1 00:00:01,109 --> 00:00:03,942 (dramatic music) 2 00:00:07,087 --> 00:00:09,007 - [Man] The Japanese have attacked Pearl Harbor-- 3 00:00:09,007 --> 00:00:10,327 - [Crowd] Sieg Heil! 4 00:00:10,327 --> 00:00:11,627 Sieg Heil! 5 00:00:11,627 --> 00:00:14,096 - [Kennedy] Ask not what your country can do for you-- 6 00:00:14,096 --> 00:00:16,165 - [Reporter] President Kennedy has been shot. 7 00:00:16,165 --> 00:00:17,838 - [Armstrong] One small step for man-- 8 00:00:17,838 --> 00:00:20,927 - We hold these truths to be self-evident, 9 00:00:20,927 --> 00:00:22,973 that all men are created equal. 10 00:00:25,710 --> 00:00:29,403 - [Reagan] Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall. 11 00:00:36,868 --> 00:00:39,618 (dramatic music) 12 00:00:50,330 --> 00:00:53,693 - [Peter] New York City's Great White Way, Broadway. 13 00:00:55,154 --> 00:00:57,412 (upbeat music) 14 00:00:57,412 --> 00:01:00,400 Throughout the 1920s, the nightlife here glittered. 15 00:01:00,400 --> 00:01:03,720 Bands played and liquor flowed, 16 00:01:03,720 --> 00:01:06,633 and everyone who was drinking it was breaking the law. 17 00:01:08,430 --> 00:01:10,370 In the first month of the new decade, 18 00:01:10,370 --> 00:01:12,987 the 18th Amendment became the law of the land, 19 00:01:12,987 --> 00:01:16,773 and the sale and consumption of alcohol was now illegal. 20 00:01:23,233 --> 00:01:25,816 (upbeat music) 21 00:01:27,420 --> 00:01:30,810 - There was Prohibition, but oddly enough, 22 00:01:30,810 --> 00:01:33,363 nobody paid any attention to it. 23 00:01:36,140 --> 00:01:37,540 - We went to people's homes. 24 00:01:38,741 --> 00:01:41,493 They served dreadful things called orange blossoms, 25 00:01:42,420 --> 00:01:44,163 which was gin and orange juice. 26 00:01:45,681 --> 00:01:48,843 Revolting. 27 00:01:48,843 --> 00:01:50,510 And bad gin at that. 28 00:01:51,870 --> 00:01:54,250 - [Peter] Liquor was now sold behind closed doors 29 00:01:54,250 --> 00:01:56,180 in places called speakeasies. 30 00:01:56,180 --> 00:01:59,373 Proprietors took the risks and reaped the profits. 31 00:02:00,620 --> 00:02:02,370 - There's good money in them. 32 00:02:02,370 --> 00:02:03,410 I was 15 years old. 33 00:02:03,410 --> 00:02:04,980 I was riding around with a Nash convertible. 34 00:02:04,980 --> 00:02:06,680 We had four speakeasies, 35 00:02:06,680 --> 00:02:09,310 one by the Daily News, one by the Daily Mirror. 36 00:02:09,310 --> 00:02:11,390 You had people, you let them in, okay. 37 00:02:11,390 --> 00:02:12,680 A guy would explain who he was 38 00:02:12,680 --> 00:02:15,330 and he'd show you ID or something and you let him in. 39 00:02:18,100 --> 00:02:20,493 You got to know, it was like family after a while. 40 00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:24,945 - Every corner had a saloon on it. 41 00:02:24,945 --> 00:02:27,100 Of course, you know, they were never raided by, 42 00:02:27,100 --> 00:02:29,477 the cops were a big part of the business too. 43 00:02:30,940 --> 00:02:32,597 People wanted to drink. 44 00:02:33,947 --> 00:02:34,947 It was a great game. 45 00:02:36,500 --> 00:02:37,860 - [Peter] It became a dangerous game 46 00:02:37,860 --> 00:02:39,350 for the high stakes players. 47 00:02:39,350 --> 00:02:41,270 Battles between rival gangs 48 00:02:41,270 --> 00:02:43,990 for control of illegal liquor territories 49 00:02:43,990 --> 00:02:47,780 riddled American cities with mushrooming murder rates. 50 00:02:47,780 --> 00:02:51,420 Prohibition's aim was to sweep liquor off the city streets. 51 00:02:51,420 --> 00:02:54,920 Now, they were flooded with gangsters and guns. 52 00:02:54,920 --> 00:02:57,320 - I used to carry two Persuaders myself. 53 00:02:57,320 --> 00:02:59,643 You had to have him (chuckles) or else. 54 00:03:05,290 --> 00:03:07,210 - Prohibition and the general disregard 55 00:03:07,210 --> 00:03:10,490 which followed it was the perfect symbol for the '20s, 56 00:03:10,490 --> 00:03:12,750 a decade which was about crossing the line, 57 00:03:12,750 --> 00:03:15,143 smashing tradition, breaking boundaries. 58 00:03:17,740 --> 00:03:20,920 As modern America came of age in the 1920s, 59 00:03:20,920 --> 00:03:22,640 boundaries of all sorts, 60 00:03:22,640 --> 00:03:26,893 technological, geographical, and social, were shattered. 61 00:03:39,010 --> 00:03:40,730 The roar in the roaring '20s 62 00:03:40,730 --> 00:03:42,880 was the birth scream of the modern. 63 00:03:42,880 --> 00:03:45,360 America was now about to leave behind 64 00:03:45,360 --> 00:03:48,520 the formative experience of its rural past 65 00:03:48,520 --> 00:03:51,530 and embrace the promise of an urban future. 66 00:03:51,530 --> 00:03:53,510 But progress would have its price, 67 00:03:53,510 --> 00:03:55,980 a sudden wrenching departure 68 00:03:55,980 --> 00:03:58,820 from the certainties of the traditional and the familiar 69 00:03:58,820 --> 00:04:03,380 spread by an emerging mass media, movies and the radio. 70 00:04:03,380 --> 00:04:05,060 Things that seem old and familiar mow 71 00:04:05,060 --> 00:04:08,473 were just beginning to take shape in the 1920s. 72 00:04:09,932 --> 00:04:12,349 (soft music) 73 00:04:16,720 --> 00:04:18,890 At the dawn of the 1920s, 74 00:04:18,890 --> 00:04:21,940 America was clearly entering a new era, 75 00:04:21,940 --> 00:04:26,500 an era defined by a vast and complicated urban culture 76 00:04:26,500 --> 00:04:28,950 that would dominate the rest of the 20th century. 77 00:04:30,720 --> 00:04:31,740 After World War I, 78 00:04:31,740 --> 00:04:34,700 there was an eagerness to embrace the new. 79 00:04:34,700 --> 00:04:36,380 And it was in America's cities, 80 00:04:36,380 --> 00:04:39,530 most dramatically in its biggest, New York, 81 00:04:39,530 --> 00:04:41,493 where the modern age was born. 82 00:04:44,050 --> 00:04:45,750 The very architecture of the city 83 00:04:45,750 --> 00:04:50,123 spoke of America's new ascendancy and her aspirations. 84 00:04:56,700 --> 00:05:01,700 - The skyscraper was an example of the new form 85 00:05:01,920 --> 00:05:06,353 achieving a kind of thrilling scale and nobility. 86 00:05:08,710 --> 00:05:10,730 More people worked there 87 00:05:10,730 --> 00:05:13,773 than lived in the average small town in America. 88 00:05:20,690 --> 00:05:21,620 - [Peter] A movement to the cities 89 00:05:21,620 --> 00:05:25,010 that had started during World War I accelerated. 90 00:05:25,010 --> 00:05:26,680 In 1920, for the first time, 91 00:05:26,680 --> 00:05:29,560 more Americans lived in urban centers 92 00:05:29,560 --> 00:05:31,793 than in country towns and villages. 93 00:05:35,110 --> 00:05:37,490 - The pace was being set in the cities. 94 00:05:37,490 --> 00:05:40,710 The city is irresistibly attractive. 