Great Depression scenes and recovery efforts in the United States. U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt inaugurated as President on March 4, 1933. Scenes of Roosevelt and outgoing President Herbert Hoover leaving the White House together in a top-down convertible limousine before the ceremony. Roosevelt at the U.S. Capitol building during the inauguration ceremony as President of the United States. Roosevelt delivering the famous line in his speech, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Jobless American men wait in unemployment relief lines to get work or jobs. Men in a bread line. Unemployed man with a large sign "Will take any job." Scenes of families migrating in the United States, with vehicles filled with belongings. Families and children suffering poverty and in makeshift camps and tenement dwellings during migration (usually migration west). Troops and bands march with American flags on Constitution Avenue during the Roosevelt Inauguration parade. Exterior view of U.S. Capitol Building framed by tree limbs. Men in an office empty heavy mailbags filled with letters (presumably to congress and senate). Government officials at a long table working on emergency banking laws in March of 1933. Scene of people flooding into a bank and making a run on the bank to retrieve deposits. President Roosevelt signs Emergency Banking Act in his office on March 9, 1933. View of White House lawn and White House. The CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) is created to put unemployed young men to work on various conservation projects. CCC boys and men working on planting trees with pick axes and mattocks. Men and women in line to sign up for Emergency Work Relief programs. Officials write down the information for each worker as they are put to work in a variety of projects. Women and men, including white and African American men are seen getting assigned to work projects. A sign "USA Work Program WPA" advertising a suspension bridge work project of the Works Progress Administration in Los Angeles, California. People build roads, bridges and post offices. Cable fed out of a large spool as construction of a suspension bridge is shown. People work in factories. Close up views of railroad train locomotive wheels as they start moving and the train on tracks near factories. Various factory scenes including smokestacks, groups of workers entering factory for work shift and closeup view of a steam whistle blowing to mark the start or end of a work shift. A coal mining operation. Automated tools dig coal in shaft. Two coal miners take a break and eat. Crane hoists material at mine. A steel factory and hot molten steel pouring from a ladle.
Children and families face winter suffering in Queens, New York, during the Great Depression. Opening slate reads: "20,000 Queens Children Face Winter Suffering, QUEENS DIVISION , Emergency Unemployment Relief Committee." First images show modest houses with clothes hanging on lines to dry. The Queensboro Bridge is in the Background. Robert Moses, New York City park Commissioner, who is a member of the Emergency Unemployment Relief Committee of New York, is seated at a desk. Closeup of him standing. View shifts to people (mostly men) completely filling a wide sidewalk, in a food line.Close up view of legs and shoes of unemployed and hungry men shuffling forward in line. Officers check men. Men collect food. A man collects food items from garbage on ground. A group of man scavenge for food in a garbage or refuse dump area. Furniture and belongings of people being hauled to street during evictions. Food bundles given to men. A man brings food bundle inside house and presents it to his eager and smiling children seated at table. Children open the package. Long lines of people enter a municipal building and sign relief or unemployment documents. A woman stands with her sad children. A girl at doorway of a house. A young boy cries. A woman with her two sad children in a house. The woman cries.
Signboard of Unemployment Relief Demonstration at Union Square. "Daily Worker" newspaper held up with headline, "'Forgotten' of N.Y. Fight For Their Demands Today As Wall St. Places Roosevelt In White House." Crowd with speaker at Union Square during the Great Depression. Huge Crowd at Union Square including many seeking jobs and assistance including food relief. Policemen on horseback in background containing demonstrators. Workers listening. Marchers with placards arrive. Views of faces as the police controls the crowd. Women and young people walking. Various placards and posters including "We Demand Free Food and Clothing."
U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt delivers a speech on Works Relief Program in Washington DC, United States (became the Works Progress Administration or W.P.A.). The President speaks standing in front of a number of microphones. He speaks about the Works Relief Program enacted by the Congress to combat unemployment during the Great Depression. He says that the first step is to put men and women on relief rolls. It is for the first time in five years that the relief rolls have declined in the winter months. He says that even though unemployment persists in the US, they have coined some remedial measures in which there are provisions to rule out future unemployment and to help those who are unemployed in the present emergency and the Work Relief Program helps to achieve this.
Flood relief operations of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in Pennsylvania during the Great Depression. Flood relief operations by WPA and flood devastation becomes headlines of newspapers. Flood-damaged goods being shoveled out of stores in Sharpsburg. Debris and mud being cleaned from streets and dumped in the Allegheny River. Safety instructions being pasted on telephone poles in McKees Rocks. Water being distributed by tanker trucks to people who need fresh water. People standing in queue to receive water. Salvation Army units dispense food and hot drinks to WPA workers and to lines of affected homeless and unemployed citizens. Interrupted highway and roads due to flood water. Flood-battered furniture being removed from homes in the New Kensington area.
