50 Years Before Your Eyes
Cast & Crew
Robert G. Youngson
Quentin Reynolds
H. V. Kaltenborn
Dwight Weist
Milton J. Cross
Norman Brokenshire
Film Details
Synopsis
In a prologue, events from American history are re-enacted to describe the 300-year-old tradition of American freedom, as noted in various important documents like the Constitution. The film then discusses the contributions of the motion picture industry to the historical record and shows some of the many historical and cultural events captured on film including William McKinley's presidential inauguration in 1901; Queen Victoria's funeral; the Wright Brothers' successful airplane flight in 1903; and Theodore Roosevelt's speeches. Film clips of the following early twentieth century cultural figures are seen: Buffalo Bill, actors Lillian Russell, Charlie Chaplin and Ben Turpin. Footage of various political figures such as German Kaiser Wilhelm, Russian Czar Nicholas II and Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa is shown. Next, newsreel and combat footage of World War I is presented, including shots of President Woodrow Wilson instituting the draft, women at work in the factories, and the signing of the Armistice. Among the events depicted next are the meetings at Versailles establishing the League of Nations; the election of Thomas Mazaryk as president of Czechoslovakia; the Prince of Wales touring the United States; a transport strike in New York City; and the U.S. Senate's refusal to ratify the League of Nations agreement. Figures prominent in the 1920s are shown, among them Franklin D. Roosevelt, Warren G. Harding, Eugene V. Debs, Enrico Caruso, sixteen-year-old tennis champion Helen Wills, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Japan's emperor Hirohito and Calvin Coolidge. Football players Red Grange and Knute Rockne and entertainers Will Rogers, Rudolph Valentino and Al Jolson appear as does Gertrude Ederle after she swims the English Channel. Footage of the events leading up to World War II is then presented. Other events captured in newsreel footage include marathon dances, the Sacco and Venzetti trials, Charles Lindbergh's solo flight across the Atlantic, Herbert Hoover's election as President, a Ku Klux Klan parade in Washington, D.C., and the stock market crash in 1929. Among the events recorded during the 1930s is the kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh baby, Bruno Hauptmann's conviction, the Bonus March of World War I veterans in Washington, labor strikes, women wearing pants in public for the first time, the birth of the Dionne quintuplets in 1935, Dust Bowl refugees, the 1936 Olympic Games and the crash of the dirigible Hindenberg . Among the public figures of the 1930s shown is heavyweight champ Joe Lewis, writer George Bernard Shaw, Louisiana politician Huey Long, evangalist Billy Sunday and baseball player Lou Gehrig. Newsreel and combat footage of the events of World War II is shown. Next the death of Franklin Roosevelt in 1945, the signing of the United Nations charter in San Francisco, Germany's surrender to General Dwight D. Eisenhower, and the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki are shown. New York City's mayor Fiorello La Guardia is seen reading comics over the radio. Other events portrayed include the Nüremburg and Japanese war crimes trials, the death of Mohandas Gandhi; the birth of Prince Charles of England; the establishment of the state of Israel; the death of baseball great Babe Ruth; and the election of Harry S. Truman.
Director
Robert G. Youngson
Cast
Quentin Reynolds
H. V. Kaltenborn
Dwight Weist
Milton J. Cross
Norman Brokenshire
Andre Baruch
Clem Mccarthy
Dan Donaldson
Arthur Godfrey
Crew
G. W. Alexander
Walton C. Ament
Deleon Anthony
Sherry Archibald
Katherine Lee Bates
Alfred Butterfield
Alfred Butterfield
George Butts
Frank Clark
Gretchen Curry
Gordon Davis
Virginia Dillard
Herman Fuchs
Elinor M. Grey
Leonard C. Hein
Albert Helmes
Howard Jackson
Francis Scott Key
William Lava
Virginia Malone
Charles Maxwell
Barbara Pray
John Stafford Smith
Kenneth Upton
Samuel Augustus Ward
Thomas H. Wolf
Film Details
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The onscreen photography credit reads: "The news cameramen of America, civilian and military, of fifty years." Theodore Roosevelt's voice was dubbed onto silent footage of his speeches. According to a May 7, 1950 New York Times article, the film took three years to compile.