95 00:05:40,710 --> 00:05:44,093 It's really at a kind of high tide in this decade. 96 00:05:45,220 --> 00:05:47,453 It's a force, a magnet. 97 00:05:51,380 --> 00:05:53,150 - [Peter] The very names of New York streets 98 00:05:53,150 --> 00:05:57,220 would become synonymous with progress and innovation. 99 00:05:57,220 --> 00:05:58,480 Broadway would represent 100 00:05:58,480 --> 00:06:01,023 the best and latest in American entertainment. 101 00:06:02,900 --> 00:06:05,010 Madison Avenue would come to stand 102 00:06:05,010 --> 00:06:07,250 for the bustling new business of advertising, 103 00:06:07,250 --> 00:06:09,370 which was uniting the nation 104 00:06:09,370 --> 00:06:12,303 in a set of shared fantasies and desires. 105 00:06:15,230 --> 00:06:16,910 And Wall Street came to represent 106 00:06:16,910 --> 00:06:19,333 the decade's expanding economic opportunities. 107 00:06:21,436 --> 00:06:26,436 (frantic music) (men shouting) 108 00:06:34,460 --> 00:06:36,930 Wall Street was where the action was. 109 00:06:36,930 --> 00:06:39,953 People came from everywhere to get in on it. 110 00:06:41,850 --> 00:06:44,800 - The reason I come to New York was there was nobody there 111 00:06:44,800 --> 00:06:48,290 after they closed the mines in 1926 in Pennsylvania. 112 00:06:48,290 --> 00:06:49,890 There was no money coming there. 113 00:06:50,900 --> 00:06:52,983 This fella, Jerry, got me the first job. 114 00:06:53,900 --> 00:06:56,837 And he said, "C'mon down to Wall Street. 115 00:06:56,837 --> 00:06:58,657 "The streets are paved with gold." 116 00:07:01,820 --> 00:07:03,170 - [Peter] It seemed that way too 117 00:07:03,170 --> 00:07:07,030 on Park and Fifth Avenues, where the tycoons lived. 118 00:07:07,030 --> 00:07:08,970 The number of millionaires in the 1920s 119 00:07:08,970 --> 00:07:12,240 jumped 400% over the previous decade. 120 00:07:12,240 --> 00:07:15,160 The '20s feeling of limitless horizons 121 00:07:15,160 --> 00:07:18,203 was fueled by their lavish lifestyle. 122 00:07:23,080 --> 00:07:27,000 - Our family had a house at 934 Fifth Avenue 123 00:07:27,000 --> 00:07:28,293 when I was growing up. 124 00:07:30,100 --> 00:07:34,450 We had a place in Tuxedo Park and a house in New York, 125 00:07:34,450 --> 00:07:37,250 and then we used to come to South Hampton in the summer. 126 00:07:38,860 --> 00:07:41,053 Everybody seemed to be having a good time. 127 00:07:43,520 --> 00:07:46,038 - In those days, you got lots of help. 128 00:07:46,038 --> 00:07:48,499 You had a cook, you had a kitchen maid, 129 00:07:48,499 --> 00:07:50,290 and you had a laundress. 130 00:07:50,290 --> 00:07:54,350 And then you had a parlor maid, 131 00:07:54,350 --> 00:07:55,483 a chambermaid, 132 00:07:56,950 --> 00:07:57,790 and mother's maid. 133 00:07:57,790 --> 00:07:59,220 How many does that make? 134 00:07:59,220 --> 00:08:01,453 Six, or I think there were eight, actually. 135 00:08:02,880 --> 00:08:04,193 Terribly nice people. 136 00:08:05,770 --> 00:08:07,523 - Almost everybody had a boat. 137 00:08:09,170 --> 00:08:10,990 I recall in the '20s, 138 00:08:10,990 --> 00:08:15,090 you would see a harbor filled with yachts. 139 00:08:15,090 --> 00:08:18,550 I mean, really filled, almost gunnel to gunnel. 140 00:08:18,550 --> 00:08:20,970 And we didn't refer to yachts as such 141 00:08:20,970 --> 00:08:22,823 unless they were 100 feet or over. 142 00:08:30,443 --> 00:08:32,840 There was a great deal of entertaining, 143 00:08:32,840 --> 00:08:36,550 and it was all done in people's houses. 144 00:08:36,550 --> 00:08:39,243 You see the dinner parties with 50, 60 people. 145 00:08:42,110 --> 00:08:43,960 Always, after dinner, 146 00:08:43,960 --> 00:08:48,113 there would be entertainment by guests. 147 00:08:50,650 --> 00:08:55,533 George Gershwin was there with his orchestrator, Bill Daly. 148 00:08:56,570 --> 00:08:59,120 They got up and played on two pianos. 149 00:08:59,120 --> 00:09:01,160 Mother always had two grand pianos 150 00:09:01,160 --> 00:09:04,319 in the big room downstairs. 151 00:09:04,319 --> 00:09:05,720 (upbeat jazz music) 152 00:09:05,720 --> 00:09:07,740 - [Peter] Gershwin, who wrote Rhapsody in Blue 153 00:09:07,740 --> 00:09:09,620 and other anthems of the decades, 154 00:09:09,620 --> 00:09:11,850 was profoundly influenced by the new music 155 00:09:11,850 --> 00:09:15,300 he had heard called jazz. 156 00:09:15,300 --> 00:09:17,100 The capital of jazz in the 1920s 157 00:09:17,100 --> 00:09:20,403 was just a subway ride uptown, in Harlem. 158 00:09:22,420 --> 00:09:25,240 It was in Harlem clubs that one could see the artists 159 00:09:25,240 --> 00:09:29,060 at the forefront of this fresh and uniquely American music, 160 00:09:29,060 --> 00:09:31,373 performers such as Louis Armstrong, 161 00:09:34,810 --> 00:09:35,833 Bessie Smith, 162 00:09:37,640 --> 00:09:40,660 and a dapper young man named Edward Kennedy Ellington. 163 00:09:40,660 --> 00:09:42,710 His friends simply called him Duke. 164 00:09:49,439 --> 00:09:50,373 - Duke was the essence of What black music was all about. 165 00:09:55,470 --> 00:09:57,970 Everybody else was heading in that direction, 166 00:09:57,970 --> 00:09:59,073 but Duke was there. 167 00:10:03,905 --> 00:10:07,822 - The first time that I was seized by the music 168 00:10:09,770 --> 00:10:12,160 was the first time I heard Duke Ellington 169 00:10:12,160 --> 00:10:14,120 broadcast from the Cotton Club, 170 00:10:14,120 --> 00:10:19,120 where Broadway, Hollywood, and Paris rubbed elbows. 171 00:10:21,010 --> 00:10:24,900 People came from all over the United States 172 00:10:24,900 --> 00:10:29,313 to experience what was going on in Harlem in the '20s. 173 00:10:31,677 --> 00:10:33,110 - I was young then and out, 174 00:10:33,110 --> 00:10:36,533 and we went up to Harlem at night to dance and everything. 175 00:10:37,760 --> 00:10:40,680 We all saved up for months 176 00:10:40,680 --> 00:10:44,453 to get the money to go out to a nightclub. 177 00:10:47,030 --> 00:10:48,980 And of course, the music was wonderful. 178 00:10:54,240 --> 00:10:56,230 - [Peter] Harlem was contributing more than music 179 00:10:56,230 --> 00:10:58,650 to America's new urban culture. 180 00:10:58,650 --> 00:11:01,240 The world above New York's 125th Street 181 00:11:01,240 --> 00:11:03,490 was, in the 1920s, a hotbed 182 00:11:03,490 --> 00:11:07,290 of political, social, and cultural activity. 183 00:11:07,290 --> 00:11:10,020 It was later called the Harlem Renaissance. 184 00:11:10,020 --> 00:11:12,580 - The Harlem Renaissance was one of those fancy terms 185 00:11:12,580 --> 00:11:14,920 that white folks invent when they wanna take 186 00:11:14,920 --> 00:11:17,773 a particular look at some aspect of black folks. 