Former U.S. President Herbert Hoover and other Republican leaders at the Republican National Convention, Cleveland Ohio. A big public auditorium completely packed with party members and spectators. Hoover and another leader at the podium. The crowd is cheering wildly for Hoover. The California delegation passes by carrying a large banner. June 1936.
Film opens showing two U.S. Navy Colorado-class battleships leading two others in a line of U.S. Navy battleships underway in a harbor area. Glimpse of officers on bridge of a battleship. Prow of ship creating wake. Variety of U.S. warships engaged in tactical exercise maneuvers. Several views of Mahon-class destroyers leading the fleet seaward in battle order. At TC: 1:54, USS California (BB-44) is seen from port side while underway. Next, Curtiss SOC Seagull observation planes are launched from warships and fly over the fleet in flights of three each. New Mexico class battleship underway at TC: 02:20. The USS Tennessee (BB-43) is seen at TC: 2:25. Closeups of observation aircraft in flight with pilots visible. The USS Aylwin (DD-355) seen around 2:45, then the USS Farragut (DD-348), the USS Case (DD-370), and the USS Monaghan (DD-354). Sailors astern on a destroyer launch depth charges. Wickes-class 4-stack destroyers on the horizon dropping depth charges. Closeup of ashcan depth charges rolling off stern of destroyer. New Mexico class battleships maneuvering. (World War II period).
Organization of the United States Army during World War II. Soldiers given training about desert warfare training at the center in California. Tanks fire on enemy and advance in field. Position held by soldiers behind stone bunkers on a hill. Anti aircraft gunners firing towards target. Soldiers point rifles towards enemy. Amphibious training to the troops at amp Edwards Airborne troops drop soldiers by parachutes. Soldiers with parachutes land into enemy area and advance towards their targets.
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the conclusion of his nomination acceptance speech to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia at the Convention Hall, during the 1936 Presidential campaign. Band playing in the background. Posters of President Roosevelt and Vice President Garner on the stage. Roosevelt speaking with Democratic Senate leader Joseph Robinson of Arkansas, after the speech. Roosevelt also conferring with his running mate, Vice-President John N. Garner. The microphones are still on, so the conversation of Roosevelt and those around him can be heard slightly. Also seen is California Senator William Gibbs McAdoo speaking with Roosevelt. The future President wipes his brow with his handkerchief. He turns to his left and says to Missouri Senator James A. Reed, "Jim, get the band to play Auld Lang Syne again" which the band does. Views of the men and women delegates in the convention hall, waving their various state signs.
Balloon and Airship schools ran by the U.S. Air Service at various places in United States. Several hot air balloons inflated at ground at a school in Port Omaha, Nebraska. Eight balloons launched in air, one of them rises high. Students at the Ross Field, Arcadia, California. A big observation balloon moved out of the interior storage by the students. They attach a basket to the inflated balloon. Gasoline driven winch releases wire and balloon rises high in air. The Airship ship School. Langley Field, Hampton Virginia. A dirigible ZDUS.-1at the school. Students haul the dirigible out of its hanger.
Documentary depicts the end of the 1920s good times in the U.S. ("Roaring 20s"), leading into the Great Depression. Mildred Unger, age 10, performs a wing walker charleston dance while out on the wing of a JN-4 "Jenny" airplane in flight over Los Angeles in 1926. Four girls dancing on the top of a building higher than those around it, in Boston, Massachusetts. Amusement park patrons riding a roller coaster. People out driving through a park in their automobiles. Patrons enjoying themselves at the Steeplechase amusement park in Coney Island, New York. A crane piling old cars in a heap at a junk yard. But following the Wall Street crash (stock market crash) of 1929, conditions change in America. Group of men, women, and children standing together, looking sad and dejected, poor and desperate, due to conditions of the Great Depression affecting families. Still photo of group of people receiving food assistance or food relief in a bread line in a city. A man, woman, and baby, in a tent (probably migrant workers). The famous 1936 photo, "Migrant Mother" by Dorothea Lange, of migrant worker, Florence Owens Thompson, with two of her children in California. Men receiving food from a city soup kitchen. Dejected unemployed men.