Works Progress Administration (WPA) projects to build better cities in Massachusetts, United States, during the Great Depression. View of 'Closed' sign on factories during high unemployment. Jobless, hungry, and homeless American workers appear depressed. Americans stand in a queue to receive food relief. Scenes of better economic times in Massachusetts: Factories start and workers get jobs. People and families celebrate after getting employment. Streets in Springfield being paved and sewer pipe installed. WPA workers at construction work on demolition projects. Local labors use native materials in construction work. Women get jobs and work at a sewing projects. Woman designs a costume. WPA artists paint shore scenes.
Provision of food to jobless and poor in New York City, United States during the Great Depression. A relief organization provides food to people. A massive group of men lined up to enter lines serving bread and hot soup or beverage. Many unemployed men lined up on the street. Police officers control the flow of men into the bread lines. Buildings along street sides. Food in crates and boxes. The unemployed men file past as workers hand them food, and they eat the food from the bread and soup kitchen.
A large group of unemployed people in New Jersey march during Great Depression. Banners read 'We want immediate relief'. Unemployed citizens take over the State House in Trenton, New Jersey. Unemployed men sitting in the State House. The men sit in the house till the Legislators promise relief aid. From an April 27, 1961 newsreel depicting events 25 years earlier.
A long line of unemployed men and women waiting for relief assistance outside a charity in America during the Great Depression. A bread line outside a charity that reaches to another block. Hungry, unemployed men waiting for free food from charity. A jobless African American man talking to a charity worker. Long breadline outside charity. Unemployed men enter a charity to receive food and other necessities. Unemployed men look for jobs posted in newspaper together. Unemployed women sells baked goods on the street. Unemployed man looks for a job in newspaper while sitting in bench at a park. Homeless, unemployed man smokes cigarette while sitting in bench with his luggage. Unemployed men and women receive bread and necessities from charity. Policeman and volunteers distribute food packs to unemployed men and women affected by the Great Depression.
Crowd marching from Union Square to City Hall in New York City, to demand trucks for trip to Washington DC. People marching with banners seeking relief from unemployment during the Great Depression. Police can be seen on horseback controlling crowd. Close view of a banner which reads "Answer Bank Holiday with Rent Holiday." Women and young workers walking. Other placards, signs, and posters like, "Brighton Beach Unemployed Council" and "We want relief not military training" and "We demand hot lunches."
Chronicles recovery in America after the Great Depression in the United States, from roughly 1933-1967, but with emphasis on the earlier years of that period. Pre-war work programs such as the Works Progress Administration (WPA) help with employment. Farmers work in their fields with tractors. Officials in an office discuss and prepare graphs. Workers drill and work at a construction site. The 1933 Homeowners Loan Corporation sparks new home building. View of new homes being built and new suburban neighborhoods. Brief scene of bombing at Pearl Harbor. American warships launching from shipyards during World War II. Women war production workers work in factories in the United States. Post-war Marshall Plan aid being sent to European countries. Crates of supplies marked for European countries. Industrial output booming again, and scenes of industrial factories and plants with smoke pouring from chimneys and pollution from stacks. Large pool typists room filled with female typists and clerical workers busy at work in government agency. Close up views of hands of women operating typewriters. Reforms for housing projects, African American Civil Rights and measures taken to stabilize unemployment, with scenes of successive Presidents signing reform bills, including Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy. A ship departs from a harbor with goods. A convoy of vehicles on a road. Various Federal buildings in Washington DC. The White House building. An aerial view of an American town and of a factory with pollution smoke emitting from stacks. Letters being delivered to elderly women. People enter a medical clinic and wait in the clinic waiting room. Racially integrated classroom of older high school students or university students, with white and African American students, and both young men and women. A young white woman worker and a young African American working in a machine shop or possibly an academic shop class. A white and a African American man share a sandwich and views of white and black people together in integrated classrooms and factories as segregation begins to wane. Elementary school children in a classroom drawing pictures.
Unemployed African American men and various skilled and unskilled workers get jobs through Works Progress Administration (WPA) during great depression. Men gathered near Quartermaster office at a Bolling Field construction project in Washington DC. Laborers assist in building and grading runways at Bolling Field military installation. Men clear large rocks and debris from a jobsite. Workers smooth and grade runways. A steam shovel moves earth and loads a truck. Scene changes to New York City where a housing demolition project is shown, with men dismantling housing to prepare new moderate income housing. Bricks slide sown a chute away from the building. Workers at Colonial Park in Harlem New York are seen building a new bath house to accompany a newly completed swimming pool (later Jackie Robinson Pool).