187 00:11:19,140 --> 00:11:21,520 I don't think black folks run around saying 188 00:11:21,520 --> 00:11:22,410 that we're gonna have us a renaissance 189 00:11:22,410 --> 00:11:26,663 or something like that, but it was a holiday of the spirit. 190 00:11:28,400 --> 00:11:31,480 - In Harlem was born this idea of the new Negro, 191 00:11:31,480 --> 00:11:33,580 someone who stood up for the Negro, 192 00:11:33,580 --> 00:11:37,080 who advertised his and her contributions 193 00:11:37,080 --> 00:11:40,453 to American culture, who was proud to be black. 194 00:11:42,290 --> 00:11:47,290 - Harlem was the end of the line, the promised land, 195 00:11:47,337 --> 00:11:51,323 the place where all our fantasies came true. 196 00:11:54,130 --> 00:11:56,980 If I had to choose between heavens and Harlem (chuckles), 197 00:11:58,390 --> 00:12:01,083 Harlem, of course, would win every time. 198 00:12:03,067 --> 00:12:05,484 (soft music) 199 00:12:07,290 --> 00:12:08,950 - [Peter] While Harlem seemed a promised land 200 00:12:08,950 --> 00:12:11,960 for black Americans, New York's Lower East Side 201 00:12:11,960 --> 00:12:13,640 was, for European immigrants, 202 00:12:13,640 --> 00:12:16,053 their gateway to the American dream. 203 00:12:21,050 --> 00:12:23,733 - We were blessed because we were in America. 204 00:12:25,950 --> 00:12:29,013 My father came from the Ukraine. 205 00:12:30,500 --> 00:12:33,950 He went to work in New York city and worked in a factory 206 00:12:33,950 --> 00:12:37,223 where they blocked hats, men's hats. 207 00:12:38,230 --> 00:12:42,370 And he was making, you know, like nine or $10 a week, 208 00:12:42,370 --> 00:12:44,560 working a six-day week. 209 00:12:44,560 --> 00:12:45,970 And he would tell me 210 00:12:45,970 --> 00:12:50,710 how he was able to buy lunch every day for 12 cents. 211 00:12:50,710 --> 00:12:53,310 And the lunch consisted of 212 00:12:54,980 --> 00:12:58,320 a herring, a big Schmaltz herring out of the barrel, 213 00:12:58,320 --> 00:13:01,000 and my mouth waters now to think of it, 214 00:13:01,000 --> 00:13:05,883 and a big roll with poppy seeds, and an onion. 215 00:13:06,750 --> 00:13:09,023 And life was beautiful. 216 00:13:12,110 --> 00:13:15,830 - This was perhaps the most mixed city, 217 00:13:15,830 --> 00:13:19,093 racially, ethnically, in the country. 218 00:13:20,850 --> 00:13:24,640 But cities all around the country had become more important 219 00:13:24,640 --> 00:13:27,743 because change was centered in the cities, 220 00:13:29,190 --> 00:13:31,533 business, industry, culture. 221 00:13:36,030 --> 00:13:37,953 - Nothing was like rain in New York. 222 00:13:38,803 --> 00:13:41,010 It's the magic of everything, 223 00:13:42,830 --> 00:13:46,923 the world full of things to be explored. 224 00:13:49,270 --> 00:13:52,350 That time was one of the feeling of adventure, 225 00:13:52,350 --> 00:13:55,293 and your life is having a shape to it, 226 00:13:57,250 --> 00:14:00,143 sort of a thread, like a narrative, or a story, 227 00:14:01,260 --> 00:14:03,010 a feeling that anything may unfold. 228 00:14:04,450 --> 00:14:06,320 - [Peter] The decade's startling changes 229 00:14:06,320 --> 00:14:09,310 would soon spread from America's cities 230 00:14:09,310 --> 00:14:11,263 to envelop the entire nation. 231 00:14:14,150 --> 00:14:16,567 (soft music) 232 00:14:18,900 --> 00:14:21,380 Far from the speakeasies and the dance halls 233 00:14:21,380 --> 00:14:25,480 and the nightclubs, there was another America in the 1920s. 234 00:14:25,480 --> 00:14:26,840 Here, people still lived 235 00:14:26,840 --> 00:14:29,023 as their parents and grandparents had, 236 00:14:30,100 --> 00:14:31,450 and they liked it that way. 237 00:14:36,950 --> 00:14:41,117 - In the early 1920s, this was a quiet, easy life. 238 00:14:45,500 --> 00:14:47,329 Neighbors would come over, 239 00:14:47,329 --> 00:14:50,613 what we call the front porch visits. 240 00:14:50,613 --> 00:14:53,620 And that's where there would be discussion, 241 00:14:53,620 --> 00:14:55,370 maybe a little gossip. 242 00:14:57,481 --> 00:14:58,450 - [Peter] Throughout the 1920s, 243 00:14:58,450 --> 00:15:01,283 new technologies would transform daily life. 244 00:15:02,220 --> 00:15:03,670 At the beginning of the decade, 245 00:15:03,670 --> 00:15:06,260 most Americans lived without electricity. 246 00:15:06,260 --> 00:15:07,120 When night fell, 247 00:15:07,120 --> 00:15:11,230 only candles and lamps held off the darkness. 248 00:15:11,230 --> 00:15:13,897 (pensive music) 249 00:15:16,970 --> 00:15:20,170 America was electrified in the '20s. 250 00:15:20,170 --> 00:15:22,480 Electric lights extended the day, 251 00:15:22,480 --> 00:15:25,323 opened up new possibilities for work and play. 252 00:15:28,860 --> 00:15:32,603 That surge of new power came first to the cities. 253 00:15:34,150 --> 00:15:35,500 And by the decade's end, 254 00:15:35,500 --> 00:15:38,773 the majority of American homes had electricity. 255 00:15:45,200 --> 00:15:47,650 - You can't understand this century 256 00:15:47,650 --> 00:15:49,810 without understanding the effect, 257 00:15:49,810 --> 00:15:52,773 the impact of science and technology. 258 00:15:57,040 --> 00:15:58,230 - My father's generation 259 00:15:58,230 --> 00:16:00,803 is the one that really saw amazing changes, 260 00:16:02,040 --> 00:16:04,830 but he was born in 1900 in a world where the horse 261 00:16:04,830 --> 00:16:07,863 was still the main means of getting about. 262 00:16:13,040 --> 00:16:16,883 The car seemed to me more revolutionary in a way 263 00:16:16,883 --> 00:16:19,293 than anything that's happened since. 264 00:16:22,070 --> 00:16:25,363 It totally changed the kind of space we live in, really. 265 00:16:27,570 --> 00:16:28,910 - [Peter] The car would give Americans 266 00:16:28,910 --> 00:16:31,960 a sense of autonomy and freedom, 267 00:16:31,960 --> 00:16:35,480 the freedom to escape their city or town, 268 00:16:35,480 --> 00:16:39,103 to go away on a vacation, or simply on a day's outing. 269 00:16:40,210 --> 00:16:42,350 By mid-decade, the government was spending 270 00:16:42,350 --> 00:16:44,020 more than $1 billion 271 00:16:44,020 --> 00:16:47,560 on the construction of highways, bridges, and tunnels, 272 00:16:47,560 --> 00:16:49,960 the beginnings of a national infrastructure 273 00:16:49,960 --> 00:16:51,603 which knit the country together. 274 00:16:56,790 --> 00:16:59,880 - My father took my mother and me in the car 275 00:17:00,860 --> 00:17:04,023 for the first ride through the Holland Tunnel. 276 00:17:05,940 --> 00:17:08,170 This was opening night. 277 00:17:08,170 --> 00:17:10,803 All the cars were lined up to go through the tunnel. 