Thanksgiving in 1951 might not be as different for many today as it was back then. Bill Johnson’s family can’t afford a turkey this year. Dick, Tommy, Susan and baby Janet are devastated. But there is still much to be thankful for, especially in the shadow of what the world was like only a few […]
MORE ...In 1946, Mr. Wilson (Edward G. Robinson) of the United Nations War Crimes Commission is hunting for Nazi fugitive Franz Kindler (Orson Welles), a war criminal who has erased all evidence which might identify him, with no clue left to his identity except “a hobby that almost amounts to a mania—clocks.” Wilson releases Kindler’s former […]
MORE ...In this clip from 1967, newsreel presenter Ed Herlihy narrates the anti-Vietnam War marches which took place in New York City, San Francisco, and across the US. Martin Luther King, Jr. petitions the UN, students burn their draft cards at demonstrations, and anti-anti-Vietnam protesters make their support of the conflict known. Fifty years later, we […]
MORE ...Who doesn’t love a great yodeler? It’s Rosalie Allen, who taught herself to play music as a child in Pennsylvania on her brother’s guitar. Involving herself with radio, she scored her first hit covering Patsy Montana’s “I Want to Be a Cowboy’s Sweetheart.” In this piece, Rosalie sees her beau off to war, a scenario […]
MORE ...Over 60 years ago, an uncertain peace held the Mideast together, while 60 years later, an uncertain war pulls it apart. The late, great Ed Herlihy narrates this report from the Baghdad Pact conference in Ankara, Turkey in 1958.
MORE ...So They Tell Me, circa 1919, skewers the top headlines of its day, the World War I era. Crude animation attempts to punctuate the sardonic and off-color humor supplied by political raconteur Warren W. Brown. Though the jokes are somewhat arcane by today’s standards, the tone tries to balance between being bombastic and nativist. Targets include labor […]
MORE ...Red Chinese Battle Plan from 1964, classic Cold War propaganda.
MORE ...Like a television courtroom drama, the prosecutor deconstructs a criminal enterprise within the meatpacking industry. The dramatization hints at Hollywood crime films of the day, with shakedowns, oblivious accomplices and bribe money wrapped in paper with a soup bone. Despite the fact that the accused are given no opportunity to defend themselves, this piece of […]
MORE ...Welcome to the US Capitol as the 82nd US Congress convenes in early 1951, where new faces in both the Republicans and Democrats are taking seats. Lyndon B. Johnson rose to Senate Whip as the Democratic Senate majority would be cut to only two votes. The Capitol building is seen being remodeled to accommodate a […]
MORE ...In this 1954 educational documentary tightly condenses the American Civil War into a snug fifteen minutes. Beginning with John Brown’s revolt at Harper’s Ferry, the film uses artwork, photographs, dramatizations and panoramas of significant locations. As we move from the attack on Fort Sumter to the Battle of Antietam to Lee’s great defeat at Gettysburg, […]
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