The film 'The Unfinished Revolution' opens by showing people recovering after the Great Depression in the United States. Most scenes circa 1929 - 1931 (but film produced in 1960s). Landmarks in Washington DC: the United States Capitol building with 1940s and 1950s cars and taxi cabs on roads in foreground. View of exterior of Supreme Court building. Closer view of U.S. Capitol and then of the White House in Washington DC. Also the Washington Monument. Scene changes to the American West and a herd of sheep and of cattle grazes on pastures or ranch. Cowboys on horseback herd cattle on a giant field with snow covered mountains in the background. Farmers work in a field picking cotton. Scene changes to New York City with view of Manhattan skyline including Empire State Building, with new skyscrapers in construction in the foreground. View of market area and tenements; push cart vendors lined up on a street in a lower east side New York City neighborhood, and a Ford sedan on the street. Busy New York City streets filled with cars and pedestrians at end of 1920s. Children standing on fire escape in poor downtown area look down over suspended laundry lines between tenement buildings. An officer looks out from small window of a raised booth traffic light as the lights on the booth change color. A Ford automobile assembly line. Engineers work in a factory with minimum wages. A farmer plows a field of potatoes using four horses. A wheat thresher working a field. Trains at a crossing, on a bridge, and coal cars lined up at a coal yard. Busy New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) floor filled with people around time of 1929 stock market crash and start of Great Depression. Frenzied stock market scenes. Board outside a factory reads 'No Men Wanted'. Scenes of silent railroad yards and dormant factories. A man plays an accordian and collects coin donations. Jobless people wait in relief lines, soup kitchen lines, unemployment lines or queues and bread lines. Unemployed and homeless men asleep in public areas.
Labor union members demand greater relief for the unemployed in New York City during the Great Depression. Labor union members and relief recipients march on a street in rain as they demand large relief payments for unemployed. They hold banner and it reads 'Put America Back to Work' and 'Stop Crime'. The people parading on streets. The cavalry men and traffic in the foreground. The labor union members and relief recipients crowd outside a building.
Flood relief operations in Springfield, Massachusetts. A vehicle half sunk in water. A few men beside the vehicle. View of the vehicle beside a few trees and buildings surrounded by water and men in waist deep water. WPA (Works Progress Administration) men sewing garments as part of the flood relief work. Heaps of garments in a room. Men trying on the garments. Few children wearing clothes. WPA men delivering food aid and clothes to people during the flood relief work. People waiting in bread lines are provided with food. WPA men stacking things in the back of a truck. The truck moving on a street in water. Men carrying things to houses. A dog with pups. Several dogs on the street. A kitten taken in a basket. Babies in small beds. Nurses taking care of the babies. A baby is fed milk from a bottle. A baby is given a bath. The nurses bath the babies in small tubs. Flood waters flowing among trees. Water gushing through the streets damaging buildings and houses.
The WPA (Works Progress Administration) project in New York, United States. Women stitch garments for relief families in WPA sewing rooms. A teacher teaches young children in a nursery school. Children seated at a table eating food.
Unemployed demonstrators plea for more relief measures in Trenton, New Jersey. A crowd of unemployed demonstrators during the Great Depression enters the State House of New Jersey with a plea for additional relief measures during depression. Men hold a banner which reads "We Want Immediate Relief". Demonstrators sit in the State House and occupy it. Books placed on tables.
A demonstration by unemployed people in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Buildings in an area. Men seated on the steps of a building. Some of the men sleeping on the floor inside the building. Children seated at a table eating food. They demand immediate action by the state to provide relief funds to the unemployed suffering from the Great Depression.