278 00:17:12,722 --> 00:17:15,110 I was petrified. 279 00:17:15,110 --> 00:17:16,520 I cringed. 280 00:17:16,520 --> 00:17:18,470 Suppose the water leaks in. 281 00:17:18,470 --> 00:17:21,190 How did they build the tunnel under the water? 282 00:17:21,190 --> 00:17:22,090 Where's the water? 283 00:17:23,710 --> 00:17:25,333 And I imagined, as we were riding through the tunnel, 284 00:17:25,333 --> 00:17:27,613 that I heard the waves overhead. 285 00:17:34,180 --> 00:17:37,790 Out on the so-called highways of those days, 286 00:17:37,790 --> 00:17:41,883 outside of New York, we saw the billboards. 287 00:17:43,780 --> 00:17:45,160 - [Peter] Roadways were soon dotted 288 00:17:45,160 --> 00:17:47,863 with a new phenomenon, roadside advertising. 289 00:17:49,580 --> 00:17:50,980 - They were big and colorful 290 00:17:52,880 --> 00:17:56,030 and beautiful, I thought. 291 00:17:56,030 --> 00:17:57,690 - [Peter] Advertising helped transform 292 00:17:57,690 --> 00:18:00,990 not just the physical landscape, but the cultural one. 293 00:18:00,990 --> 00:18:04,060 Along with advertising came the expansion 294 00:18:04,060 --> 00:18:07,873 of a brand new consumer concept, credit. 295 00:18:09,000 --> 00:18:12,220 The inhibition against debt came tumbling down 296 00:18:12,220 --> 00:18:16,540 as everything from cars to clothes could be bought on time. 297 00:18:16,540 --> 00:18:20,970 Buy now, pay later became the order of the day. 298 00:18:20,970 --> 00:18:25,970 By 1927, 75% of all household goods were bought on credit. 299 00:18:27,330 --> 00:18:28,910 And in the last years of the decade, 300 00:18:28,910 --> 00:18:31,898 the item desired most was the radio. 301 00:18:31,898 --> 00:18:33,645 - [Radio Announcer] In just a moment. 302 00:18:33,645 --> 00:18:35,837 But first, we'd love to ask you to let us know 303 00:18:35,837 --> 00:18:37,250 if this broadcast is reaching you. 304 00:18:37,250 --> 00:18:39,440 - [Peter] From its scratchy beginnings in 1920 305 00:18:39,440 --> 00:18:42,970 as a mere hobby, radio would become a nationwide phenomenon 306 00:18:42,970 --> 00:18:45,180 as important as the car. 307 00:18:45,180 --> 00:18:49,090 Young radio enthusiast, Albert Sindlinger was there 308 00:18:49,090 --> 00:18:51,380 at the birth of modern radio. 309 00:18:51,380 --> 00:18:54,727 In 1920, the night station, KDKA, 310 00:18:54,727 --> 00:18:57,860 broadcasting from a factory rooftop in Pittsburgh, 311 00:18:57,860 --> 00:19:00,438 transmitted the results of the presidential election. 312 00:19:00,438 --> 00:19:01,340 - [Radio Announcer] The Republican ticket 313 00:19:01,340 --> 00:19:03,527 of Harding and Coolidge is running well ahead-- 314 00:19:03,527 --> 00:19:07,770 - One of the gentlemen was reading the election returns. 315 00:19:07,770 --> 00:19:08,830 He got sick. 316 00:19:08,830 --> 00:19:13,830 So for about 45, 35 or 45 minutes, I read election returns. 317 00:19:15,700 --> 00:19:19,420 Nobody had any comprehension of the significance 318 00:19:19,420 --> 00:19:21,210 of what was going on. 319 00:19:21,210 --> 00:19:22,043 But don't forget, 320 00:19:22,043 --> 00:19:24,033 there were only a couple of hundred listeners. 321 00:19:25,780 --> 00:19:28,050 Within six months, every store in America, 322 00:19:28,050 --> 00:19:30,783 even grocery stores were selling radio sets. 323 00:19:34,320 --> 00:19:38,020 - Suddenly, all Americans were listening to the same things 324 00:19:38,020 --> 00:19:40,250 and laughing at the same jokes. 325 00:19:40,250 --> 00:19:43,700 There was a kind of communal exercise here, 326 00:19:43,700 --> 00:19:45,780 and very much a strengthening of your notion 327 00:19:45,780 --> 00:19:48,160 of what it was to be an American. 328 00:19:48,160 --> 00:19:49,770 - Along with and sometimes propelled 329 00:19:49,770 --> 00:19:52,920 by the great technological leap in the 1920s, 330 00:19:52,920 --> 00:19:57,120 social patterns in place for decades also began to shift. 331 00:19:57,120 --> 00:19:58,640 Nowhere was this more obvious 332 00:19:58,640 --> 00:20:01,030 than with the changes for the American women. 333 00:20:01,030 --> 00:20:02,360 An expanding job market 334 00:20:02,360 --> 00:20:05,030 had given more and more women careers 335 00:20:05,030 --> 00:20:09,540 and the disposable income to do with what they wished. 336 00:20:09,540 --> 00:20:11,810 Throughout the 1920s, women would assert 337 00:20:11,810 --> 00:20:14,710 a newfound freedom and independence, 338 00:20:14,710 --> 00:20:18,570 and nothing symbolized it more than the 19th Amendment. 339 00:20:18,570 --> 00:20:23,160 In 1920, after 81 years of agitation, 340 00:20:23,160 --> 00:20:26,105 women won the right to vote. 341 00:20:26,105 --> 00:20:28,688 (upbeat music) 342 00:20:31,550 --> 00:20:36,550 - A woman's lot had changed in almost every way. 343 00:20:37,230 --> 00:20:41,420 She thought that she had the right to live for herself 344 00:20:41,420 --> 00:20:44,140 rather than for her family, for others, 345 00:20:44,140 --> 00:20:46,620 as women were always supposed to. 346 00:20:46,620 --> 00:20:48,240 She went to bars. 347 00:20:48,240 --> 00:20:50,350 She went to after-hours clubs. 348 00:20:50,350 --> 00:20:52,780 She went to wild parties. 349 00:20:52,780 --> 00:20:54,660 She had much shorter hair. 350 00:20:54,660 --> 00:20:57,593 She wore much more makeup. 351 00:20:59,950 --> 00:21:01,750 You go from having young women 352 00:21:01,750 --> 00:21:04,050 whose dresses reached to their ankles 353 00:21:04,050 --> 00:21:05,913 to flesh flashed everywhere. 354 00:21:09,760 --> 00:21:11,780 And a lot of '20s culture 355 00:21:11,780 --> 00:21:15,403 is about the fun of smashing prohibitions. 356 00:21:19,660 --> 00:21:21,030 - [Peter] The more daring women of the day 357 00:21:21,030 --> 00:21:23,463 were known as flappers and vamps. 358 00:21:24,600 --> 00:21:25,833 - Sure I remember flappers. 359 00:21:25,833 --> 00:21:28,210 They were all over the place. 360 00:21:28,210 --> 00:21:32,070 They were older than me, but you know, you look at, 361 00:21:32,070 --> 00:21:33,280 when you look at the flappers 362 00:21:33,280 --> 00:21:36,183 through the eyes of a young guy, wow, whoa. 363 00:21:39,050 --> 00:21:42,670 - I think a flapper was the type of young woman 364 00:21:42,670 --> 00:21:46,760 who just wanted to see how far she could go 365 00:21:46,760 --> 00:21:50,410 and then would stop because she'd be afraid to go too far. 366 00:21:50,410 --> 00:21:52,633 And a vamp didn't care how far she went. 367 00:22:02,770 --> 00:22:05,700 - [Peter] The shattering ways of 1920s city life 368 00:22:05,700 --> 00:22:09,553 were spread by the media to rural America, 369 00:22:11,150 --> 00:22:12,180 places where the changes 370 00:22:12,180 --> 00:22:14,793 were not always so easy to get used to. 371 00:22:17,810 --> 00:22:18,643 - Smoking, 372 00:22:19,620 --> 00:22:24,370 or drinking, being loose with talk, using profanity, 373 00:22:24,370 --> 00:22:29,123 this sifted down from the cities, from New York and Chicago. 