Brief view of Mussolini in Italy wearing a top hat. Clip proceeds on theme of lifestyle of people in United States in the 1920s, also referred to as the "Roaring 20s". Pedestrians and various people on busy streets of New York City as cars and truck move past them. A woman gets her make up done in a makeup studio. A woman in flapper fashions smokes a cigarette. View of a line of women's legs all wearing silk stockings and shorter skirts than in prior times. Women in swimming suits at a beauty pageant. Federal agents smash liquor bottles and break up wooden barrels draining liquor to enforce prohibition. Gangsters killed in an encounter in the street. Gangsters, possibly mafia, being arrested and led away by police at gun point. Men and women perform Charleston dance. A bartender is seen mixing a drink. Men and women enjoy ballroom dancing at a night club. Closeup of a street sign for Wall Street. Brief view of crowds outside New York Stock Exchange building around time of stock market crash of 1929.
'Retrospect' about the events that led to the present pattern of life in the United States. Host Douglas Edwards, an American television anchor speaks about the past events in America. Crowd of unemployed men gathering in bread lines after the 1929 crash and subsequent Great Depression. A man near a box of apples. The U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt addresses a gathering. The kidnapping of Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr., the son of the aviator Charles Lindbergh in 1932. Bruno Richard Hauptmann, a German carpenter who abducted the child during the trial. The congressmen at the formation of the Lindbergh Law. Newspapers describe the apprehension or death of notorious mafia gangster criminals, such as Dutch Schultz and Baby Face Nelson. Huey Pierce Long, Jr. a American politician addresses people. Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia appeals to the League of Nations, after his country is attacked by Italy under Mussolini. Adolf Hitler stands. Troops of the German army parade. Scenes from the Spanish Civil War in 1936-1937 as Spanish national forces battle against fascist rebel forces. Spanish Troops fire 75mm field artillery pieces. Bombs being dropped on the buildings. Spanish soldiers marching during the civil war. The Hindenburg disaster takes place on May 6th 1937: The German airship LZ 129 Hindenburg catches fire over the Lakehurst Naval Air Station in Manchester, New Jersey. Amelia Earhart the first woman aviator to fly solo holds flowers and is surrounded by people. She went missing in 1937. Cowboy philosopher Will Rogers, alone and with U.S. Vice President John Nance Garner and with aviator Wiley Post (who had patch over one eye). King Edward VIII of Great Britain, abdicating the throne for "the woman I love." People at the German-American Bund Nazi sympathizing gathering including the subduing of objectors on stage, in Madison Square Garden, New York. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, returning from meeting with Adolf Hitler in Munich in 1938. View of Adolf Hitler. German tanks on parade in World War II. an array of artillery guns on display. Railway guns being fired in WW2.
Italian premier Benito Mussolini mounts and rides a horse. Benito Mussolini in stand salutes Black Shirt gathering. The Avanguardisti Units (Boy Scouts) parade on street, likely the Via del Corso in Rome, Italy. Italian troops patrol in border area with skis in hand. Young army recruits are inspected. Officers examine and inspect Howitzer. Italian troops parade near the Roman Colosseum and the Arch of Constantine in Rome.
The Corpo Celere, a newly formed mobile Unit for advance military reconnaissance in Italy. Italian Army Cavalry marches with flags in hands. They advance uphill. Soldier Cyclists on bicycles on dirt road. Machine gunners take their place in bushes. Horse artillery crosses a water stream and moves uphill.
The Corpo Celere, a newly formed mobile Unit for advance reconnaissance in Italy. Motor drawn artillery. Vehicles tow artillery on dirt road. Italian troops check wheels of the vehicles. Vehicles advance uphill. Soldier comes down hill with two flags in hand. Motor drawn artillery comes down hill.
The Corpo Celere, a newly formed mobile Unit for advance reconnaissance in Italy. Italian troops prepare antiaircraft guns on ground. They check equipment. Officers prepare chart. Troops check anti aircraft guns on armored vehicles.