Aerial view of a lookout tower in a forest in United States . A Ford trimotor airplane takes off on a grass field. The airplane in flight and dropping supplies to firefighters, by parachute. Scenes of 1939 experimental tests with firefighters parachuting from a Ford trimotor, near Winthrop, Washington. They can be seen leaving the aircraft, chutes opening, and firefighters descending. Scenes from first operational use of parachuting firefighters, on July 12, 1940, when Smoke Jumpers, Rufus Johnson and Earl Cooley parachuted into the Nez Perce forest , in Idaho, where they successfully extinguished a small fire. Rufus Johnson was the first to jump from the airplane, followed immediately by Earl Cooley. Fire fighters being trained at a parachute training center in Missoula, Montana. Men learn to jump and run over wooden planks. An instructor gives directions to trainees on a loudspeaker. (World War II period).
Many photographers crowd together to take pictures. Scene shifts to the subject: Major General W Austin Davis, Ballistic Systems Division Commander, presenting ,what appears to be a large facsimile missile launch key, to Lieutenant General Archie J Old, 15th Air Force Commander at a ceremony. View from behind photographers, taking pictures. Next, General Old is seen presenting launch keys to a pair of Nuclear and Missile Operations Officers, dressed in white flight suits. Closeups of the recipients, showing their missile badges, aviator wings, and their missile launch keys on chains around their necks.
Film begins showing hand held camera view from the President's airplane, Air Force One, (a VC-137C -- customized Boeing 707) as it approaches Kalispell Montana. A large crowd rushes toward the fence at the Glacier Park International Airport.. View from side of stairs by Air Force One, showing President Richard Nixon giving a characteristic wave to the crowd. He is followed by his wife, Pat Nixon, Senator Mike Mansfield and Congressman Dick Shoup, as they descend from the airplane. The stairs display the Logo of the Military Airlift Command. Camera pans along the left wing of Air Force One to reveal an enthusiastic crowd of well wishers, including a high school marching band in red uniforms, playing their instruments under the baton of their conductor. Some at back of the crowd hold up a large sign reading: "Agriculture." Camera zooms in from behind as President Nixon, flanked by Mike Mansfield, the Majority Leader of the Senate, and Montana Congressman Dick Shoup, as he makes a few remarks into a microphone. Several Native American Indians wearing feathered head dress stand nearby. Sign on airport building reads: "Welcome to Flathead Valley President and Mrs. Nixon." Camera pans across the large crowd on the airfield tarmac. Air Force One is in the background. State Police and other law enforcement officers mingle at the edge of the crowd. Mike Mansfield walks alone at the edge of the crowd, near law enforcement officers. A phalanx of news reporters and photographers make their way through the crowd, following President Nixon and using. long handled microphones to capture comments and statements in extended scenes across the spectrum of onlookers. Such scenes comprise the remainder and bulk of the film.
'Wheels of Fortune' depicts how the inter-development of the automobile and the public road system (1897-1927) caused the growth of suburban areas. View of two men as they ride a tandem bicycle for two on a city street. A horse carriage approaches a house. A woman gets off and climbs the steps to a house. Women on bicycles in the countryside wearing late 1800's early 1900's fashions. They stop to look at blossoming trees by the roadside. Next scene shows workers seated outside a factory. They eat lunch from packed dinner pails. View of high density tenements and slums of New York City with laundry hanging on clotheslines and the Brooklyn Bridge can be seen in the distance. View of railroad tracks running immediately beside closely packed tenement buildings of New York City residents.
Growth of suburban areas caused by inter-development of the automobile and the public road system (1897-1927). A farmer delivers goods to people living in the city. He sorts fruits and vegetables in his horse cart. The farmers home and farm in the countryside. Men in an early automobile on a dirt road. A car follows a horse carriage in the countryside. The car with a driver and a couple halts. The carriage stops near the car. 1910: Three men seated in an automobile with a wind shield, as it is driven on a developed road. 1927: Two men get into a modern automobile with a hood and doors. A car leaves a farm.
Growth of suburban areas caused by development of the automobile and the public road system (1897-1927). A 1920's automobile departs the driveway of a home and is driven on a developed road leading toward a city. Next scene is a mid 1920's aerial view of the Westside Waterfront on the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, flying in a northward direction. Buildings, roads, and port shipping operations are visible. A sign for Powers Furniture is seen further inland from the air. Near end of aerial view a large sign is visible on a warehouse for Preferred Stock Canned Goods by Allen & Lewis, and just north of it is seen a building of the Gillen-Cole Company, as the view continues looking north toward the Steel Bridge. Next scene is a car parked beside a home. A woman exits the car and enters the house. A working man bids farewell to his wife as she stands on a house door step. He gets in his car to leave for work. Workers and cars arriving outside a factory building.