374 00:22:30,180 --> 00:22:34,237 And this finally had a unwanted place 375 00:22:35,320 --> 00:22:37,227 in our rural community. 376 00:22:38,433 --> 00:22:40,720 Here was a girl who'd come home from, 377 00:22:40,720 --> 00:22:43,670 she'd been working in Chicago. 378 00:22:43,670 --> 00:22:46,344 She comes home with short dresses on. 379 00:22:46,344 --> 00:22:48,460 Well, they were not wearing short dresses. 380 00:22:48,460 --> 00:22:50,660 They were going to church with hats on 381 00:22:50,660 --> 00:22:51,910 and with white gloves on. 382 00:22:53,200 --> 00:22:56,110 They were decidedly concerned 383 00:22:56,110 --> 00:22:58,943 about what the future generation is gonna bring. 384 00:23:06,580 --> 00:23:09,390 - This company was founded on a respect for God 385 00:23:09,390 --> 00:23:10,850 and a sense of righteousness 386 00:23:10,850 --> 00:23:13,214 and keeping with the Sabbath day. 387 00:23:13,214 --> 00:23:15,310 And people brought their children up 388 00:23:15,310 --> 00:23:17,713 on the discipline and on reading the scripture. 389 00:23:18,800 --> 00:23:20,660 And all of those things were part of the things 390 00:23:20,660 --> 00:23:22,360 that bound us together in America. 391 00:23:24,150 --> 00:23:25,873 - The people were solid, 392 00:23:27,040 --> 00:23:30,743 with church going and very little crime and so on. 393 00:23:41,510 --> 00:23:44,470 - [Peter] As the cities grew in size and influence, 394 00:23:44,470 --> 00:23:47,840 many people in small town America found them threatening, 395 00:23:47,840 --> 00:23:51,633 a breeding ground for new and often alien ideas. 396 00:23:56,270 --> 00:23:58,160 In one small American town, 397 00:23:58,160 --> 00:24:01,180 the forces of traditional religion and modern science 398 00:24:01,180 --> 00:24:05,270 would clash in a battle heard around the world. 399 00:24:05,270 --> 00:24:07,330 Here in Dayton, Tennessee, 400 00:24:07,330 --> 00:24:10,570 in the summer of 1925, one of the century's 401 00:24:10,570 --> 00:24:13,603 most famous courtroom battles would take place. 402 00:24:15,000 --> 00:24:17,200 John T. Scopes stood accused 403 00:24:17,200 --> 00:24:20,140 of teaching Darwin's theory of evolution, 404 00:24:20,140 --> 00:24:23,330 that man and ape shared a common ancestor. 405 00:24:23,330 --> 00:24:25,883 That was against the law in Tennessee. 406 00:24:28,170 --> 00:24:29,510 The Scopes trial attracted 407 00:24:29,510 --> 00:24:32,053 the best legal brains of the time. 408 00:24:33,340 --> 00:24:36,890 William Jennings Bryan, three times presidential candidate 409 00:24:36,890 --> 00:24:40,493 and a Christian fundamentalist himself, came to prosecute. 410 00:24:43,310 --> 00:24:46,650 Clarence Darrow, the celebrated Chicago trial lawyer, 411 00:24:46,650 --> 00:24:48,363 came to defend Scopes. 412 00:24:53,120 --> 00:24:55,180 Outside, as the trial progressed 413 00:24:55,180 --> 00:24:59,173 in the scorching summer heat, Dayton had itself a carnival. 414 00:25:01,580 --> 00:25:05,510 - People would bring in trained chimpanzees 415 00:25:05,510 --> 00:25:08,353 dressed in suits and ties, 416 00:25:09,410 --> 00:25:11,610 and they'd lead 'em up and down the streets. 417 00:25:13,910 --> 00:25:15,690 - Read your Bible was everywhere in town, 418 00:25:15,690 --> 00:25:18,140 posted up the street, across the street, banners. 419 00:25:19,800 --> 00:25:22,320 And you walk maybe 100 yards this way 420 00:25:22,320 --> 00:25:24,780 and you'd have a street preacher. 421 00:25:24,780 --> 00:25:26,880 I didn't know what he was preaching about. 422 00:25:28,284 --> 00:25:30,690 And you never saw the same people twice. 423 00:25:30,690 --> 00:25:32,200 You go to the same place next, 424 00:25:32,200 --> 00:25:33,530 the next day, there'd be some other people 425 00:25:33,530 --> 00:25:36,457 from some other parts of the United States there. 426 00:25:36,457 --> 00:25:37,873 But it was a lot of hoopla. 427 00:25:38,730 --> 00:25:39,573 I enjoyed it. 428 00:25:41,606 --> 00:25:44,480 - The Scopes trial became emblematic. 429 00:25:44,480 --> 00:25:46,730 Everybody had to make up their mind. 430 00:25:46,730 --> 00:25:48,800 People who've never been to Tennessee, 431 00:25:48,800 --> 00:25:50,250 couldn't even find Tennessee, 432 00:25:51,470 --> 00:25:53,203 had to think about this question, 433 00:25:54,410 --> 00:25:56,513 do I believe in modern science? 434 00:26:00,590 --> 00:26:02,750 - [Peter] At times, it seemed that the whole world 435 00:26:02,750 --> 00:26:04,093 had converged on Dayton. 436 00:26:05,695 --> 00:26:07,143 - The aisles were filled, 437 00:26:07,143 --> 00:26:10,270 and the walls were lined with newspaper people 438 00:26:11,460 --> 00:26:13,973 from England, from Spain, from France. 439 00:26:15,120 --> 00:26:17,740 We had so many newspaper people there 440 00:26:17,740 --> 00:26:20,023 that you couldn't stir 'em with a stick. 441 00:26:23,770 --> 00:26:25,350 - When all the hoopla ended, 442 00:26:25,350 --> 00:26:29,720 John T. Scopes was found guilty and fined $100, 443 00:26:29,720 --> 00:26:32,323 a ruling later overturned on a technicality. 444 00:26:33,440 --> 00:26:35,930 What Scopes represented in what the world came to witness 445 00:26:35,930 --> 00:26:38,600 was a colossal clash of ideals. 446 00:26:38,600 --> 00:26:42,080 The cool reason of science seemed to threaten 447 00:26:42,080 --> 00:26:44,810 the deep and abiding roots of religion. 448 00:26:44,810 --> 00:26:47,890 It was one thing to replace the family mule with a Model T, 449 00:26:47,890 --> 00:26:50,470 but quite another to trade Matthew, Mark, and John 450 00:26:50,470 --> 00:26:53,270 for Einstein, Freud, and Darwin. 451 00:26:53,270 --> 00:26:56,910 For many people, these were confusing times. 452 00:26:56,910 --> 00:26:59,240 And what may have been the most unsettling 453 00:26:59,240 --> 00:27:01,500 about the pace of change in the 1920s 454 00:27:01,500 --> 00:27:02,630 was that people really wanted 455 00:27:02,630 --> 00:27:05,010 both the benefits of the future 456 00:27:05,010 --> 00:27:08,173 and the familiar comforts of the past. 457 00:27:14,060 --> 00:27:15,860 - They want the fruits of modernity. 458 00:27:17,000 --> 00:27:20,123 They want the automobiles, electricity, radio. 