Olympic flag hoisted during the Winter Olympics in Oslo, Norway. German bobsled team wins. Ski jump competition during the events. Scene changes to Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland. A car in front of the Soviet Russian athlete housing in the Olympic village. Soviet athletes near the car. Emil Zatopek running during a track event. People hold him after he wins the event. Lindy Remigino of New York wins the 100 meter dash. Sprint competition winners on podium. Flags of various countries. Olympic torch in background.
Film opens showing animated map of the Finnish Front during World War 2. Two Finnish women are seen search the horizon with binoculars and keeping a log of some kind. Uniformed Finnish men and women ride with supplies on sleighs pulled by tractors. A group of them are seen at an outdoor field kitchen getting a meal. Women take blood from a uniformed Finnish woman volunteer donor. Women lined up in a wooded area are being decorated by a Finnish officer. A large number of Soviet prisoners of war (some showing minor wounds bandaged) is directed up a hill to begin work on defensive positions. Some carry long logs. Closeup of some prisoners passing the camera. Prisoners shoveling sandy soil and carrying building materials.
America's first satellite, the Explorer I. It is seen on the launch pad atop the Redstone Juno I rocket that will carry it into orbit on January 31, 1958. The rocket engine fires and the Juno I speeds upward. Next an American Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile is seen being launched 0n 18 December 1958, to steer itself into orbit as a satellite, orbiting the Earth.
A huge gathering present for the 1958 Orange Bowl parade associated with the January 1, 1958 Orange Bowl game between the University of Oklahoma "Sooners" and the Duke University "Blue Devils" college football teams. Dancers and band of the Oklahoma Sooners perform at the parade. Girls dancing, instrumentalists pass by, a clown on a canoe with wheels and another clown on snow skis with wheels. Police motorcyclists perform a drill. Girls in dresses (Orange Bowl queen and court) ride by on a parade float.
Preparations for the 1960 Presidential elections in the United States. Clair Engle and Governor of California Pat Brown on a podium during a Democratic Party celebration after democrats swept the 1958 election. Republican Senator William Knowland, who lost the election, is seen in a polling place signing a document. California Governor Goodwin Knight, who also lost, is seen. Democratic Senator John F. Kennedy with his wife Jacqueline Kennedy and his brother Robert Kennedy in a large crowd. In New York people celebrate the victory of Republican Nelson Rockefeller over Governor Averill Harriman. Several views of Nelson Rockefeller.
Newsreel clip on baseball's 1958 World Series, a rematch of the '57 Series -- the Milwaukee Braves against the New York Yankees. Views of County Stadium, the site for games one and two, and the capacity crowd of 46,000 inside. Yankee manager Casey Stengel and Braves manager Fred Haney shake hands before the game, as do game one starting pitchers Warren Spahn of the Braves and Whitey Ford of the Yanks. In top of the fourth inning, the Yankees' Bill Skowron hits a home run to left field. In the bottom of the fourth, hits by Del Crandall, Andy Pafko and Spahn put Braves on top 2-1. Hank Bauer (seen in closeup) hits two-run homer for Yankees. Braves tie the game and send into extra innings, where hits by Crandall and Billy Bruton win it 4-3 in the tenth. Braves celebrate on field. Announcer notes that the Braves also won game two and moved "toward another world's championship." But Yankees would come from behind to win the series in seven games.