Deal still 00:41:24.045 --> 00:41:29.769 had not completely overcome the Depression in America. 00:41:29.769 --> 00:41:34.196 By 1937 the depression in Germany was over. 00:41:34.196 --> 00:41:42.399 Adolf Hitler had kept his promise to give the people work. 00:41:42.399 --> 00:41:49.525 Peter: Unemployed people disappeared practically over night. 00:41:49.525 --> 00:42:01.159 There were no young, healthy men standing at the corners of Berlin and begging around for pennies. 00:42:01.159 --> 00:42:04.526 People had jobs. They were happy. 00:42:04.526 --> 00:42:09.279 Narrator: The secret of Germany's prosperity was rearmament. 00:42:09.279 --> 00:42:14.930 There were plenty of jobs making powerful, new weapons, and building a highway system 00:42:14.930 --> 00:42:22.235 as much for tanks as for cars. 00:42:22.235 --> 00:42:28.880 It was also a kind of New Deal, but he was preparing for war. 00:42:28.880 --> 00:42:33.647 Narrator: The first step came in March of 1936 when German troops marched unopposed 00:42:33.647 --> 00:42:44.224 into the Rhineland's to reoccupy territory lost to France after the first World War. 00:42:44.224 --> 00:42:54.998 He was leading us to the place in the sun, and I sincerely, and honestly believed in all that. 00:42:54.998 --> 00:42:58.599 When I came home and told my father, arguments started. 00:42:58.599 --> 00:43:00.854 My mother always said no. 00:43:00.854 --> 00:43:05.599 "Leave that boy alone. He can't help it that he's so brainwashed." 00:43:05.599 --> 00:43:10.150 And it started again with my mother "What do you mean by brainwashed them?" 00:43:10.150 --> 00:43:20.354 Now, of course, I realize my parents were right, but it's all too late. 00:43:20.354 --> 00:43:25.937 Narrator: Now Adolf Hitler would try to keep another promise to the German people. 00:43:25.937 --> 00:43:29.972 To build a new German empire. 00:43:29.972 --> 00:43:35.321 One, he said, that would last 1000 years. 00:43:44.184 --> 00:43:48.367 Depression and desperation had unleashed a force that would alter the course 00:43:48.367 --> 00:43:50.365 of the 20th century. 00:43:50.365 --> 00:43:54.708 We'll see that on the next episode of The Century: America's Time. 00:43:54.708 --> 00:43:56.249 I'm Peter Jennings. 00:43:56.249 --> 00:43:59.168 Thank you for joining us. 00:43:59.168 --> 00:44:02.922 [music playing]