459 00:27:21,180 --> 00:27:23,787 And at the same time, they want it to remain 1850, 460 00:27:23,787 --> 00:27:26,120 and they know they cannot have both. 461 00:27:26,120 --> 00:27:29,430 And this creates psychological tension 462 00:27:29,430 --> 00:27:30,820 within American society 463 00:27:31,700 --> 00:27:33,750 that is then looking for somewhere to go. 464 00:27:34,680 --> 00:27:37,740 And it goes into hatred towards immigrants, 465 00:27:37,740 --> 00:27:41,230 hatred towards people who are simply different. 466 00:27:41,230 --> 00:27:45,168 It goes into intolerance, and into the Ku Klux Klan. 467 00:27:45,168 --> 00:27:47,835 (ominous music) 468 00:27:48,700 --> 00:27:50,520 - [Peter] Ku Klux Klan membership 469 00:27:50,520 --> 00:27:54,063 soared to four million in the 1920s. 470 00:27:56,480 --> 00:28:00,700 - Almost everybody that was a good citizen of the South 471 00:28:00,700 --> 00:28:01,950 was a member of the Klan. 472 00:28:03,180 --> 00:28:05,080 I think they were encouraging morality 473 00:28:06,060 --> 00:28:07,610 by turning the light 474 00:28:07,610 --> 00:28:12,130 on immorality and deceit and unfairness. 475 00:28:12,130 --> 00:28:14,633 - It created a great deal of, 476 00:28:15,470 --> 00:28:19,063 I'd say consternation and debate and so on. 477 00:28:21,250 --> 00:28:24,130 They were not just opposed to the blacks, 478 00:28:24,130 --> 00:28:27,471 but they were opposed to the Catholics and the Jews 479 00:28:27,471 --> 00:28:30,740 or anybody else who came from somewhere else. 480 00:28:32,610 --> 00:28:35,590 Going to people's houses, and calling them out, 481 00:28:35,590 --> 00:28:37,340 and insulting them, and whipping them, 482 00:28:37,340 --> 00:28:38,933 and things of that kind. 483 00:28:41,920 --> 00:28:45,420 This was not just particular to the South or to the Alabama. 484 00:28:45,420 --> 00:28:46,320 It was nationwide. 485 00:28:50,380 --> 00:28:52,200 - [Peter] The clan was actively recruiting 486 00:28:52,200 --> 00:28:55,110 in many northern states. 487 00:28:55,110 --> 00:28:56,840 - My father was asked 488 00:28:56,840 --> 00:28:59,853 if he would like to join the Ku Klux Klan. 489 00:29:01,630 --> 00:29:03,270 He grabbed the guy by the collar 490 00:29:03,270 --> 00:29:04,843 and threw him down the stairs. 491 00:29:06,340 --> 00:29:10,310 Three nights later, almost directly across the street, 492 00:29:10,310 --> 00:29:12,543 there was a large cross burning. 493 00:29:15,280 --> 00:29:16,980 I still can see it in my mind. 494 00:29:16,980 --> 00:29:19,693 It was a dreadful, horrifying experience. 495 00:29:22,180 --> 00:29:23,257 My mother said, 496 00:29:23,257 --> 00:29:26,107 "it's just as though they're guarding the gates of hell." 497 00:29:28,550 --> 00:29:30,780 - And those white people who catered to us 498 00:29:30,780 --> 00:29:33,493 and were in sympathy with us, they caught hell too. 499 00:29:34,560 --> 00:29:36,530 - [Peter] James Cameron was living in Indiana 500 00:29:36,530 --> 00:29:38,370 when he and two childhood friends 501 00:29:38,370 --> 00:29:41,270 were seized by a Klan-inspired mob, 502 00:29:41,270 --> 00:29:45,513 enraged by reports of the rape and murder of a white couple. 503 00:29:49,421 --> 00:29:51,270 - The men there out in the crowd 504 00:29:51,270 --> 00:29:53,633 had their robes and hood on too. 505 00:29:54,890 --> 00:29:55,967 And then the leaders said, 506 00:29:55,967 --> 00:29:58,320 "Take all these niggers out and hang 'em." 507 00:29:58,320 --> 00:30:00,910 - [Peter] His two friends were lynched. 508 00:30:00,910 --> 00:30:03,860 James Cameron barely escaped with his life. 509 00:30:03,860 --> 00:30:06,010 - They put a rope around my neck 510 00:30:06,010 --> 00:30:08,690 and they throw the other end over the tree. 511 00:30:08,690 --> 00:30:11,787 And I kept crying and hollering, "I haven't done anything." 512 00:30:13,270 --> 00:30:15,180 But before they could hang me up, 513 00:30:15,180 --> 00:30:16,697 a voice said, "Take this boy back. 514 00:30:16,697 --> 00:30:19,977 "He had nothing to do with any killing or raping." 515 00:30:22,090 --> 00:30:24,740 I looked up to heaven and I said, "Lord, have mercy." 516 00:30:29,270 --> 00:30:30,340 - [Peter] Throughout the decade, 517 00:30:30,340 --> 00:30:34,410 an estimated 200 people were lynched by the Klan. 518 00:30:34,410 --> 00:30:36,830 This organization claiming to uphold 519 00:30:36,830 --> 00:30:39,320 the values and virtues of the past 520 00:30:39,320 --> 00:30:42,300 became so powerful in the 1920s 521 00:30:42,300 --> 00:30:46,130 that it seized political control in seven states. 522 00:30:46,130 --> 00:30:50,720 And in 1927, Klansmen marched 50,000 strong 523 00:30:50,720 --> 00:30:52,770 down the streets of the nation's capital. 524 00:30:54,040 --> 00:30:57,160 Clearly, the forces of '20s modernity 525 00:30:57,160 --> 00:30:59,253 had stirred a bitter resistance. 526 00:31:03,434 --> 00:31:05,030 - [Announcer] Then the Manassa Mauler lashed out 527 00:31:05,030 --> 00:31:08,880 in his old ferocious style, every punch deadly cunning. 528 00:31:10,580 --> 00:31:13,460 - [Peter] In a decade fraught with so many changes, 529 00:31:13,460 --> 00:31:17,880 people in the 1920 seemed hungry for old-fashioned heroes, 530 00:31:17,880 --> 00:31:21,123 and an explosion in spectator sports provided them. 531 00:31:22,780 --> 00:31:25,040 Sports giants became household names, 532 00:31:25,040 --> 00:31:27,630 their every move followed by radio 533 00:31:27,630 --> 00:31:30,090 and an eager tabloid press. 534 00:31:30,090 --> 00:31:34,453 One name was known in more households than any other. 535 00:31:35,550 --> 00:31:39,070 - In our family, we were never baseball oriented, 536 00:31:39,070 --> 00:31:41,370 but I would have had to be deaf 537 00:31:41,370 --> 00:31:43,113 not to have heard about Babe Ruth. 538 00:31:44,777 --> 00:31:45,810 (crowd cheers) 539 00:31:45,810 --> 00:31:50,313 - George Herman Ruth, the Babe, reshaped America's pastime. 540 00:31:51,270 --> 00:31:52,650 In an era of big events, 541 00:31:52,650 --> 00:31:56,400 he excelled at the game's biggest excitement, the home run. 542 00:31:56,400 --> 00:32:00,030 He hit 60 of them in a single season in 1927, 543 00:32:00,030 --> 00:32:03,270 a record that would stand for four decades. 544 00:32:03,270 --> 00:32:07,027 Fans drove from miles around to see him. 545 00:32:09,870 --> 00:32:11,340 - We used to get in a truck, seven of us, 546 00:32:11,340 --> 00:32:14,400 put hay in the truck and just sit on it. 547 00:32:14,400 --> 00:32:15,680 And in three and a half hours, 548 00:32:15,680 --> 00:32:18,313 we head from Scranton to the Yankee Stadium. 549 00:32:20,490 --> 00:32:23,733 It was 35 cents to see the Babe, Lou Gehrig, 550 00:32:24,590 --> 00:32:25,740 all the Yankee players. 