Shows 'Closed' sign on gate of a factory during depression. Jobless men sitting idle on benches. A young man asks another man for some money. People with signs and banners on road including a sign "Unemployed, will take any job." Desperate unemployed men going through trash looking for food or anything of value. Men sleep in doorways. Men in soup kitchen lines and waiting for handouts and relief. Manufacturing factory whistle blows and men are seen going to work. Smoke stacks working again at industrial area. Men shoveling field. Men and women entering a factory. Men in a pay line to receive pay at a factory. Smiling faces of people. A parent tossing a young boy into the air playfully. A young girl drinking milk. A man handing bags of food groceries to a happy wife. Pictures of bottles of milk and plates of breads. People enjoy a swimming pool. Children play on a merry go round and on a see-saw, as seen from child's point of view on the ride. A couple holding kids. A tall building under construction and surrounded in scaffolding. Construction of Tri-County airport at Clarksburg. Men working to build the runways. A plane taxis on a completed runway beside them. A man working to seal abandoned mines to prevent pollution of the water supply. Construction of a retaining wall is shown at Richwood Avenue in Morgantown West Virginia to prevent collapse of the roadway and homes above it. Construction shown of a hydro-therapeutic unit at Morris Memorial Hospital for crippled children, especially those suffering from infantile paralysis (polio). Children suffering from infantile paralysis in cots. Scene of construction of a new building at Marshall College (later Marshall University) in Huntington West Virginia, for an elementary training school. A new Gymnasium at Fairview High School is shown, and a new Assembly hall for the 4-H camp at Jacksons Mill. The new building for the African American High School at Morgantown is shown. View of a swimming pool, and people diving and swimming. Scene changes to a Sewing room, with many women working at sewing machines powered by foot pedals, and making garments for needy families. View of a Nursery school, and a small black child being bathed in a bath tub. Children playing in the yard of the nursery school.
Jobless and unemployed people rush for jobs in the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in New York, United States as unemployment benefits are cut back during Great Depression. Buildings along the sides of a street in New York City. People gather on the street in long unemployment lines awaiting their chance for a job. Women using typewriters to type job applications for lines of men. Men engaged in construction of buildings in New York City. Views of foundation and excavation work, and brick layers laying brick.
People protest against cuts in the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in Washington DC, United States, during the Great Depression. Unemployed men together with their wives and children set up a camp of families to protest against layoffs during the Great Depression. The Washington Monument in the background. People seated on bed cots that are layed out on a lawn. They have coffee and other refreshments. Women sew and wash laundry. A woman holds a pennant banner that says "Workers Alliance of America. For Jobs and Security." People eat food. People gather around a camp fire. Some remove their shoes and dry them by the fire side.
A hunger march by the communist activists in Washington DC. People gather on a street. Hunger march truck trains or convoys drive past on the street. Maryland State troopers on motorbikes drive past along with the vehicles. Posters and placards on the vehicles. A poster on a truck reads: 'Winter Relief Unemployment Insurance'. They are stopped by policemen. An officer with a tear gas gun on the street. People watch the vehicles. The policemen stand at attention on the street blocking the passage of the activists.
'Rain for the Earth' : A documentary on emergency relief activities by the WPA (Works Progress Administration) in drought areas of the Great Plains during the Great Depression. Drought affected areas of the west and southwest in the Dust Bowl. Dark wind clouds in the sky drop burning dust. Dry land and parched soil. Dry water holes. Grasshoppers on dry grass blades, dry trees and dead corn stock. A dust storm raging. The storm engulfs the landscape including houses and roads. Cars and pedestrians on the road during the storm. Women and children fight their way through the blinding dust as they take the cattle for grazing. A farmer and his son observe the dry straw in the fields. The farmer takes the dust in his hand and lets it fly away with the wind.
Employment for African American citizens provided by Works Progress Administration (WPA) Projects in New York, United States, during the Great Depression. African American people sit and stand on stairs beside row houses in the background. A man looks at notice board of the Employment Agency. Man walks past glossary store and look at goods. Dejected looking African American men and women stand in a bread line or assistance line for unemployed. Several scenes showing African American citizens who have received jobs through the WPA: Teacher writes on black board. African American woman typist, musician playing accordian, painter, brick layer, cook making food, and nurse at work caring for a child.
People protest against cuts in the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in Washington DC, United States, during the Great Depression. Unemployed Men and women march in protest. They hold boards and banners. Trees in the background. Buildings along the sides of a street. People gather outside a building and chant "we want jobs." A large banner reads, "Put the Schwellenbach-Allen Bill Into Effect." (The Schwellenbach-Allen Resolution called for persons to remain on the WPA rolls if they were unable to find private employment.)
Drought affected areas of the Great Plains during the Dust Bowl and Great Depression in the United States. U.S. Army engineers and WPA (Works Progress Administration) relief workers construct the Fort Peck Dam in Montana. Workers digging. Tunnels and spillways at the construction site. Heavy machinery and equipment. A worker on the tracks leading into a tunnel. The gigantic structure at the headwaters of the Missouri River. Ranchers with their cattle near ponds and lakes built by WPA labor. An old rancher on his horse with a dog alongside. Ranchers with horses as they drink from a pond. A rancher with his son and their dogs look on as cattle graze and bathe.
