United States ship Maumee (AO-2) is launched at Mare Island Navy shipyard in Vallejo California. Miss Janet Crose, sponsor, smashes bottle onto ship bow to christen the ship. Builders, dignitaries, and naval personnel wave and cheer from port as the ship slides down ramp into water.
Film opens with a brief aerial view of Universal City studios in California. Next, Carl Laemmle, who founded Universal in 1915, is seen being recognized and congratulated by friends and wellwishers on the Studios' 20th anniversary.
Bell Telephone television advertisement depicts the cost of telephone calls over years from 1915 to 1970. Pictures of streets and houses in Boston. Portrait of Alexander Graham Bell. The cost of telephone from 20.70 dollars in 1915 reduced to 70 cents in 1970. Rapid paced montage of images (some still and some motion) from 1915 to 1970. Poster reads 'Japan at War'. Man and woman dance. Missile launched from launch pad. Aircraft parked on runway. The cost of telephone charges reduced over the years. Different types of telephones seen in 1970.
From a 1961 film: Clip includes mix of reenacted, fictional scenes and authentic period footage from the early 1900's, as follows: Clip opens with fictional re-enacted scenes of immigrants to America from Eastern Europe, around the turn of the 20th Century. Reenacted scene as a woman dances, followed by scene of immigrants crowded into a hall. Arriving immigrants pose for camera. Next scene is actual period footage from the first few years of the 1900s (approximately 1905 or 1906) of a street car traveling along a track on Market Street in San Francisco, California, with early automobile cars and another street car crossing in front of it. The San Francisco Ferry Building clock tower on the Embarcadero is seen in the distance. Next series of scenes are fictional reenactments of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. Next is actual period footage of the aftermath of the earthquake, with San Francisco residents walking on a streets in front of a destroyed building. Partial signs are seen on the corner of the building that read "...Standard Paint" and "The Lowe...." Next segment is authentic period footage also, and shows both still image and moving image views of buildings and fountains at the 1915 Pan-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco.
The Sunset Limited passenger train enroute from New Orleans to San Francisco, in 1915. The railroad train running on the tracks.
Telephone line construction between New York and San Francisco in the United States. A picture of Dr. Alexander Graham Bell talking into a telephone while opening the New York-Chicago telephone line on October 18, 1892. Several men standing beside Dr. Bell. A donkey with a saddle on it. A man loading the donkey with devices. The man leading the donkey which is carrying the devices to be fitted on a telephone post in a hilly area. Several men erecting telephone posts while laying lines joining New York and San Francisco to the Bell System in 1915. View of a bear climbing down a telephone post. A picture of Dr. Alexander Graham Bell attending the opening of the transcontinental telephone line in New York on January 25, 1915. Several AT&T executives sitting on both sides of Dr. Bell. Dr. Bell repeated the historic first sentence transmitted on March 10, 1876, "Mr. Watson, come here; I want you", on the telephone to Mr. Watson in San Francisco. A picture showing Thomas A. Watson, Dr. Bell's assistant in 1876, at the opening of the transcontinental telephone line. Mr. Watson replied to Dr. Bell, "It would take me a week this time, Dr. Bell".