551 00:32:28,290 --> 00:32:30,973 - Babe Ruth was a hero. 552 00:32:32,800 --> 00:32:35,067 Lou Gehrig was always my hero. 553 00:32:36,540 --> 00:32:38,790 It seems like everybody back then was a hero. 554 00:32:41,570 --> 00:32:43,760 We'd write to get autographs. 555 00:32:43,760 --> 00:32:46,070 They graciously sent us pictures, 556 00:32:46,070 --> 00:32:48,563 three-cent postage stamp to get your picture back. 557 00:32:49,441 --> 00:32:51,350 A really nice time to live. 558 00:32:53,010 --> 00:32:54,763 It felt good to be an American. 559 00:32:59,046 --> 00:33:01,629 (engine whirs) 560 00:33:03,167 --> 00:33:04,450 - [Peter] The public's fascination 561 00:33:04,450 --> 00:33:07,290 with flying in the 1920 seemed fitting 562 00:33:07,290 --> 00:33:11,450 for a time when even gravity couldn't hold down progress 563 00:33:11,450 --> 00:33:14,403 and when every boundary seemed just waiting to be broken. 564 00:33:15,780 --> 00:33:19,330 - Once I got up about a thousand feet, 565 00:33:19,330 --> 00:33:20,803 it was like I was home. 566 00:33:22,112 --> 00:33:23,870 And that's the only way I can describe it to you. 567 00:33:23,870 --> 00:33:24,793 I was home. 568 00:33:26,840 --> 00:33:29,173 I never wanted to be any place else. 569 00:33:33,510 --> 00:33:38,380 - [Peter] In 1927, one pilot would put aviation and himself 570 00:33:38,380 --> 00:33:40,827 on every front page in the world. 571 00:33:43,010 --> 00:33:46,470 On a misty may morning outside New York City, 572 00:33:46,470 --> 00:33:48,720 a plane called the Spirit of St. Louis 573 00:33:48,720 --> 00:33:52,150 was ready to take off for Paris. 574 00:33:52,150 --> 00:33:56,210 No one had ever flown solo across the Atlantic before. 575 00:33:56,210 --> 00:34:00,093 Six others had tried, failed, and died. 576 00:34:01,120 --> 00:34:04,020 Ready to take the chance this time was Charles Lindbergh, 577 00:34:04,020 --> 00:34:07,253 the six-foot-two son of a former congressman from Minnesota. 578 00:34:09,700 --> 00:34:12,197 Thousands of people came to watch him take off. 579 00:34:18,660 --> 00:34:19,880 Once he was out of sight, 580 00:34:19,880 --> 00:34:23,573 it seemed as if all America held its breath. 581 00:34:25,670 --> 00:34:30,230 - In Yankee Stadium, they had framed minutes of silence, 582 00:34:30,230 --> 00:34:31,063 praying for him. 583 00:34:31,063 --> 00:34:33,270 Everybody in the company was praying for him. 584 00:34:37,490 --> 00:34:40,240 - [Peter] Flying the fuel-heavy single-engine plane 585 00:34:40,240 --> 00:34:44,073 was a battle against weather, hunger, and fatigue. 586 00:34:45,580 --> 00:34:48,200 For the entire 33-and-a-half-hour flight, 587 00:34:48,200 --> 00:34:49,650 the Western world wondered 588 00:34:49,650 --> 00:34:51,660 about the fate of that tiny plane 589 00:34:51,660 --> 00:34:53,763 somewhere over the vast Atlantic. 590 00:34:59,300 --> 00:35:00,733 - It was a Saturday night. 591 00:35:02,250 --> 00:35:05,620 They hadn't heard from him for a long time. 592 00:35:05,620 --> 00:35:08,917 And I was walking up 125th Street and someone shouted, 593 00:35:08,917 --> 00:35:09,913 "They found him. 594 00:35:10,767 --> 00:35:12,920 "He was flying over Ireland." 595 00:35:12,920 --> 00:35:17,920 And within an hour or so, he landed in Paris. 596 00:35:22,670 --> 00:35:23,910 - [Peter] 100,000 Parisians were there 597 00:35:23,910 --> 00:35:26,180 to welcome the shy young pilot. 598 00:35:26,180 --> 00:35:28,460 Lucky Lindy emerged from his plane 599 00:35:28,460 --> 00:35:30,763 carrying only a razor and a passport. 600 00:35:35,400 --> 00:35:38,560 His flight had represented the best of an era, 601 00:35:38,560 --> 00:35:40,570 a mastery of modern technology 602 00:35:40,570 --> 00:35:43,760 joined with old-fashioned values of courage, 603 00:35:43,760 --> 00:35:46,733 individualism, and hard-won achievement. 604 00:35:51,650 --> 00:35:53,260 - When Lindbergh came back, 605 00:35:53,260 --> 00:35:55,650 it was as though he walked on the water. 606 00:35:55,650 --> 00:35:57,550 The public couldn't get enough of him. 607 00:35:59,170 --> 00:36:00,303 He was the star. 608 00:36:02,360 --> 00:36:05,360 There wasn't a woman in America that wasn't crazy about him. 609 00:36:10,590 --> 00:36:12,130 - He was a hero. 610 00:36:12,130 --> 00:36:13,220 He was a nice guy. 611 00:36:13,220 --> 00:36:14,053 He was new. 612 00:36:14,053 --> 00:36:14,886 He was young. 613 00:36:14,886 --> 00:36:18,687 He was kind of gawky, but that was what they wanted. 614 00:36:20,210 --> 00:36:21,850 - [Peter] The parade for Lindbergh down Broadway 615 00:36:21,850 --> 00:36:23,900 was the biggest national celebration 616 00:36:23,900 --> 00:36:25,620 since the end of World War I. 617 00:36:32,320 --> 00:36:34,630 - Everybody became Lindbergh. 618 00:36:34,630 --> 00:36:38,270 They became the person that he was and represented. 619 00:36:38,270 --> 00:36:39,103 It was great. 620 00:36:40,269 --> 00:36:41,733 He made a big impression on me. 621 00:36:43,219 --> 00:36:45,580 - It was very exciting for all of us 622 00:36:45,580 --> 00:36:50,413 because we realized that a young man could do great things. 623 00:37:01,640 --> 00:37:03,150 - [Peter] After Lindbergh's triumph, 624 00:37:03,150 --> 00:37:05,180 there remained only one continent 625 00:37:05,180 --> 00:37:08,943 for the airplane to conquer, Antarctica. 626 00:37:09,810 --> 00:37:11,840 The frozen and forbidding landscape 627 00:37:11,840 --> 00:37:14,260 at the bottom of the world was the boundary 628 00:37:14,260 --> 00:37:17,740 one of the centuries great explorers, Admiral Richard Byrd, 629 00:37:17,740 --> 00:37:19,360 set out to break. 630 00:37:19,360 --> 00:37:22,230 His goal was to fly over the South Pole. 631 00:37:22,230 --> 00:37:25,320 His expedition was flooded with young and eager volunteers, 632 00:37:25,320 --> 00:37:27,803 all of them wanting to be heroes. 633 00:37:29,239 --> 00:37:31,290 - Admiral Byrd was gonna select, 634 00:37:31,290 --> 00:37:34,970 I forget how many Boy Scouts to go to the pole. 635 00:37:34,970 --> 00:37:37,450 Now, I was about 12 at that time, 636 00:37:37,450 --> 00:37:39,903 and I was nominated as one of the guys to go. 637 00:37:40,780 --> 00:37:41,880 Now, this was a big thing. 638 00:37:41,880 --> 00:37:43,130 It was in all the papers. 639 00:37:44,530 --> 00:37:47,327 When I came home, I says, "Ma, what do you think? 640 00:37:47,327 --> 00:37:49,660 "I'm gonna go to the North Pole with Admiral Byrd!" 641 00:37:49,660 --> 00:37:50,730 She says, "You can't go!" 642 00:37:50,730 --> 00:37:51,950 I says, "Why?" 643 00:37:51,950 --> 00:37:54,117 She says, "You'll catch your death of cold." 644 00:37:56,050 --> 00:37:56,883 I never went. 645 00:37:56,883 --> 00:37:58,277 My cousin went instead. 