The WPA (Works Progress Administration) project in New York, United States. A reservoir at Albany under construction. A large number of workers work on the project. Men leveling the ground. A group of people pulls a rope. The water reservoir that will supply water to the entire town. A water reservoir under construction in Buffalo. View of Rush town hall building. Women stitch garments for relief families in WPA sewing rooms.
Unemployed men and women from Scotland, Wales, Midlands and the South march to London during the Great Depression. Signs seen include, 'Scotland vs. London,' 'National Hunger March,' 'Revolutionary United Mineworkers of Scotland,' and 'We are Against Starvation.' Slate at head of film reads, 'Jobless Hordes End Weary Dole March at Parliament Gate.' Sign in background within village reads, 'The Castle Restaurant.' Research suggests this is the The Castle Restaurant on Norwich Road, Caister-on-Sea, Great Yarmouth Norfolk, NR30 5JN This section of film ends with views of Parliament Building and Clock Tower in London. (Background to the next section of film: In Ireland a so-called Outdoor Relief Strike, supported by the Falls and the Shankhill united, Catholics and Protestants, was launched by the unemployed of Belfast. On Oct 3, 1932, 60 thousand attended a torchlight meeting at the Customs House in Belfast Ireland, to protest relief levels. Sporadic looting and rioting ensued in the following days and more mass demonstrations were planned for Oct 11th.) Film picks up on Wednesday October 5, 1932 as the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) attempt to maintain order. A series of street scenes is shown in which the RUC has begun patrolling. Officers are seen patrolling in Lancia armored car No. 105, with a machine gunner on top. Another Lancia armored car (No. 33) patrols near a park at the corner of Stage Street, Belfast. Boys are seen running across cobblestone streets where they have piled up stones for use in rioting. An RUC Crossly tender truck, carrying several police officers, drives along a Belfast street. View of an empty street where piles of stones and slates obstruct the roadway. Pedestrians appear to be going about their daily affairs as usual. (The primary mischief makers seem to be youths.) Final scene is that of a funeral. (In the course of the week's troubles, two of the rioters were shot dead by the RUC.) A horse-drawn hearse carries at least one. But behind it is a group of pallbearers also carrying a coffin. The street behind is filled with masses of mourners.
'A better Chicago'. Unemployed men on the streets during the Great Depression. They sleep on the streets and stand in queues and relief lines in Chicago, Illinois. A young man asks another man for work and is rejected, but the other man gives him a coin to help him. Unemployed and hungry men digging through trash cans and sleeping on park benches and in doorways. Whistles blow at factories representing work starting again and available jobs. Men look up from relief lines and head to factories for new jobs. Men grabbing shovels and digging in the ground. Men working at steel factories. Smoke pouring from smoke stacks at factories. Men in pay line at factory to receive payment from cashier office. Happy men and women lifting up a young smiling child. Views of racks of milk bottles and full bread racks. Children slide down a slide into a swimming pool. Boys and girls playing on playground equipment and smiling. A family of a man and womand and two children walking together. Men working on sewage infrastructure projects in the Chicago area. View of projects underway to develop lakefront areas of Lake Michigan. Skyline and skyscrapers of Chicago seen in the background. View of the Field Museum and workers inside constructing fossil and zoology displays. Men working in construction to build and improve runways and tarmac areas at Chicago Municipal Airport (Midway International Airport). A plane taking off overhead above the workers building a runway. Low, roadside view of 1930s cars going by on road near Lincoln Park extension project area. View of Chicago city skyline buildings in the background. Men work at planting trees and expanding the Lincoln Park with an extension. Men with excavating machines and tractors work at the site of the former Chicago 1893 World's Fair (World's Columbian Exposition), transforming the area into the new 500 acre Jackson Park. Construction workers build a new Field House at Wilson Park. An old building is demolished to make way for a new housing development named after Jane Addams. Men building new low income housing apartment buildings for poor families on the site.
Unemployed African American citizens in America during the Great Depression. Close up views of many idle, sad, and dejected African American men and women out of work, in lines, during the depression. A man looks at a bulletin board of an employment agency at 165 W 131st St in New York City. African American men and women stand in a bread line or food relief or unemployment line in United States. They get jobs through Works Progress Administration. African Americans working at factories, in classroom teaching, in offices typing, as an accordion musician, as a painter in a studio, as a bricklayer, and in an industrial kitchen. Views of smiling, happy African American workers, both men and women.
Francais
Deutsch
Italiano
