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15 Episodes 1989 - 1990
Episode 1
Tue, Oct 3, 1989 60 mins
Recalling "The Great Air Race of 1924," a trip around the world undertaken by U.S. Army Air Service pilots and their mechanics in single-engine, open-cockpit planes. Narrator: David McCullough.
Episode 2
Tue, Oct 10, 1989 60 mins
Recalling the early fervor for and later failure of Prohibition along the Michigan coast during the 1920s. Included: home movies, archival clips and colorful recollections of an era when liquor and money flowed freely.
Episode 3
Tue, Oct 17, 1989 60 mins
"A Family Gathering," Lise Yasui's Oscar-nominated short about her Japanese-American roots and the WWII internment of her grandfather. Included: her uncle's legal fight protesting the treatment of Japanese-Americans. Host: David McCullough.
Episode 4
Tue, Oct 31, 1989 60 mins
"The Great War---1918" recalls America's military role in the final phase of WWI. Included: trench warfare; the U.S. offensive in France's Meuse-Argonne Valley; and the home front. Narrator: Eric Sevareid.
Episode 5
Tue, Nov 7, 1989 60 mins
A salute to baseball blends archival footage and the comments of fans such as John Updike. Included: clips of Ruth, Cobb, Robinson, Mays, DiMaggio, Mantle, Feller, Paige, Mathewson, Aaron. Writer-narrator: Irv Drasnin.
Episode 6
Tue, Nov 21, 1989 60 mins
How "Mr. Sears' Catalogue" helped to "homogenize America" by bringing material goods to the rural U.S. Also: how R.W. Sears started his empire when he found an unclaimed shipment of watches. Host: David McCullough.
Episode 7
Mon, Jan 29, 1990 60 mins
Director Jon Else's study of the impact of humans on California's Yosemite Valley. Robert Redford narrates from an account by Lafayette Bunnell, one of the first white men to see the valley in 1851. Also: a talk with naturalist Carl Sharsmith; footage of wildlife.
Episode 8
Tue, Nov 14, 1989 60 mins
The rise and fall of Adam Clayton Powell Jr., the flamboyant Harlem minister-turned-Congressman whose achievements were overshadowed by his lifestyle, which brought him controversy and censure.
Episode 9
Mon, Apr 22, 1991 60 mins
A photo essay on the voyage to America taken between 1890 and 1920 by some 18 million Europeans. Written, directed and narrated by Charles Guggenheim.
Episode 10
Tue, Dec 12, 1989 60 mins
Profiling folklorist Bascom Lamar Lunsford (1882-1973), who dragged "folk music out of the valleys and coves and up onto the stages and into the recording studios of America."
Episode 11
Tue, Oct 24, 1989 60 mins
"Ida B. Wells: A Passion for Justice" profiles the civil-rights activist (1862-1931), who launched numerous campaigns against racial injustice after the Supreme Court began to overturn decisions that protected blacks. Included: autobiographical readings by Toni Morrison.
Episode 12
Mon, May 6, 1991 60 mins
Studying the evacuation of some 10,000 British children to the U.S. and Canada during World War II. Narrator: Sada Thompson.
Episode 13
Tue, Dec 19, 1989 60 mins
"Forbidden City, U.S.A.," a study of a nightclub of the '30s and '40s that featured all Chinese-American performers, who went against the tenets of their culture to go on-stage as singers and dancers. Host: David McCullough.
Episode 14
Tue, Dec 5, 1989 60 mins
"The Battle for Wilderness" examines the historic conflict over the building of a dam in Yosemite National Park, proposed in 1906 after the San Francisco earthquake. Narrated by Hume Cronyn.
Episode 15
Mon, Jan 15, 1990 60 mins
Archival photos and readings from memoirs punctuate "Roots of Resistance: A Story of the Underground Railroad," the secret network that helped slaves escape to the northern U.S., Mexico and Canada. Narrated by Ruby Dee.