646 00:37:59,420 --> 00:38:03,030 Imagine that. 647 00:38:03,030 --> 00:38:08,030 There were 120 men connected with the Byrd expedition. 648 00:38:09,960 --> 00:38:12,310 - [Peter] 20-year-old Harvard student, Norman Vaughan 649 00:38:12,310 --> 00:38:15,200 dropped out of school trained for a year, 650 00:38:15,200 --> 00:38:16,260 and was finally selected 651 00:38:16,260 --> 00:38:18,110 to go on the adventure of a lifetime. 652 00:38:20,890 --> 00:38:22,510 - We stepped on land 653 00:38:22,510 --> 00:38:25,503 that had never been seen or touched before, 654 00:38:26,600 --> 00:38:30,580 and that just excited me beyond words. 655 00:38:30,580 --> 00:38:32,413 Absolutely a new frontier. 656 00:38:34,550 --> 00:38:35,950 - [Peter] The expedition's home base 657 00:38:35,950 --> 00:38:37,710 was called Little America. 658 00:38:37,710 --> 00:38:41,280 Its two-year mission was to conduct geological research 659 00:38:41,280 --> 00:38:44,450 and prepare for Byrd's record-breaking attempt. 660 00:38:44,450 --> 00:38:47,000 - [Norman] We were responsible for getting out 661 00:38:47,000 --> 00:38:52,000 onto the interior of Antarctica, as far as we could, 662 00:38:52,020 --> 00:38:57,020 to be there for Admiral Byrd's rescue expedition 663 00:38:57,090 --> 00:38:59,163 should he have had a forced landing. 664 00:39:00,413 --> 00:39:02,996 (somber music) 665 00:39:19,730 --> 00:39:24,110 - [Peter] Just after midnight on November the 29th, 1929, 666 00:39:24,110 --> 00:39:26,750 Admiral Byrd's aircraft flew 500 feet 667 00:39:26,750 --> 00:39:28,763 above the geographic South Pole. 668 00:39:30,440 --> 00:39:33,173 He dropped a stone wrapped in an American flag. 669 00:39:35,050 --> 00:39:37,030 Americans and their airplane 670 00:39:37,030 --> 00:39:39,193 had reached the ends of the Earth. 671 00:39:51,630 --> 00:39:55,873 By the end of the 1920s, anything seemed possible. 672 00:40:03,960 --> 00:40:08,370 - The most extraordinary thing about the decade of the '20s 673 00:40:08,370 --> 00:40:13,033 was a pandemic air of optimism, 674 00:40:14,320 --> 00:40:17,993 a feeling that the future of the country was unlimited. 675 00:40:20,200 --> 00:40:25,200 One of the great jazz songs of the day was Blue Skies, 676 00:40:26,750 --> 00:40:29,263 only but blue skies do I see. 677 00:40:34,480 --> 00:40:36,120 - [Peter] The President promised blue skies 678 00:40:36,120 --> 00:40:37,660 in the country's future. 679 00:40:37,660 --> 00:40:40,370 At his inauguration in 1929, 680 00:40:40,370 --> 00:40:43,070 Herbert Hoover repeated the common wisdom of the day 681 00:40:43,070 --> 00:40:45,493 that Americans were on their way to riches. 682 00:40:46,530 --> 00:40:49,690 If proof was needed, all one had to do 683 00:40:49,690 --> 00:40:53,833 was look at the bubbling pool of wealth, the stock market. 684 00:40:54,890 --> 00:40:56,840 - The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker, 685 00:40:56,840 --> 00:40:59,663 everybody, oddly enough, was in the stock market. 686 00:41:00,920 --> 00:41:04,420 One of our chauffeurs was in the market. 687 00:41:04,420 --> 00:41:07,500 If he can be in the market, anybody can be in the market. 688 00:41:09,587 --> 00:41:11,887 - There were no regulations, as we have now. 689 00:41:13,350 --> 00:41:15,560 People got away with murder all the time. 690 00:41:15,560 --> 00:41:17,380 The government didn't bother them. 691 00:41:17,380 --> 00:41:19,120 So they were all making money. 692 00:41:19,120 --> 00:41:20,743 They were doing very well. 693 00:41:22,170 --> 00:41:25,920 - [Peter] A boom in buying had driven up stock prices. 694 00:41:25,920 --> 00:41:28,490 Suddenly, in October of 1929, 695 00:41:28,490 --> 00:41:32,700 investors started cashing in their overpriced stock. 696 00:41:32,700 --> 00:41:34,433 A panic of selling started. 697 00:41:37,520 --> 00:41:41,950 - On October 29, 1929, 698 00:41:41,950 --> 00:41:44,590 it was obvious from the opening bell 699 00:41:44,590 --> 00:41:48,623 that things were wildly amiss. 700 00:41:49,840 --> 00:41:51,793 - At 9:30, 701 00:41:52,980 --> 00:41:55,963 there was a rumble on the floor. 702 00:41:57,530 --> 00:41:59,757 One of the pageboys said, "Hey, Mike, 703 00:41:59,757 --> 00:42:02,407 "look at the sell orders coming out of those phones." 704 00:42:05,030 --> 00:42:07,813 - The wheels really started to come off. 705 00:42:09,270 --> 00:42:11,573 The stock market went into a free fall. 706 00:42:12,430 --> 00:42:16,793 Crowds gathered in the street outside of the exchange. 707 00:42:18,320 --> 00:42:23,162 - At three o'clock, the bell rang, and that was it. 708 00:42:23,162 --> 00:42:25,579 (bell rings) 709 00:42:27,430 --> 00:42:30,150 - [Peter] More than $30 billion in paper value 710 00:42:30,150 --> 00:42:34,700 simply vanished that day as the stock market crashed. 711 00:42:34,700 --> 00:42:36,603 - The famous word, the crash. 712 00:42:37,653 --> 00:42:40,293 Overnight, it was like bombs fell. 713 00:42:46,930 --> 00:42:49,550 - [Peter] The '20s bubble had burst, 714 00:42:49,550 --> 00:42:52,033 and with it, the decade's optimism. 715 00:42:56,720 --> 00:42:59,193 - People lost every penny that they had. 716 00:43:00,950 --> 00:43:02,713 Nobody had any pensions. 717 00:43:04,256 --> 00:43:09,256 There was no Medicare and Medicaid, social security. 718 00:43:10,010 --> 00:43:13,180 If people lost their money, that was it. 719 00:43:13,180 --> 00:43:14,833 They were down and out. 720 00:43:17,200 --> 00:43:21,030 - People jumped off the George Washington Bridge, 721 00:43:21,030 --> 00:43:24,460 which had only just then, not long ago been built, 722 00:43:24,460 --> 00:43:25,293 people we knew! 723 00:43:26,560 --> 00:43:29,653 My father was wiped out! 724 00:43:31,100 --> 00:43:34,643 He never, psychologically, he never recovered. 725 00:43:37,070 --> 00:43:38,863 - The 29th, I lost $1 million. 726 00:43:40,930 --> 00:43:41,893 What do you do? 727 00:43:41,893 --> 00:43:43,230 It's the same story. 728 00:43:43,230 --> 00:43:44,980 Wash your face and hands and comb your hair 729 00:43:44,980 --> 00:43:46,243 and start all over again. 730 00:43:48,880 --> 00:43:51,350 - But as people would find out in the decade to come, 731 00:43:51,350 --> 00:43:55,570 a decade as different from the '20s as night is from day, 732 00:43:55,570 --> 00:43:58,330 starting over was not gonna be so easy 733 00:44:01,520 --> 00:44:03,720 America, along with much of the world, 734 00:44:03,720 --> 00:44:06,240 faced the Great Depression. 735 00:44:06,240 --> 00:44:10,170 That's on the next episode of The Century: America's Time. 736 00:44:10,170 --> 00:44:11,050 I'm Peter Jennings. 737 00:44:11,050 --> 00:44:12,300 Thank you for joining us. 738 00:44:13,286 --> 00:44:16,036 (dramatic music)