Excerpt from film entitled "Power Behind the Nation." It opens showing glimpse of two men on a park bench, discussing a newspaper article, followed by views of men at work in a radio broadcasting studio. Next is shown a Western theme film set being constructed for a motion picture, at a Hollywood film studio back lot. Closeup of Director and crew filming a western movie with an actor on horseback as he rides up to a wooden building on the film set displaying a Dance Hall sign. Next, a director and film crew are seen working on an elaborate set with a chorus of women in white gowns. Scene shifts to film makers watching a finished movie production dealing with colonial era America (ostensibly an educational film). Another film is seen being made at a set resembling a European town. Next, views of American farms are shown with various crops under cultivation, including fruit orchards. Farm machinery is seen in use, including tractors, harvesters, and combines. Grain is shown being harvested and processed in the field, and cotton being picked. Closeup of cotton bolls on the plants. Men are shown collecting sap from sugar maple trees in the northeast U.S. for making maple syrup. In the U.S. Northwest, a flock of sheep is seen grazing in a field. A herd of cattle are shown in the Southwest, U.S. A field of grain is shown and then a section of crops irrigated by small ditches. Then a large man-made irrigation canal is seen. View of a ramshackle building and yard in a desert. Women harvesting vegetables from irrigated plants. Apples being sorted by machine. A pair of steam locomotives pulling a railroad train and a diesel locomotive pulling freight cars, all ostensibly carrying fresh produce to market. Several shots of railroad freight trains in different settings. A truck moving along a country road. A tugboat working beside a large ocean-going cargo ship on a river in the U.S. More shots of ships and inland canals. A ship passing under the Golden Gate Bridge in California. An aircraft under construction. Passengers deplaning from a Continental Airlines DC-3 passenger airplane parked on a ramp. A prototype U.S. Navy Lockheed XR6O-1 Constitution aircraft taking off. (Only two R6V aircraft were made, Bureau Numbers 85163 and 85164.) A Sikorsky helicopter in flight. Closeup of Captain in cockpit of a TWA Boeing Stratoliner airplane as it taxis out of parking place. Industrial buildings close to a river with water flowing below a dam. The Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington.
The 1956 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois. A large number of delegates gathered at the convention. The delegates carry placards with names of various states on them. Signs read 'California', 'Tennessee', 'Texas', 'Indiana'. A man speaks into a microphone as he introduces Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois as the Democratic nominee for Presidential election.
U.S. Army Air Service test pilot 1st Lieutenant Russell L. Maughan's dawn to dusk flight across the United States on June 23rd, 1924. Lt. Maughan in the cockpit of a Curtiiss P-1 Hawk airplane. He takes off from Mitchel Field in New York at dawn. The airplane in flight over Manhattan, New York City showing the East River with Williamsburg, Manhattan, and Brooklyn Bridges. The Curtiiss P-1 Hawk in flight over the Wall Street district, the Battery Park and the Hudson River. The aircraft arrives at McCook Field in Dayton, Ohio. Lt Maughan in the aircraft. A ground-gasoline truck and a fire truck near the airplane as it is refueled with the engine running. He climbs out of the cockpit briefly to allow a boy to look inside. Maughan takes off from McCook field. He is seen by his Curtiss P-1 Hawk, after arriving at Crissy Field in the Presidio, San Francisco, California.
A transcontinental non stop flight in the United States. A U.S. Army Air Service Fokker T-2 aircraft at Roosevelt Field in New York. ' Army Air Service Non-Stop Coast to Coast' painted on the side of the aircraft. Men near the aircraft. Lieutenant John A. Macready and Lt. Oakley G. Kelly are helped in their parachutes beside the aircraft. They pose. The aircraft taxis and takes off. The aircraft in flight. It lands in San Diego, California. Lieutenants Macready and Kelly beside the aircraft. People in the background.
Opening scene shows U.S. Industrialist Henry J. Kaiser, demonstrating, on a scale model, how prefabricated parts are assembled into a Liberty Ship, in World war 2. Closeup shows each section of ship labeled by number and name, such as, “Transverse Bulkhead, number 44.” Scene shifts to Permanente Metals Corporation No. 2 shipyard in Richmond, California, where Liberty ships are seen in various stages of construction. Views of keels being laid, superstructures being raised into position, View from interior as skeleton of a ship is being completed. Sign atop the Liberty Ship, Robert E. Peary, as it is being launched, announces that it was completed from keel laying, to launch, in 4 days, 15 hours and 29 minutes. (This was a record for shortest time.) Camera view of the Robert E. Peary, from across the yard area where she was built. A brief view of shipyard activity at night, followed by camera panning over shipyard in daytime. Change of scene to an aircraft factory where B-17 bomber aircraft are being built. Women are seen riveting inside a plane’s fuselage. Other women work on a vertical stabilizer and still others work inside airplane structural members Men assemble an aircraft engine. Women fasten parts of engines together. Engines move through the plant on overhead cranes. An engine and propeller being placed into position on a wing with use of a crane. A right wing with two engines installed is moved into position for installation on a B-17 aircraft. Scene shifts to other aircraft factories building Martin Marauder B-26 aircraft; P-47 fighter aircraft;Navy Catalina aircraft; Douglas A-20 fighter bomber aircraft; and more B-17 bomber aircraft.
Film opens showing a huge crowd gathered in New York’s Madison Square Garden for a rally in support of the American Red Cross, during World War 2. Eleanor Roosevelt, the First Lady welcomes and introduces Princess Martha of Norway. The audience applauds. Scene then shifts for Red Cross activities on the home front. Two Red Cross women remove items from a station wagon in preparation for a local Blood drive. A panel truck parked next to them is marked: “American Red Cross Blood Donor Service.” More Red Cross volunteer women remove items from the panel truck to set up the blood donor activity. View of many persons in beds at a blood donor center. Nurses and Red Cross volunteers working at the center with donors. One of the donors is an active duty sailor in uniform. Complete change of scene to California, where Hollywood stars are seen involved in a war bond drive. Closeup of several, including Irene Dunn, Ronald Coleman, Hedy Lamarr, and Greer Garson. Glimpse of crowd at the bond drive.
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